As a young boy waiting at the back of the stand at every home game asking B Bevan to sign my programme(which he did every time) then going in the boy's pen and watch him score many wonderful tries.

I remember that 2-2 drawn game and Melling's disallowed try. The somewhat bias Kop end were convinced - but the referee was having none of it. Like Parry, Jack Melling played for Lancashire but never made the GB team - not helped by the fact that Warrington weren't a fashionable club in the 1960s. Sadly he retired just before the glory years in the early 1970s.

My first game would have been around 1963 and I have vague recollections of seeing Jackie Edwards play. Billy Heyes, a skillful loose forward and Bill Payne, a hard as nails Prop were amongst my favorites.

Silver. You've really got me thinking now. Didn't Jackie Melling sign for Wigan in 1970 (or'69), in the deal that brought Welsh forward Colin Standing to Warrington? I think Standing played half a game and then went back to Wales, never to be seen again.
Melling was a remendous right centre who suffered a lot with shoulder and knee injuries. I believe that he's still involved with wigan St Pats, Rogues may be able to help us with this one.

Semi final v Wigan in '74 when we went on to win at Wembley against Fev

Running fights between Wire and Wigan fans in the end near us.
We were sat above the melee.

Walking down Bridge Foot and my dad telling me I would see the great Brian Bevan today. I had an image of a well tanned man, big thighs, angular jaw standing 6' 2''. When I got to the ground there he was on the wing. He was pretty much bald, looked as though he had escaped from Dachau, and was wearing more bandages than an Egyptian mummy.

Also the smell of beer from the wooden floorboards in the old wooden stand. Not to mention the urine as you got close to the toilets. As a small boy I loved to hear the crowd stamping on the wooden boards to approve another Wire try, that was the most electrifying sound I had ever heard.

Oh, and I was allowed to swear (at appropriate moments only when Wire screwed up) and my dad pretended he hadn't heard me.

My earliest memory of the Wire was as a five year old playing in the street in 1950 when some of the older kids said that Warrington were parading the cup round the town. We followed them to Orford Lane or Winwick Road and watched the team come past in an open topped coach. I was captivated by that and it wasn't that long before a gang of us used to scrape together our 3d for the boys pen and follow the crowd coming from Orford down Battersby Lane to the ground.

that's a great memory.

gang of us used to scrape together our 3d for the boys pen

It were a tanner when I started....TOTAL RIP OFF !!

lol...a tanner, how much is that in stirling?

2.5p. It was a shilling (5p) for kids when I started. Three shillings (15p) for adults. You paid sixpence (2.5p) for Friday night A team games. A season ticket was fantastic value. My first one was less than ten shillings (50p).
If I'm remembering correctly, the Boy's Pen was an area in the Popular Stand (where Snookers was/is now) that was surrounded by green wood. I saw my first few games on the old Kop, then graduated to the Boy's Pen. My main memory of the old wooden main stand was the smell of wintergreen coming up from the Changing Rooms.
When Sunday Rugby started we had the man in his bowler hat on Fletcher St and his 'Beware your sins will find you out,' sandwich board. He was there for years. He even went to Wembley in 1974.
I used to run from Walton Rd, Stockton Heath, where we lived, into the village, then all along the Causeway dodging the lamp posts on the way. If I tried that now I'd have to give up at the Red Lion.

another great memory

Quote: Teessidewire "Silver. You've really got me thinking now. Didn't Jackie Melling sign for Wigan in 1970 (or'69), in the deal that brought Welsh forward Colin Standing to Warrington? I think Standing played half a game and then went back to Wales, never to be seen again. Melling was a remendous right centre who suffered a lot with shoulder and knee injuries. I believe that he's still involved with wigan St Pats, Rogues may be able to help us with this one.'" I've just checked here. (Bilkos superb reference site) wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=947 There's no mention of Jackie Melling. I also checked in my reference books and can't find any record of him playing for Wigan. However I seem to recall Wigan signing him, so I just rang a mate who's older than me (there are still a few ) and he too thinks that Melling did sign for Wigan late in his career. Looking at the Colin Standing record it says that his last game for Wigan was 13th Dec 1969. I'm guessing that a swap was done prior to the Challenge Cup signing deadline for 1969/70 and maybe Melling got injured in an "A" team game. I'll ask the question on the Wigan site.

Quote: Teessidewire "Silver. You've really got me thinking now. Didn't Jackie Melling sign for Wigan in 1970 (or'69), in the deal that brought Welsh forward Colin Standing to Warrington? I think Standing played half a game and then went back to Wales, never to be seen again. Melling was a remendous right centre who suffered a lot with shoulder and knee injuries. I believe that he's still involved with wigan St Pats, Rogues may be able to help us with this one.'" I've just checked here. (Bilkos superb reference site) wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=947 There's no mention of Jackie Melling. I also checked in my reference books and can't find any record of him playing for Wigan. However I seem to recall Wigan signing him, so I just rang a mate who's older than me (there are still a few ) and he too thinks that Melling did sign for Wigan late in his career. Looking at the Colin Standing record it says that his last game for Wigan was 13th Dec 1969. I'm guessing that a swap was done prior to the Challenge Cup signing deadline for 1969/70 and maybe Melling got injured in an "A" team game. I'll ask the question on the Wigan site.

Here you go.

I remember that bloke, he was there every match-day Sunday..I suppose he will know by now whether his sin-free life has been rewarded!