Lewis Jones, RIP

[Hopping Mad]

Lewis Jones, the Leeds Rugby League Club legend, has died at the age of 92.

Obituary posted on therhinos.co.uk:

It is with deep sadness that Leeds Rhinos have learned of the passing today of legendary player Lewis Jones, aged 92, peacefully in his sleep after a short illness.  

Lewis Jones will forever be known as the Golden Boy at Headingley, having moved North from his home in Gorseinon, near Swansea, in 1952 to switch codes and lead Leeds to their first ever Championship in 1961, having lifted the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 1957. 

Prior to switching codes, he had already made his debut for Wales whilst still a teenager at Twickenham against the old enemy before earning a call up to the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia in 1950.

Born on 11th April 1931, he played for his home town of Gorseinon and Neath before National Service took him to Devonport as a Stores Assistant on H.M.S. Fisgard. He was spotted playing Services’ rugby and elevated to national selection. After national service, he played for Llanelli and was the constant source of interest for Rugby League clubs looking for Union talent. He initially rebutted those approaches but was eventually persuaded to move to Headingley for a then record fee of £6,000 and wrote his name in the game’s history books.  

Points by the thousand! Records galore! Yet so much more besides, for Lewis was a King of Rugger with the Midas touch, turning half-chances into golden opportunities with sparks of his creative artistry, and gilding countless games with moments of sheer wizardry.

His finest hour in blue and amber, came as stand-off at Odsal on 20th May 1961. A fortnight earlier, he had master-minded the defeat of St Helens in a gripping Championship Semi-Final at Headingley and at Odsal his tally of a try and five goals ensured he would become the first Leeds captain ever to collect the Championship trophy. 

He played his final game for Leeds on Easter Monday 1964, before moving to Wentworthville, in the Sydney area, as player-coach. Jones returned to Leeds in 1972 to take up an appointment as a Maths Specialist at Silver Royd High School and was a coach to Leeds ‘A’ for a season, prior to taking over 1st Team duties briefly at Dewsbury during 1977-78.

In total, he made 385 appearances for Leeds scoring 144 tries, kicking 1,244 goals producing 2,920 points, both of latter were records at the time of his retirement. He was capped 15 times by Great Britain Rugby League including touring in 1954 and playing in the 1957 World Cup in Australia.  In Rugby Union, he was awarded ten caps for Wales between 1950 and 1952 and played three Tests on the 1950 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand. 

He was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2013 before being one of the first players inducted into the Leeds Rugby Hall of Fame in 2017. Lewis an inductee into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame Roll of Honour.

Leeds Rhinos Chief Executive Gary Hetherington paid his own personal tribute, he commented, “Headingley will not be the same without Lewis. He never missed a Rhinos home game and he remained as passionate as ever about his team. He was one of Rugby’s first superstars in the 1950s and achieved legendary status with Leeds and within Rugby League. He will be sadly missed and we will celebrate his life with our fans at our next home game.”

Lewis’s daughter Karen Westaway added, “We want to thank all the staff at St. James's for providing Dad with such excellent, compassionate care over the last few days. Today Leeds says goodbye to a rugby legend, while we say goodbye to a wonderful Dad - an inspiring mentor and coach whose warmth and kindness will never be forgotten by his family, or anyone who had the good luck to know him.”

On behalf of everyone at Leeds Rhinos, we would like to pass on our deepest sympathies to Lewis’ family and friends at this sad time. For this Friday’s game at Leigh Leopards, the team will wear black armbands and the club will pay their full respects at our home game against St Helens on Friday 15th March. Funeral details have not been confirmed as yet.

The Rugby Football League tweeted: The RFL offers condolences to the family and friends of the late Lewis Jones, one of our game’s all-time greats.

Edited March 4 by Hopping Mad

[Damien]

Way before my time but undoubtedly a legend and a great of the game. RIP.

[fieldofclothofgold]

My first boyhood idol rest well 

[sentoffagain2]

    Top class player as his stats show.equally as good at full back centre or stand off.He only took a couple of steps back with his goal kicking and succeeded from out wide or long distance .Not easy with a heavy leather ball.Condolences to family and friends RIP.

[RigbyLuger]

Bit of a surprise that BBC Wales have tweeted about this before BBC Leeds.

It's been another sad few weeks for the sport, in terms of names we've lost, hasn't it.

[M j M]

Caught a glimpse of him walking to his seat at the Leeds vs Salford game a couple of weeks ago so happily he was still active right up until the end.

I know my uncle who's been going since the '40s still rates him as the club's best and by all accounts he was a lovely man as well. 

[Old Frightful]

Sad news but not a bad innings.

I've posted the following on here before but it's worth repeating in case anyone didn't see it :

The late great Johnny Whiteley was reminiscing in a radio interview some years ago and, talking about his favourite players he played with and against, he mentioned Lewis Jones.

