I was in the paddock posse for years, along with Joanne Callotte & Joe Public.

3rd of April 1984 venue, Headingly Leeds. Leeds 18 v Leigh 24
All 24 points scored by John Woods, you obvoiusly missed a treat!



P.S. not at Leigh though!

When did the digital scoreboard get ripped out ??!!

...and their first string, sitting next to our family in C stand and signing autographs....!

Johnny Woods engineering a late try from nothing to put himself within a conversion of breaking the club points record... then hitting the post with the last kick of the game and missing out by one... Ronnie Duane got injured in that game for Wire, and missed the Ozzie tour...

...taking Leeds apart as the last game of Peter Smethurst's reign as coach, Beasant and Westhead being brilliant as we scored 51 points (in the days of three point tries)

...Eric Chisnall setting up the win over HKR in 82, that gave us the title-shot against already-relegated Whitehaven...

....Hull fans fighting each other in the shadow of the mill, which all stopped when a brilliant game started (ending in a draw... was either 81/2 or 82/3 season)...

..full time being called with Halliwell on his way to his 50th try of the season... the ball wasn't dead, but the referee ended the game anyway...

...watching the colts against wigan... sean hodgekiss' nose got broken from a punch in the scrum... the scrum collapsed and he came up from hooker looking like Mike Gatting after the West Indies tour...

...playing for colts against Cas with blisters from a new pair of boots. We got stuffed. Then, with the A team lads also having played, and all the first team coaching staff in the main stand bar, my dad picking me up after a church fete dressed as a clown. Thanks, Dad....

...bumping into AJM carrying the Lancashire cup behind the main stand, sometime in spring 1982...

..and listening to him b0llock the lads at half time, from behind the dressing room at the scoreboard end of the main stand...

...Andy Collier, already a first-teamer, borrowing my comb after a colts game...

...running in endless tries in the second division record breaking season...

...walking up through the stairs in the middle of B stand, and coming out into the atmosphere of a night match, like walking onto the stage at the London Palladium..

..the smell of pipe tobacco in the stand...

...meeting Eddie Waring, climbing down from a commentary gantry near the scoreboard...

...the stargate!! And beating London in Superleague...

...green wooden bench seats in the main stand...

...the die-hard blonde lad, such a committed fan my wire-supporting ex bro-in-law christened him 'Leigh lad' as the epitome of the passion and deidcation that our supporters have... this may be you, WOLRAB... he used to sit at the top of C stand, with a dapper fella with a Branson-eqqsue tidybeard, and he never ever missed a match... now he's a strapping six-foot-plus bloke, but he was always at games from when he was a kid...

...always bumping into Kath (never knew her surname), a fabulously one-eyed middle aged Leyth lass... also saw her in the queues at Wembley in 1982... she was telling everyone who'd listen 'It'l be Leigh and Wigan next year, mark my words...' The only bit that seemed unlikely, then, was Wigan making it to Wembley...

..my dad running the line against someone (Cas, I think, but not sure), when John Kerr had his jaw broken and my dad missed it (he was unsighted by players, but from high above in the stand, we saw it clearly..

...beating Saints in a humdinger as the last match of the season (possibly the year we went down and Des and Woody broke limbs)... I think it ended 36-30, there was never more than a couple of tries in it, and another mate's dad, Dave Knight, was the touchjudge..

...the disabled toilet sign which someone had graffitied 'Brian Potter' onto...

...buying old programmes from the old shop at the glebe street end....

...being able to see The Victoria, the traffic lights on Kirkhall lane, and Rivvy Pike in the distance, from our season-ticket seats in C stand...

...the Dark, Satanic Mill and the Pit winding gear at parsonage...

...those old scaffolding-tube crash barriers...

...Brian shouting '' 'erf time draw tickets, cmon the more we sell the more we pay out' "

...winning the half time draw in our 'first last match' against whitehaven...

...looking out for uncle Mick at the back of the Tommy Sale stand... beerbottle glasses, a sling on his arm in recent years, rheumy eyes and a hilarious sarcastic wit (Culcheth? it's not a village, it's an urban sprawl...)

..cousin Phil (his brother, but younger, hence cousin and not uncle!)... last seen in the queue at the last game, but another of those people you don't really keep in touch with, just bump into at weddings, funerals and the occasional rugby match..

...looking out for my best mate Phil, who sat exactly opposite us in the TS stand when we were in the main stand.

...and so, so much more.

Of all the places in the world, I was happiest and most at home at Hilton Park. If there is a heaven, it will be Hilton Park, in the main stand, just before kickoff at a night match... AJM is the coach, the ground is full, and the team is Hogan, Drummond, Bilsbury, Donlan, Fox, Woods, Green, Wilkinson, Tabern, Cooke, Martyn, Potter and Pinner [I know! But this isn't real, remember........ Steve Grimshaw and Roy Howarth on the bench... Phil Johnson, Tony Cottrell and Derek Pyke are promising youngsters.... Phil Clarke is a Leyth supporting teenager... Stevo is 12,000 miles away, and Wigan, our cup-match opponents are in division 2 and expecting a thrashing....

