Another very good winger back in the 40's and 50's was an Aussie called Keith Gittoes who played on the other wing to Bruce Ryan. Below are extracts from an article he wrote a couple of years ago in Australia about memories of his Hull days.

" I played for Hull from 1948-1952 and 1956-57.

When I arrived in Hull in Sept.1948 George Watt was club captain and he came to Hull with Bruce Ryan in early 1947 after playing for Australia against Great Britain in 1946. He was a great hooker.

Also with Hull in 1948 were the great Hull stalwarts Freddie Miller and Charlie Booth who both played for England pre-war. Freddie Miller is probably the best kicker of a football I've ever seen. I'll never forget his attempt at a field goal at Batley,from his own 25 yard line which passed by the right upright with plenty of height.

It was with players of the quality of John Whiteley, Colin Hutton, Ivor Watts, Mick Scott, Tommy Harris, Bryan Cooper, Bernard Conway,the Drake boys, that Hull started to make its presence felt.

I have great memories of my time in England and every day I give a thought to Cec(Dickie) Fifield who signed me up for Hull."

The one against Fev was bad either .

Best & Sullivan get my vote .

I would go for Sullivan and Best.

Next choices would be from Prendiville, O'Hara, Firth, Eastwood and Solal.

I feel sorry for Eastwood in a way being overshadowed by so many other classy wingers and if you look at his statistics he remained in the top 10 of try, goal and points scorers - nationally - for years after he finished playing.

Another goal scoring winger worthy of consideration is Matt Crowther, career finished early by injury.

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 (106/199/1.8icon_cool.gif, 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 (118/293/2.4icon_cool.gif 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?

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

Do you not think you should keep it to 6 nominees..8 is too many and would slant the voting against the less obvious choices..(fewer votes due to votes being spread over more players)
TBH it's a foregone conclusion in any case