The Three Musketeers from Keighley

When Peter Fox brought Rovers out of the old second division in 1988, he recognised we needed a few reinforcements to survive in the top flight. Nowadays, this involves ramming your squad full of the maximum quota of overseas imports. Back then, it was possible to cast a discerning eye over the lower division and pick up some talented players capable of taking the step up. Rovers had previously successfully done this with the likes of Karl Harrison (Bramley) and Graham Steadman (York), two players signed from the second division who went on to enjoy international careers.

Terry Manning

 Hoping to emulate this transfer market success, Rovers went on a little shopping expedition to Lawkholme Lane as it was then called and came back with Terry Manning. Terry had started his rugby career at Elland, turning professional in 1987. He played 61 games for Keighley, scoring 29 tries and had the kind of bustling style that Fox saw as the perfect foil to Paul Newlove in our centres. He signed for Featherstone in October 1989 and cost £40,000. Difficult to tackle, with good upper body strength, Terry’s style was not classical but very effective. He formed an integral part of a three-quarter line of Butt-Manning-Newlove-Simpson that was as good as any that the club has put together.

So happy were we with Manning that in a couple of months we were back at Keighley and acquired second-rower Gary Rose. To be honest, none of the typical cliché descriptions of rugby league forwards, “rugged”, “pugnacious”, “tough”, would be quite enough to explain Gary Rose’s impact on a rugby league field. He had been at Keighley for two years, signing from Yew Tree ARLC, and had played 46 games for Keighley. He slotted straight into the Rovers team, and just as quickly into the hearts of Rovers fans. Once his eccentric ball-carrying style had been corrected, he turned into a strong runner and very willing defender, making sure Rovers pack was never intimidated out of any encounter.

Owen Simpson

Within the year, Rovers snaffled up Owen Simpson, the archetypal flying wingman who had been a professional at Keighley just over a year, scoring 32 tries in 38 games. A try on his debut against Castleford gave us an immediate taste of things to come. His lethal combination with Paul Newlove down the left flank was so prolific that the try scoring records soon tumbled.

These three players had cost a total of £110,000, and what tremendous value for money they gave to Featherstone. Terry Manning’s career spanned five highly consistent seasons, chalking up 159 appearances, and managing 46 tries. After Rovers, he served both Doncaster and Hull. Gary Rose was with Rovers four years, and with his swashbuckling style he played 106 games and notched 5 tries. Improbably enough he then signed for Leeds, his uncompromising style never seemed cut out for the game’s snobbiest club. However, he won his spurs at Headingley, and later played for Hull. Owen Simpson graced the Featherstone wing over seven seasons though serious injury curtailed the latter part of his career. In 158 games, he scored 98 tries, finishing just short of that magical ton.

Featherstone's Great Britain Tourists

1966 Tourist Carl Dooler

From 1910 until 1996 Great Britain regularly toured Australia and New Zealand, customarily playing a three test series against both nations, as well as a large number of other games against regional, representative and club sides. Making a Great Britain tour was considered, alongside playing at Wembley, as the pinnacle of any player’s career. They earned the right to be called Great Britain Lions. Featherstone Rovers have supplied 14 such players. Three of these players, Cooper, Dooler and Smales didn’t play in a test match, so never became full internationals.

A further five players, namely Terry Clawson, Arnie Morgan, Mal Dixon, Gary Jordan and Peter Smith won Great Britain caps, but never toured. Morgan and Smith however, as well as Keith Bridges, Jimmy Thompson and Steve Nash, did “tour” with Great Britain in World Cup Tournaments.

 The official list of Featherstone Rovers’ Great Britain Lions is:

1.  Tommy Askin 1928

2.  Gary Cooper 1962 (not capped)

3.  Don Fox 1962

4.  Carl Dooler 1966 (not capped)

5.  Jimmy Thompson 1970, 1974

6.  Keith Bridges 1974

7.  Steve Nash 1974

8.  Steve Evans 1979

9.  David Hobbs 1984

10.         Chris Bibb 1990

11.         Deryck Fox 1990, 1992

12.         Ian Smales 1990 (not capped)

13.         Paul Newlove 1992

14.         Steve Molloy 1996

Featherstone's Great Britain Caps

Jimmy Thompson

Up until about 2007, playing for Great Britain was the pinnacle of a rugby league player's representative career. Here’s an impressive looking list of international footballers, all but one of whom started their professional career at Post Office Road. Steve Molloy is the odd man out. It can also be seen that seven Rovers players went on to gain more caps with other clubs after leaving Featherstone. Tommy Smales (scrum-half), Karl Pratt and Vince Farrar are among the very few players who left Rovers and then went on to win their first cap. There are also a number of players including Jeff Grayshon, Carl Gibson and Roy Powell who won GB caps before joining Featherstone.

