By Jim Brown
In Harry Storer’s first season Coventry City finished 12th in Division Three South, an improvement of only two places from the previous campaign. Behind that unimpressive statistic however lies a deeper story of spectacular goalscoring. The team playing an exciting brand of football, scored 108 goals, a total topped only by the divisional champions Everton, Wolves and Fulham. City’s new centre-forward Clarrie Bourton was the Football League’s top scorer with an amazing 49 league goals – the third highest total in the history of the league after Dixie Dean’s 60 in 1928 and George Camsell’s 59 in 1927.
Storer had spotted Bourton playing for Blackburn and persuaded the directors to pay £750 for the Rovers reserve. It was a superb investment by the club as the Bristol-born centre-forward went on to notch 182 goals in 241 games for the Bantams in the thrilling period between 1931-37. Another shrewd signing from Lancashire was Scot Jock Lauderdale who cost £270 from Blackpool just after Bourton. The two struck up a wonderful partnership with Lauderdale’s artistry on the ball creating many of Bourton’s deluge of goals during the golden era.
City won seventeen out of 21 home games scoring 74 goals and conceding only 28. The biggest win was a league record 8-0 over Crystal Palace. A week later Gillingham were beaten 6-4. Bournemouth were beaten 6-1, Watford 5-0, Mansfield and Reading 5-1 and another five was notched against Fulham, although the Cottagers, who would finish as champions, had the temerity to score five as well in the highest scoring draw ever seen at the ground. The team scored five so often it revived the old nickname of Foleshill Great Heath – ‘the Old Five’. Bourton scored seven hat-tricks, six of them at Highfield Road. They included five against Bournemouth, and four against Mansfield (he netted three in the return at Field Mill). Between 19 September and 28 November Clarrie netted in all eleven league games, a record unlikely to be ever beaten. Lauderdale chipped in with 19 goals and Billy Lake who would continue to represent the club right up until the Second World War, managed 14 in only 27 games.
Bourton’s hat-trick at Mansfield in the penultimate away game took his season’s tally to 46, one goal behind the divisional record held by Abe Morris of Swindon. The following Saturday in the final home game against Watford, needing two goals for the record he netted his seventh hat-trick in a 5-0 win. When he scored his second goal to create the new record ‘the crowd cheered for a full minute or more, and Bourton’s colleagues crowded round him and embraced him’. Watford’s players patted him on the back and one ‘over-enthusiastic fellow’ jumped over the fence at the covered end and raced to shake Clarrie’s hand. At the final whistle supporters raced on to the pitch and carried Clarrie ‘shoulder-high’ to the dressing room.
Although the average attendance at 12,235 was up from the previous season it was well below the figures from the early 1920s. The largest crowd was 23,271 for the 5-1 Christmas Day mauling of Reading, with over 19,000 watching the FA Cup tie with Clapton Orient. Only dismal away form, they won only once, cost City a much higher final position. Amazingly it was reported that Storer had only seen the team play four times all season, so busy had he been scouting for new players.
In February 1932 long-time club benefactor David Cooke died and in his will he cancelled all the debts to him (around £7,500) which enabled the club to have a new share issue with the capital increased to £5,000. On and off the pitch the club’s resurgence was underway.
