Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Sun Sep 07, 2014 7:23 pm  

Frank Reynolds. Classy centre signed from Welsh RU in early 19070s in the days when Wire were first raiding 'the valleys'. Great defender, lovely mover in attack, always seemed to miss the few finals we got to in those days through injury ( inc 1974 Challenge Cup Final ). A great player, nonetheless, wish we had a centre of his class today.

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:00 pm  

lefty goldblatt wrote:

I'd like to talk about Mark Roberts, but

he's got an injunction on me mentioning him, and Mrs Goldblatt gets very jealous. DAMN.

Instead, I'll do one on Gareth Hock.

HE'S A WHOPPER. END OF.

Mark Roberts. One of the best running back rowers to wear P&B but injury prone.

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:26 pm  

Mike Kelly,the nicest bloke I ever met in Rugby league..

In fact today i was reminded of the time he told us in the changing rooms that the day before Parry Gordons wedding, Mike and Parry went scrumping Apples. It always makes me smile when I remember that story.

One of my favourite playing memories was John bevan giving him a forward pass at headingly right in front of us on the north stand wall on the ten metre line. Mike went the full length oblivious to the refs call. He put the ball down and turned round, then realised it wouldn't count, just shrugged his shoulders and smiled, John bevan was just stood there laughing and shaking his head.

He played in the side that beat the Aussie touring side as well so he'll always be a bit of a legend for that.

A lovely bloke im not sure we honoured his sad passing enough.

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:46 pm  

John Bevan. For any young lad following the Wire in the 70's, Bevan was an absolute God - I was still in my primary school days and just getting into supporting Wire... Me, my brothers and my dad would travel all over watching the side and, for me, Bevan was a hero, a Roy of The Rovers figure.

He was a superb athlete. Big, strong and fast, with the best sidestep I've ever seen, he could seemingly do anything, scoring great match winning tries, often followed by his trademark fist in the air salute, sometimes even doing it before he even grounded the ball.

I know people often talk on here about players from the pre-SL era that we would love to see in today's professional environment, well Bevan is one player who would be an absolute monster in today's game.... There isn't a winger (or even a centre) around today in SL who would be better than John Bevan.

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:58 pm  

I recall Westwood being part of a double player spend along with Nat Wood??

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Sun Sep 07, 2014 9:30 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

John Bevan. For any young lad following the Wire in the 70's, Bevan was an absolute God - I was still in my primary school days and just getting into supporting Wire... Me, my brothers and my dad would travel all over watching the side and, for me, Bevan was a hero, a Roy of The Rovers figure.

He was a superb athlete. Big, strong and fast, with the best sidestep I've ever seen, he could seemingly do anything, scoring great match winning tries, often followed by his trademark fist in the air salute, sometimes even doing it before he even grounded the ball.

I know people often talk on here about players from the pre-SL era that we would love to see in today's professional environment, well Bevan is one player who would be an absolute monster in today's game.... There isn't a winger (or even a centre) around today in SL who would be better than John Bevan.

When I first started watching Wires, aged 8, for the first few months I assumed that John Bevan & Brian Bevan were related. I was amazed that people so physically different could both share the same DNA, try-scoring panache and devotion to the P&B. I can't remember who put me right on the matter, but I bet they were losing bladder control whilst they did it. Have I mentioned I was only 8?

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Mon Sep 08, 2014 7:51 am  

When I was a kid we had a welsh stand off called Ray Price who we bought from Belle Vue Rangers. Along with Gerry Helme he formed one of the best half back pairs I have seen. He wasn't that big but one of the strongest, hardest players I have ever seen. I saw him stop Alan Prescott the Saints and GB prop in his tracks with one arm.
At that time Saints were a team of wounders and psychopaths and we never finished with thirteen men when we played them. Someone always got carried off. They were more like wars of attrition than RL games. Ray price came into his own on these occasions and repeatedly leathered Duggie Greenall one of their psychopaths and hard men who even his Saints colleagues said was a nutter.
They got so fed up with Ray that, in 1956, they bought him off us.
I remember being devastated at the time because, I might have mentioned , I hate Saints. Looking back though he was coming to the end of his career and we had signed 16 year old Jack Edwards another Wire great.

[Uncle Rico]

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:04 am  

wireone wrote:

When I was a kid we had a welsh stand off called Ray Price who we bought from Belle Vue Rangers. Along with Gerry Helme he formed one of the best half back pairs I have seen. He wasn't that big but one of the strongest, hardest players I have ever seen. I saw him stop Alan Prescott the Saints and GB prop in his tracks with one arm.
At that time Saints were a team of wounders and psychopaths and we never finished with thirteen men when we played them. Someone always got carried off. They were more like wars of attrition than RL games. Ray price came into his own on these occasions and repeatedly leathered Duggie Greenall one of their psychopaths and hard men who even his Saints colleagues said was a nutter.
They got so fed up with Ray that, in 1956, they bought him off us.
I remember being devastated at the time because, I might have mentioned , I hate Saints. Looking back though he was coming to the end of his career and we had signed 16 year old Jack Edwards another Wire great.

Before my time, but, great post. I can almost smell the liniment

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:12 am  

rubber duckie wrote:

I recall Westwood being part of a double player spend along with Nat Wood??

Correct, Nat Wood signed at the same time. This caused a bit of bitterness from the Wakefield fans, the Wood bit more than Westwood, as he had started the season looking pretty good and selling him to a relegation rival was controversial.

If I remember correctly, Wakefield were in a fair bit of financial trouble at the time and so they needed the fees they collected from these players (bear in mind Nat Wood had effectively signed on a free transfer for them a few months before so they made a nice profit on him), but they played it out in public as though Warrington had done something below board by making illegal approaches, probably to appease criticism from their fans. It was noticeable that they didn't actually take legal action against Warrington though....

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Talk about a Player, any Player. : Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:04 am  

morrisseyisawire wrote:

Chris Rudd. Not my favourite ever Wires player, not the best or well known, but a good example of a fine player born a few years too early, and who missed out on the SL and full-time gravy train.

Chris signed for us from Kells and was immediately burdened with the tag "the new John Woods". Tagging anyone "the new ..." is lazy and unfair, but comparing anyone to John Woods is a RL career millstone.

Nonetheless, Chris developed into a very elegant, tall, pacy, classic centre with a good pair of hands. I recall one home game at Wilderspool V Halifax whden Chris & Greg Mackey comined to totally dismantle 'Fax, with Ruddy getting on the end of a variety of kicks and ripping through the defence like a forest fire.

Chris had a good but demanding job with BNFL and this, perhaps, is one reason why he never achieved his potential. However, he is one player in particular from that era I would have dearly loved to see under full-time tutorage and training. He had an array of skills that puts most modern centres to shame and remains an untapped seam of quality from our recent past.

You do realise that Chris actually played the first 4 seasons of super league for us ?


Actually that's slightly off, he played the first 3 as a part time player, and IN 99 he went full time and suffered some sort of bad injury and didn't figure for us that year