Wigan Album

I was in Billinge hospital to have my appendix out aged 11 when Eric and Billy brought the cup round just after this win over Workington and I got to hold it and have my photo taken with them. Fantastic memory. Unfortunately the Evening Post didn't use the photo and it was destroyed before my Mum got to their offices in Powell St.

Yes but that's what rugby was all about playing in mud baths, today's players is about "can you see my tattoos on my arms and legs"
is my hair in place... that's my opinion and how I see it.

11 local lads on photo.

Cracking photo.This was the time I started to watch Wigan.Plenty slutch!

Ernie Ashcroft’s dad was our fireman, down the Maypole Pit, when I worked with other tunneller mates in 1951/53. I believe his first name was Jack. If I remember rightly, they then lived on Birkett Bank.

A time when Rugby League was a proper game, played by proper men, on proper slutchy pitches.The thrill of hearing ENTRY OF THE GLADIATORS and seeing your idols running out on the field, passing the ball to each other. The steam rising from the pack on wet winter Saturday afternnons. Punchy Griffiths kicking the ball( weighing probably 4 times the weight of the ball they use today) the full length of the field. Billy running down the wing, knocking would be tacklers off like they were flies, It may be 60 years ago, but I can still see it in my minds eye as though it was yesterday.

To be honest if you look at their faces and cauliflower ears they all look punch drunk and stupid. What can you expect from all that banging of heads.

Iconic rugby jerseys. never changed for years. Not like the so called shirts they wear these days. With a change of design every year, to prise more money from the supporters.

If I'm not mistaken Bernard McGurrin is the Uncle of a friend of mine and also the uncle to Kay Birley. I can see a family likeness.

Literally a girls game now Ron , and it's good that girls get enjoyment from sports other than the more traditional ones open to them , but it winds me up when the media refer to ' the men's ' Six Nations or worse still , ' the men's Ashes ' , as if somehow the women's game is anywhere near to being equivalent . I think they honestly believe that if the Roses won the World Cup it would be celebrated with the same euphoria as in 1966 .

Your right veronica the family lived in scholes, I knew Frank Kay's dad he worked at gkn in wood house lane also lived near Jimmy in Durham st pre fabs

Dave I am of the same opinion as you but the other day 91,500 people watched women playing football in Barcelona?

Ron, there was something special about going to Central Park back then. I remember standing in the Hen Pen watching these legends play. When the opposition scored at the scoreboard end we'd all chant "Watch him miss it!" Not sure if we ever put the kicker off but it made us feel good! I also recall young fans from both Wigan and the away team coming into the Hen Pen with duffel bags stuffed with old match programmes and selling them. I've still got the ones I bought! There was also the thrill of hoodwinking the stewards by climbing over the wall from the Hen Pen into the main part of the ground, or waiting outside the ground before the match and asking some random bloke to get us through from the Hen Pen by saying he was our dad. Imagine that these days!

Some idiot, and I suspect it is that sicko Joseph, is posting stuff in my name...

The brothers would have gone to St Pat's school Tom.

It was brilliant playing on Central Park as a school boy , in curtain raisers , with the crowd coming in cheering you on. It stays with you forever . Sacred ground to me was Central Park . No matter what they build on it , it will always be hallowed ground to me .

That's right veronica Frank became a lecturer of union study's at wigan Tec ,everybody in scholes knew jimmy

St geoges school behind it looks scary started there 1945.

I used to have a nice chat with Brian McTighes Mam..their garden was back to back with my in laws when I was first married,his Mam was only small but his Dad was a big lad...his Mam was lovely.

Bleak House springs to mind.

Still never been in that tesco because of where it is built!

Blood, Dave Johnson mate!! No building can stand , with the voice of such memories below it.. Forever Central Park...

I remember playing in a schoolboys 7 a side match on Central Park. We played just before a Wigan St Helens match, were with these players before the game and came out onto the field in front of a cheering crowd. It would be about 1960 and played across the pitch being so young.
Still got my medal somewhere.

