Very sad to read about the death of Stuart Gallagher, the big Welshman was a stalwart of the northern in the 1970s.

There's someting in the Bradford Northern Official History about a ref being attacked on his way to the dressing rooms after a game. The club got fined and a stern warning. Think is was early 50s but could be wrong.

That long walk was a bit fraught for refs and players alike.

Aye, we had an informal referee grading system, based on the number of police horses in your escort

Early 50's !! I wasn't conceived at the time

I was there and I was very close to the action (say no more).. I know someone who will recall it perfectly, and I will post the detail when I get it.

Worrying - my days of youth are melting into lumps of forgotten dates

Think that may be the game I mentioned earlier. Nigel Williams has it in 1926 at Birch Lane. After an enquiry, Northern had to close the ground for the first two home games of the following season and play the games no nearer than 5 miles from Bradford, and also post warning notices. Funnily enough, it must have been a game which slipped my father's memory when he was busy telling how much better behaved kids were in his day..seeing as HE never mentioned it.

Think this picture from earlier in the thread has Brian Butler in his Swinton days on the far left. Other Northern players are Brian Hogan, Bill Pattinson, Francis Jarvis and Peter Dunn as far as I can remember.