Re: Sam Tomkins : Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:50 am
I came in at just about the end of Graham Liptrot's career. Lippy had a good reputation. But I didn't see enough of him to really make a judgement. What I will say is that if I didn't buy a program I might never recognise he was playing. Can't think of anyone who was more ... well ... anonymous in matches. I realise this doesn't sound like a particularly great advert for a player's usefulness. But I should remind everyone that hookers were a radically different species back then. Generally they were a highly specialised class who were largely expected to go about their business without a great deal of fireworks. Paul Groves represented the spearpoint of an entirely different philosophical approach to the dummy half (the dynamic Balmain hooker, Benny Elias, was perhaps the best of the lot).