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Often Forgotten Amazing Wingers


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3 hours ago, Martyn Sadler said:

As someone whose early life was dominated by Wakefield Trinity, I have to give a mention to two great Trinity wingers of the 1960s - Fred Smith, who I believe still holds the Trinity record for tries in a season, and Gert (Oupa) Coetzer, who came from South Africa to join Trinity after having seen them on a promotional tour of South Africa in 1962.

I got to know Fred and he used to tell me some great stories about the game, mainly involving the Trinity captain Derek 'Rocky' Turner, whose toughness was legendary.

In those days Trinity also had another South African, Jan Prinsloo, who joined from St Helens, and Berwyn Jones, who was an Olympic sprinter.

Later on, Wakefield had David Smith, who ended up being transferred to Leeds, while Keith Slater also came on the scene in the late 60s/early 70s.

Slater was a very rare example of a Cambridge (rugby union) Blue who switched codes. He was a very capable winger. We ran his obituary around a year ago.

Saw Fred Smith score seven tries in a game against Keighley.He used to kick the ball over the head of the defending winger leaving him flat footed and the ball always seemed to stand up for him to regather.That was not just luck he had it off to a fine art.

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4 hours ago, Martyn Sadler said:

As someone whose early life was dominated by Wakefield Trinity, I have to give a mention to two great Trinity wingers of the 1960s - Fred Smith, who I believe still holds the Trinity record for tries in a season, and Gert (Oupa) Coetzer, who came from South Africa to join Trinity after having seen them on a promotional tour of South Africa in 1962.

I got to know Fred and he used to tell me some great stories about the game, mainly involving the Trinity captain Derek 'Rocky' Turner, whose toughness was legendary.

In those days Trinity also had another South African, Jan Prinsloo, who joined from St Helens, and Berwyn Jones, who was an Olympic sprinter.

Later on, Wakefield had David Smith, who ended up being transferred to Leeds, while Keith Slater also came on the scene in the late 60s/early 70s.

Slater was a very rare example of a Cambridge (rugby union) Blue who switched codes. He was a very capable winger. We ran his obituary around a year ago.

Yes, a lot of good names echoing down memory lane there.  Trinity beating Wigan at Wembley in 63 of course.  Saw that in black and white.  So Coetzer (2 tries) ought not to be forgotten by both sets  of fans. 

History says, Wigan were on top early but Ashton had a try (dubiously? ha ha) disallowed (I think I can just about remember that) and of course Dave Bolton knocked unconscious (no subs).

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16 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Yes, a lot of good names echoing down memory lane there.  Trinity beating Wigan at Wembley in 63 of course.  Saw that in black and white.  So Coetzer (2 tries) ought not to be forgotten by both sets  of fans. 

History says, Wigan were on top early but Ashton had a try (dubiously? ha ha) disallowed (I think I can just about remember that) and of course Dave Bolton knocked unconscious (no subs).

  I'm sure Bolton was still concussed when Harold Poynton intercepted his pass and went on to score.Knowing Harold he may have shouted here Dave.

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10 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

 

I remember at one point (65?) Lake was scoring tries for toffee. Wigan played Barrow(?) And Burgess - a flyer (and a forgotten winger?)- marked Lake like glue. Lake and Boston swapped wings but Burgess still stuck with him.   It didn't work, Billy scored a hat-trick including his 300th one!

At this time Barrow's other winger was Mike Murray who was lightning quick. Mike was an amateur sprinter who turned professional after beating a little known Russian Olympic sprinter called Valerie Bortzoff in a best of 3 races at Powder Hall, this was about a year before Bortzoff became Olympic champion, Barrow had probably the fastest pair of wingers in RL 

 

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1 hour ago, SJD said:

At this time Barrow's other winger was Mike Murray who was lightning quick. Mike was an amateur sprinter who turned professional after beating a little known Russian Olympic sprinter called Valerie Bortzoff in a best of 3 races at Powder Hall, this was about a year before Bortzoff became Olympic champion, Barrow had probably the fastest pair of wingers in RL 

 

There is no way on earth that Valery Borzov ran in the Powderhall, but Murray was certainly very quick.

