Having signed from Crosfields, a teenage Roy Lester made his Leigh debut in 1967 and went on to spend ten seasons at Hilton Park. He moved to his beloved Warrington in 1976 before becoming Fulham’s first signing in 1980.
After four seasons as a player, he coached the London side and later spent two years in the hot seat at Carlisle.
If you could relive one day from your career, which would it be?
I had a 19-year career as a player and then I coached for quite a while, so I’d like to think there’s a lot to choose from! I was a non-playing sub in the 1971 Challenge Cup Final for Leigh when we beat Leeds, and even though I didn’t get on, it was such an incredible day. At Warrington, we beat the Kangaroos on a Wednesday night in 1978. I’d spent that day working at Heysham Power Station! And then I played in Fulham’s first match when we beat Wigan at Craven Cottage.
Were you a Warrington fan as a child?
Yes, I sat on my dad’s shoulders at Wilderspool, aged three or four, and I loved it. He used to take his teeth out because he’d get so excited, he didn’t want them to fall out. When I later played there, the secretary described this fan with no teeth who shouted a lot, and I just knew they were talking about him. I remember watching Brian Bevan play. With bandages all over his legs, he looked nothing like a Rugby League player. He looked like he’d break a leg if a child tackled him, but that is what made him so great. Once he got the ball, he was away. Jim Challinor was a fantastic centre for him, but, even so, 800-odd tries is fantastic. His last game was against Leigh. I ran on the pitch. There’s a picture of him being shouldered off, and I’m on it.
When did you start playing?
I used to play tick ‘n’ pass with older kids at a very young age on the fields behind our house, but I didn’t imagine I’d ever be a pro. My cousin Alan Kelly played open-age for Crosfields. I went to watch one day and ended up on the bench. I was only 16, but I started to get interested. After six appearances, I got picked up by a scout called Arnie Bishop, who asked if I wanted to go to Leigh. I knew nothing about Leigh, but I was prepared to have a go. Gerry Helme was the coach. He was a great fella who’d won two Lance Todds. He was a big hero of dad’s. It was a waste of time taking my dad to negotiate the contract, because all he could do was stare at him.
Do you remember your Leigh debut against Blackpool in January 1967?
I don’t remember too much, other than my cousin, who I told you about from Crosfields played for Blackpool. I signed for Leigh in 1965 and asked them not to put the paperwork in because I wanted to play for Crosfields in the Challenge Cup against Barrow. I was pretty sure Leigh wouldn’t get to Wembley in 1966, so I took a chance, even though I could have been injured. We lost 11-4, and Barrow’s Bill Burgess scored a length-of-the-field try in the mudheap at Craven Park.
What sort of impact did Alex Murphy have on the club?
He certainly improved us. We won the Floodlit Trophy, although we didn’t get medals. We got a pen each! We won the Lancashire Cup too. We were very close on a lot of things. The recruitment of players was better, even though Leigh weren’t a rich club. When we got to Wembley, he was so angry with the win bonus offered by the directors that he broke the boardroom door. Brian Bowman, who later became chairman, had to put it back on. The directors wanted us to go down the day before the game, but Alex demanded we train in Southport because he’d been to Wembley a few times with St Helens, and he knew one of the school pitches in Southport was very similar to Wembley. He was calculating and he knew what he was doing. Sure enough, the pitch was like a bowling green. The Wembley surface can affect your legs, especially when you were used to mudheaps, so Alex prepared us for that. When we got to London, we went to the dog racing on the Thursday, and on the Friday, we watched Tommy Cooper at the London Palladium. It was an unusual preparation, but it worked.
How did you get on with Alex?
Very well. He’s the greatest Rugby League player I can remember. But I will always remember one story. Players often have their heads down when the coach is talking, but I was always taught to look at someone if they are talking. One day at half-time, we hadn’t played well, and he wasn’t happy. I was the only one looking at him. I caught his eye, so he shouted at me, “And you … you’ve been a disgrace!” I said, “Alex, I’m a sub. I haven’t been on yet.” His face tightened, and he realised he’d made a mistake. The other players were desperate to laugh but didn’t dare.
Were you ever close to an international call-up?
I was called up for Lancashire in the early 1970s, so I must have been close. When we beat the Australians with Warrington, Tommy Martyn and I were told we had been noted. Tommy got on the 1979 Lions tour, but I didn’t.
