1/ Manly - Say no more!
2/ Widnes 91 (& the rest of Mission Impossible)
3/ The first 1st division championship 87

Funnies

The shrubbery growing out of the steelwork holding the Kop up.

Scoreflash!!!!!!!!!!
Les Boyd taking a swing at Hampo and missing - hits himself & breaks his own nose
The guy with the Religious banners outside.
Old season tickets with the numbered vouchers & always arriving slightly nervous in case the voucher number on show had already been used!

My dad & uncle getting a "Freebie" off Trevor Stockley and being told to meet him in the players tunnel before the match after prematch players bar drinks. They get to the tunnel and Stockley pushes them out the tunnel to the tune of "Entry of the gladiators"

Going for a pee at the back of the KOP.

I remember a Wigan fixture against Bradford in the eighties. I think it was in Feb and might have been a Challenge cup tie. I can't quite remember. It was frosty but Wigan had recently installed undersoil heating and so I was convinced the game would be on. I remember approaching Central Park at the kop end turnstiles and there wasn't a soul around. As I approached the ground the gates were open and so I walked onto the kop wondering what was going on. There was nobody on the ground! It was a weird experience. I must have been the only person in Wigan who hadn't heard that the game had been cancelled. Although the pitch was ok, the game had been cancelled because of safety on the terraces. Was I the only one who hadn't heard that it had been postponed?

The memorable games for me were:
1967 when we beat the Aussies. What an atmosphere.
1967 v Warrington in the Challenge cup 1st rd replay. It was played mid week in the afternoon before the lights were installed. The ground was packed and Ashton ran riot. To this day I don't know how 30,000 people managed to get off work/school. This was my first season watching Wigan and I was hooked for life.
1967 v Bradford Northern when the new lights failed.
1987 v Manly. THE best night ever at CP and one of the most exciting games of rugby I have ever seen, even though there were no tries scored.
1991 v Widnes to win the league. 30,000 with thousands locked out. Cracking atmosphere.
Last game at CP v Saints. A very emotional day. All those memories of the times my late dad had taken me to games as a boy (hen pen etc) came flooding back. Had to fight back the tears as I left the ground for the final time.
I do go to Tesco but can't help imagining where abouts on the ground I would be as I walk round.

My favourite memory of CP is described in Jason Robinson's book. He talks about the time in 1984, I think, after the Challenge cup final when Jason and Neil Cowie didn't get picked. In frustration Neil head butted the wall in the changing rooms. His head went through the studded wall and he got his ears stuck. I wish someone had taken a photograph.

playing in a schoolboys cup final in the late 60's and winning !!

Looking forward to playing my first ever game at Central park, getting on the pitch and all i could smell was . (It turned out to be the poor drainage from the pitch)

That's my resounding memory as we got hammered every time we went there.

the 5 minute walk from our house
getting crushed getting off the ground and over the duggie bridge
dodging from side to side to get a view past the flootlight pylons and the stand posts
the hen pen........and the bloke who kept trying to stop us climbinmg over the wall into the main stand
finishing school early to watch the replay v leeds.......to find the gates locked........but the fence knocked down, so we got in free

on the pitch

billy boston flattening all before him.......and his crash tackles on the centres
mike cassidys "tackle" on morley
bill ashursts cameo appearance for runcorn......which lasted about 10 seconds before he flattened goodway and got sent off
winning a vip box in a fantasy rugby comp and meeting billy boston with my kids (who had no idea who he was)......and him giving em a signed rugby ball

and too many others to mention

GB v Kangaroos in 82 ( anyone know the date ? which test of 3 ? it was suspect it was the 2nd )

Coming from a RU background where the talents where les cusworth & dusty hare. First ever game of the greatest sport.

Remember to this day - with two / three runers each side of the ruck & sterling controlling things - couldn't personally tell who was going to get the ball - not quite what I was used to !

Annuouncer " For Australia replacing xxxxxxxx? 'Wally Lewis' "
Laughter from the crowd - "wally" - what a name, slightly relieved as he couldn't be as good as the starting line up, could he ?

cue 40 yard pass cutting out the LF, 2nd row, & centre straight to hirsuite left winger eric grothe - class
Remember to this day ( again ) thinking is that allowed / fair [ now know the answer to be yes / no

I forgot to add (and cannot be ar[is[/ied trawling this burdgeoning (sp?) thread) one of the greatest legal tackles seen on British soil.

Wigan v Australia 1986

Wigan (may have been Mick Ford) kicked through on the last tackle. Garry Jack collects the ball behind his own posts and his met with a ferocious chest high tackle from Andy Goodway. I later watched it on video and the Aussie commentator refers to it as a "bone jarrer".

Class.

PS: IIRC Jukesays (who sometimes posts on here) ran onto the pitch at the end and actually caught Wally Lewis's mouth guard after it spilled out. Jukesays, for some unbeknown reason gave it back!

I remember one particular day stood in front of the Pop stand and it was getting fairly rowdy to say the least. Following a try the beer went in the air and the complaints started from the moaning gits on the front couple of rows in the stand.

All of a sudden a steward appeared in the stand and whilst drawing an imaginary circle in the air shouted "Right you lot, all of you, get out, your all banned!!"

The reaction of course was a loud chear and a chorus of "Sit down shut up"

my memories its a dump

Read the thread title again - Central Park not Knowsley Road

It wasnt on the field, I was sat on the wall of the tunnel ! As the players used to walk down they used to hold their hands up to give you the high five and you could lean over and slap their hands. I leant over and Lewis was one of the last to come down and his hand had his gumshield in it. As I went to "High Five" him my hand caught the gum shield and a second later I shouted Wally and threw it back

What a pillock

Taking my son for the first time and listening to him shout Wigan for the first time.