38 replies to this topic

[9' oller]

After following Batley through thick and thin who do we the speccies rate as our all time gallant youths, just interested to know. The top 3 could be based on entertainment value, servant to the game or men of steel....

Glen Tomlinson
Geoff Grayshon
Danny Maun

Entertainment:
Bolu Fagbourn
Craig Lingard
Shaun Richardson

[Leedsdog]

After following Batley through thick and thin who do we the speccies rate as our all time gallant youths, just interested to know. The top 3 could be based on entertainment value, servant to the game or men of steel....

Glen Tomlinson
Geoff Grayshon
Danny Maun

Entertainment:
Bolu Fagbourn
Craig Lingard
Shaun Richardson

Carl Gibson (The best player to wear in Batley Shirt while Ive watched Batley)
Glen Tomlinson (2nd)
McWilliams (3rd)

[RogerT]

Stan Gittins,
Carl Gibson,
Glen Tomlinson.

[HaroldShand]

1.Alex Muff
2.Matt Pennington
3.Bob Grant

[vitocorleone]

1.Alex Muff
2.Matt Pennington
3.Bob Grant

1 Gary Greene
2.Saquib Murtza
3.Jay Duffy

[redditchbulldog]

Stan Gittins
Glen Tomlinson
Carl Gibson

[gittinsfan]

Stan Gittins
Glen Tomlinson
Carl Gibson

I never saw Tomlinson in a Batley shirt,although i did see him on T V playing S L.
I must admit i was never too impressed.
However i can find no fault with your other two choices.
My other choice would be Norman Field.I know i am showing my age but not many players got picked from the lower teams for G.B. in those days
Others to think about:
PHIL DOYLE
TOMMY MARTYN[went on to be a superb second rower]
IAN GELDARD[now i am showing my age]
JACK PYCROFT
Any more thoughts from the older end?

[HaroldShand]

I never saw Tomlinson in a Batley shirt,although i did see him on T V playing S L.
I must admit i was never too impressed.
However i can find no fault with your other two choices.
My other choice would be Norman Field.I know i am showing my age but not many players got picked from the lower teams for G.B. in those days
Others to think about:
PHIL DOYLE
TOMMY MARTYN[went on to be a superb second rower]
IAN GELDARD[now i am showing my age]
JACK PYCROFT
Any more thoughts from the older end?

You're entitled to your opinion, but are you being serious about Tomlinson?! As you say, you never saw him in a Batley shirt. If you had, especially between lets say 1993-95, you'd have seen a player who absolutely dominated every team that was unfortunate enough to turn out against him. Pretty much the perfect scrum-half, and certainly the best I've ever seen outside of the top flight. Sadly, when he signed for Bradford, Brian Smith and Matthew Elliott bulked him up to ridiculous proportions as was the fashion around that time which resulted in him losing a lot of his pace and trickiness with ball in hand. After spending much of his time at Bradford on the bench and in the shadow of Bob Hunter-Paul, he signed for Hull, broke his leg badly in the first game he played for them, and never really recovered his top flight career. Bit unfair to judge his ability on what you saw in a few televised SL games. Like I said though, you're more than entitled to your opinion.

[gittinsfan]

You're entitled to your opinion, but are you being serious about Tomlinson?! As you say, you never saw him in a Batley shirt. If you had, especially between lets say 1993-95, you'd have seen a player who absolutely dominated every team that was unfortunate enough to turn out against him. Pretty much the perfect scrum-half, and certainly the best I've ever seen outside of the top flight. Sadly, when he signed for Bradford, Brian Smith and Matthew Elliott bulked him up to ridiculous proportions as was the fashion around that time which resulted in him losing a lot of his pace and trickiness with ball in hand. After spending much of his time at Bradford on the bench and in the shadow of Bob Hunter-Paul, he signed for Hull, broke his leg badly in the first game he played for them, and never really recovered his top flight career. Bit unfair to judge his ability on what you saw in a few televised SL games. Like I said though, you're more than entitled to your opinion.

I am so sorry if i upset you.
I thought the question was the best players i had seen playing r
for BATLEY.
I never saw him playing for BATLEY.
You have admitted that Bradford did not neccessarily use him properly but thats not my fault.I repeat, i am not trying to run the guy down.

P. S. I hope i dont bump into you with a gun in your hand.

[HaroldShand]

I am so sorry if i upset you.
I thought the question was the best players i had seen playing r
for BATLEY.
I never saw him playing for BATLEY.
You have admitted that Bradford did not neccessarily use him properly but thats not my fault.I repeat, i am not trying to run the guy down.

P. S. I hope i dont bump into you with a gun in your hand.

Ahem, you said you couldn't agree with another poster on his nomination of Tomlinson as a Batley player as you had only seen him playing on television in SL, and that you weren't impressed by what you saw. Firstly, you'd no need to comment on his opinion if you hadn't seen the guy play, and secondly you implied that you 'found fault' with this nomination. To me, this is criticising his nomination of Glen Tomlinson as a Batley favourite.
Its akin to me examining your list and saying that I don't agree with you having Tommy Martyn in there. Admittedly, I didn't see him play but I've seen plenty of photos of him playing rugby in a Batley shirt. I wasn't impressed by what I saw in the photos, so I'm going to doubt your opinion that he was good enough to put in your 'favourite players' list.

Edited by HaroldShand, 18 February 2011 - 01:02 PM.

