Oliver Darlison was an uncompromising
back-row forward who signed for Rovers in 1929, making his debut at home to
Keighley in April 1929. In only his fourth senior game he took part in a memorable
rout of Bradford Northern when Jack Hirst set a try scoring record for Rovers.
The following year Darlison established himself in the first team, where he was
a permanent fixture for four seasons until Rovers’ desperate financial
situation forced him to be sold to Huddersfield. He made a total of 120 senior
games for Featherstone, scoring eleven tries and kicking two goals, and formed
part of a generation of locally produced talent that was sorely missed after
being sold to rival clubs.
His younger brother Vic was give his
first run out with the Rovers at loose forward towards the end of another poor
year in 1935/36, when Rovers policy of selling players to survive really took a
toll on the playing field. Vic Darlison was a hooker and though it appeared
that Percy Morris had a mortgage on the number nine shirt it wasn’t long before
young Darlison had ousted the old-timer and made it his. His Rovers career was
all too brief spanning just 51 games, before being sold at the beginning of
1938/39. He went on to have a huge impact at Bradford Northern who were building
a formidable team. They reached the war-time cup finals of 1944 and 1945 where
Vic Darlison played alongside the likes of Eric Batten, Ernest Ward and prop
Frank Whitcombe, all internationals. Vic had time in February 1945 to pop back
to Featherstone to play a cheeky game for Rovers as a war-time guest player. He
brought his mate Eric Batten with him who played on the wing and scored a try
as Rovers beat Huddersfield 14-7. Well done lads! Two months later they were
both running out for Bradford in the Cup final against Huddersfield, who had
the last laugh and beat them. The seeds were sown then in 1944 for Eric Batten
to come back to Featherstone more permanently after the war. Vic Darlison (and
Eric) went to Wembley with the same Bradford team three years running from 1947
to 1949, where they were accompanied by another Featherstone born player Bill
Leake, the Bradford fullback of the 1948 and 1949 finals. Five cup finals in
all then for Darlison and three winners medals. After retiring, Vic kept in
touch with his adopted club and was one of the former players on stage
alongside Trevor Foster the night of an emotional meeting in March 1964 when
Bradford Northern reformed after going bankrupt.
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