1.   Jimmy Thompson: 20 Caps (Out of 21 in his career)

2.   Steve Nash: 16 Caps (Out of 24 in his career)

3.   Deryck Fox: 13 Caps (Out of 14 in his career)

4.   Paul Newlove: 10 Caps (Out of 20 in his career)

5.   David Hobbs: 8 Caps (Out of 12 in his career)

6.   Steve Evans: 8 Caps (Out of 10 in his career)

7.   Tommy Askin: 6 Caps

8.   Peter Smith: 6 Caps

9.   Arnie Morgan: 4 Caps

10.        Steve Molloy: 3 Caps (Out of 4 in his career)

11.        Keith Bridges: 3 Caps

12.        Malcolm Dixon: 2 Caps

13.        Gary Jordan: 2 Caps

14.        Terry Clawson: 2 Caps (Out of 14 in his career)

15.        Don Fox: 1 Cap

16.        Chris Bibb: 1 Cap

The National Coaching Scheme

The role of the coach in Rugby League has changed radically over the years. Nowadays the coach is considered to be perhaps the most important figure at a club, which is a far cry from the time when teams were chosen by selection committee, tactics decided by senior players and the coach was limited to overseeing a few laps of the training ground to keep the lads fit. Of course, even in those days, the best coaches did much more than that. Witness Eric Batten’s impact on Featherstone Rovers after his arrival in 1951 for proof of that. The job of a coach gradually evolved to its current status through the sixties and seventies with the emergence of “personality” coaches such as Alex Murphy and our own Peter Fox who insisted on having control over team selection. Coaching in Britain took a great leap forward after the 1982 Kangaroo tourists destroyed Great Briatin and an influx of influential antipodeans made their mark. Before then however, sterling work had been done in England by the National Coaching Scheme to raise coaching standards throughout the game. This initiative was set up by secretary general of the RFL Bill Fallowfield in the early 1950s and the two men he chose to head up this new coaching scheme both inevitably had strong Featherstone connections.

Laurie Gant MBE in his playing days

Both Laurie Gant and Albert Fearnley served Featherstone  as players and coaches. Laurie Gant, who sadly passed away late last year, served Featherstone Rovers and rugby league in general in every possible way. He started out as a player for Wakefield and signed for Rovers in 1948, making his debut on. After playing 112 games and scoring 15 tries, he had a short spell at Hunslet before retiring. The highlight of his playing career was of course packing down in the second-row at Wembley in 1952. He then became involved in coaching, and also spent many years as a top-grade referee. As well as his work with the whistle and on the coaching field, he then became Rovers head coach in 1966. Within a year Laurie Gant had led Rovers to a Wembley triumph, our first ever. He stepped down in 1970 and was replaced by Peter Fox. Laurie carried on with his work at the RFL, running coaching clinics and summer courses for thousands of schoolkids to encourage them to take up the game. Later in life he was chairman of the Rovers Past Players Association. He was one of only two Featherstone players awarded an MBE for his services to sport.

Laurie Gant’s right-hand man in the RFL coaching department was the indomitable Albert Fearnley. He had a distinguished playing career at Halifax, and gained a wealth of experience having played in Championship and Cup finals, including the most famous of all, the 1954 Cup final replay at Odsal. After playing at Wembley in 1956, he arrived at Post Office Road with a bagful of medals, to beef up the Rovers pack. A quick look at Featherstone teamsheet of the day, including Kenny Welburn, Willis Fawley, Norman Hockley, Wyn Jones and Cliff Lambert, might make you wonder quite why anybody felt they needed “beefing up”. He did just that though for two years, playing 67 games and managing a notable 18 tries. He had a short spell as unofficial forwards-coach in his second season, before moving on to Batley as their player-coach. More than one young Rovers forward of the day could tell the tale of how Fearnley’s uncompromising style opened their eyes as to just how tough you had to be to play the game then. It’s probably fair to say that Albert’s robust approach to playing was reflected in his coaching methods, but there can be no doubt he got his message across.

