As previously stated, that is Nocker Norris on the back row. He taught at Beamont Sec Tech while I was there between 1964-69. Top teacher and a top bloke.
We used to get him to tell us about the old days while in the middle of a lesson. I remember his story of getting sent off when a scrum broke up and he planted Joe Egan for sinking his teeth in his neck.
Phil Chadwick was in the same class as me too .... he was a rum lad even back then and he had a few run ins with Nocker.

I think Geoff Graham played for Lancashire & a couple of others like you say. I remember being the last line of defence once against Jimmy Dickenson in a games lesson. He was in full flow ,rampaging towards me & i managed to (somehow) tap his ankle as he went past & gravity did the rest. Jimmy was a bid lad even in the first year but nearly everybody caught up with him over the years.

Strangely enough in your same year Ray Wells never played for the school team but Alex Murphy signed him as a half back from Crosfields and he played a few first team games on the wing

Knocker was my teacher at Beamont too, 59-64. Even when I met him years later he would always remember my name and we had a good chat. He put a lot of his personal time helping schoolboy rugby, if anyone deserved an award for commitment to local society he should have had one. The old photo reminded me of the book and later film This Sporting Life and here it is recently reviewed by the Paris Review of books. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/201 ... owerhouse/ An interesting read and choice for them.

Knocker was my teacher at Beamont too, 59-64. Even when I met him years later he would always remember my name and we had a good chat. He put a lot of his personal time helping schoolboy rugby, if anyone deserved an award for commitment to local society he should have had one. The old photo reminded me of the book and later film This Sporting Life and here it is recently reviewed by the Paris Review of books. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/201 ... owerhouse/ An interesting read and choice for them.

I remember a Ray Wells but didn't realise they were one & the same.

Talking about Knocker ,last time i remember seeing him was on sticks getting into a turquoise Austin Cambridge , sometime in the early to mid seventies, in Horsemarket St. He was too far away to get to say hello to though & looked as if he was being helped into the car.

Thanks to Neil Ormston I have more details on the photo:
The match was the first of the 46-47 season at Wilderspool against Hunslet, 31st August 1946. Wire won 27-5.
The team as in the photo was:
Back row - Ivor Davies, Eli Dixon, John Norburn, Dave Cotton, Glynn Williams, Walter Norris, Gerry Helme
Front row - Harry Jones, George Taylor, Fred Higginbottom, Bill Chapman, Jim Featherstone, Les Jones

Huge thanks to Neil for helping with this!