I'd been a testimonial match before (Denis Curlings IIRC) but my first real Match Was Warrington Bradford Northern 1979, as angry and brutal a match as you were likely to see two sent off two stretchered off ...

I couldnt tell you what the standard of rugby was like it was legal fighting.......

and I was hooked........Wires won 10-8 which helped.....


it makes me weep a bit when People Say Ben Westwood is a thug...circa 1979 he'd have been a softie........

My first game was the 78 touring kangaroo game, I'd have been nine. My brother took me and I couldn't believe the atmosphere. The importance of the match and the result passed me by slightly, and years later I deeply regret I don't remember more of it (though a diet of Newcastle Brown won't have helped).

I also remember a cup game down at Wilderspool v Hull KR when they were in their pomp, about 79, which we won 9-5 I think, very much against predictions.

The most vivid memory I have of the matches around that period was looking into the shop window on Fletcher St. after the match at the books, scarves, flat caps and pendants all adorned with the famous rugby ball-lightning bolt logo.

Bobby Fulton coming home

I wish, or sir lessie!

My first game was 1967 or 1968 against Swinton at home, a night match. I was six or seven. All I can remember was being on Th Fletch and asking some bloke where I could buy a programme and he gave me his.

Started properly in 1970, Whiehaven at home.

My dad used to take me in the 50's I went in the sixpenny end (Fletcher St I think), if you went early you could see an A team game before the main event. Apart from Bev don't remember much about the players. Stopped for a while as it wasn't cool to watch RL in the early sixties, more interested in chasing girls at the Carlton Club and the Co-Op Hall on a Sunday. Started going again in the mid sixties loved Parry Gordon and Willie Aspinall. Moved down south but still bought a season ticket. Only in Blackpool now but don't get to many games.

My first match was 18th October 1993 a 15 - 7 win against Halifax, before then I'd been going to Warrington Town (even remember going a FA Vase Final at Maine Road).

The floodlights failed for around 20 minutes and it was cold, however I still thought it was better than the football and bought a season ticket for £10 the next day.

My first trip to the Wire was around 1978-79, they used to hand out free ticket 'coupons' to local schools, to pad the numbers out.

Earliest memories of Warrington was flicking through the Sky channels and seeing them playing before flicking back over (only took a slight interest because I live in Warrington).

First real interest was when I got taken to Wilderspool to watch Warrington v St Helens, Super League 7, 10 May 2002. A season where we scored the least number of points, conceded the most points, and had the worst points difference of all the 12 clubs.

Think we only won 4 or 5 more games that season, losing twice to Widnes (one by 1 point), losing 72-2 to St Helens, an epic 23-22 win over Leeds and the the biggest game of that season was a win over Castleford that saved us from relegation.

My mate was gutted because she thought I would give up due to how crap we were that season, but I actually went to all the rest of the games, and despite our terrible season, I was hooked.

Following season I got a season ticket and have never looked back since.

wading out of the over flowing toilets in the fletcher st end in the early fifties then standing outside the *bar* waiting for my dad to come out and buy me a tea and meat pie!

As a young boy waiting at the back of the stand at every home game asking B Bevan to sign my programme(which he did every time) then going in the boy's pen and watch him score many wonderful tries.

I remember that 2-2 drawn game and Melling's disallowed try. The somewhat bias Kop end were convinced - but the referee was having none of it. Like Parry, Jack Melling played for Lancashire but never made the GB team - not helped by the fact that Warrington weren't a fashionable club in the 1960s. Sadly he retired just before the glory years in the early 1970s.

My first game would have been around 1963 and I have vague recollections of seeing Jackie Edwards play. Billy Heyes, a skillful loose forward and Bill Payne, a hard as nails Prop were amongst my favorites.

Silver. You've really got me thinking now. Didn't Jackie Melling sign for Wigan in 1970 (or'69), in the deal that brought Welsh forward Colin Standing to Warrington? I think Standing played half a game and then went back to Wales, never to be seen again.
Melling was a remendous right centre who suffered a lot with shoulder and knee injuries. I believe that he's still involved with wigan St Pats, Rogues may be able to help us with this one.

Semi final v Wigan in '74 when we went on to win at Wembley against Fev

Running fights between Wire and Wigan fans in the end near us.
We were sat above the melee.

Walking down Bridge Foot and my dad telling me I would see the great Brian Bevan today. I had an image of a well tanned man, big thighs, angular jaw standing 6' 2''. When I got to the ground there he was on the wing. He was pretty much bald, looked as though he had escaped from Dachau, and was wearing more bandages than an Egyptian mummy.

Also the smell of beer from the wooden floorboards in the old wooden stand. Not to mention the urine as you got close to the toilets. As a small boy I loved to hear the crowd stamping on the wooden boards to approve another Wire try, that was the most electrifying sound I had ever heard.

Oh, and I was allowed to swear (at appropriate moments only when Wire screwed up) and my dad pretended he hadn't heard me.