The game has changed in many ways since then, and today’s coach needs a host of skills as a teacher, a motivator, a tactician, a psychologist, a trainer and a public relations officer, as well as overseeing those laps of the training ground.

Featherstone & Castleford United

Today we’ll look at one of the most unusual fixtures in Rovers’ history. Not an epic derby clash against Castleford, with both teams heroically defending local pride, but an occasion when players from both teams joined together, tackling and running alongside each other against a common foe. A prototype of the dreaded Calder team circa 1995? Thank God no. The occasion was the 1961 New Zealand tourists, and for reasons best known to themselves the RFL decided, instead of the usual fixture list, to arrange games against a whole raft of “combined” teams. It was customary for touring teams to face the best club sides during their stay in the UK. Thus Rovers had played against the 1955 Kiwis (and lost 7-6) and the 1959 Aussies (and won 23-15). For this tour, not only did Rovers and Castleford combine, but also Salford and Swinton played together as a “Manchester XIII”, Leeds, Hunslet and Bramley as a “Leeds XIII”, among others. Maybe the hope was that these combined outfits could attract larger crowds, by appealing to the fans of two or more clubs.

So, who made the line up for the Featherstone-Castleford select XIII?  The game was played on Castleford’s ground. Both coaches of the day, Harold Moxon and Harry Street (who had of course previously played for Featherstone for a short while) were involved in the preparation of the side. The side contained eight Rovers players and five from Castleford, reflecting the superior strength of the Rovers team at that time. Fullback was Castleford’s Albert Lunn, with Rovers regular Jackie Fennell missing out. The right three-quarters were blue and white; Jim Hunt and Ken Greatorex. The left three-quarters were amber and black; Geoff Ward and Colin Battye. Half-backs were Alan Hardisty and Don Fox, a pretty handy combination it has to be said. Joe Mullaney was a travelling reserve (no subs in those days). The pack was almost all Rovers, with the familiar front row of Len Hammill, Willis Fawley and Malcolm Dixon, Terry Clawson and Norman Hockley in the second row and only John Sheridan as Castleford’s representative at loose-forward, taking Cliff Lambert’s birth.  In his autobiography, Terry Clawson pointed out that he was only prepared to play provided it meant not having to pull on a Castleford jersey! Unfortunately I have been unable to find out what shirts this combined line up wore.

And how did they get on? It was only the third game of the Kiwi tour, played on the 26th of August. The tourists had previously lost to both Liverpool (Widnes and Liverpool City) and Manchester (Salford and Swinton), but won this game 31-20. For Featherstone-Castleford, Geoff Ward scored two tries, Jim Hunt and Len Hammill one each and Terry Clawson kicked four goals. Perhaps an understandable lack of cohesion between the two clubs’ players contributed to a disappointing result against modest tourists. The Kiwis went on win the first test against Great Britain surprisingly easily 29-11, though Britain bounced back to take the series with authoritative wins 23-10 and 35-19 in the second and third tests.

The match programme announced: “This temporary merger today will be watched with much interest by those writers of anonymous letters who suggest that the two clubs should permanently band together and play on a field in Pontefract Park”. So it wasn’t Maurice Lindsay’s idea after all! For RFL officials looking for clues as to whether a merged club could ever be viable, a crowd of 5,774 was reasonable, comparing with the previous Kiwi tour (5,100 at Featherstone and 2,440 at Castleford) quite well. The whole idea of combined sides was abandoned though, never to be repeated.

Testimonials and Benefit Seasons.