Bog off Joe 'thas made me screyk'

"We dont sell 'um outside just inside!"

The parties in the Mick Marytn bar after GF ,s .

Had some good New years eve do's in there as well, I remember Sid stopping 20 youngsters from playing rugby in Woody's and making them dance to Electric Avenue in front of everyone.



It become young glows favorite tune,

it was Easter before he stopped playing it.

Being on the "Railway End" in the late 60's / early 70' during my skinhead phase. Red & White pit helmet, loads of scarves "borrowed" from other clubs fans & hob nailed boots.

Happy days

[i"Come On Now!! - the winner's on the ground!!"[/i

...but it was never me!!

PA man, Don Boyle's impressive attempt to be GMP's new commander in chief, mid way through the 2003 HKR play off match.

" The HKR supporters are throwing objects (celery

) on to the pitch, can we have the police down to the front of the Asda end - Come on lads it's no use leaning on the barriers"

What about late 70`s early 80`s when we had a Police presence with the head honcho with 1 big Baseball bat..........Fred what was his name ...He took no nonsense.

It weren't me honest

Thanks for all the memories being posted, I have had the privilige of witnessing many of the great moments that have been described. I would like to add a few more with a slight difference. For 28 years I lived opposite Hilton Park, so as well being the home of Leigh RLFC it was part of my childhood environment.

So starting first with the dirt carpark outside the training pitch, the fair and the circus used to come every year and I remember the circus being televised for Granada in the 1960's with me and a friend sitting on the front row.

Then there was the training pitch were we could sneek on and play rugby and cricket. But best of all I used to watch the great AJM train the Leigh team in the late 1960's, the players and AJM always had time for us kids watching. Also I remember many of the great Shaw Cup games mentioned in another thread that was played on the training pitch.

Another slightly different memory was watching the pop group Geordie under the Tommy Sale stand in the early 1970's. Their singer Brian Johnson went onto front AC/DC. Anybody else there? Who would have thought Leigh RLFC as a rock venue.

Many of the great playing moments have already been mentioned but three of mine are:

Watching David Eckersley playing full back and hardly ever missing a tackle despite his size. David is a player who doesn't often get mentioned on here but his record shows what a outstanding player he was.

Seeing Joe Walsh run 75 yards for a try. The whole stadium errupted with applause. Joe didn't do long distance.




Seeing a young coloured kid rip us apart in the the early eighties when we thought we had the best team. I always remember my friend saying " Who The f**k is that?" Well it was Ellery Hanley who went on to be one of GB's greatest ever players and ice skaters.



It sad to see HP go, but it's had it's day and I just hope that the youngsters today get the chance to see as many great matches, teams and players that I have seen. Oh and also as many of the fantastic characters that have made up the Leigh support over the years.

very true about ajm, i remember we were playing cricket on the training pitch one summers evening, the club had just started pre season, and they ended up playing cricket against us kids!!

i actually bowled out ajm and brian highcock, they didn't half get the mick taken out of them by the other players



was there at the geordie gig too, a friday night it was, never knew until that night "piggy" wore a WIG!!!!

Will always remember the "repent ye sins" guy on matchdays with his sandwich board, the stick he got back was unbelievable but generally good humoured.

wasn't that rock gig around 1977?
there was quite a serious incident after it and a load of 'hells Angels' types were arrested and 4 or 5 convicted and recieved longish Gaol sentances.

1977 is about right although it could have been 1976. I know we wern't quite old enough to drink, but managed to sneek a few pints.

summer of '76 iirc, on the training pitch, pretty sure it was a monday night

it was a Monday as it was my first night shift of theweek I'd just come back from doing my advanced motorcycle course and had the 'pleasure' of riding about 7 'hogs' (a pig on a hog not a pretty sight

) back to the 'nick' from the old railway line thats now the Atherleigh way and nursing a few bruises when we locked the 'hells angels' up. It would have been about 76 as I went on traffic in 77, innit funny how one event relates to others same but different memories of that event.

And Mate!

my very earliest memories were of arriving at the ground on a saturday afternoon and seeing all those bikes in the back yards in Glebe St. every yard seemed full of Bikes. how they ever found the right one I never knew. as for players. legends all Martyn-Kindon-Fallon-Pawsey-Ledgard. throgh to Murphy-Chisnall-Clarkson-Smethurst-Walsh. up to Bristow-Turley-Street-Whittle and now A.J. and co if your a leyther they are all legends we cant forget any of them

Popman reminded me of the guy with the 'repent your sins' board and other religious slogans. I remember walking down Chadwick Street to watch Leigh one Easter Monday, he was there with the sign "Prepare to meet thy God" "Sorry" a Leigh fans shouted back "Murphy's not playing"