The Official Warrington Wolves Miscellany E-Book

Gary Slater

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

The Warrington Wolves Miscellany is the definitive set text for every fan of the world famous Wire. Packed with facts, fun, gossip, nostalgia and conjecture, it looks back over 135 years of glorious history to celebrate the personalities, victories and controversies of the sport's biggest name. Handily pocket-sized to pull out in the middle of those pub arguments over who was the fastest, dirtiest or biggest, this book will not only tell you who scored the most tries, kicked the most goals or won the most trophies, but also who earned the most red cards, which former player still haunts the town and who was sent off twice in one match. Put down your pie and pick up a copy.

Leseprobe

To Warrington fans: who know how to celebrate victory and defeat

CONTENTS

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Greatest Victory

The Halliwell Jones Stadium

Getting Shirty

That’s Entertainment

Money, Money, Money

Things They Said

Record Buys

Record Sales

Founding Fathers

Around the Grounds

The 100 Try Club

Player of the 1880s – Tommy Barnes

First Fixture List

Motley Crewe

Sprinting to Warrington

League of Nations

Great Scots

An Ireland Race

England, Wales and Great Britain

World Cup Winners

Big Bans

Let There Be Light

Sports Day

Talking Turnstiles

Death by Misadventure

Dial M for Merger

Player of the 1890s – Fair Barber (1893–7)

First Trophy

Brothers in Arms

Generation Game

Made in Wales

Captain Morgan Trophy

Primrose and Blue

Boots and All

Strike Action

Roll of Honour

Try and Try Again

Numbers Game

Nicknames

Player of the 1900s – Jack Fish (1898–1911)

Drop Goal Kings

Record Crowds

Crowd Pleasers

Taking an Early Bath

In the Bin

New Technology

High Fives

Player of the 1910s – George Thomas (1903–14)

Man of Steel

Top Tens

Blasts From the Past

Age is Only a Number

Globe Trotters

Lance todd Trophy

Points Make Prizes – Part I

Harry Sunderland Trophy

Player of the 1920s – Billy Cunliffe (1914–30)

Name Games

Good Friday, Bad Friday

Points Make Prizes – Part II

Supersubs

Superfan

Sevens Up

Shirt Sponsors

Five Sent Off

Four Sent Off

Pick! Pick!

Lifesavers

King Coal

Queen’s Honours

Silent Tribute

Murphy the Mouth

Marathon Men

Player of the 1930s – Billy Dingsdale (1928–40)

Strange But True

Four Great Comebacks

Four Great Escapes

The Wigan Walk and the Wigan Run

Hall of Fame

Dream Debuts

Player of the 1940s – Albert Johnson (1939–51)

Most Goals

Hat-Trick Heroes

Most Appearances

Losing Streaks

Final Misery

Player of the 1950s – Brian Bevan (1945–62)

Gang of Four

Winning Streaks

War Heroes

Most Tries in a Season

Five Record Defeats

Seventh Heaven

Clean Sheets

Wolfing It Up

Nasty Nazis

On Your Bike

Never Relegated

Worst Starts to the Season

Player of the 1960s – Parry Gordon (1963–81)

Double Trouble

Two Fond Farewells

What Warrington Have Won

Value for Money

Fight Club

Grapple Tackles

Great Britain Calling

Great Britain Tourists

Hole in One

United we Stand

Football Crazy

Crikey, Kikey!

Top Draws

Narrowest Defeat

No Place Like Home

We Are the Champions

Champions for 19 Hours

Most Goals in a Season

League Versus Union

Player of the 1970s – John Bevan (1973–86)

Injury Time

Best of Enemies

Longest Match

Shortest Match

Lancashire Lads

Mr Reliable and Friends

Players of the 1980s – Mike Gregory (1982–94)

Tall and Short

Fat and Thin

Cup Kings

Kicking Kings

Derby Days: Wire V Chemics

Player of the 1990s – Mark Forster (1983–2000)

30 Points in a Match

Strike Rate

Finest Front Rows

Beating the Aussies

Player of the ‘Noughties’ – Lee Briers (1997–)

