HERE’S an old rugby line-up from one of the toughest of cup-final challenges. It’s the Thatto Heath under-17s RL team, beaten 7-6 by Saints C team in the final of the Warrington League championship in 1960.
John Harvey, of Coniston Grove, St Helens, who forwards the flashback shot, was skipper of the Thatto Heath side, while Dennis Brown was captain of Saints C team. “I know that Frank Barrow, Jeff Heaton and Alex Smith all played for the Saints that day”, says John, “but can anyone fill in the names of the rest of their team?”
Meanwhile, a few local ‘personalities’ feature in the Thatto Heath squad pictured, including two players who went on to have careers in professional Rugby League.
They are Geoff Fletcher, who played for Wigan among others, and later went on to become a stalwart of the Huyton club, and Willie Aspinall, of Warrington and Rochdale Hornets and a Great Britain tourist to Australia and New Zealand in 1966.
Full-line up is: Back (l to r) J. King (trainer) Mick Marsden, Brian Brady, Eric Peel, Ted Glover, Keith Burrell, Geoff Fletcher, ?, Mr Smith (secretary). Front: John Harvey, Geoff Lee, Brian O’Grady, Jim Ashall, Willie Aspinall. Two players missing were John Walker and Roy Briers.
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