65 replies to this topic

[Blind side johnny]

Jason Osbourne played in the 2nd team. Never understood how he never made it into the first team as he was lightning fast!

Catching, passing, tackling maybe?

[Eddie_Rombo]

Catching, passing, tackling maybe?

So how come Akaidere gets into the first team? I haven't seen any evidence of this!

[grumpyoldram]

Hmm,! This is getting a bit like "the older I get the quicker they were". Some of the players mentioned were admittedly nippy but not fast, as GOR's original contention says. I can't really see Pachniuk, Baker, Godfrey etc. making a length of the filed dash successfully in pursued by a fast winger. But maybe my memory works the wrong way around and they all get slower as i get older?

Well my memory sometimes can be selective - for instance I often forget about patch's brilliant kicking game, turn of pace and eye for an opening, but I would reckon Godfrey would have been quicker than anybody we have now, quicker than most mentioned and not far off being as quick as Brynn. Baker usually got the nod over him (including in the final), presumably because his defence wasn't the best.

[leedsram]

austin looks quick to me and craven is no slouch either

[Superdave]

Has anybody so far has mentioned Adrian Flynn? Scored a try away at Workington and the worky fan next to us turned to his son and said "that's a proper winger that is".

[gittinsfan]

I suppose GOR and myself are of a similar era.

I have always thought Mick Shoebottom was always the most gifted and talented stand off I ever saw.

McGuire is very similar in his play but in my opinion is not as creative or quick.

Unfortunately ,Shoebottom was one of the dirtiest players I ever saw.

I always found it ironic that his career was ended by a particularly nasty tackle from Colin Dixon

If that tackle happened with todays technology it would be a big hit on U tube

[grumpyoldram]

I suppose GOR and myself are of a similar era.

I have always thought Mick Shoebottom was always the most gifted and talented stand off I ever saw.

McGuire is very similar in his play but in my opinion is not as creative or quick.

Unfortunately ,Shoebottom was one of the dirtiest players I ever saw.

I always found it ironic that his career was ended by a particularly nasty tackle from Colin Dixon

If that tackle happened with todays technology it would be a big hit on U tube

Always a tie between him and hardisty for me, but like you say, shoey was nasty. What about roger the dodger - forgot about him.

[gittinsfan]

I agree,Hardisty was special but I think of him more as a partnership with Hepworth.Not quite so effective on his own.

Roger Millward was also very good.If I remember correctly,his career was ended in a 2nd team game at the Mount when somebody bundled him into the railings.

[Blind side johnny]

Wally Lewis was head and shoulders above the rest IMHO.


Who was the best (genuine) stand off that Dewsbury have had? History would say Vic Hey but there can't be many around now who can remember him playing.

[grumpyoldram]

Wally Lewis was head and shoulders above the rest IMHO.


Who was the best (genuine) stand off that Dewsbury have had? History would say Vic Hey but there can't be many around now who can remember him playing.

Oh well - if you are going down under I'd say it would be a tight call between lewis,johns and lockyer.

If we actually played him at stand off before he went to bradford (and I can't remember if we did), I'd say nigel was the best that I can recall - certainly the only one that could beat a man.

[EQUALIZER]

The player that showed the most devasting pace in a one off situation BIG JIM NAYLOR. Cental Park Friday night, foggy as owt gods side.About 30 die hards at most.Late on Newall ball in hand and other players stop waiting for a foreward pass ref didnt blow Big Jim snatches ball and runs like a juggernaught to the line.We won score 20 16 ish.Now the argument is that Big Jim claims it was 40yds ozzy says 10 from memory id say 20 to 25.Great win though one from the archives.

[Eddie_Rombo]

Danny Brough is quick

Edited by Eddie_Rombo, 01 January 2013 - 04:35 PM.

[sadram]

Danny Brough is quick

on his way to the bookies.

[Eddie_Rombo]

on his way to the bookies.

[mahtsalleh]

Going back into the mists of time...
The, aready mentioned, Geoff Yoward was as fast as anyone I ever saw in red,amber and black. He (at least once) competed in the Powderhall sprint. Didn't get selected as often as he should have been.
I also remember Mick Stephenson scoring an 80 yard try up the Crown Flatt slope - and he had a number 9 on his back, when hookers actually had to be hookers.
We once had a stand off called Ormonroyd who, in my recollection, was no slouch, and back when Roy Pollard (pretty quick) was scoring tries on one wing, there was often a guy called Hemingway on the other. A bit of a fancy Dan with Brylcream Superfix ensuring his quiff was immovable, but whenever he got the ball the stamping on the stand boarding was deafening (similar to when Eddie Rombo got the ball in more recent times).
Other than those, and others already mentioned, Dewsbury wingers have tended to be steamrollers a la Jack Austin, and before him Gordon Waring who really knew his way to the tryline.
Pace isn't everything, but it does often make up for a lot of other shortcomings (see Martin Offiah for instance).
There's nothing to beat watching a player such as Jason Robinson get hold of the ball in a bit of space, and the accompanying anticipation that you're about to see something special.

