Club Historian Ron Parrott would like to thank former player Keith Hicks for making us aware of the sad news of the passing of former Hereford United player Gary Lowe in Spain on Friday. Ron has compiled the following pen-pic of Gary:
Born Manchester 25th September 1959, died Algorfa, Spain 23rd October 2020
A defender, Gary was named after the golfer Gary Player when he won the Open the year he was born. It's fair to say that Gary didn't set the academic world on fire at grammar school and from the age of 14, it was destined that his life would be football. He started his career as an apprentice with Crystal Palace when Malcolm Allison was manager and Frank Lord was Chief Scout. Palace won the FA Youth Cup two seasons running but Gary didn't feature because he'd badly broken his leg. However, after three seasons at Selhurst Park, he still hadn't broken into the first team and Malcolm Allison, who had by now moved on to Manchester City, signed him for a second time in December 1979 but again Gary failed to make the first team, although he was a regular member of their Reserve side in the Central League. Following Allison's demise, the Palace connection saw Frank Lord sign Gary for Hereford United in the summer of 1980 and he finally made his Football League debut. Quite a cultured player, I personally thought that we never really saw the best of Gary and overall it's fair to say that he made little impact and his appearances were limited to 11 during his single season at Edgar Street. Later in life Gary admitted: "I always felt I just wasn't strong enough as a player. I didn't have enough desire or determination although ability-wise I was fine." Gary’s uncle, Derek Lowe, also played 27 times for United between 1946/47 and 1948/49.
Still playing as a professional, Gary moved to Hong Kong and signed for a team called Caroline Hill. He then left the former British colony and returned to the UK to end his career with Hyde United, Curzon Ashton and Chorley and had a succession of jobs, including running a sandwich business. Gary was away from the game for five years before being tempted back as manager of Woodley Sports in the North West Counties League.. He was only there for one season and pipped rivals Curzon Ashton to the title on the final day of the season. Shortly after departing Woodley in the summer of 2000, Curzon Ashton snapped him up and he went on to manage them for the next 11 years. Gary's highlights were reaching the Worthington Challenge Trophy final, which they lost on penalties. He also saw them to promotion to the Northern Premier League Division One North in 2006/07. Several good FA Cup and FA Trophy runs followed before he became Conference North side Hyde United's new manager in the summer of 2011. In his first season, Gary achieved promotion to the Conference Premier but promptly resigned because he was unhappy at the playing budget he was offered for the following season. It was almost another three years before Gary made his peace with Hyde and in January 2015, he was reappointed as manager but was unable to save them from relegation. After finally retiring from football, Gary moved to Spain, where he co-ran the "La Hacienda" bar in Lo Crispin, Algorfa.