Channy's Early Years

[kushiro]

What is it about Leicester City and players over 30?

 

The player who's scored most Premier League goals after his 30th birthday is Jamie Vardy, with 108 (and counting).

 

The player who's scored most goals in the top flight after his 30th birthday is Arthur Chander, with 189 (all of them for Leicester City).

 

The player who's scored most goals in any of the four divisions after his 30th birthday is Arthur Rowley, with 216 (for Leicester City and Shrewsbury Town).

 

 

The story of each of those legends contains several pre-Leicester chapters. Of the three, it was Chandler who joined us latest. Rowley was 24, Vardy 25 and Chandler 27. The tale of Channy's early career has never been told in any detail, but with QPR here at the weekend, it's a good time to put that right. Especially as the highlights of his early years came in the FA Cup.

 

 

Rangers Fan

 

This is where the teenage Arthur spent his Saturday afternoons:

 

 

The ground, designed by Archibald Leitch, opened in 1907 when Arthur was 11. Rangers were in the Southern League at the time, and this was their first real home, after years of nomadic existence. 

 

The ground's accessibility was its great advantage, as you can see here:

 

 

For Arthur it would have been especially convenient. He lived near Paddington Station, the terminus you'd reach if you traveled a couple of miles down that track. Several decades before the famous bear from Peru turned up, you would regularly find the young Arthur on the station . His first job was at Wyman and Son's, the bookselllers who'd taken over the stalls at London's main stations when WH Smith fell out with the railway companies in 1906. 

 

His father was a sportsman  -  a racing cyclist. But Arthur loved football. He was playing for local sides in his late teens, and you can imagine his excitement when Rangers spotted him and invited him for a trial. But then the war intevened, and he would have to wait for his chance.

 

Arthur was 18 when hostilities began, and he spent much of the war in France, where he would turn out for the British Army XI.

 

In 1919 he was back home in Paddington and playing for one of London's top amateur sides Handley Page, the Middlesex League club attached to the aircraft manufacturing company. They were nicknamed 'the aeroplanists', and for games in the FA Amateur Cup several thousand would turn out to watch them at their ground in Cricklewood. 

 

Arthur was soon getting noticed. This is from the Globe newspaper:

 

 

Arthur's form earned him a call-up for the Middlesex League against the Athenian Legaue at Highbury in April 1920, and the match report gives an early indication of his power. The game was played on a pitch that was more puddle than grass, and Arthur 'sent in a terrific shot that rushed forward and stopped dead a yard in front of the keeper, drenching him'.

 

QPR scouts were at that game, and after the match he was invited for another trial, six years after his first one at the club. A week later he was turning out for their reserve side at Chelsea in a 1-1 draw.

 

He started the following season, 1920/21, in terrific form for the reserves, but he couldn't dislodge regular centre forward Jack Smith from the first team. This was Rangers' first season in the Football League, in the new Division Three South, and they were playing at a new ground called Loftus Road, their old home at Park Royal having been taken over by the army during the war. 

 

Just after Christmas, winger Bert Middlemiss broke his leg and Arthur was called up to a reshaped forward line, playing inside left at promotion rivals Crystal Palace. That finished 0-0, but just a week later came an ever bigger fixture - an FA Cup tie at home to Arsenal.

 

This was the golden age of the competition, and fans from all over the capital headed for Shepherd's  Bush::

 

 

 

 

Arsenal were two divisions higher than Rangers. but it didn't look like it. The breakthrough came when Chandler and Smith switched positions, and Arthur was back in his favourtite central striking role. He put Rangers ahead, then Smith added another and the biggest giant-killing of the day was complete.

 

Here he is in action that day (on the right of the picture):

 

 

 

When the draw for the next round was made,  Rangers couldn't have got a tougher opponent. Burnley were then in the middle of a record breaking unbeaten top flight run of 30 games (which stood until Don Revie's Leeds broke it in the late 60s). They were out of sight at the top of the League, and in the previous round they'd been at Filbert Street, handing Leicester an historic 7-3 trouncing that City fans would still recall with awe decades later.

 

There wasn't much chance of an upset at Turf Moor, but Rangers fans were out to enjoy it, and 'their mascot, a monkey, entertained the crowd with its antics on the goalposts'. Burnley won 4-2 and everyone thought they'd win the double (but they lost 3-0 at Hull in the next round, one of the all-time great FA Cup shocks).