Club Captain Liam Finn was recently granted a rugby league testimonial for ten years’ service to the sport. The tradition of the benefit year for players who have given ten years service to a single club really came into force after the war, and as such many loyal servants from the pre-war period missed out on that end-of-career pay day. Before 1945 testimonials seem to have been granted on a very ad hoc basis consisting of just one designated league fixture with a portion of the receipts going to the player concerned. Names such as Jim Denton, Ernie Barraclough, Jack Hirst all put in at least a decade of service each, but there is no documentation of them having received a benefit or testimonial. Some players were luckier.  In 1929 a joint testimonial match was declared for Arthur Haigh and Jimmy Williams. Previously John Willie Higson had a benefit in 1921 and three years later Billy Seymour.

It was quite common in those days for players whose careers had been cut short by injury to receive a testimonial fixture as recompense. Thus Jack Higgins had a benefit played for him in 1946 after a serious injury forced his retirement. The following year a game was arranged for the widow of Wakefield player Frank Townsend who tragically died in a match against Rovers at Post Office Road in 1947.

After the war that fine servant Frank Hemmingway was the first player to qualify for what we would recognise now as a benefit season in 1949/50. A feature of the club in the 1950s was unsurprisingly local lads signing for their hometown team and playing the majority of their career there. Thus, eight different players enjoyed a benefit season during the fifties.

50-1    Walt Tennant
51-2    Jimmy Russell & Jack Blackburn
54-5    Jack Ogden
55-6    Fred Hulme
57-8    Ken Welburn
58-9    Alan Tennant
59-60     Cliff Lambert

The pattern was similar in the 1960s. Again, seven benefits in that decade, including two of Featherstone’s most loyal servants sharing a testimonial year. Surely two such great players deserved separate seasons.

60-1    Willis Fawley
62-3    Jack Fennell
63-4    Don Fox & Joe Mullaney
67-8    Malcolm Dixon
68-9    Ken Greatorex
69-70    Stan Nicholsen

The seventies were a fine decade too. There were just two seasons when no benefit was held.

71-2    Arnie Morgan
72-3    Les Tonks
73-4    Keith Cotton
74-5    Mick Smith
75-6    Vince Farrar
76-7    Jimmy Thompson
77-8    John Newlove
79-80  Harold Box

In the eighties, such was the backlog of players who had played ten seasons, Keith Bell had to wait thirteen years for his benefit.

80-1    Ken Kellett
81-2    Paul Coventry
82-3    Mick Gibbins
83-4    John Marsden
84-5    Keith Bell
85-6    Peter Smith
86-7    Steve Quinn
89-90  Gary Siddall

In the nineties we had just two beneficiaries reflecting the changing times. Freedom of contract and the abolition of the old retain-and-transfer system meant that players started to move around a lot more between clubs.

91-2    Nigel Barker
95-6   Chris Bibb

Since then, that trend has continued although three players have proved themselves loyal clubmen by sticking out ten years.

2002    Danny Evans
2006    Steve Dooler
2007    Stuart Dickens

Featherstone’s Most Capped Player

Jimmy Thompson holds the record for most caps gained whilst a Featherstone player. He won 20 caps between 1970 and 1977. After leaving Featherstone for Bradford he won one further cap, making a total of 21. However, the Rovers player who won most caps in his career was another player from that same era. Steve Nash signed for Featherstone as a diminutive scrum-half in 1967, and our half-backs at that time were Mick Smith and Carl Dooler. Steve actually made his debut at stand-off, filling in for few games when Rovers had made it to Wembley and were resting players before the final. Just over a year later Carl Dooler had been sold to Hull KR and the number seven shirt was Nash’s for the next seven years.

Within four seasons Nash’s club form had been sufficiently impressive to warrant an international call up. He won his first Great Britain cap in 1971 against France at St.Helens. Britain won 24-2, Steve Nash’s half-back partner Roger Millward got two tries and there was a rare try from dashing second-rower Jimmy Thompson. Nash did enough to keep his place in the GB squad, and he faced both France and New Zealand the following season. In November 1972 the Rugby League World Cup was held in France. An impressive British side won all their games with Steve Nash at scrum–half, including a 53-19 thrashing of New Zealand. Nash scored his first international try that day and half-back partner John Holmes had a field day. In the World Cup final Britain drew 10 all with Australia, a game which included a sensational length of the field try from Clive Sullivan. Extra time was played, but as the scores remained level, the World Cup was awarded to Britain, as they had won the group. Nash became the first and only Featherstone player to get a World Cup winner’s medal. Ex-Rover Terry Clawson was also in the line up.