We must be ever grateful for the glorious memories these wonderful players gave us, but on a more somber note how many of them are still with us?

To correct my above comment the 7 a side was in the early fifties,

Bill Sayer had relatives in Standish. I remember seeing his truck when he started his scrap business up. That was late 60's/early 70's.

Josh, Billy Boston and Bernard Mcgurrin are the only ones still with us.

Peter W , I gave my medals to a rugby playing relative , hoping he might appreciate them . I regret it to this day . The modern youth eh ! Playing on Central Park , full pitch , on a curtain raiser, was/ is , the highlight of my life . You can’t replace that with a Tesco’s , no matter how many two for one it sells ..

Remember Gurrie being a rum lad around town late sixties, he'd feyt a brick wall.

My how this photo rekindles memories for me , in particular my cousin Bill Bretherton , i still remember him calling round our house he would bring a rugby ball for me and one Christmas he and another 6/7/ player's called round ,i was in awe of my hero's back then ,and still am today , I have to say i am some-what disillusioned with the state of rugby league today , it's more like tick rugby , the inconsistency in refereeing is criminal also . Oh i miss Central Park and those huge attendances ,the roar that came from the kop it's as if i could here it now . As for the DW ground ,well there is just no atmosphere there for me anymore so i will continue with my memories .

The number of comments in such a short space of time shows how much Central Park means to people and how much the town has lost.

Dave Johnson and Dave. Tesco is not built on Central Park pitch.

The bloody car park is!

Occasionally I walk down Hilton st to Tesco and think of all the times I went to Central Park and all the great times we had,afternoon and nights out with your mates after a match.Very happy days.I have to admit that these days I get very little from rugby league and find it hard to watch but things move on I suppose.

Central Park was exactly as its name implied: central. We could go and have a few pints before the game [or, in my case when I was a little lad, I could sit on the steps of a nearby pub with a bottle of pop and some crisps while my dad and uncle had a few 'liveners' inside!], watch the match and then replay the game in one or more of the pubs that were close by the ground: Royal Oak, Griffin, Fox and Goose, Saracen's, Bowling Green, Charles Dickens etc etc. There was a special atmosphere back then centred around the ground. There's none of that these days - the DW stadium might be more modern and streamlined than Central Park but it certainly has none of the atmosphere that CP had. Times change, I realise that, but I'd give anything for a time machine to take me back to the sixties. If I had to choose one particular game to revisit, I reckon the 1965 RL Cup 2nd round game against St Helens, when Brian McTigue slipped a peach of a pass to Roy Evans who ran 60 yards to score under the posts at the Kop end. 40,000 of us there that day, and we were given the added bonus of seeing Alex Murphy stretchered off. Nostalgic bliss!

I can recall that 1965 cup game but I wasn’t there. I was perhaps just too young to stand in a big crowd. My Dad went. We lived in Copperfield not far from the Brocket. I can remember a roar going up and wishing I had gone.
I did get to the final. I still have the community hymn/song sheet.

I'd forgotten about the roars which could be heard from the rugby pitch all over Scholes. Also Shirley Bassey singing on top note before the match.

For me an important point about Central Park was that you could see the town. You could feel that it was your town team that was playing. Not so in an enclosed stadium.

For me an important point about Central Park was that you could see the town. You could feel that it was your town team that was playing. Not so in an enclosed stadium.

A brilliant insight Philip C . You're absolutely right . I've always thought that about Bath RU ground . I've been on every old ground in the rugby league and each one had it's own distinctive style . You 'knew ' you were at Featherstone Rovers with the terrace houses alone the touchline . That beautiful three tier stand at Wakefield . The sunken bowl at Bradford . The railway carriage at Hull . Those giant steps behind the goal at Salford that felt like you was standing on one of the great pyramids . It's all a bit uniform these days .

The most atmospheric game I went to wasn't necessarily the greatest match . No tries scored . v Manly (87) . The crowd was at least 10 thousand higher than the official attendance .
Brilliant pre match entertainment with the paratroopers landing on the middle of the pitch .
Greatest game must be the 85 Challenge Cup . Respect to those great players of the past but let's not forget the likes of Kenny , Ferguson , Hanley Edwards .....in the club's history .