What were the other highlights of your time at Wilderspool?
We won the Players No6 trophy in 1977-78 against Widnes. I got a cut over my eyebrow a couple of weeks earlier. I had the stitches taken out before the game, which was a mistake. It was a mudheap, and within five minutes, my eye had split again, and I had to play with a bandana around my head. There was mud and blood everywhere. It was agony.
We just got pipped at the post in the Challenge Cup semi-final in 1978 by St Helens. I’m from Warrington, so it would have been great to play for them at Wembley. John Bevan broke clear late in the game, but he was just caught. That try would have taken us to Wembley. We had some great players. Tommy Martyn was a genius and a real good friend of mine. Parry Gordon was an excellent halfback with similarities to Gerry Helme. Mike Nicholas was great. Steve Hesford’s goalkicking was crucial to us. I couldn’t fault anyone. The atmosphere was spot on.
Were you apprehensive about being Fulham’s first signing?
Yes, I did think, “Am I going to be the only one?” I was on my way out of Warrington because I’d had a little injury, and they brought in Neil Courtney. I was 33 or 34. One of the Warrington directors, Harold Genders, invited me to his house and told me to bring my wife, Jacqueline. I had no idea what it was about. He said they were starting a new club in London. He went through it all, and it was so exciting. I consulted with Jacqueline and said yes. He talked about other players, but no one else had signed, not even Reg Bowden, who would be the player-coach. It was exciting, but I couldn’t help wondering if it was the right decision.
What do you remember of the early days?
We trained at Golborne Sports Club, near the East Lancashire Road. There were only five of us at the first night’s training, but it started to build up. It was so exciting seeing new faces every week, especially good players I’d played against. They were all great players. It was an unbelievable experience and totally different to life at Leigh and Warrington. Harry Beverley and I used to headbutt each other in scrums but now we were on the same team. I’ve had great team spirits wherever I’ve played, and it was there straightaway at Fulham. We gelled immediately.
Tell us about the first match, against Wigan.
It was amazing. The atmosphere was electric. To be at the side of the Thames made it more special. It was like being on a cloud. The game was superb. It felt like winning at Wembley. We went upstairs after the game and people were all over us. They never got the chance to have a drink with the footballers, so they loved meeting us after the game. Some famous people supported us, like the footballer Malcolm Macdonald and the actors Colin Welland and Brian Glover. Brian was a big supporter. There were many other famous people who were behind us. It was completely different to anything I’d experienced.
You played there for four years and coached for two.
We got promoted at the first attempt, but the recruitment wasn’t as good as it should have been, and we came straight back down. That didn’t help because the fans had seen the best teams and players and then we were back in Division Two. We got promoted again by finishing top, but then we went down again.
I was a player-coach from the second year alongside Reg and Mal Aspey. Roy and Barbara Close had been big supporters, and I convinced them to take the club over. They weren’t short of money, but it was a big step for them to take. In the end, they went to one game and Barbara was refused entry to the boardroom because she was a woman. They decided they didn’t want to continue after that, and that was bad news for the club. Paul Faires took over, but it went downhill, and that’s why I left. I was disappointed to leave because there was so much potential for the club if they’d got things right.
You went from one end of the country to the other to coach Carlisle.
Obviously, I liked motorways! One of my first games was at Knowsley Road in the Lancashire Cup, and St Helens beat us 112-0. “What the bloody hell have I let myself in for?” I thought. The Yorkshire lads were taking the piss, so I replaced them with amateur players, and it worked. A week later we had a great home win over Doncaster. We had good players like Colin Armstrong, Kevin Pape, Milton Huddart and Tony Scott. I had to rely on these guys, and it worked. You can’t build a side on players who don’t have the right attitude. I learned that at Fulham. They were willing to learn and put the work in.
The next season, we played Warrington in the John Player. It was about a year on from the humiliation at Saints. We were winning until the last second, but one of our young players needlessly kicked the ball to Brian Johnson. The hooter went as they scored the winning try. I cried because it would have been a fantastic win. It was sign of how far we’d come. But I got fed up with the travelling. I nearly had a bad crash on the M6 one day and thought it wasn’t worth it. I got a job on the Warrington coaching staff for a while and went to Wembley with them in 1990, which was a wonderful thing to experience with my boyhood club.
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