Remembering Brian Bevan

[The Future is League]

Great article

http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/43399761

[Futtocks]

I have Robert Gate's book The Great Bev. A fascinating read, about a most unusual sporting superstar. His try total is really well over 800, but he refused to acknowledge tries scored outside regular league/cup matches or for 'Rest of the World' sides. Then in retirement in the South of England, he scored a fair few times for various RU sides, moving on each time his identity as a former RL player was suspected.

He also equalled McDonald Bailey's world record for the 100 yards sprint.

[Wolford6]

15 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

I have Robert Gate's book The Great Bev. A fascinating read, about a most unusual sporting superstar. His try total is really well over 800, but he refused to acknowledge tries scored outside regular league/cup matches or for 'Rest of the World' sides. Then in retirement in the South of England, he scored a fair few times for various RU sides, moving on each time his identity as a former RL player was suspected.

He also equalled McDonald Bailey's world record for the 100 yards sprint.

What job did he do post-rugby?

[Futtocks]

7 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

What job did he do post-rugby?

It's been about a year since I last read the book, but I think he did security guard jobs for a while.

[fairfolly]

The man who Leeds turned down because he was to frail.What a mistake .i have to admit he did look like a good tackle would snap him in half,the problem was nobody could catch him to do it.i was lucky to see him in the late forties and through the fifties when I was just a kid.We all used to laugh when he walked on the pitch but we all pretended to be him in our playing field school days.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, fairfolly said:

The man who Leeds turned down because he was to frail.What a mistake .i have to admit he did look like a good tackle would snap him in half,the problem was nobody could catch him to do it.i was lucky to see him in the late forties and through the fifties when I was just a kid.We all used to laugh when he walked on the pitch but we all pretended to be him in our playing field school days.

Apparently, he looked all knobbly because he applied so much strapping to all his major joints. Team-mates recall him stripping all that off and being built like a boxer, especially across the shoulders.

His face, however, always seemed to look at least 20 years older than he actually was.

[Alffi 7]

I think he worked as a barber during his playing days?

[Desert Skipper]

World record try-scorer of any code of rugby.   No one has heard of him, doesn’t appear in record books such as the Guinness one.

An injustice, and he doesn’t even get many replies in this thread.  At least there’s a stature of him outside the stadium.

 

[Futtocks]

Just now, Desert Skipper said:

World record try-scorer of any code of rugby.   No one has heard of him, doesn’t appear in record books such as the Guinness one.

An injustice, and he doesn’t even get many replies in this thread.  At least there’s a stature of him outside the stadium.

Virtually no footage of him in action, even from British Pathé.

Never picked for Australia either, which is just crazy.

[Padge]

Billy Boston rates him as the greatest ever winger, now that is praise.

[Quinskolar]

On ‎15‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 4:23 PM, Futtocks said:

I have Robert Gate's book The Great Bev. A fascinating read, about a most unusual sporting superstar. His try total is really well over 800, but he refused to acknowledge tries scored outside regular league/cup matches or for 'Rest of the World' sides. Then in retirement in the South of England, he scored a fair few times for various RU sides, moving on each time his identity as a former RL player was suspected.

He also equalled McDonald Bailey's world record for the 100 yards sprint.

The Great Bev still available from www.llpshop.co.uk