George McNeill won the Powderhall and Stowell Gift in Australia.  Didn't he play for Barrow?

EDIT: McNeill won the Powderhall in 1971, the year before Borzov won the Olympics, in the same year he (McNeill) beat 1968 200 metre champion Tommie Smith over a series of races at Belle Vue.  Is that what you are thinking of?

"I'm a traditionalist and I don"t think you'd ever see me coaching an Australian national side!"  Lee Radford, RLW March 2016

Proud to be a member of the TRL woke claque

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I may well be wrong as to where Mike beat Bortzoff but he was a Powderhall winner in the latter part of the 60's, athletics loss was a great benefit to Barrow RL.  Mike still pops down to Craven Park on occasions, in fact not too many years ago he helped the coaching staff as the sprint coach, even in his latter years he looked fitter than some of the players 50years younger, if I spot him at the ground I'll quiz him on the year he beat the Russian.

Mike was landlord in a local pub until his retirement and at the end of the night if he had a whiskey in his hand he would talk about his younger days, it was the best way to get a late drink. 

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Glad someone mentioned David Plange - really good strong runner for Cas.

Another one I always liked who never seemed to get a lot of attention was Geoff Pryce of York, who I think passed away not too long ago.

Oh, and I always thought Wilf George was very underrated as well.

Sadly the list of Leeds wingers in my time (from 1981+) is pretty poor.  There's a reason hardly anyone will know most of them. 

I do remember wondering if you had to be called Smith to play on the wing for Leeds. We had David Smith who left for Bradford in 1981, the great Alan Smith who could barely bend one leg but was still our best winger in 1982-83 aged 39, and then the permed Andy Smith, who was ironically nicknamed "Killer" - I assume because he really wasn't very good.

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1 hour ago, BrisbaneRhino said:

Glad someone mentioned David Plange - really good strong runner for Cas.

It might have been a local urban myth but I am sure that he was referred to as David Flange in the first couple of programmes when he started out at Cas.

One of my first heroes at Cas was Terry Richardson a winger who looked 10 stone wet through but he could shift.  At the time we also had Steve ‘Fizzer’ Fenton on the other wing.

I have just looked both of them up on google and they both got England caps in 1981 and it appears they both played on the wing against Wales in the European Championship that year.

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On 07/06/2021 at 09:59, Rupert Prince said:

Yes fair comment... But Lake scored one of the most remarkable tries in RL history. Certainly not forgettable.

I was prompted to check and he scored 123 tries in 3 seasons. Went to StGeorge and got a knee injury and retired. 

I remember at one point (65?) Lake was scoring tries for toffee. Wigan played Barrow(?) And Burgess - a flyer (and a forgotten winger?)- marked Lake like glue. Lake and Boston swapped wings but Burgess still stuck with him.   It didn't work, Billy scored a hat-trick including his 300th one!

“Like glue” was actually constantly pulling him back before he had the ball. Boston told Lake to swap wings when they came out for the second half but Burgess followed him over. When they swapped back Burgess followed Lake again. I don’t think he fancied doing the same thing to Boston.

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Frank Halliwell and Sid Fenton were the reserve wingers at Wigan in the late 1950s to 1961.  Halliwell played in 53 games and Fenton in 38. They were the Wigan wingers in the 1960 Championship Final against Wakefield. Both were very good “reserves”.

 

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On 07/06/2021 at 08:59, boris74 said:

Made his debut on the wing against Salford at the Boulevard, the highlights were shown on scrumdown. Seem to remember him scoring a try as well playing opposite Tex Evans?

Proper club legend who put everything into playing for the shirt!

The reason I commented first time around is that you seemed amazed he’d been picked on the wing mate.  Chico was quite slim at one stage but, with a couple of others, always put extras in after training and bulked up a bit.

