Cat may know this or someone with a good memory of Wire games going back to the 80`s.

I`m after the answer to a question to do with Brian Bevan.

Their was a testimonial game at Wilderspool which i think was sometime in the 80`s where Brian Bevan featured, Parry Gordon`s maybe ?

Brian Bevan featured in this game, he must have been in his 50`s at the time, i remember the players letting him score a try and the place erupted.

Does anyone know which game this was as its come up in a topic of conversation, i was at the game but i can`t remember exactly what the occasion was.

rob i'd answer this question however i can't kick a ball into a 10 metre squared area from 20 metres away.


that does ring a few bells though.

Don't know the answer to that, but I can remember Bev playing for a team in the Works Comp that we set up in the early seventies.

My dad thinks it was against Other Nationalities and that Brian scored 2 tries.

He also thinks it was about 1984.

I get told Bevan stories all the time from my grandad and dad.

That should qualify you as a kicking coach at the club going on saturdays performance from our kickers

... Get your CV in

i tell you where i remember that from, the old house of pain fanzine did a piece on the great one when he died and i'm pretty sure it had a photo of the last time here in a testimonial game. I wonder if i've still got that.

rob think the game you are on about was jim challinors testimonial iirc mi dad took me to that game that was the one and only time i seen beven,

Pretty sure that was the game any of our older viewers will put me right on this..

Lister, 84 sounds about the right time.... Does your dad know if it was a testimonial game and if so whose testimonial. I was fortunate to talk to Brian Bevan before that game as he was walking up the stairs where snookers used to be with Reg Bowden heading into the presidents lounge before the game, he was a true gentleman and an all time great.

It was either Parry Gordon's or possibly John Bevan's.

Think it was 1977 and it was Denis Curling's testimonial.

You're older than I thought Rob if you remember attending that game. The common photo that you see is the one with both Brian and John Bevan on.

It was for Dennis Curling after he broke his neck.

It was well after that Paul. Snookers wasn`t around then and i remember meeting Brian Bevan on the stairs of Snookers as he was heading into the presidents lounge to give a talk to people that had paid for a pre game dinner as part of the event.

I was at that game too. Deffo Denis Curling

Bev was born in 1924, if it was the Gordon 20 year match he would have been Sixty.

If it's any help, Parry Gordon signed on his sixteenth Birthday on 17.2.61, so his 20 year testimonial was 1981.

I`m 40, i wasn`t at the Dennis Curling game in 77 as i wasn`t going to games on my own when i was 9 which is what i would have been in 1977.

It may have been the Parry Gordon game as thats more likely from 1981, thinking back which is a long time ago now the snooker club may or may not have been open at that time as i`m not 100% sure, i know from memory that i met him and Reg Bowden on the steps that lead up to where the Snooker club was and the presidents lounge as well, it looked like Reg Bowden was his p/a for the day.

Its just one of them things that crop up from time that can be frustrating remember the exact answer, i`m just glad i got the chance to see him on a rugby pitch and doing what he did best which was scoring tries.

It was John Bevans testimonial

Snookers might not have been around but the Leisure complex was, it was opened in 1972. Curlings last game was in 77 and his testimonial was the same year or early 78.

Yeh that makes sense now that John`s brother Brian would turn up for his testimonial, cheers Les....

Yeh Stick, i was just trying to think back whether i came out of Snookers and met Brian Bevan on the steps as it would have been easier to date then or whether i spotted him in the distance and made my way towards the leisure complex. I certainly wasn`t at the game in 1977 so it may have been one of the suggestions that other people have made for either Parry Gordon`s tesimonial or John Bevan`s.

the bevans were both playing,we went as a family and i was still in primary school,can,t remember whose game it was but i'd hazard a guess at 77 or 78.

www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sea ... ian_Bevan/

www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sea ... ian_Bevan/

John Bevans first game was in the 73/74 season so his testimonial would have obviously been in 83/84. 83 was the year the main stand was rebuilt and opened then named after Brian.

I'm fairly certain he didn't play in John Bevans testimonial but he may have been at a the game.

there were a few testemonial games at Wilderspool in the mid to late 70s as already mentioned.. I seem to remember a representative programme with both Bevans on the front, playing against each other.

One testemonial game he did play in was Murphys testemonial in 75 the week after we got beat at Wembley. The great man scored twice albeit the oposition didn't lay a finger on him infront of 15000 packed into Wilderspool.

I was at the Dennis culring one in 77 the first match I ever attended.... but cant remember much about it other than a commetator doing an Eddie wareing impression over the tanoy.....

but I remember the game when they let Bevan score, He did Show very good pace, plus he did get tackled though on one run and the crowd booed !

but I'm more inclined to agree it was Parry Gordons in 81 As I rememeber waiting for Brian Bevans autograph ....and Stuart Wrights....!!! the pen started to run out on Bev so his surname is scratched into the paper......!!
but it meant he spoke to me
"I'm sorry your pens running out"
"its okay thanks Brian"

i'd have been 16 in 83 for John Bevans Testimonial and more unlikely to wait for Stuart Wrights autograph.....!!!