Nash’s international career continued with six caps on the 1974 tour. This was a golden age for Featherstone rugby, as both Jimmy Thompson and Keith Bridges also figured prominently on that tour. The same trio were selected to represent England at the 1975 World Championship. Steve Nash then left Rovers for Salford after a record domestic transfer fee of £15,000. He had won sixteen GB caps in his career so far. At Salford he went on to win eight more caps. In 1977 alongside Peter Smith and Jimmy Thompson he was once again in Britain’s World Cup squad, and all three players appeared in the 1977 World Cup final which Great Britain lost 13-12. It was Thompson’s second final after 1970, and also of course Nash’s second final too.

After playing all three tests against the 1978 Kangaroos Nash was selected for his second tour in 1979 but didn’t play any test rugby. He might have thought his international career was over, but he was (unwisely in the event) recalled to face the might of the 1982 Kangaroos in the twilight of his career. He was the GB captain for the first test at Hull when Great Britain were slaughtered and the gulf between the British and Australian games was finally fully exposed. It was a disappointing end to a very respectable international career. He was replaced as captain for the second test by Jeff Grayshon, then of Bradford, another member of a select band of players who have had the privilege of both captaining Great Britain and playing for Featherstone Rovers in their career.

Titanic Cup Clashes against Workington

Fans these days complain of the top teams such as Wigan, Warrington and Leeds always meeting each other in the grand finals and big cup ties, but in the 1950s it was Featherstone Rovers v Workington Town that was one of the big tickets. Both clubs have a strong cup-fighting tradition, born in that era. Enough has been written already about our Wembley debut in 1952, but before that decade was out Featherstone and Workington were destined to meet in a further four cup ties, all of epic proportions, including two semi-finals.

 

Rovers at Wembley v Workington in 1952

After losing the 1952 final, Rovers arrived at the 1955 semi-final looking for revenge. They had beaten Belle Vue Rangers (great name, great club), Bradford and Leigh on the route to the last four and another clash with Town. Big ticket? An astonishing 36,077 people packed Headingley to see who would face Barrow at Wembley. Just four of the Wembley 1952 team were in the line-up three years later; Don Metcalfe, Ray Cording and pack men Kenny Welburn and Cliff Lambert. Having shown some marvellous form in the early rounds, Rovers must have fancied their chances, but on the day a very subdued display allowed Town to triumph 13-2. Despite dominating the first half, Featherstone failed to score, and Town produced two strikes of their own against the run of play. In the second half Workington established a strangle-hold that they were never going to loosen. 

 

Back to the drawing board then, and three years later came another chance. In the 1958 Semi-final at Odsal Rovers were without the injured Don Fox, but had such stars as Joe Mullaney, Cyril Woolford and Jack Fennell in their ranks. Wembley 52 veterans Lambert, Welburn and Alan Tennant were still going strong. Once again a tight game ensued, but Rovers disappointed their share of another huge 33,926 crowd, going down 8-2, the only try of the game coming from Ike Southward. He also scored at Wembley where Town were pipped by Wigan.

 

Three big games and three defeats. Rovers must have been sick of the sight of the all-conquering Cumbrians. Imagine their feelings the following season when the first round draw of the 1959 Cup came out and Rovers drew Workington away.  Having won 10-0 in a league fixture there just a week before, Featherstone probably thought they might have been pushing their luck to get a second successive positive result at such a notoriously difficult venue. They won though, with a phenomenal 80 minute tackling stint, and despite Town grabbing the game’s only try, Rovers triumphed 8 points to 5 thanks to four Terry Clawson penalties.  No change of luck in the semi-final that year though, beaten by Hull 15-5.

 

Showing a distinct lack of imagination the draw-makers for the first round of the 1960 competition came up with Workington v Featherstone!  Off to Cumbria again then, this time for a 15-0 success, practice having turned the Rovers team into a dab hand at tricky Cup ties in Workington. Tries from Wills Fawley, Joe Mullaney and Mick Clamp saw us through. That year it was Wakefield Trinity’s turn to break our hearts in the semi-final. Rovers were beaten in the 1962 semis too, as that particular golden age of rugby league drew to a close. Workington had played in three finals, the only Cup finals in their history. Rovers had lost five successive semi-finals between 1955 and 1962, but would be back again for Wembley glory with a new side before the sixties were over.

