the 5 minute walk from our house
getting crushed getting off the ground and over the duggie bridge
dodging from side to side to get a view past the flootlight pylons and the stand posts
the hen pen........and the bloke who kept trying to stop us climbinmg over the wall into the main stand
finishing school early to watch the replay v leeds.......to find the gates locked........but the fence knocked down, so we got in free

on the pitch

billy boston flattening all before him.......and his crash tackles on the centres
mike cassidys "tackle" on morley
bill ashursts cameo appearance for runcorn......which lasted about 10 seconds before he flattened goodway and got sent off
winning a vip box in a fantasy rugby comp and meeting billy boston with my kids (who had no idea who he was)......and him giving em a signed rugby ball

and too many others to mention

GB v Kangaroos in 82 ( anyone know the date ? which test of 3 ? it was suspect it was the 2nd )

Coming from a RU background where the talents where les cusworth & dusty hare. First ever game of the greatest sport.

Remember to this day - with two / three runers each side of the ruck & sterling controlling things - couldn't personally tell who was going to get the ball - not quite what I was used to !

Annuouncer " For Australia replacing xxxxxxxx? 'Wally Lewis' "
Laughter from the crowd - "wally" - what a name, slightly relieved as he couldn't be as good as the starting line up, could he ?

cue 40 yard pass cutting out the LF, 2nd row, & centre straight to hirsuite left winger eric grothe - class
Remember to this day ( again ) thinking is that allowed / fair [ now know the answer to be yes / no

I forgot to add (and cannot be ar[is[/ied trawling this burdgeoning (sp?) thread) one of the greatest legal tackles seen on British soil.

Wigan v Australia 1986

Wigan (may have been Mick Ford) kicked through on the last tackle. Garry Jack collects the ball behind his own posts and his met with a ferocious chest high tackle from Andy Goodway. I later watched it on video and the Aussie commentator refers to it as a "bone jarrer".

Class.

PS: IIRC Jukesays (who sometimes posts on here) ran onto the pitch at the end and actually caught Wally Lewis's mouth guard after it spilled out. Jukesays, for some unbeknown reason gave it back!

I remember one particular day stood in front of the Pop stand and it was getting fairly rowdy to say the least. Following a try the beer went in the air and the complaints started from the moaning gits on the front couple of rows in the stand.

All of a sudden a steward appeared in the stand and whilst drawing an imaginary circle in the air shouted "Right you lot, all of you, get out, your all banned!!"

The reaction of course was a loud chear and a chorus of "Sit down shut up"

my memories its a dump

Read the thread title again - Central Park not Knowsley Road

It wasnt on the field, I was sat on the wall of the tunnel ! As the players used to walk down they used to hold their hands up to give you the high five and you could lean over and slap their hands. I leant over and Lewis was one of the last to come down and his hand had his gumshield in it. As I went to "High Five" him my hand caught the gum shield and a second later I shouted Wally and threw it back

What a pillock

Taking my son for the first time and listening to him shout Wigan for the first time.

[size=150=red1.sat on the wall oposite the dugout as a kid and wondering if if the ball was going to smack you in the face you were that close to the action.
2.wondering if andy greg could possibly get any more winter green on them stubby little legs of he's.
3.seeing kelvin skerrat racing as fast as he could to join a mass brawl only to see him dive over the lot and land on the other side without touching a soul.
4.the annual overnight pilgrimage outside c.p to get hold of wembly tickets
5.the home comings.
6.the terror every wiganer felt as somebody ran down the wing and there was only martin offiah as last line of defence.[/size

When wigan played Brisbane broncos at central park and they had to stop the match beacuse the players cud not see b coz ov all the fireworks.

And Also another memory has got be to when wigan played saints in the challenge cup and it ended up 16-16 and goulding hit the post with a drop goal then we went to saints ground and totally anialated them ha ha

My main memory is being a ballboy for the last 2 seasons at CP had the chance to ballboy the last game but turned it down because i wanted to be in the crowd for the last game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loads of memories, one that really sticks out is when we played Bradford 98 i think and Connolly went over with 5 minutes left to seal victory and the popular went mad!

Henry Paul inspired Wakey tearing you to shreds in a Wednesday night match.

Then Wigan buying him on the Thursday

Nearly 30,000 on for a derby match (it was either 92 or 93) and IIRC Gus O'Donnell (for Wigan) attempting a drop-goal which Gary Connolly (for Saints) got a fingertip to in mid-flight so it didn't count. Think it finished 8-8, I was stood on the Kop anongst the Saints fans absolutely packed in like sardines

I think it was actually Gus O'Donnell playing for Saints who got a finger tip to the ball. A former St John Fisher lad as well.

He made a tremendous break from his own tryline on the right hand side and then went more or less corner to corner weaving in and out. Didn't we have a battle with Auckland for his services?



He never touched it, the Judas

The storm damaged posts which seemed to go unrepaired for weeks on end including an embarrassing appearance on Grandstand!

Has anyone mentioned Tommy God scoring the last ever try there?

If so it's always worth a mention again




I'm watching the tape now



There were some very poor players on show that day for both teams.

It was Test 2 of 3.

1982 Australia 40-4 Hull 26,771
1982 Australia 27-6 Wigan 23,216
1982 Australia 32-8 Leeds 17,318

I've put a few selected quotes on the site page wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... page_id=48 Plus of list of Test Matches, Other Internationals, Roses Matches and Cup Finals played at Central Park.

I've put a few selected quotes on the site page wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... page_id=48 Plus of list of Test Matches, Other Internationals, Roses Matches and Cup Finals played at Central Park.

They couldn't see because of fireworks? How did that work? Were the fireworks on the pitch or just really distracting?

It created a fog worse than Odsal this year, they were not so much fireworks but more like bl00dy big flares!!!!!!!

Tommy God produced 2 flashes of genius just the same as Robinson did the pass out of the back door to Sully was pure class. Just a shame he never brought his kicking boots.

Central Park 1 minutes silences were louder than the noise when Tommy went over for that last try

Being 15 i only vaguely remember cp but the one outstanding memory i have was Wigan vs Bradford 97/98 season the 1 in the rain. i knew after that game that Wigan was for me. My grandads garden still has central park turf in it, a proud souvenier.