[mahtsalleh]

Lewis Jones was the most all-round talented stand off I saw (with the RU kicking game developed in the Valleys). However I remember once standing next to a Leeds' fan who was complaining bitterly that he wouldn't tackle (he'd obviously never seen Danny Cipriani when making that assessment). In fact for many years I regarded him as the best-ever RL player. That changed when Ellery Hanley was in his prime. Nowadays, the guy I like to watch is Benjy Marshall, he just has that bit of "magic".
Thinking back about Dewsbury stand-offs, I remember a guy called Edwards who had genuine class. And, when he wanted to be, which unfortunately was not every week, Glynn Davies was "magic". Apart from those (and to a lesser degree Nigel Stephenson, who could have been a great stand off had he just had some pace off the mark) I have to say Dewsbury has rarely been blessed with a classy stand off. In more recent times the Agars, Chris Vasey and Davide Longo were pretty good, but were not near the "world class" category.
Just a few miles away there was a really classy stand off called Topliss whom no one has mentioned yet?
I can't remember seeing Vic Hey play, but my father always said he was the best (at that time) Dewsbury had ever had, although my understanding is that he was a tackle-buster rather than a tackle dodger.



.

[grumpyoldram]

Lewis Jones was the most all-round talented stand off I saw (with the RU kicking game developed in the Valleys). However I remember once standing next to a Leeds' fan who was complaining bitterly that he wouldn't tackle (he'd obviously never seen Danny Cipriani when making that assessment). In fact for many years I regarded him as the best-ever RL player. That changed when Ellery Hanley was in his prime. Nowadays, the guy I like to watch is Benjy Marshall, he just has that bit of "magic".
Thinking back about Dewsbury stand-offs, I remember a guy called Edwards who had genuine class. And, when he wanted to be, which unfortunately was not every week, Glynn Davies was "magic". Apart from those (and to a lesser degree Nigel Stephenson, who could have been a great stand off had he just had some pace off the mark) I have to say Dewsbury has rarely been blessed with a classy stand off. In more recent times the Agars, Chris Vasey and Davide Longo were pretty good, but were not near the "world class" category.
Just a few miles away there was a really classy stand off called Topliss whom no one has mentioned yet?
I can't remember seeing Vic Hey play, but my father always said he was the best (at that time) Dewsbury had ever had, although my understanding is that he was a tackle-buster rather than a tackle dodger.



.

Forgotten all about davies - good player, and if I remember correctly he was a genuine taffy.

[Philius T Wilderbeest]

Didn't Alan Hardisty virtually destroy the career of a very promising young Batley player with an awful challenge whilst he was in the process of scoring a try? Might be wrong, but remember my Grandad telling me a tale to that effect. Maybe an older Batley fan can enlighten me?

[grumpyoldram]

Didn't Alan Hardisty virtually destroy the career of a very promising young Batley player with an awful challenge whilst he was in the process of scoring a try? Might be wrong, but remember my Grandad telling me a tale to that effect. Maybe an older Batley fan can enlighten me?

Don't remember that, but it's possible I suppose. Hardisty was never an intentionally dirty player though - now if it had it been shoebottom.......

[STEVE P]

Forgotten all about davies - good player, and if I remember correctly he was a genuine taffy.

Wasn't his name Gwyn rather than Glynn? When Davies was at Huddersfield there was a piece in one of the Rugby League Yearbooks written by his brother Alan, who was a centre at Wigan, and I think an international. He said that Gwyn was the better player of the 2 brothers, but had never reached his full potential. Gwyn's temper got the better of him on more than one occasion, most noticably when he was banned sine die for manhandling the referee, and again after his ban was lifted when he was reported to have dragged a member of the Dewsbury committee into the showers and soaked him over a difference of opinion, an action which effectively ended his invovement with the club.

Back to the thread, there were so many brilliant stand off halves over the years I've watched the game, but if I had to pick a favourite it would be Roger the Dodger. If centres and back 3 forwards were running for him he could find them a gap in the tightest of defences and put them through it faster than you could work out what was happening.