He recalled a game between Hull and Leeds at the Boulevard when Lewis Jones was having a blinder. He said that the Threepenny Stand had chucked just about every insult they could muster at Jones and he simply carried on tearing Hull apart.

Then, later on in the game after yet another Leeds try,  the ground was unusually quiet and Jones was lining up the conversion when a desperate and rather forlorn voice which carried to every part of the ground shouted out : "Lewis Jones, I hope it rains every day of your holidays!"...

[andy20066]

nothing about him on look north

[Padge]

R.I.P. Lewis, condolences to family and friends.

[Hopping Mad]

Wales Rugby League's tribute to Lewis Jones:

Former Wales Rugby League captain Lewis Jones has died aged 92 following a short illness.

His club Leeds Rhinos reported earlier today that he had passed away peacefully in his sleep after a short illness. He was Wales Rugby League’s oldest surviving international player.

Benjamin Lewis Jones became Wales’ 24th captain when he led us in France in 1963 in the second of his two Wales appearances that were 10 years apart, as we played few games in that era.

In rugby league circles, Jones was more famous for being a Great Britain international, winning 15 full caps and scoring in every game he played, whilst also turning out twice for Other Nationalities. He also represented the Rest of the World in the 11–20 defeat by Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground on 29 June 1957 which followed the World Cup, for whom he represented Great Britain. He was also a Lions tourist in 1954 and set the record for most points in a test series in 1956–57, scoring 51 points in three games against France. Rugby league historian Robert Gate has described Lewis as “arguably the most devastating attacking back Wales has ever produced.”

Lewis was educated at Gowerton Grammar School, and played club rugby for Neath before undertaking his national service in the Navy. After leaving the Navy he joined Llanelli. He won the first of his 10 Wales rugby union caps in a match against England in 1950. This was an encounter that he might easily have missed as he had been about to depart for Hong Kong on board an aircraft carrier until the orders were countermanded on discovering that he was a rugby player. That same year, he played for the British Lions, being flown out as a replacement for an injured player on the tour to New Zealand and Australia, and playing in three test matches. He scored 63 points in seven games in New Zealand and 16 points against Australia in Brisbane.

In November 1952, he signed for Leeds for a then record £6,000. A broken arm prevented him having much impact in his first season, but in 1953–54, he scored 302 points. In 1956–57 he scored a record 496 points, and was the first Leeds player to score over 1,000 goals for the club, a feat not matched until 2009 Kevin Sinfield. He helped Leeds to win the Championship in 1961, Challenge Cup in 1957, Yorkshire League in 1954-55, 1956-57 and 1960-61, and Yorkshire Cup in 1958. He was awarded a testimonial match at Leeds in 1963.

In a British playing career of more than 400 games, Lewis stood behind only Jim Sullivan and Gus Risman on the game’s all-time points chart with 3,445, before going on to score more than 1,000 more for the Sydney-based Wentworthville in Australia, where he spent six years as a player-coach and a further two years as a non-playing coach. He returned to Leeds in 1972 to take up an appointment as a Maths Specialist at Silver Royd High School. He coached the Leeds ‘A’ side for a season before taking over first team duties briefly at Dewsbury during 1977-78. He retired in the area and In 2009, he was named in the all-time Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team, whilst in 2013, he was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Leeds Hall of Fame in 2017.

Everyone at Wales Rugby League send their deepest condolences to all of his family and friends.

[Gooleboy]

Another RL great gone. RIP.

[StandOffHalf]

RIP to one of the greats.

[bird]

RIP. GOAT.

[RigbyLuger]

Still really strange how BBC Leeds haven't tweeted about it. Can't imagine they'd ignore a player of the same stature at Huddersfield Town. Thought Phil Caplan spoke very well about him on Forty 20 last night. You'd don't see players smoking at half time any more!!!

[fieldofclothofgold]

20 hours ago, Old Frightful said:

Sad news but not a bad innings.

I've posted the following on here before but it's worth repeating in case anyone didn't see it :

The late great Johnny Whiteley was reminiscing in a radio interview some years ago and, talking about his favourite players he played with and against, he mentioned Lewis Jones.

He recalled a game between Hull and Leeds at the Boulevard when Lewis Jones was having a blinder. He said that the Threepenny Stand had chucked just about every insult they could muster at Jones and he simply carried on tearing Hull apart.

Then, later on in the game after yet another Leeds try,  the ground was unusually quiet and Jones was lining up the conversion when a desperate and rather forlorn voice which carried to every part of the ground shouted out : "Lewis Jones, I hope it rains every day of your holidays!"...

That must have been a rare Leeds good performance at boulevard  in those day 

[gazza]

What a player! I have really fond memories of him. Always a gentleman. I remember his ability to make space out of nothing and of course for the goal kicking. A great player and a sad loss. Sincere condolences to the family. Gary