Such a shock when a hero passes on. A talented & whole-hearted performer; I was at York in August 1974, when Colin beat Northern on his own, a performance which lead to the club securing his services- within days. Colin did hold the record for ‘most tries scored in a season by a prop’ - (17, I think it was- in 77/7icon_cool.gif though unsure if that record still stands. I recall the match during which he secured the record, with teammates regularly lining him up to score- before eventually doing so- may have been v Hunslet- but could be wrong. Requiescat in pace Colin.

GVB was only ever half the player that he looked as thought he could have been. Tall, athletic and physically, other than they were both 'big lads', Gary was quite different from his older brother Ian, 'AKA Selwyn'. Gary definitely had all the necessary physical attributes to be a top rugby player but was probably a little like the more recent Craig Kopzcac in his Bulls' days, sort of not bad, but always left you yearning for a bit more.

Yes, hard to putg your finger on it, some people refer to this element as "dog", and I know what they mean. It's not size (GVB, Karl Pryce) it's that something that somehow makes other hard men know it's not a great idea to fekk about with you (Karl Fairbank, Len Casey, 'Basil' Rathbone).

Alan rathbone another who is sadly no longer with us...

"Basil" would run through a brick wall for the cause,straight and fast,no backward step.Those were the days.

Wonderful player for us.Fearless doesn't even get anywhere near describing his performances.Those indeed were the days.