By MALCOLM ANDREWS
I HAVE always had a soft spot for Warrington. As a teenager in the early 1960s I was introduced to the club through a pen friend I had met through the pages of the Rugby Leaguer.
Incidentally, Rugby Leaguer was later to be the first British newspaper for which I wrote – for a princely fee of one penny per line.
Who would have thought eventually I would come to the full circle after it merged with League Express.
When I started writing books I discovered some of the great Aussies who played for the Wire (as the Wolves were then known).
The British match I saw was at Wilderspool when the 1967 Kangaroos opened their tour with a 14-7 win over Warrington.
One of the stars wearing the green and gold that afternoon was fullback Les Johns, one of the many sports stars I have ‘ghosted’, polishing their words into purple prose.
And, of course two of the Warrington stars I have seen play and, as a result, admired were the sensational winger Brian Bevan, whose try-scoring feats beggar belief and the goalkicking second-rower Harry Bath, the only man in the history to top the season’s pointscoring in both Britain and Australia.
So you can well image I will be up in the pre-dawn gloom in three week’s time to see Tony Smith’s lads in action live at Wembley, one of my favorite arenas in the world, even if the Philistines have torn down the Twin Towers.
The Wolves’ victory over Wakefield to get to Wembley had me thinking about two rough, tough players from Warrington who handed out plenty of punishment – and most of it quite illegal – Aussie Les Boyd and Englishman Jack Arkwright.
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Boyd earned a place in Rugby League annals for the wrong reasons – two mammoth suspensions for foul play.
After a 1983 State of Origins match Boyd was suspended for 12 months after hitting opposition forward Darryl Brohman with an elbow, badly smashing the Queenslander’s jaw.
Then, after only his fourth match following the ban, he was again cited – for gouging an opponent’s eye.
This time he was suspended for 15 months and quit Australia to join the Wire, where he was a great inspiration.
In 1986 he captained the club to a 38-10 success over Halifax in the Premiership Final.
In the process, Boyd won the Harry Sunderland Medal as Man of the Match.
Then there was Arkwright, who holds a unique record in Rugby League.
He is the only player in history to have been sent off twice in the one game while representing his country.
The giant Warrington prop had a fearsome reputation when he toured Australia with 1936 Lions.
The Great Britain side met NSW Northern Districts in Armidale, three days before the Third Test, which would decide the Ashes series.
It was a case of ‘anything goes’ with a succession of all-in-brawls and Arkwright was in the thick of it.
The Sydney Morning Herald correspondent clearly understated the mayhem that had the full-house of 6,980 fans baying for blood: “Early in the game it was apparent that solid tackling was affecting the temper of players on both sides, and the linesmen repeatedly ran in to report illegal play.
“On many occasions a number of players used their fists.”
Oh, really!
Eventually the referee lost his patience.
As the clock wound down the home side led 15-14. But then Great Britain winger Barney Hudson scored an unconverted try to snatch back the lead.
Moments later the violence erupted again and Arkwright was sent off.
As he walked from the field, the Northern Districts skipper Jack Kingston, who had toured Britain with the 1929-30 Kangaroos, asked the referee to allow Arkwright to return to the fray.
Arkwright reckoned it was to give the local side a chance to take their revenge on him.
He accepted his reprieve and continued from where he had left off.
Four minutes from full-time he tackled the Northern Districts standoff.
The pair hit the turf and Arkwright rained blows on his smaller opponent as they wrestled on the ground.
For a second time Arkwright was given his marching orders.
No further action was taken against Arkwright.
And to think they called it “the good old days”!