Short But Sweet

Leading Try-Scorers for Every Position

Coaches

Super League Dream Team

Love Match

Smoking Hot

Fastest Sending Off

Further Reading

Copyright

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Lee Briers, a great player and a great bloke, wrote a fascinating foreword which I am sure you will enjoy. Eddie Fuller set up and took the photograph of Lee on the front cover, much to his embarrassment, and has now been the club photographer for an incredible 40 seasons. Thanks also to Stan Lewandowski of the Warrington Wolves Past Players’ Association; Mike Parsons and his team at the Warrington Guardian; Neil Dowson and Andy Topham at the Warrington Wolves and everyone who knows me. Neil read and corrected the original manuscript while another Neil, Neil Ormston, helped with the statistics. Here’s to many more seasons in the sun.

FOREWORD

That’s me in the middle on the front cover after breaking Steve Hesford’s points-scoring record against Swinton in May last year. All the fuss was a bit embarrassing to be honest and I didn’t really want to be carried by Moz (Adrian Morley) and Garreth Carvell but they made it a special occasion and it is one of the things I will look back on when I finish my career and think, ‘wow, that was pretty good.’

Going into the game I knew I was close to the record, I think I needed 35 points, but I didn’t believe for one minute that I was going to break it in that one game and score 44 points. I just thought that I would knock off as many points as I could. It was a shame for Swinton, who lost 112–0, but their players never gave up and kept going right to the end. We spoke to the Swinton guys afterwards and told them not to get too downhearted because we were putting big scores on Super League sides at the time.

Moz and Garreth are brilliant props. Moz’s record speaks for itself. He has been around a long time and played on both sides of the world and Garreth has come into some great form after being underrated. In fact, all the pack we have now make my job much easier. I’ve been blessed with good half-back partners as well – Allan Langer, Andrew Johns, Nat Wood, Richie Myler and Michael Monaghan have all been a joy to play with.

Nat was the funniest player I’ve played with. He was a real prankster and he loved to play tricks on people. He is back in Australia now, running his own business and doing very well and we still keep in touch. He was responsible for the funniest moment I’ve had at Warrington when he scored that try against Wigan at The Halliwell Jones Stadium in 2004 and ran through the stand. That was bizarre but it was quite funny and apparently he asked a Wigan fan for a bite of his hot dog on the way.

Winning the Carnegie Challenge Cup at Wembley against Huddersfield Giants in 2009 and Leeds Rhinos in 2010 was special for everyone involved. Against Leeds, I collected the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match which was a bonus for myself, but you win cups as a team. I was lucky enough to be the man of the match but you don’t win finals without everybody playing really well.

Tony Smith, the Warrington coach, has made a big difference. His man-management is fantastic. He treats every player differently and knows how to get the best out of them. He also comes from a successful background, with Leeds and Huddersfield. He knows how to win and has given us that belief.

I have won things late on in my professional career and my amateur career with St Helens Crusaders was the same. It was only at under-15s and under-16s that we started winning trophies. It was a strange old weekend when I joined Warrington in 1997. I signed on the Friday and then went back to my hometown club St Helens on the Sunday and we got a pasting but I have never once regretted signing for Warrington and I think that is the main thing. I have enjoyed every minute of it and long may that continue.

Rugby league has taken me all over the world, to Scotland, Wales, France, Australia and New Zealand, and I’ve met people of different nationalities, beliefs and faiths and it is not often that you meet a bad person in the game. All the players are really good blokes and enjoy the camaraderie. I have been all over the world playing for Warrington and there aren’t many jobs you can do that in.

I’ve also been to the House of Lords for the All-Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group annual dinner and that was a brilliant day too. Paul Cullen and I were shown all around parliament and at one point Margaret Thatcher was sat literally ten metres away from us. Then we had dinner and I received the group’s player of the year award. It was a great day and I really enjoyed it. It was a shame we were playing a couple of days later because it would have been nice to get a few cheap drinks in. I couldn’t believe how cheap their ale was!

All the way through school, all I ever wanted to do was be a professional rugby league player and my school work took second place unfortunately – I regret that a bit now but I always wanted to be a rugby player.

My advice to young players today would be to enjoy it, learn as much as you can and listen to your coaches and if you do that you won’t be far off. I want to go into coaching myself but not for a few years yet. I am having too much fun playing. Enjoy the book.

