Arriving at a game against Leeds to find out it had been called off due to a waterlogged pitch,imagine if there was internet then Jeez the moaning would have been unbearable...
Dessie laying out Offiah under the sticks in front of the Fletch.
Holding a cup of Bovril instead of a Pint.
Johnny Warbo.
The smell of Wintergreen coming from the dressing room.
Going into the touchdown club after the game (i loved it in there)
Just seeing Jiffy Davies play for us was awesome.
The orginal starlights with the twins...
The Brawl V Australia was brutal even a couple of stewards had to come onto help stop it...
Going into the ground 1 and a half hours before kick off as a kid..Then when old enough to drink entering the ground as the ball was being placed on the kick off tee...
Jon Roper and Richard Henare's tries v Saints..

I could go on forever here listing memories...Very happy days...I fell in love with my team at Wilderspool in 1990 i've never looked back since..My loyalty is now being rewarded and it feels good...

Great Thread. Same memories as a lot of others on here, the Bradford comebacks, Langers ball steal from Martyn etc

The general feel/smell/ atmosphere of the place is what the HJ can never replace. Games against Wigan, Widnes and Saints, the atmosphere was always something else

Always hating it if I arrived late as it was impossible to get to your spec wading through and annoying fellow Fletcher Enders( I stood in the middle of Fletch near the white railings at the back), and the same went if you needed a slash during the game

The 17-17 draw against Wigan when we should of won it the amount of possesion we had

THe 30-30 v Saints. 2003ish Also the 25-24 loss against Saints(circa 97??) I'll always remember, brilliant game

The general anticipation of Widnes' return to Superleague(2002), remember it kicking off in town outside Weatherspoons and all along Bridge Foot/Wilderspool Causeway

One that sticks in my mind is when Bobby Goulding was playing for Salford( I think) and was giving the Wire fans the finger back after the Fletch dished out the usual stick to him. Forster ran over to him and started pointing at the scoreboard laughing his head off( Wire were winning comfortably at the time). Goulding didnt know where to look

The Huddersfield "Sit In". Not a highlight as such, but certainly sticks in the memory. Deakin running out to try and appease those who were "sitting in". Didnt agree with the protest(though stayed to see what was going on ) but that was an horrendous result. 44 past us that day I think

The worst game Ive ever watched in my life, Salford beating us 22-2 towards the back end of 2002

The 300 "last ever" games at Wilderspool

Danny Farrar being the hardest player ever

Johnny Warbo

Just the general banter/stick/abuse dished out to opposing players from the Fletcher End and POndlife

£10 Wolfpacks

I'm not a Wire fan but my abiding memory of visits to Wilderspool is walking down the main stand side terrace and getting the strong whiff of Wintergreen

A character in the fletch end during the 70's known as the Mighty Sid and the kitman Ocker. Where are they now?

What a great thread and some memories as well.
that shop outside the ground use to get rammed bout 2 hours before ko'
Willie wurst hot dogs....
Sneaking in (RAILWAY END)..
I was once in a taxi with Gary Mercer and Duanne Mann ..
Tony Thornley tripping up on his way onto the pitch and injuring himself....
The little bog near the railway end....
the scoreboard only had certain teams names so usually it said VISITORS.
paying 45 pence to get in!!!!!All in all great memories..

remember us being robbed by hull and billy thomo and the mayhem that followed with the 2 sets of knobs...beating widnes in the lancs cup a week after they crowned world club champs..paul bishop swallowing his tongue...that famous brawl against wigan..the smell of winter green,the toilets,the scoreboard,our only win against saints,,the famous sit in sure it was hudds..the fire to our stand..relief at staying up by beating cas...and the day it all ended,wakey down here...

after 40 odd years too many too mention.how about;
the gang of skinheads forming the fletcher end mob 1972.
the old wooden greenalls stand to the right of the fletch.
the bottle bar under the old wooden main stand[ everyone drinking bullseye brown]
johnny bevans debut
every lad in warrington wagging school to go to challenge cup daytime match during the 3 day week
windy corner
strippers b4 the game in legends
trains stopping to watch the match behind the railway end
staying in the windy corner bar all 2nd half if we were getting thrashed
touchdown club and the famous 'hotseat.
HAPPY DAYS!

Old wolfpack membership cards! Crappy yellow business cards with photo on, think it was a tenner. Weslers boiled burgers, fluorescent peas, getting battered by Halifax on a bonfire night- John schuster kicked about 400 goals that night. Daily mirror clapper inflatable things, the wire ball fireball, warren Stevens getting knocked out cold nearly every game. That pass from farrar to Forster off the floor. Graeme bradleys elbow in John duffys throat. Mark htons millionth shoulder reconstruction, bob eccles just being immense. Many magical moments by Kelly shelford. And genuinely believing we were brilliant when we were pretty much awful.

