Patrick solal. Are you having a laugh.

On the subject of wingers a guy called Brian Darlington is listed as playing from 1955-1959 but I can find little information about him. He was a sub even time sprinter who was gym master at my high school for the final 2 years I was there. I did watch him play then but can find little on him in searches. Anybody else remember him or can shed more light?

Is this a comment on my suggestion or the poster who mentioned "Solleil" earlier?

Your nominations are?

In no particular order
Bruce Ryan 59 tries in 84 app, try every 1.43 games
Alf Francis Hulls other pre WWI winger 166 in 247, 1 in 1.49
W Stone 149 in 222, 1 in 1.49
J. Harrison 91 in 101 (FC 150 website shows 101 in 106, these extra 1915 games are not recognised by the RL Record Keepers Club nor the RFL as to be included in official stats. 1 in 1.11 (or 1.05 for the 101 tries)
C. Sullivan 250 in 352, 1 in 1.41

Firstly there's no place for sentimentality,
I. Watts (214/413/1.93) great servant, great winger, brave & on the scoresheet plenty but just not the very very best.
Super Taff (98/215/2.2) weakish defense (okay he was 11st wet through), best step in the business and a decent touch finding boot, just couldn't do it at the top level enough.
Briscoe (90/147/1.63) whilst a beast in attack again frail defensively far too often and positionally STILL naive., amazing try scoring considering he had Yeaman inside of him!
Raynor (106/199/1.88), all the skills and I'd have nominated him but can we have a convicted felon on the list?
O'Hara (110/232/2.11), pace to burn, real quality, scored tries aplenty early on for us but just a little short in the very highest company
Best (41/63/1.53), no thanks, again too weak defensively for my liking and always looked off the boil despite his great pace and finishing, he had R.Barnett inside of him, how couldn't you score!
Eastwood (118/293/2.48) discount his goal scoring & points haul, as a winger he was very good but not top 10 material

I can only give you the stats
Debut 7/4/56 against Wakefield at home.
Scored 11 tries in 21 appearances

O'Hara
Taffy

Only saw Sullivan in the 82 replay so difficult to say how good he was though possibly the best. Best not in the same league as the two ive mentioned imo

Well it is hard to pass to yourself.



Actually I find this a good well argued list. Regarding Raynor, though he obviously will never win any citizen of the year awards, should that count against his actual playing performance? After all if you were picking the best British player of the last 30 years would the most obvious candidate be excluded for their extra curricular activities?

OOps, probably would have scored more passing to himself though..lmao.

I was really debating as to include Raynor, on all round ability he really is up there with the best, very quick if not lightning pace, strong, good D, decent in the air, just think he let himself down a few times attitude wise but you could say that about any player. He does get an extra mark in the plus column for tw@atting rat boy tomkins in the Bradford Wigan CC game a while back, didn't hit him hard enough if I'm honest..lol (even tho I think it was a genuine attempt to dislodge the ball

)

Yeah, the crab was definitely one of your best wingers, as a fan of an opposing team.

Thanks for that. Although very fit and a speedster he was very lightly built and was not as strong defensively as the other right wingers of that great period viz: Keith Bowman and Stan Cowan. Ivor Watts of course ruled the roost on the left and pound for pound and inch for inch was one of the the best tackling wingers I have ever seen. Whether it was Billy Boston, Wilf Rosenburg, Lionel Cooper or Tom Van Vollenhoven little Ivor could handle them all. Brian Bevan did give him a few tricky moments though!

i'll sort out the list of nominees tomorrow, so if you think of any more candidates, get them in