Lee Briers, Warrington’s record points-scorer, 2012

GREATEST VICTORY

23 August 2000, 7–4

Warrington Wolves’ most important victory was not achieved on the pitch, on the training ground or at Red Hall in Leeds, the headquarters of the Rugby Football League. It happened in the council chamber when Warrington Borough Council’s planning committee voted 7–4 in favour of the club’s application to build a new ground, in partnership with Tesco, on the site of the former Tetley Walker brewery.

That vote was not the end of the process – it led to a public inquiry the following May – but without it there would not have been a new stadium. In the build-up to the planning committee meeting, the club staged an emotional question and answer session at the Parr Hall on 17 July 2000, showing a virtual reality video of the new ground.

The late Peter Deakin, who was the club’s chief executive at the time, also wrote to all season-ticket holders, ‘I cannot underestimate the importance of a new stadium to the future of the club. It is only with the creation of the People’s Stadium that the club will be able to satisfy Super League’s impending facility requirements and develop the revenue streams to allow the Wolves to realise our potential as a top level Super League club.’

A decade on, following back-to-back Challenge Cup wins in 2009 and 2010, the outstanding success of The Halliwell Jones Stadium is there for all to see.

THE HALLIWELL JONES STADIUM

A colleague in London once asked me if Halliwell Jones was a former Warrington player, perhaps a Welsh scrum-half from the 1960s? The truth, of course, is that Halliwell Jones is an authorised BMW and Mini dealer which agreed a 10-year deal for the naming rights of the stadium. In May 2011, Halliwell Jones signed a 6-year extension to that contract until 2017. The stadium and the accompanying Tesco Extra store were built by Barr Construction. It took them just 43 weeks to build the stadium at a cost of £8 million. Work started on 9 December 2002 and was completed on 6 October 2003.

The North Stand is the main stand and is all-seater, with a capacity of 3,200. The East Stand (the Martin Dawes Stand) is also all-seater, with a capacity of 2,398. The South Stand (The Halliwell Jones Stand) is a standing terrace with a capacity of 4,000. Finally, the West Stand (the Doodson Stand) is also a standing terrace, with a capacity of 3,200. There are 226 disabled and carer places.

The pitch is the maximum size allowed (120 metres by 74 metres) with a 3-metre run-off. The stadium has five changing rooms, for home and away first teams, home and away academy teams and one for the officials. The stadium has been a no smoking venue since 1 January 2006 following a poll of supporters when 63 per cent voted for the measure.

GETTING SHIRTY

When Warrington Wolves played Castleford Tigers at The Halliwell Jones Stadium in May 2011, they wore a special camouflage kit to mark the club’s Armed Forces Day. The club donated £5 from every replica camouflage kit sold to charity – namely Help for Heroes and the Mercian Regiment Benevolent Fund. The camouflage certainly fooled Castleford as Warrington won 62–0. A generation earlier, in September 1987, Warrington forgot to take their kit to Castleford for a league game and had to borrow a reserve strip from the home team. The change of colours did not seem to do them any harm, on that occasion either, as Warrington won 40–30. Warrington made a special kit for their match against Australia in November 1994 but the Rugby Football League ruled that they could not play in it. Some supporters still bought it, however, and proudly wear it to this day.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

Super League and summer rugby brought about a new era in pre-match entertainment, including the Starlites, a sensational dancing ensemble, although not every supporting act was as well received. Irish twins Jedward, fresh from X-Factor, were booed off at The Halliwell Jones Stadium before the Harlequins match in February 2010. For fans of a certain age, however, the most memorable pre-match music is ‘Entry of the Gladiators’ by Julius Fucik, which still evokes memories of Brian Bevan and the boys trotting out on to the Wilderspool pitch.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

From the 1880s onwards, Warrington have been paying their players and quite right too. The players – to use a modern expression – put their bodies on the line for the club and deserve to be rewarded for their time and commitment. Forward Will Randles played for Warrington in the late 1880s and early 1890s and then trained the team for 7 years. He said that in his day winning pay was two tuppenny vouchers worth two gills of ale while losing pay was just one tuppenny voucher for one gill of ale. This beer money was soon replaced by the real thing. In 1895/96, rugby league’s first season as the Northern Union, players were limited to a ‘broken time payment’ of 6s a day. ‘Broken time payments’ were made in lieu of work, so players had to have a full-time job, otherwise they couldn’t play. This wasn’t a game for slackers, ne’er-do-wells or, worst of all, professionals. In today’s money, that 6s a day is the equivalent of £100.