 

The following season,  Arsenal must have shuddered when at the first stage of the FA Cup they were drawn against - QPR.  This one was at Highbury, but again the top flight side couldn't break down the Third Division defence. It finished 0-0 and once more the crowds flocked to Loftus Road for the replay. Arsenal finally won through that day, though if Chandler's late effort had gone in instead of hitting the post it would have gone to extra time.

 

In his third season, the FA Cup once again provided the highlights. Rangers beat Crystal Palace 1-0,  then faced a trip to Division Three North side Wigan Borough. The home side were 2-1 up when Channy scored a freak goal - 'a yard from the touchline his low cross seemed to roll right up the keeper's body and over his head'. Rangers went on to win 4-2.  

 

Next they hosted Division Two side South Shields, and their comfortable 3-0 win took them into the quarter finals, just two games away from appearing in the first ever Wembley Final. 

 

March 10th 1923 was an historic day in the FA Cup. Four London sides had made it to the last eight, and two were from the Third Division. While QPR had had a fairly easy route so far, Charlton Athletic had beaten three top flight sides and now hosted another - Bolton Wanderers. Rangers were also at home to First Division opposition - Sheffield United. Here's great footage of those two games, starting at Loftus Road. 

 

 

 

He was playing inside left, but it's a bit difficult to pinpoint him definitively.

 

There were no more giant-killing acts that day, and Arthur's Wembley dream was over. Bolton, victors at the Valley, went on to lift the Cup in front of an estimated crowd of 200,000.

 

Three months later, Leicester manager Peter Hodge decided to bring Chandler to Filbert Street, and in 1925 he would star in another memorable Cup run (which is about to unfold over on the 100 year anniversary thread). 

 

When he arrived at Leicester, Channy was 27. In that era, most players knew that at that age they only had three or four years left at their peak. But Arthur would enjoy a full decade of top level football at Filbert Street, with that astonishing haul of goals after he turned 30. When he retired, he would stay at the club in a variety of roles for another 35 years, seeing us reach four FA Cup Finals, and only retiring in 1969 at the age of 73 when the club finally had to tell him that nobody can go on forever. 

 

Looking sharp: Channy at Rangers in the early 20s:

 

 

 

Still sharp. Channy with his retirement gift in 1969:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 January 2025 by kushiro

[J. James]

Great stuff bud, l love reading your well written and fascinating articles.

[Channy'sboots]

I loved reading this piece, Thank You!

My great aunt was a Club Laundry Lady for years and had lots of stories about Channy. Years later I contributed ’Channy Says’ to The Fox fanzine. There’s something really special about Arthur Chandler, a larger than life character! 

[Wymsey]

Just now, Channy'sboots said:

I loved reading this piece, Thank You!

My great aunt was a Club Laundry Lady for years and had lots of stories about Channy. Years later I contributed ’Channy Says’ to The Fox fanzine. There’s something really special about Arthur Chandler, a larger than life character! 

Was that Sheila Kent?

[kushiro]

 

In the three seasons Channy was at Loftus Road, Rangers did well in the Cup but they couldn't get out of Division Three South, always on the fringes of the promotion race. It stayed that way after he moved to Filbert Street - Rangers were stuck in the third tier until just after World War 2.

 

They finally made it in 1948, a draw against Swansea giving them the point they needed to clinch the title. At Loftus Road that day was a 14 year old boy who would always remember running on to the pitch to celebrate. Like Channy, he grew up as a Rangers fan and later moved to Filbert Street. His name was Jimmy Bloomfield. 

 

 

Edited 11 January 2025 by kushiro

[kushiro]

....and having finally made it out of Division Three, QPR's first home game in the Second Division was against Leicester City  - so Channy would have gone home (he was still a member of our backroom staff). Rangers beat us 4-1, then a week later they won 3-2 at Filbert Street and were top of the League, threatening to make it two promotions in a row. They couldn't maintain that early form though.

 

Channy finally had a trip to Wembley that season - for our Cup Final against Wolves. Preparing for the game at the North Shore Golf Club in Skegness, he was the referee of a light-hearted game between English and Scottish members of our squad. When Channy disallowed a goal, two of the Scottish players 'picked him up, carried him from the fairway then, despite protests, hoisted and lowered into a thorn bush of many spikes'.

 

I have a feeling @Channy'sboots photo was taken that week.

 

 

[Channy'sboots]

On 07/01/2025 at 20:24, Wymsey said:

Was that Sheila Kent?

Jean & Harriet Newby