He was opposite us buying a beer at the KC a couple of years ago and I don’t think anyone recognised him.  Really nice lad.

Another winger who I wished we’d hung onto was Colin Best.  

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Nathan Blacklock was a marvellous winger.  Electric speed, brave, terrific opportunist, played to the crowd and they loved him.  Front somersaults followed by backflips.

When he came to Hull after playing for St. George he was past his best and imo was playing injured but still scored 20 odd tries in his first season.  Second season injuries affected him.  How I wish we had him in the years he spent at the Dragons.

Probably one of the first to come out publicly with stress related issues too.  

 

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On 06/06/2021 at 21:40, Jeff Stein said:

From the early super league years, Scott Roskell, although originally a centre, was great on the wing for Broncos. Frank Napoli, however, is probably best not remembered

Frank Napoli - how bad was he !

I'll add Welsh flyer Mike Carrington once of Saints

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14 hours ago, Lowdesert said:

Nathan Blacklock was a marvellous winger.  Electric speed, brave, terrific opportunist, played to the crowd and they loved him.  Front somersaults followed by backflips.

When he came to Hull after playing for St. George he was past his best and imo was playing injured but still scored 20 odd tries in his first season.  Second season injuries affected him.  How I wish we had him in the years he spent at the Dragons.

Probably one of the first to come out publicly with stress related issues too.  

 

Yeah, he was a special, him and Mundine doing somersaults in the in-goal after scoring, Blacklock would score do his somersaults then Mundine would run down to join him in the in-goal and do one as well, priceless. I think they both did it at Stadium Oz against the Sharks in 1999 when we came back from 16-0 down at half-time. I was there, unforgettable.

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15 hours ago, Lowdesert said:

The reason I commented first time around is that you seemed amazed he’d been picked on the wing mate.  Chico was quite slim at one stage but, with a couple of others, always put extras in after training and bulked up a bit.

He was opposite us buying a beer at the KC a couple of years ago and I don’t think anyone recognised him.  Really nice lad.

Another winger who I wished we’d hung onto was Colin Best.  

I guess I was amazed as only a couple of years earlier Chico was a very good barnstorming prop during the Des Hasler era alongside Tim Street! To go back to the wing shows the guys versatility and commitment to the cause.

I often wonder if Colin Best regrets leaving Hull when he did. A challenge cup win and Grand Final appearance were literally around the corner! Quality winger.

Also remember a young Marcus Bai getting a run out at Hull and scoring 60 yarder against Widnes in the early 90s.

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1 hour ago, boris74 said:

I guess I was amazed as only a couple of years earlier Chico was a very good barnstorming prop during the Des Hasler era alongside Tim Street! To go back to the wing shows the guys versatility and commitment to the cause.

I often wonder if Colin Best regrets leaving Hull when he did. A challenge cup win and Grand Final appearance were literally around the corner! Quality winger.

Also remember a young Marcus Bai getting a run out at Hull and scoring 60 yarder against Widnes in the early 90s.

Yeah. Bai only played 8/9 games but should have been kept.  Probably the Melbourne money.  Same with Best, who went to theDragons and did well.

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a great winger is one who can score a try from anywhere on the field unlike an average winger who is "put away" by a top class center.

example: ade gardener supplied by the brilliant jamie lyon.

 

Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time(roger waters)

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2 hours ago, creditwhereitsdews said:

Dennis Bailey and Eddie Rombo hoovered up the tries at Dewsbury in the early 1990s and were scintillating to watch, scoring several memorable length-of-the field efforts.

Never saw Bailey play, but he was supposed to be one of the quickest around in that era, wasn't he?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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2 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Never saw Bailey play, but he was supposed to be one of the quickest around in that era, wasn't he?

He was at Dewsbury's level (Division 2 and 3), and he was linked with a few top sides but he followed Maurice Bamford to Bramley, I seem to remember, then returned to us for a second stint. A lot of entertaining wingers around at that time.

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