Bill Ashurst RIP

Very very sad news indeed. Bill Ashurst was indeed a great player . Unfortunately, he played in the late 60's and 70's when RL was really for the most part in the 'doldrums'. I remember 'Sash' as being the only highlight for Wigan when he played for us back then in that fallow period. He was a very big rawboned forward, who could 'mix it' with anyone on the field and very often did. If there was trouble on the pitch Bill was usually either the cause of it, or was involved in some way. Mind you, RL at that time was vicious and 'stiff arm tackles' were quite common, as was much 'biff'. Forwards had to be tough and sometimes brutal. Bill Ashurst had though some silky skills in his armoury. He was a rangy forward who could shift a bit on the move, coupled with fine ballplaying abilities. As others have mentioned 'Sash' would be made for todays RL with just his kicking skills. 40-20's came long after Bill 'hung up his boots'. He would have kicked opposition teams off the park today and killed them with his kicking abilities. One rather surprising fact that came out in Bills later life was his finding Jesus and God. My old Dad who had been a Wigan fan from the late 1920's laughed when I told him of Bill Ashursts 'conversion' to God, he wouldn't believe me for quite a while. Such was Bill Ashurst's reputation and exploits on the rugby field . One memory I have is Bill's family used to stand regularly by the wall at Central park many years ago shouting about "Our Bill", with their very broad 'Wiggin accents' and they hailing from Ince. Bill had what would now be called a very unfashionable fringe, that hung over his face and eyes when he got up to play the ball. It is indeed a great shame that not much 'video' exists of Bill Ashurst's exploits on the field - perhaps just as well from one vid that was on Youtube which has seemingly been 'pulled' due to the violence that ensued

. But that is how old time rugby was played back then. I would put Bill Ashurst into any all time Wigan RLFC team every time. RIP Bill lad , and thanks for the memories.