Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:59 pm  

On Thursday evening 4th October, the launch will take place of the book "A Lad From Donkey Common. A Rugby League Life" by Austin Rhodes. It will be held in Greenalls Sports and Social Club in Alder Hey Road and all Saints supporters are invited to attend.
There will be three speakers Austin aided by Ray French and Alex Murphy.
7.30 for an eight 'o' clock start.

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:08 pm  

glee wrote:

On Thursday evening 4th October, the launch will take place of the book "A Lad From Donkey Common. A Rugby League Life" by Austin Rhodes. It will be held in Greenalls Sports and Social Club in Alder Hey Road and all Saints supporters are invited to attend.
There will be three speakers Austin aided by Ray French and Alex Murphy.
7.30 for an eight 'o' clock start.

Iwould like to read this book , im a Leigh supporter , and remember Austin playing for us after leaving Saints , along with Ken Large , he was a good player for us .

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:09 pm  

Didn't he play in a wig, firmly held in place by a scrum cap? That's what my dad told me anyway.

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Thu Sep 27, 2012 2:57 am  

Harry Pinner wrote:

Didn't he play in a wig, firmly held in place by a scrum cap? That's what my dad told me anyway.

I think the player your dad referred to was Trevor Simms (1957ish), If my memory serves me right he never played for the first team, he was a champion sprinter as a schoolboy, He went on to have a successful career at Oldham and played for Lancashire several times, Halcyon days.

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:53 am  

Benidorm John wrote: I think the player your dad referred to was Trevor Simms (1957ish), If my memory serves me right he never played for the first team, he was a champion sprinter as a schoolboy, He went on to have a successful career at Oldham and played for Lancashire several times, Halcyon days. Relive them here John! http://www.saints.org.uk/saints.org.uk/ ... &num=16333

Benidorm John wrote: I think the player your dad referred to was Trevor Simms (1957ish), If my memory serves me right he never played for the first team, he was a champion sprinter as a schoolboy, He went on to have a successful career at Oldham and played for Lancashire several times, Halcyon days. Relive them here John! http://www.saints.org.uk/saints.org.uk/ ... &num=16333

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Thu Sep 27, 2012 12:25 pm  

Arthur Bitter wrote: Relive them here John! http://www.saints.org.uk/saints.org.uk/ ... &num=16333 Many thanks, you're probably the best Bitter in the world

Arthur Bitter wrote: Relive them here John! http://www.saints.org.uk/saints.org.uk/ ... &num=16333 Many thanks, you're probably the best Bitter in the world

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:58 pm  

Come on Austin you can do better than Ray er French; he er will er take er all er night to er er get his er words er out.

Good player in his time was Austin; if I am not mistaken (but probably am) he partnered Murphy at half back in the RAF RU team. Alex was a revelation at union. The groundsman at Twickers was asked "who is the best player you have seen" he replied "a bloke who played for the RAF called Alex Murphy".

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:11 am  

I did my R.A.F. squarebashing at Bridgenorth in August, September 1958 and Austin was in the same training flight as myself. After a couple of days there, everyone was herded into a huge room and the general question was "who amongst you 'orrible lot are professional sportsmen?. Austin had just toured with the G.B. team down under, so of the six or eight people who stood up, Austin was the only 'International' representative on show. He didn't do a lot of squarebashing after that, I think the deal was--If you represent the R.A.F. on Wednesdays (sports day) you can turn out for St Helens on Saturday. That meant he was allowed off camp every weekend and we others got out of there once in the whole eight weeks. After that I believe he got a posting to Haydock, stuffy sod. A real nice lad, I'd love to get to the do and remind him about those days but I'm away on holiday and I'll miss the Grand Final as well.

Re: Austin Rhodes. A Lad from Donkey Common. : Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:59 am  

It was good to have Austin's son play rugby league for the Under 16 team I was with (quite a few West Park boys including Andy Platt) Austin and his wife always gave us full support. I never saw Austin play but the book I do look forward to.