The Ones That Got Away

It’s always nice to see a local lad doing well after leaving Featherstone, one of the latest being Zak Hardaker at Leeds.  The disappointment of losing talented players to top flight clubs has always been something Rovers fans have had to live with, but for me that doesn’t stop us taking pride in their subsequent achievements. Zak’s career with us was brief, but better than nothing. There have been some distinguished rugby league players, born and bred in Featherstone, who never played for their hometown team.

Phil Cookson

Two famous examples of local lads who never pulled on the Blue and White played in the 1978 Cup Final at Wembley. Rovers of course had lost an eminently winnable and desperately disappointing semi-final against Leeds at Odsal, and playing in the Leeds second row that day, and in the final too was Phil Cookson. He signed for Leeds directly from Rovers Intermediates in 1968 and went on to enjoy a long and successful career at Headingley. He won England caps at the 1975 World Cup in Australia.

Bill Francis

In that 78 final Phil was up against St. Helens stand-off Bill Francis, another Featherstone man. Francis signed for Wigan in 1963 from Rovers Under 17 team and made his name as a classy centre during 13 seasons at Central Park. He won four GB caps, and at the afore-mentioned 1975 World Cup was playing for Wales (he qualified through the grandparent rule). He transferred to Saints in 1977 and played his entire professional career in Lancashire. I’d always assumed that Wigan must have had a mole in the Featherstone area scouting system to alert them to available local talent so early. After all, they’d also signed Tommy Smales from under our noses in 1958 with a big money offer that we couldn’t compete with. A recent article in the RL Journal offered an alternative and interesting explanation as to how Wigan found out about Bill Francis’s talent before he’d even turned professional. Apparently in 1963 ITV started covering amateur youth games on TV, the star side being the Featherstone & Castleford district team. This team included Roger Millward and Brian Lockwood as well as Francis, and all three youngsters were able to make a name for themselves as juniors. Wigan liked what they saw and snapped up Francis, to our loss.

Other players we could file under the list of the ones that got away would be Alan Banks’ older brother Barry, who signed for York and later had success at Hull. Jason Ramshaw, son of old favourite Terry, signed from school for Halifax before carving out a long career at Keighley. Martin Wood was another local lad who never played for Featherstone. I’m sure fans can recall one or two other names that slipped through the net over the years. Perhaps at the very top of the list should be world record holder and Hall of Famer Neil Fox, who many people thought would sign for Featherstone as his older brothers had done, but instead went to Wakefield Trinity. The rest, as they say, is history. Very illustrious history indeed.

Footnote: Steve Slater writes:

I can recall Terry Morgan & Steve Cooper (Gary's brother) both signing for York in the early 70's, and a very highly rated youngster from the U'17's called Bob Woodhead signed for Hull KR. Big things were expected of him but I never heard his name mentioned again. And there was Dave Topliss. Although he played for Normanton U'17's, he supported Rovers all his childhood, but Normy players were selected for the Wakefield & District side, not Cas & Fev, and when he came under Trinity's spotlight he signed for them instead. There was another Banks brother, Keith, who was the elder of the three. He was a stand off or centre  in the U17's, and played for Yorkshire schoolboys from Normanton Grammar School, and then Wakefield RUFC when they were a top side. Rovers made him an offer to turn pro but he signed for Wakefield instead, where he was a regular around 1976-77, but then suffered the same fate as Phil Butler; recurring shoulder injuries. He retired from the game prematurely, and the last time I heard he was a very successful Games Master at Airedale High, where he has lead many school teams to the national championsip. Another top Union player was Colin Lambert, Cliff's son, who I played alongside for Rovers Juniors & Cas & District. From there he went on to represent Yorkshire at U19's on the wing. He also played for Yorkshire and England schoolboys at Rugby Union, and athletics as a sprinter. He was courted by every Rugby League club in the country in the very early seventies but opted to play for Headingley RU, and then Harlequins. His ambition was to play for the British Lions, but while he played county RU and was part of the England set up, I don't think he ever made the full England RU side.