Know a senior saints player personally, due to my gf being best friends with his wife so have been in the company of the saints team many a time.

I could tell you a story or two about a load of SL players

Berrigan lives opposite

All of the current Wigan squad, Trent Barrett, Joe Lydon, Shaun Edwards, Phil Clarke, Denis Betts, Shaun Wane, Martin Offiah, Jason Robinson, John Monie, Brian Noble, and the fantastic Billy Boston. Oh and Maurice Lindsay.

Met the All Blacks squad including Lomu sometime in the mid-90s.

Oh and met the Salford Red Hot Flames on a memorable night out many years ago...

Met many Widnes players over the years, including Endaflops gang of wasters. Naked haka, drunken arguing in KFC, the straw incident and having Simon Finnagan buy me a drink as he thought I was Stephen Myler. Oh those were the days



On the other hand, met many players who do the game proud. Cassidy, O'Connor, Blanch, Carter and erm...erm...Offiah to name a few off the top of me head.

My sister once bough someone back someone from the Castleford tigers academy. Thankfully it was just the once.

On my stag do in Otley in 2000 the whole bulls squad turned up dressed in womens clothes.
Apparently they had played the night before and were crap so after there early morning swimming session Noble switched their clothes and left a note saying " you all played like girls so you might as well wear the right clothes"

They were gutted when told we were from wigan, strangley they said no pictures would be allowed.

Once saw the great Adrian Belle ordering meat and potato pie, chips and gravy in a chippy near Uppermill.

A few years ago I had the great misfortune to be sat behind Owen Cragie at a peformance of The Marriage of Figaro at Liverpool Playhouse. I could not see a thing! And he kept saying to Gray Viane and Jules O'Neill that it was a cr*p pantomime!

Met Wayne Godwin and Jon Hepworth when they played for Cas, and interviewed Sam Burgess and Scott Moore last year for Uni. work.

Spoke to lots of Super League players post-match too.

My uncle played top level RL for Hull and Doncaster in the nineties if that counts, so I met loads in those days.

Chris Smith (former St Helens and Hull) used to work for my then step-dad, which meant my step-dad went on Sean Long's stag do in Vegas...

Met a fair few players on various nights out in Leeds and Headingley too.

All very much normal blokes, nothing really to shout about.

I seem to see Stanley Gene nearly every week in town. Last time I saw him he was coming out of Thomas Cook. I see alot of the Hull and Rovers players around from time to time and Danny Brough came to coach us at under 16 level a couple of times when he was still playing for Hull.

The Saints team were on our plane this season on the way home from Catalan and i see Des Drummond every week

I bet you started in the same year though - remedial classes holding you back and all that

And of course, you once shared a toilet cubicle with Andrew Johns.

I've met Bright Sodje. What do i win?

mal meninga,andy platt and phil vievers all turned up at my 21 st birthday.invited by a friend without me knowing!
needless to say i never got round to seeing all my aunts and uncles

Met loads of players at the Bulls.

One of the first players I ever met was Henry Paul. He was in Bradford one weekend before he was announced as a Bradford signing - he was still officially at Wigan at the time.

The Bulls had a touch rugby tournament on in the fields behind Odsal stadium and the Wags were playing a game - while trying not to break a nail, it was the worst attempt at rugby I've ever seen apart from our home game against Celtic earlier this year.

Henry's son was only a baby at the time and he was on baby sitting duties. All afternoon he had a long queue of Bulls fans waiting to get him to sign autographs. He'd signed hundreds of Bulls shirts long before he ever became a Bulls player.

Loads of people were getting their pictures taken with him too, many of them holding his son. There must be hundreds of people in Bradford who have pictures of themselves holding Henry's kid.

He was really approachable so I asked him how it felt to be a player from a rival team who gets such adoration from the opposition. He was very modest about it and was happy to chat about that and the various games going on.

The least pleasant player I've ever met was Shaun Edwards. When he signed for Bradford his first ever appearance at a Bulls event was at the shirt presentation night. The idea was that people would mingle with players and get autographs and pictures he arrived late and with a large man who was trying to keep people away from him, he was very reluctant to speak to anyone.
I managed to corner him to get my shirt signed but he didn't speak or even make eye contact.

Later that year I saw him come into the Top House pub in Odsal. London and Wigan were playing and the game was being shown on the big screen so there were a lot of Bulls fans in watching. He bought a pint and sat down in the middle of a load of them. One asked him who he was cheering for - a reasonable question as he'd played for both - he grunted "London" and then walked out with a grumpy face never to darken the door again.

Next time you see Mr Peacock can you please thank him from me for all the laughs he has given me whilst conducting post match interviews and for getting beaten up by every player he picks a fight with







I'm serious, that bloke is a comedy genius!

I'm actually three years older than him.

Anyway, looking forward to 2010.....Year 8 here I come!

I had a long term sexual relationship with Fui Fui Moi Moi.

You heard me!

I once sold a cup of tea to the great Ike Southward. But that was probably well before your time Barry.

Maybe its his Bad Head that makes him grumpy.
He is a player that has got a lot uglier as he has grown older.

One of my favourite memories...

Was at university in the early 90's and our RL team president managed to organise for us to play a curtain raiser to the GB - France game in the South of France

The game itself was a nightmare - we were somewhat stitched up and ended up playing something like the France U21 team - I stopped counting when they had scored 70

But.. the night out was great, we were drinking with the GB team (apart from Clarke and Hanley who stayed in the hotel being professional)

The highlight of the night was Andy Gregory taking the out of Kevin Ward from inside a bar so Ward decided to put his hand through the window and cut it open!!

While I'm on the subject - a memory I'll never forget is walking past the changing rooms on that afternoon and Ward was just leaving the pitch... looking at the bloke walking towards me in full kit and looking like a monster my only thought was I'm glad I didn't play professionally against that every week

I was chatting to the Widnes players when they were up for a social in Edinburgh a few years ago.

Spoke to John Stankevitch and Gary Connolly, Baz and Tez were also there.

Only time i've ever really spoke to a rugby player for longer than the friendly chit chat was Bradley Clyde doing this Leeds days. Both stuck in Leeds train station waiting for the same train to arrive which was delayed.

Was a good guy and we spoke for a good half hour or so.

I've served a few players during my time working in Leeds. Leon Pryce, Nick Fozzard (just after he'd signed for Saints, we had a good natter about the club), Richie Mather (arrogant little sh*t), Willie Mason, Lote Tiquiri, Freddie Fittler and Danny Buderus were all in one afternoon when the Aussies were staying in Leeds. Buderus came in a few times and was a lovely guy to chat with, really approachable and willing to chat.

Being a regular traveller I have met many NRL players in airports and on planes. Met alot of the Raiders one day at Burger King in Sydney airport. Wiki was a really nice guy and Daley was a laugh. Was on the plane with the AFL St Kilda team last week and they were nice lads, all looked very young which is bad sign for me!

I seem to often end up on the plane with the netball teams, which is fun as I usually end up stretching with them at the back of the plane! (and no that isn't a euphormism for anything!!)