Some belters there! respect

Kinda makes you think that slowly, the rfl are killing the history of the game. Wilderspool, knowsley road, (hull's old ground that the name escapes me atm), Belle vue, the jungle, We are losing the history of our game, no matter how crap and sh!*y the grounds were. We have lost a big part of rugbys history. And that is sad. Sure we have great stadiums like the h.j, saints new stadium, halton stadium and the jjb. But what history will they have. None. Old trafford has stayed in the same place. and has been built upon to make a great stadium, But has lost NONE of it's magic and history because of it. Like the munich clock for example.

We tell our kids and grandkids in the future of wilderspool, central park, knowsley road about our great nights and days. They will think what the hell. But you tell your kids and grandkids about the old days of old trafford and anfield, They will reconise it better as they have stayed in the same place and still have them memories too show.

I really hope that next year warrington wizards get into the 4th round of the challenge cup and we have an away tie against them. What a historic and great day that would be, to go back Home. And I mean the real home of warrington.


The rfl have done some great things in the past and present too lift our game. But our history is sadly dieing because of the reasons above.

I am only 23, watched games at both the h.j and the zoo since 1995. The h.j is great. But nothing compares too wilderspool. And especially a night game and the atmosphere that we generated. My first match on 6th november (i think) 1995. With the fireworks display before the match bradford 2001 on sky, widnes 2002/3 on sky. the 18-16 loss too wigan on a schorching sunday afternoon 2003. These are 3 examples straight away
I've seen some drubbings at wilderspool, some great wins at wilderspool, And the same at the h.j.

what are my memories for my lifetime...

Wilderspool and it's magic and charm it gave each and every fan of not just us, But Too every fan of every club that had the pleasure of watching their team take on the wire. Win or lose. They are my memories.

What was your favourite last game at Wilderspool?

Mine was the Graham Appo hat trick in the last league game, followed by the one against NZ 'A' when they got that kid to play a guitar version of the national anthem jazzed up like Brian May and all the prawn sandwich brigade got upset about it. The other good last game was the last Warrington game played there in a pre season friendly for the next season when everybody said Leikvoll was going to be crap.

Alot of my memories have been mentioned in earlier postings but also.


John Thursfields one and only try - against Bradford in a Friday night game

The streaker in the World Club Challenge match v Cronulla

The Barmy Army chant that went on for 20 minutes at the end of the Warrington v Sheffield game in 1994 when we were champions ( in our eyes anyway) for 24 hours.

The surreal atmosphere at the A team matches on a Friday night in winter.

Brian Johnsons proper rugby boots


But the real memories are the ones created when I was just a little kid going to the matches with my dad.
Parking in the same place on Manx Road every game.The mass of people all walking over the bridge onto Wilderspool Causeway. Sweets from Marshalls. Programme from the man on the corner. The anticipation walking down Fletcher Street. The blue benches in the main stand. The flask of OXO.

Thats why the HJ will never be as special for me as Wilderspool. Even when I was in my early 30s I would still park near Manx Rd. And as I walked towards the ground little things would rekindle memories of previous matches. You could remember walking the exact same path to see the likes of John Bevan and Parry Gordon and Mike Nicholas in the 70s, of Sir Les and Phil Blake and Jonathon Davies in the 80s You could remember the awe and excitement you felt as a small lad. Sadly you cannot recreate those memories when you move to a new stadium. Of course modern facilites and stadia are essential but ..........

My first game aged 8 in 2001. We played Leeds at home on Maundy Thursday and beat them convincingly. I think Rob Burrow made his debut for Leeds that day. In my first year watching Warrington I saw us beat Leeds, Bradford, Wigan and Saints at home. The Wigan and Bradford games were both fantastic games and unbelievably we hammered Saints.

2002 was my first year with a season ticket, and what a dark year that was. I'll always remember Darren Burns' reaction after the final whistle against Castleford.

I don't think i'll ever forget the last game at Wilderspool, the sun shining, the place packed out in Primrose and Blue and us hammering Wakefield. A fair while after the game had finished me and my Dad were sat on the terraces and a man came over and took our picture at the side of the players tunnel. A few years later the negatives came through the post. I loved going to Wilderspool and it's a shame that I was only able to go there for a few years. As much as I love the HJ when it's packed out, it'll never have the character of Wilderspool.

Yes there are many memories of Wilderspool, I share many of the ones already posted and many more. But before everyone gets too misty eyed let me say one thing. If Warrington RLFC had not moved from Wilderspool to the HJ Stadium when we did, the chances are the club would not exist now, certainly not in Superleague. No Andrew Johns, Matt King, Michael Monaghan, Adrian Morley. No Tony Smith. No back-to-back Cup Finals. No serious contender to win SL.

Memories are fantastic, but don't for a second think we would be better in the past.