quickest player youve ever had is fielden .
never seen someone run as fast
especially when morleys running at him to get out of the way.

Gary Connolly 10.89 unconfirmed last orders at the bar

This would be the great Morley who suffered a broken cheekbone because of a teenager?

no he was'nt

Just reading March of the Saints by Alex service to clarify what i said earlier.

States re Vollenhoven clocked 10.5 over 100 yards in school trials.

It also states when he made his reserve team team debut the centres consisted of Ken Large 10.1 and Sam Clempson who just missed out on selection for British Olympic sprint team 9.9
Other winger was Derek Johnson 10.1

can also confirm that Prinsloo had a PB of 9.6
When raced in South African police championship against Vol he recorded 9.9 to Toms 9.8

Just as a guide 100 yards = 91.8 metres
or 100 metres= 109.4 yards

So we can extrapolate that someone
running 100 yards in 9.8 seconds is doing 10.2 yards per second and would therefore cover 100 metres in approx 10.7 seconds.

These times would have been recorded on cinder tracks. So are not as quick as modern day tracks.

I think its safe to say that with modern coaching and facilities eg Tartan tracks, someone like Volenhoven would be a 10.6 second hundred metre runner.

As a guide the world record 100 yard runner in the 1960s was Bob Hayes
He ran 100 yards in 9.1 seconds.
When he ran in the Olympics in 1964 he broke the world record and recorded 10.0 seconds for 100 metres on cinder track running in borrowed running shoes.

That's nothing. Our "own" jonh is faster than that.

Is this the try Offiah scores in the far right corner? I'm afraid you are wrong. If you watch the replay again you'll notice Preston is done by Offiah's body swerve (moving away from the sticks toward the corner flag) - NOT his pace.

At the very least Preston was holding his own with Offiah. More likely he was catching him (causing Offiah to shift direction quickly). That said, it's not a good idea to compare pace in such fashion as the man with the ball is always encumbered.

Preston was an extremely fast player who also possessed a good swerve (a skill which at the moment seems on the verge of extinction), but that's where comparisons end. He was an enormously limited player (poor under the high ball, weak in defence etc.) whereas Offiah was the complete package.

Sam Tomkins is bringing the swerve back! It can be a very useful skill to break the line or beat a defender.

The best players are those who combine swerve with change of pace. It completely flummoxes front-on defenders. Darren Albert had a pretty good swerve, but modest change of pace. That, and a lack of ... I don't know ... confidence ... ego ... whatever, meant he didn't realise his full potential (although, he is one of the very few speedsters I've seen who had no weaknesses in his game - attack and defence - at all).

Offiah and Preston both had an excellent swerve and change of pace. Additionally, Offiah could step whereas Preston could not.

Other players who had an excellent swerve and change of pace: Davies, Drummond, Ledger, Slater & Minichiello (perhaps there's an argument that these skills are a pre-requisite for full-back).