We were told then that we would get a thriving town , people now realize
When it's gone it's gone crying shame

Great photo and amazing how clear it is.
This photo was taken before I was born, but many of those names I know through growing up with rugby and from my dad, who was a huge rugby fan.
Central Park I know very well, because I grew up a stone's throw away and I was in the place many times.
My dad went to many matches, possibly almost every week during the season, played at Central Park. Often uncles and great uncles would turn up at our house, have a cup of tea and a sandwich or two, talk about rugby (sometimes it sounded more like an argument), then go off to the match. After the match, they would be back at our house going through all the rights and wrongs like scientists analysing everything, every indivual decision, manouevre, player et al.
One of my great uncles lived in Leeds and was, of course, a Leeds fan. Whenever Leeds played Wigan, he was at our house and the discussion was strong, because my dad was a Wigan supporter through and through.
Wonderful to see a photo of Central Park, the area and the rugby players of that time.
Thank you for uploading such a great piece of sporting history.

Anybody remember the bloke selling choc blocks.?,he was a double for the spiv out of dads army,pencil moustaches.with slick black hair.white overall with a blue collar,he would have one in his hand shouting (only one left)hence his nickname,and the rest under his arm.also memories of mick Sullivan going over in the last m minute against Leeds .1960 rl cup

I am bowled over by those wonderful responses to the photo I posted (had it for donkey years but recently found it). My relationship with the ground is also very nostalgic.
I remember very well watching this team, my idol, well in fact most people’s idol, was of course the fabulous Billy Boston. He seemed to get the whole crowd rising as one, on to their tiptoes with excitement, as he gathered the ball.
My own father played 149 games for the club, having signed a 10 year contract in 1938, but lost 3 years to the war.
It’s often said talent skips a generation, only too true in my case and although I loved the game and my father was steeped in it, if I was asked to write down the tactics required in a game, a postage stamp would be more than generous.
However, I loved the game and have indelible memories such as watching Wigan play St Helens in 1959, along with 47,746 others at Central Park, and a year later in 1960 I watched Wigan win the Championship Final against Wakefield Trinity at Odsal Stadium with 83,190 in attendance.
Joe Hill’s field, (he was a Wigan butcher), where he allowed cows to graze, did Wigan proud.

One of my favourite games comes a little later in January 1970. Wigan lost to a great Leeds team 14-23. The Leeds team had a fabulous back line that included Risman, Smith, Hynes, Atkinson ,Seabourne and others. I know Wigan lost but the rugby flowed in a way you don’t see today. Barry Seabourne the Leeds scrum half ran at full speed picking the ball up with one hand. I know I have praised the Leeds side.It didn’t matter Rugby won.
They’ve removed too much from today’s game. Handling skills have improved beyond recognition but It’s non stop no variation.

One of my favourite games comes a little later in January 1970. Wigan lost to a great Leeds team 14-23. The Leeds team had a fabulous back line that included Risman, Smith, Hynes, Atkinson ,Seabourne and others. I know Wigan lost but the rugby flowed in a way you don’t see today. Barry Seabourne the Leeds scrum half ran at full speed picking the ball up with one hand. I know I have praised the Leeds side.It didn’t matter Rugby won.
They’ve removed too much from today’s game. Handling skills have improved beyond recognition but It’s non stop no variation.

I don’t know why my comments always appear twice. So ignore the next post

I don’t know why my comments always appear twice. So ignore the next post

What a place Central Park was, saw my first game there in 1966 and was hooked from them on. I caught the end of the Boston Ashton era and was lucky enough to see so many top players after that, from Laughton and Ashurst through to Farrell, Robinson etc. Most underrated players in my opinion were the O Loughlin brothers, Kevin and Kieron, especially Kevin, he could play in any position forward or back, and never looked out of place. Probably the only position he didn't play was prop.