[Chairman LMAO]

Best three players I've seen at the Mount, past and present?

Tommo - no Batley player I've ever seen had more creativity, trickery or match-winning ability.

McGilvary - I know he was only on loan and had an alleged bad attitude etc. but he scored tries that I would have paid admission fee for on their own - a genuinely exciting talent.

Spink - at his best he was absolute quality and always a consistent performer.

[il cattivo]

1.glen tomlinson-best ever.enough said..
2.paul gearey-in 1988-89 and 1989-90 he scored 26 tries both seasons.prolific for a 2nd row.we havent had a strong running forward like him since.
3.paul storey-always a favorite of mine,and would have played for GB if not for bad knee injuries.alex murphy wanted him at st.helens.thumping tackler.positional play was superb.

Edited by il cattivo, 18 February 2011 - 01:43 PM.

[HaroldShand]

1.glen tomlinson-best ever.enough said.
2.paul storey-many maybe suprised but this guy would have played for GB if not for bad knee injuries.alex murphy wanted him at st.helens.
3.paul gearey-in 1988-89 and 1989-90 he scored 26 tries both seasons.prolific for a 2nd row.we havent had a strong running forward like him since.

Gearey had a great German porn tache!

[il cattivo]

Gearey had a great German porn tache!

[Gary Coyle]

Gearey had a great German porn tache!

Also had a little ginner scrum half who set him up for over 50% of those tries.

[Bi11]

The question said all time 'Gallant Youth', not all time best player. I would have difficulty choosing between Jackie Pycroft, Tony Dean and Glen Tomlinson for best scrum half. JP was said to be the best un capped scrum half of his era, TD went on to lead a bunch of super stars around the field at Hull with great success. However, Tomlinson would have to be the Gallant Youth, showing great loyalty when he could have moved to a bigger club prior to moving to SL, and returning to us and turning around the teams fortunes at the end of his SL career.

If all time Gallant Youth was to include players that we hadn't see play, then I reckon that Ike Fowler would be a red hot favourite. Not only did this Welshman captain Batley to their only Championship win, but he continued to support them through the turnstiles up until his dotage.

[gittinsfan]

Ahem, you said you couldn't agree with another poster on his nomination of Tomlinson as a Batley player as you had only seen him playing on television in SL, and that you weren't impressed by what you saw. Firstly, you'd no need to comment on his opinion if you hadn't seen the guy play, and secondly you implied that you 'found fault' with this nomination. To me, this is criticising his nomination of Glen Tomlinson as a Batley favourite.
Its akin to me examining your list and saying that I don't agree with you having Tommy Martyn in there. Admittedly, I didn't see him play but I've seen plenty of photos of him playing rugby in a Batley shirt. I wasn't impressed by what I saw in the photos, so I'm going to doubt your opinion that he was good enough to put in your 'favourite players' list.

I will repeat that my choices are based on players that i have seen play.
Iknow from reading this forum,the respect and admiration Batley fans had for Tomlinson.Ihad no intention of trying to belittle his contribution and service to Batley.
As i understand it John Etty was a brilliant player in his day. I never saw him play so therefore i did not include him in my possible favourites.
I would say though that watching a full game on T V gives a better perspective on a player than looking at a few photographs.

[Nick07]

Gibson had just left when I started going, so I'll say:

Glen Tomlinson
Roger Simpson
Chris McWilliams

Mick Cameron coming a very close 4th.

[bulldogtrev]

I never saw Tomlinson in a Batley shirt,although i did see him on T V playing S L.
I must admit i was never too impressed.
However i can find no fault with your other two choices.
My other choice would be Norman Field.I know i am showing my age but not many players got picked from the lower teams for G.B. in those days
Others to think about:
PHIL DOYLE
TOMMY MARTYN[went on to be a superb second rower]
IAN GELDARD[now i am showing my age]
JACK PYCROFT
Any more thoughts from the older end?

Tomlinson when he went to Bradford bulked up too much and probably would have been better going a couple of seasons earlier.He did have a good season when Bradford won the Super League.
My top 3 would be Tomlinson,Carl Gibson and Dean Lawford.Others I would consider would be Michael Booth,John Carroll, Sonny Whakaru and Lee Hanlan.

[bazbulldog]

You're entitled to your opinion, but are you being serious about Tomlinson?! As you say, you never saw him in a Batley shirt. If you had, especially between lets say 1993-95, you'd have seen a player who absolutely dominated every team that was unfortunate enough to turn out against him. Pretty much the perfect scrum-half, and certainly the best I've ever seen outside of the top flight. Sadly, when he signed for Bradford, Brian Smith and Matthew Elliott bulked him up to ridiculous proportions as was the fashion around that time which resulted in him losing a lot of his pace and trickiness with ball in hand. After spending much of his time at Bradford on the bench and in the shadow of Bob Hunter-Paul, he signed for Hull, broke his leg badly in the first game he played for them, and never really recovered his top flight career. Bit unfair to judge his ability on what you saw in a few televised SL games. Like I said though, you're more than entitled to your opinion.

i used to look after Tommo's car for him and he told me that in his first game for Hull he had to go off with a leg injury,but then he trained all the following week and turned out in the next game(might have been against Saints,but not sure) and only when the injury got painfull in that game did he come off and went for an X-ray and it was found the leg was broken, tough guys these rugby players eh!