That "spanking" was the first RL game I ever went to. I remember it well. . . .

Albert Fearnley walking down the touchline to the dug out with two bottles of Websters in his hand.

Lord Peter of Fox looking . . . . . as the Great man can only look

Bitten on day one. Converted to The Greatest Game for life.

John Newlove would be Paul's Dad.

Non of the above were dirty; just men of their time who played the game as it was - and of course as with so many of the blokes with 'reputations' who played back then, they were every bit as much sinned against as they were sinners themselves. Not suggesting it was the wild west...but there were similarities!!

It's very rare the real hard men actually threw many punches, or forearms. I don't think I ever saw Kevin Ward throw one.

That's spot on, imo. There never was any need to throw punches to make your point in RL, and still isn't..."it was hard but fair, ref"..

Jimmy Thompso, now there was a hard man! Very rarely started anything, but sure knew how to finish it if neccesary. You didn't take liberties if Jimmy was playing. Having said that I remember all our front row getting sent off at Warrington. Nicholas clenched his fist and Jimmy didn't wait to see what he was going to do with it, and down he went. Can't think who the third one to go was. Jimmy and Nobby were two, I think it might have been Van Bellen

I think that was just one of those games where sense and reason seem to be left in t' "donnin' oil". Selwyn (Ian Van B) was probably the most amiable bloke to to step onto a rugby field (well, for a prop..) and to imagine the sort of provocation required to make him 'lose it' beggars belief, to be honest. It was one nasty game was that, bettered (if that's the right word) only by the famous walk off at HKR.

Of course the wonderful rlhttps://www.rugbyleagueheritageproject.comrl has a surfeit of wonderful images, but as we slide into winter and vote for the best Bulls winger, I was just browsing and reminded of the Northern days of winter rugby and Lamb and Redfearn. Found this brilliantly evocative image of a flying Lamb scoring in the snowhttps://www.rugbyleagueheritageproject.com/imagedetail.asp?id

Bit rose tinted, that. Kev Ward is probably an exception but of course players like Fairbank and Skerrett were dirty as well as hard and they wouldn't last a minute in today's game as they would be suspended literally all the time. And as for Dennis Hartley and Rocky Turner and the like from the previous generation, well...

But I have no doubt at all that both Konkrete and Kel would have been stars in any era.

Some great pics. I never knew Neil Fox played with us in the 69 season. www.rugbyleagueheritageproject.c ... sp?id=1258 This stood out for me. Hines looking at Fisher's arm and knowing what's coming.

Some great pics. I never knew Neil Fox played with us in the 69 season. www.rugbyleagueheritageproject.c ... sp?id=1258 This stood out for me. Hines looking at Fisher's arm and knowing what's coming.

They were all softies compared to Frank Foster

There was some bad blood with Warrington around that time, due to Len Casey smashing Ken Kelly when the latter was in the form of his life. Kelly ended up having to miss a Lions tour due to his injury.
Don't know if that and the incident you recall were related.

I don't think it's 'rose tinted', just facing reality. There were many players, maybe of lesser ability, but just as hard and uncompromising around in those days and when the ball had to be won, as against more or less taking turns of having possession, which is pretty much the norm today, forwards who took too many backward steps didn't last long at the highest level. Intimidation is largely how the ball was won in the scrum, by hard men playing hard.

Incidentally, I disagree those players would be "suspended all the time" if they played now. They played the game as it was played and refereed at the time, and would have been well able to take into account any changes in rules or 'interpretations', just as modern players do every season. It may have been more of a problem for some of the others, those with lesser ability, but the ones mentioned were stars then and would have been stars today imo.

From Twitter This Photo Shoot from Stones Bitter League https://twitter.com/RichdelaRiviere/sta ... 80/photo/1 For some reason the guy in the Bulls Shirt reminds me of Mick Potter, but have Fun naming the Players!

From Twitter This Photo Shoot from Stones Bitter League https://twitter.com/RichdelaRiviere/sta ... 80/photo/1 For some reason the guy in the Bulls Shirt reminds me of Mick Potter, but have Fun naming the Players!