Hope it brings back some good memories... www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... y-wildcats

Hope it brings back some good memories... www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... y-wildcats

Rob Bagchi ? not from eastmoor or lupset then...

Thoroughly enjoyed that article. I'm old enough to have seen 'This Sporting Life' on its opening round in 1963. I was not aware that Richard Harris had been knocked out in that scene. I try to get to BV at least once every season and always follow the club's fortunes. Great start to the season; hope it lasts, BUT, beware the wounded wolves!!!

Apart from the round ball comments this chap just about captures my irrational attachment to traveling half way accross the country every other weekend in the summer to BV with a heart full of expectation but a head sadly less optimistic. A beautiful piece of writing.

A very nice piece of writing indeed.

QEGS lad too, if I'm not mistaken....

There's always a down-side!

thought it was a bit cliched and wasnt totally facfually correct, and paints the club in a far less positive light than it currently deserves,...

however any publicity is good publicity

I think the Harris being knocked out thing is an urban myth. Unless anyone knows differently.

Cant remember who it was but an ex player was interviewed on the BBC and came out with the same story. Im not 100 % sure but i think Harris has been quoted somewhere saying this as well when interviewed regards to the film.

Just checked the footage. Turner, wearing a Wigan shirt, comes round the scrum and hits Harris with the inside of his arm. The first connect is with Harris's shoulder and then it moves onto his head area, although it is hard to gauge the force being used.

Would be a five match ban ordinarily, but as he was playing for Wigan at the time, it would be reduced to a three hundred pound fine.

For the push against the tackler committed by Harris in the preceding play, as he was wearing a Wakey shirt, he was immediately sent off, from his stretcher.

No worries we will put them to sleep

Might have been the player who was interviewed by Dave Hadfield, and it is repeated in his book "Up and Over", who said that Harris tagged along with the Wakefield team (I expect alcohol was involved) and turned up at Wembley in 1962. Harris was in the dressing room after the game and asked the player if he could have his shirt, and the player agreed, provided that he could have Harris's fancy sheepskin coat. When Wakey got to Wembley in 1963, Harris knew that the player involved had three children, so he turned up in the dressing room with the 1962 shirt so that the player would have one to give to each of his three children, to which the player responded that he was pleased but Harris couldn't have his coat back.


(Another Harris story, off-topic, is that he lived out his life as a permanent resident of the Savoy hotel and they used to put him in a corner, out of the way, to eat. When he was carried out on a stretcher for the final time, as he passed the dining room, he supposedly sat up on the stretcher and bellowed "it was the food!"icon_wink.gif

Miles off with the crowd scenes.

How do I know.

I was there and helped.

Maybe a few tailors dummies from Burtons,but it was mainly a bingo session.

As a 6 year old I gave out the cards.

Just look at Sp' Life and see all the ol girls wih the head scarfs on.

Bingo !!!!!!!!!!!

You've much too much time on your hands!!!Get out a little more Neil!!

I heard the player was Keith Holliday

How did it do that?

In RoberT Gate's book 'Neil Fox - Rugby League's greatest point scorer' Neil states that

".. Harris became a fan and never missed a cup match. He would come up and join us in the dressing room and was thrilled when we won the Challenge Cup. I remember he swapped his sheepskin coat for Keith Holliday's jersey, jumped in the bath with us and drank champage."

I remember sitting in awe as my mates gran told me about going as an extra for free bingo tickets.