Guiness Book of Records

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Reading the obituary of David Watkins this morning - in 1972 he came off the bench for Salford against Barrow and scored the fastest hat-trick of tries ever recorded and the fact is apparently in the Guiness Book of Records - oh well at least Barrow gets a mention.

I recall having a coffee with Denis Jackson on a Saturday morning and informing him that David had been in Barrow on the previous evening for a sportsman dinner. Denis was upset he didn't know about. He explained that he wanted to see Watkins and tell him just how great a player he was as when he played against him he tried to intimidate him. He could remember walking out onto the pitch at Craven Park glowering at Watkins and kissing his biceps and mouthing something "appropriate" His words were something like, " I couldn't compete with him so I had to try and put him off his game, but it didn't work, he was a magnificent player." He was genuinely upset he hadn't had the chance to put the record straight.