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.

Of course that is 100% true. I'd like to think that most posters on this thread fully acknowledge that fact and are just reminiscing about happy memories without genuinely pining for a return to Wilderspool (although there will be a few who are).

What's struck me is that it's not just the people who are 30+ who have such fond memories, there are quite a few whipper-snappers who only went to Wilderspool for a couple of years before 2003 who still recognise its magic and speak fondly of it, which is very nice to read.

We've come a long way and you can't go back, but it is nice to remember the past - especially when we're enjoying potentially our best season since 1973-74.

It's also worth stating that anyone can still go to Wilderspool to watch the reserves and Warrington Wizards play. It'll never be the same but it always gets my memories flowing and wandering through the old VIP and Players' Lounge in the Bevan Stand - which is now the public bar - always makes me wonder what the hell visiting VIPs and playing legends must have made of those facilities in the early part of the 21st century! That and the old "Exec boxes", i.e. the portacabins on top of Pondlife Corner. Never has a prawn butty corporate do seen such humble surroundings. Actually, they were probably salmon paste butties on paper plates.

One other memory / person to remember - good old Sheila from the Club Shop (RIP). I once went in there early on a match day to get a ticket and the original Starlights had just arrived for what must have been their first ever "gig" at Wilderspool. They got off their minibus and were looking around the terraced streets in pretty obvious disgust at where they were. One of them said in her southern accent "Euurrggghh - it's looks like f*cking Coronation Street round here". I went in the club shop and happened to mention that particular comment to Sheila and she went nuts and ran out of the shop after them calling them "Cheeky southern buggers".

The old club shop was ace. I remember every year when we used to get the new kits in and loads of people would be shoehorned in there, stripping off in the middle of the shop so they could try them on, then fighting over the one mirror to see if they actually fitted. When you were a kid, you always wanted the home and away shirts AND the shorts and socks, too! It must have cost my dad a fortune!

Also remember queuing for tickets for the 1990 final went down in my lunch hour only to see the queue was half way down fletcher street with the tickets being sold in touchdown club. Took about 2 hours hence late getting back to work.

I always thought. Why couldn't we just buy the surrounding land and build upon wilderspool. as i said in my last post. We are losing the history of rugby league. And that is sad.

Lee Penny decaptitating Alan Hunte, Richard Henare scoring 'that' try and Roper's 90 meter dash with the bloody nose in the 1996 game against Saints

Ian Sibbit actually looking like he could play Rugby....

Signing Kevin Walters thinking he was going to be the main man!

The year after doing the same thing with Steve Blakely

Getting battered by Leeds IIRC and Matt Rodwell coming right up infront of the Fletcher Street ironicly clapping the fans even though if we could get over that wall, he would have been slung straight back to Penrith

Lee Briers in 2001 getting an interception once a week... and still being skinny enough to go the length of the field at this point

Danny Nutley... says it all

And i dont know why, but it sticks in my mind. The cup game against Halifax in 2001 with them playing in that orange jersey, and us beating them to go and play Bradford at Leeds

Graham Appo flipping the bird to the Widnes fans in 2003 and the try being disallowed

Our front row being held together by tape and bandages (Hilton and Fozzard)

Iestyn Harris.... W@nker

Gary Hulse coming through as another 'next big thing' in his first game against Cas

Me and my mates were first in that queue, went down early in the morning and when Doreen arrived she let us in and gave us a cup of tea as we were freezing.


Other couple of additions;

Terry O'Connor and Neil Cowie looking at one another and pointing when the Fletch chanted 'you fat b@stard'.

Steadman, Sully is a Wire etc.

Taxi for Goulding.

The Darren Burns 'ave it' moment.

I miss the place, the atmosphere was very special at times.

i wander if it is manned and if we could sneak in too have a look round the old place.

How much of our history have we taken the h.j???

Is that chair still there for example. (the one that that suvived the fire)

Some previous Wilderspool memories from years gone by (in no particular order):

1986 Premiership Trophy First round v Widnes. Ronnie Duane going over in the last minutes to snatch a win, the Fletch went wild and we dumped Widnes out. We went on to win the Premiership that season, beating the 'then' champions Halifax 38-10 at Elland Road.

1989 Lancashire Cup Semi-Final v Widnes. Widnes had just been crowned World Club Champions, played on a Wednesday night, the place was packed to the rafters and we absolutely hammered them!

1994 v Sheffield Eagles. Great atmosphere, even the old Championship trophy was wearing a Wire scarf that night!

1983 v Hull FC Challenge Cup Quarter Final. Capacity crowd, remember the referee caning us with the penalties and disallowing at least 3 tries. Felt cheated after that game.

1994 v Wigan on New Years Day. Losing 8-6 after Russel Smith gave Wigan a penalty in the last minute due to Cullen going in with his knees in the tackle. Never felt robbed like that before, cost us the Championship.

1988 v Wigan on New Years Day. World War 3, great game, Cullen chasing Goodway to the tunnel was amazing.

1981 (ish) v Hull KR in a John Player Trophy match. Wire were leading by a point with a couple of minutes to go when the referee awarded Hull KR a penalty about 35 metres out. George Fairburn goes for goal and he cannot miss. All he has to do is kick it from just to the side, 35 metres out and Hull KR win. He put the ball wide and the crowd go crazy.

1987 v Auckland on a wet Wednesday night. Don't think I have ever seen so much rain, everyone huddled together under the Fletch to try and stay dry.

1993 v Castleford in the league. It was played a few weeks before Christmas, was a tight game until Jiffy put a huge bomb up. Graham Steadman was the Castleford fullback at the time, he never looked comfortable under the high bomb and he dropped it. Cullen was on hand to pick up the loose ball and score at the Fletcher end to the side of the posts. The Fletch then start to chant "There's only one Graham Steadman", which he didn't like. I seem to remember he dropped a few more bombs in that match as well. Wire went top of the league after this victory over Castleford.

Some brilliant memories...
the two I was going to post have already been done.

dirty Billy thompson and his scandalous Yorkshire Bias in that challenge cup Quarter final V Hull.
and the Streaker in the Cronulla game..stopping to get a drink of Water and Ettingshausen being in hysterics......

other than those my first game on my own without my dad in 1979 v Bradford Northern it was proper old school 2 red cards,and 2 stretchers required...

Chissies 50 yarder.....(and fat bald players in general like chissie and Ian van Bellen from the above Bradford Game)

but Like Brian Potter Says ...you cant go back... and already we are building HJ memories like Nat Wood scoring and running through the concourse and coming out the other side....

...and ...Andrew Johns nervous as poohing dog, trying to put the ball on the cone to kick off the leeds game....

but maybe thats for another thread...

Paul Marquet

I actually missed the wakefield game which was the last proper match at the zoo,due to me being in athens.

My last game was against halifax that same season and we battered them,i swapped ends at half time so finished up in the railway end,i was only 11 at the time and i can still remember walking out of the ground and knowing i would never be back again .