St Helens Match of My Life

David Kuzio

Description

St Helens Match of My Life features the proud tales of some of the greatest rugby league players ever to wear the Red Vee of St Helens. The Saints are known as one of the most successful teams of the Super League era, but the memories also cover the glory days before the game switched to the summer months. Ray French - legendary rugby league player and commentator - talks fondly about the 1966 Challenge Cup Final victory over fierce rivals Wigan Warriors, while Paul Loughlin recalls scoring 14 points in a 15-14 win over Leeds in the John Player Trophy Final - only to see the morning's newspaper headlines focus on one of his team-mates. Current St Helens captain James Roby was the first player to score a try at the new Wembley. Tommy Martyn remembers going from top of the world to rock bottom in just ten days. Keith Mason explains how his life changed from being a rugby player to attending film premieres with some of the biggest stars in the world. Tommy Makinson, Apollo Perelini, Phil Veivers and Paul Wellens also share their memories.

Sujets

• Rugby League

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 05 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785316999
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
David Kuzio, 2021
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Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785315473
eBook ISBN 9781785316999
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction by David Kuzio
Foreword by Janette Smith
KEITH MASON v Wigan Warriors Challenge Cup Final, May 2004
PAUL WELLENS v Wigan Warriors Super League Grand Final, October 2014
PHIL VEIVERS v Wigan Warriors Championship, December 1987
TEA ROPATI v Wigan Warriors Premiership Trophy, May 1993
DAVE FAIRLEIGH v Wigan Warriors Challenge Cup Fourth Round, February 2001
PAUL NEWLOVE v Brisbane Broncos World Club Challenge, January 2001
PAUL SCULTHORPE v Wigan Warriors Challenge Cup Final, May 2004
TOMMY MARTYN v Bradford Bulls Challenge Cup Final, May 1997
APOLLO PERELINI v Bradford Bulls Challenge Cup Final, April 1996
PAUL LOUGHLIN v Leeds Rhinos John Player Trophy Final, January 1988
RAY FRENCH v Wigan Warriors Challenge Cup Final, May 1966
MICHAEL SHENTON v Wigan Warriors Super League Play-Off Semi-Final, October 2011
TOMMY MAKINSON v Wigan Warriors Super League Grand Final, October 2014
JAMES ROBY v Catalans Dragons Challenge Cup Final, August 2007
LOUIE McCARTHY-SCARSBROOK v Salford Red Devils Super League Grand Final, October 2019
JOE GREENWOOD v South Sydney Rabbitohs World Club Challenge, February 2015
TOMMY FRODSHAM v Hull FC Challenge Cup Second Round, February 1990
KEVIN IRO v Bradford Bulls Super League Qualifying Play-Off, September 2000
KARLE HAMMOND v Bradford Bulls Challenge Cup Final, April 1996
One Final Point
This book is dedicated to my wife Chris, sons Ryan Adam and Jack Freeman and my late daughter Kate - I love you all for supporting my dreams. It is also dedicated to those suffering with mental health issues, keep fighting and stay strong.
Author s Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank Jane Camillin at Pitch Publishing for having the confidence once again to allow me to write a book in their Match of My Life series. In my honest opinion, I think every professional sports club, whether that be a rugby league, football or cricket club, should have a book like this. And I will do my best to ensure rugby league is well promoted by continuing to write these books.
Writing a book is difficult at the best of times; you cannot get through a project like this without the support of your family. For reasons you will discover later, it has been a difficult time for me so having my wife Chris, sons Ryan and Jack, mum and dad Kathleen and Adam, older sister Karen and mother-in-law Margaret all encouraging me to keep going has allowed me to finish this project.
I have to take time to thank every single player who contributed to this book, whether it was by myself phoning them, emailing them or interviewing them in person. You all made this book possible and it has been nothing short of an honour listening to your tales about St Helens. From interviewing Ray French at a Super League launch, speaking to Paul Wellens on the phone, organising a Face Time call with Dave Fairleigh or talking with Tommy Frodsham in his garden, it s been an honour to put your memories into print.
I d also like to thank former St Helens physio Janette Smith for agreeing to write the foreword for this book. In this day and age, women play a prominent role in sport, and rightly so, but back in the eighties and nineties not many women were involved in rugby league. Janette was a familiar face on the touchline as she worked wonders with the injuries to the players, so I felt it was right for her to be involved.