My earliest memory of the Wire was as a five year old playing in the street in 1950 when some of the older kids said that Warrington were parading the cup round the town. We followed them to Orford Lane or Winwick Road and watched the team come past in an open topped coach. I was captivated by that and it wasn't that long before a gang of us used to scrape together our 3d for the boys pen and follow the crowd coming from Orford down Battersby Lane to the ground.

that's a great memory.

gang of us used to scrape together our 3d for the boys pen

It were a tanner when I started....TOTAL RIP OFF !!

lol...a tanner, how much is that in stirling?

2.5p. It was a shilling (5p) for kids when I started. Three shillings (15p) for adults. You paid sixpence (2.5p) for Friday night A team games. A season ticket was fantastic value. My first one was less than ten shillings (50p).
If I'm remembering correctly, the Boy's Pen was an area in the Popular Stand (where Snookers was/is now) that was surrounded by green wood. I saw my first few games on the old Kop, then graduated to the Boy's Pen. My main memory of the old wooden main stand was the smell of wintergreen coming up from the Changing Rooms.
When Sunday Rugby started we had the man in his bowler hat on Fletcher St and his 'Beware your sins will find you out,' sandwich board. He was there for years. He even went to Wembley in 1974.
I used to run from Walton Rd, Stockton Heath, where we lived, into the village, then all along the Causeway dodging the lamp posts on the way. If I tried that now I'd have to give up at the Red Lion.

another great memory

Quote ="Teessidewire"Silver. You've really got me thinking now. Didn't Jackie Melling sign for Wigan in 1970 (or'69), in the deal that brought Welsh forward Colin Standing to Warrington? I think Standing played half a game and then went back to Wales, never to be seen again. Melling was a remendous right centre who suffered a lot with shoulder and knee injuries. I believe that he's still involved with wigan St Pats, Rogues may be able to help us with this one.'" I've just checked here. (Bilkos superb reference site) wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=947 There's no mention of Jackie Melling. I also checked in my reference books and can't find any record of him playing for Wigan. However I seem to recall Wigan signing him, so I just rang a mate who's older than me (there are still a few ) and he too thinks that Melling did sign for Wigan late in his career. Looking at the Colin Standing record it says that his last game for Wigan was 13th Dec 1969. I'm guessing that a swap was done prior to the Challenge Cup signing deadline for 1969/70 and maybe Melling got injured in an "A" team game. I'll ask the question on the Wigan site.

Quote ="Teessidewire"Silver. You've really got me thinking now. Didn't Jackie Melling sign for Wigan in 1970 (or'69), in the deal that brought Welsh forward Colin Standing to Warrington? I think Standing played half a game and then went back to Wales, never to be seen again. Melling was a remendous right centre who suffered a lot with shoulder and knee injuries. I believe that he's still involved with wigan St Pats, Rogues may be able to help us with this one.'" I've just checked here. (Bilkos superb reference site) wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=947 There's no mention of Jackie Melling. I also checked in my reference books and can't find any record of him playing for Wigan. However I seem to recall Wigan signing him, so I just rang a mate who's older than me (there are still a few ) and he too thinks that Melling did sign for Wigan late in his career. Looking at the Colin Standing record it says that his last game for Wigan was 13th Dec 1969. I'm guessing that a swap was done prior to the Challenge Cup signing deadline for 1969/70 and maybe Melling got injured in an "A" team game. I'll ask the question on the Wigan site.

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"I've just checked here. (Bilkos superb reference site) wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=947 There's no mention of Jackie Melling. I also checked in my reference books and can't find any record of him playing for Wigan. However I seem to recall Wigan signing him, so I just rang a mate who's older than me (there are still a few ) and he too thinks that Melling did sign for Wigan late in his career. Looking at the Colin Standing record it says that his last game for Wigan was 13th Dec 1969. I'm guessing that a swap was done prior to the Challenge Cup signing deadline for 1969/70 and maybe Melling got injured in an "A" team game. I'll ask the question on the Wigan site.'" Rogues. It was during the time that Wire were really on the rocks, prior to Ossie Davies taking over. They really were black days, but I'm almost certain that Jack was in the swap and we got a bit of cash too. Ive checked Bilko's site myself and can't find him. He won't have been that old either, probably about 28.

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"I've just checked here. (Bilkos superb reference site) wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=947 There's no mention of Jackie Melling. I also checked in my reference books and can't find any record of him playing for Wigan. However I seem to recall Wigan signing him, so I just rang a mate who's older than me (there are still a few ) and he too thinks that Melling did sign for Wigan late in his career. Looking at the Colin Standing record it says that his last game for Wigan was 13th Dec 1969. I'm guessing that a swap was done prior to the Challenge Cup signing deadline for 1969/70 and maybe Melling got injured in an "A" team game. I'll ask the question on the Wigan site.'" Rogues. It was during the time that Wire were really on the rocks, prior to Ossie Davies taking over. They really were black days, but I'm almost certain that Jack was in the swap and we got a bit of cash too. Ive checked Bilko's site myself and can't find him. He won't have been that old either, probably about 28.

Here you go.

I remember that bloke, he was there every match-day Sunday..I suppose he will know by now whether his sin-free life has been rewarded!