Cliff Lambert

Cliff Lambert

How important was the signing of young Cliff Lambert for Featherstone? From whichever angle you may care to consider the question, the answer is obvious and undoubted. After joing the club as a teenager, he went on to become one of the best players to ever wear the Featherstone shirt. He ticked the boxes for size, speed and skill, and was a dominant force in Rovers line-up throughout the 1950s.

         

Lambert started out as a professional in 1949 and, although the perfect build for loose forward, as a youngster looking for a chance, he grabbed a game wherever he could. He made his debut at centre and played a few more games in the three-quarters, even on the wing. It obviously took him a while to dislodge the more experienced Laurie Gant and Alan Sinclair from his preferred loose forward slot. At Wembley in 1952, though still relatively inexperienced, Lambert made his mark and from then on was impossible to dislodge from the Rovers team during the next decade.

         

Affectionately known to all Rovers fans as Slam Lambert, his solid frame and tough tackling was allied to a good footballing brain, but it was with the ball in his hands that he really showed his worth. He had a very useful dummy, speed off the mark, and clever hands to slip out a perfectly timed pass or flick a deft reverse pass at the base of the scrum.

Like other players of his generation Cliff’s achievements with Rovers were, to a certain extent, a question of what might have been, because after his early Wembley appearance he played in no fewer than four further Challenge Cup semi-finals (55, 58, 60 and 62, he missed 59 through injury) but never returned to Wembley. He did however pick up a Yorkshire Cup winners medal in 1959. That afternoon, Cliff scored a try playing second-row, after allowing youngster Terry Clawson to play loose forward. After 13 seasons in the Rovers team, and a well-earned benefit year in 1959/60, Lambert surprisingly left Rovers in the summer of 1962 and played for a short while at Hunslet before a shoulder injury finished his career.

         

Cliff Lambert's statistics are colossal. He played 376 games for the Rovers first team and his impressive tally of 82 tries stood for decades as the most ever by a forward at Featherstone until Peter Smith came along. He was inexplicably overlooked for the Hall of Fame until finally admitted in 2014. Ever the gentleman, he was a credit to his club during a long and distinguished career.