THINGS THEY SAID

‘It’s a girl – and I’m playing.’

Paul Wood’s message to Tony Smith after his wife gave birth to a daughter on the morning of the match against Crusaders in 2011 – he played and scored two tries

‘Alex Murphy got sent off and one of the Castleford lads tried to break my ribs.’

John Bevan recalls his debut in September 1973

‘It wasn’t the same as Warrington. We even had to wash our own kit!’

Brian Glover on his move to St Helens in 1970

‘I find myself watching him to such an extent that I forget that I’m on the field too.’

Albert Johnson on Brian Bevan

‘I have a wife and child, and I am only a working man. I was offered £100 down, and I couldn’t resist it.’

Billy O’Neill after signing for Warrington from Cardiff in October 1908

‘If Brian Bevan had been a cricketer he would have been knighted. If he’d been a soccer player he’d have got the OBE. If he’d been an actor he’d have got an Oscar.’

Oscar-winner Colin Welland

‘My signing-on fee was a small lemonade, a cigar and a pat on the back – and I didn’t even smoke!’

Ernie Brookes (1902–20) on signing for Warrington

‘The Warrington spectators are the worst spectators in England.’

Batley’s Welsh winger, Wattie Davies, after being sent off at Wilderspool in September 1901

‘My attitude was “get your retaliation in first” and I wasn’t the only player like that in those days.’

Joe Price explains the laws of the jungle in the 1960s and ’70s

‘He always wore the same socks. Well he played for 20 years so it wasn’t the same socks for 20 years, but you know what I mean.’

Jeanette Lane, Brian Bevan’s daughter, in 2008

‘He came back from his honeymoon twice to go training.’

Jeanette Lane again, in 2008

‘If you didn’t win, you didn’t eat.’

Paul Cullen, recalling the days of winning pay and losing pay, 1999

‘Let’s hope Brett Hodgson gets back into the team quickly otherwise my goal-kicking record will be gone as well.’

Steve Hesford in 2011 after Lee Briers had broken his club points-scoring record

‘I didn’t see his face but I would recognise the boot anywhere.’

Ray Price after being kicked in the head by a supporter during a fracas in the 1954 GB tour of Australia

RECORD BUYS

£100: Warrington paid £100 to the Wales international forward Billy O’Neill when they signed him from Cardiff in October 1908.

£700: Warrington paid St Helens £700 in September 1934 to sign their international forward Jack Arkwright.

£1,450: Warrington paid Liverpool Stanley a world record £1,450 to sign their international full-back Billy Belshaw in October 1937. Warrington also agreed to find a job for his dad, something that was not publicised at the time.

£4,600: Warrington paid Widnes a world record £4,600 to sign their Lancashire centre Albert Naughton in November 1949. St Helens, in fact, offered £5,000 but Naughton, quite understandably, wanted to come to Warrington.

£12,500: Warrington paid Leigh £12,500 in August 1971 for forwards Geoff Clarkson and Dave Chisnall. Chisnall was valued at £8,000.

£75,000: Warrington signed Widnes scrum-half Andy Gregory in January 1985 in a ‘world record’ £75,000 deal. Widnes received Warrington’s £70,000 transfer-listed forward John Fieldhouse plus a ‘substantial’ cash sum. The transfer was not recognised as a world record deal because it was not cash only.

£200,000: Warrington paid St Helens £200,000 in July 2004 for Great Britain centre Martin Gleeson, even though he was serving a four-month ban at the time for betting against his own team.

£290,000: Warrington paid Salford City Reds £215,000 up front for England scrum-half Richie Myler in September 2009 with a further £75,000 to follow as various targets were reached. It was a record fee for a teenager (he was still only 19) and a record fee for a scrum-half.