I have already mentioned that you cannot write a book like this without the help of your family, but that is the case with your friends as well. Simon Atherton has been one of my best friends for years and he is very friendly with Phil Veivers, so over the years I have managed to build my own friendship with Phil and although he is a bad influence, he has some great stories to tell. Special mentions have to go to: lifelong Saints fan Rory Appleton, who constantly messaged me to see how I was and how the book was going as well as putting me in contact with Tea Ropati; long-standing Wigan fan Adam Conroy, who provided some information when I was struggling to find it; and Christy Abbott for the late-night message asking if Tommy Frodsham would be good for the book. Also, thanks to Scott Whittle and James Wood, who combined to help get Paul Loughlin involved. Thank you for your help and interest, it means a lot. I actually didn t know it would be this much fun adding the names of Wigan fans into a book about St Helens - they will hate it, but I do appreciate their help.
Everyone who contributed to this book being published, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It means a lot. And to my youngest boy Jack, you haven t a clue that every time you came into my office and took everything off the shelves, I was working hard to get this finished. Just keep being yourself, little mate.
Dave Kuzio 4 July 2020
Introduction
I debated long and hard on whether or not to divulge the following information. I do not support St Helens. In fact, I am a Wigan fan.
There, I said it, and before you dump the book in the nearest bin, please hear me out. I am a Wigan fan and I have been since 1986 and I have watched them and reported on them all around the world. But I am a rugby league writer and I take my role very seriously.
I want to be one of the best writers out there and this is my fourth book. Two of my other books are on Wigan Warriors and Barnsley FC - my two teams. And being honest, writing about those teams is quite easy because I have been a part of their success over the years as a fan.
I felt if I really wanted to test myself, I needed to choose a topic I was not very fond of and would find it hard to get excited about. I chose to write this book on St Helens, and in all honestly, I have loved it. Hearing the stories of all the great players who have played for Saints over the years, was an absolute joy.
A lot of my friends have questioned why I would do this, but if I can take pride in a book like this and deliver the best I can, then I will be a happy man. This is not a stitch-up job; this is all genuine and it is probably my best book, to be honest, because of how difficult the subject matter is.
After I wrote the one on Wigan, I wanted to do the Saints one right away. I got in touch with someone at the club to see if they could help me get some players. At first, they were helpful, but I received an email saying he had heard I was a Wigan fan and wouldn t help me after that.
So, the book was put on the back burner, then after I finished my Barnsley FC one in 2018, I got to work on this one. Unfortunately, during 2019 I suffered quite a few mental health issues and my confidence completely disappeared. I was a shell of my former myself and I doubted whether I was a good writer. To be honest, I couldn t bring myself to do any work on the book. I had a load of interviews recorded, but I couldn t transcribe them. I was embarrassed and ashamed that I couldn t put my heart and soul into this project.
I m glad to say that I am on the mend and I am taking it one day at a time. In June this year, I finally woke up and realised that this book needed to be finished and people actually wanted to read it. I have worked tirelessly ever since, and hopefully this book is something all Saints fans can be proud of.
Enough about that. How did this book finally come together? Whenever you work on a project like this, you always have a list of players you want. But unfortunately, there isn t a phonebook available that just has former St Helens players names in. I started to use Twitter and LinkedIn to see which players would be interested. Some reply and some don t. Sometimes it can be soul destroying when you know a player would be ideal, but they don t want to get in touch.
One player I knew I could count on was Phil Veivers. I have got to know Phil quite well over the years and he is someone I trust dearly. I was introduced to him by my friend Simon Atherton and we often meet up for a few drinks. They are nice evenings, until Phil decides to come back from the bar with a tray of Sambucas. Then he is evil.
So, Phil was a dead cert to be involved, but getting other players wouldn t be that easy. When I have written my other books, I ve always gone home excited to tell the family who has agreed to take part. My whole family are Wigan fans and my eldest lad is a Barnsley fan like me, so in my other projects they have been excited to hear who I have got and what they have to say. It wasn t the case with this one and my wife threatened to make me sleep in the garage when I said, I ve got Tommy Martyn for the book, should I do the interview here? After a few choice words, she decided to post a picture on social media of our huge German Shepherd - Chewbacca - with the caption, Tommy, we are waiting for you . It s safe to say, we did that interview over the phone.
In all seriousness, my family have backed this proj