91 mission impossible I worked in London - difficult to comprehend now but I could not get any updates for the widnes game on the Tuesday - no mobile phones, no internet, ceefax didn't do score updates, no sky sports news and no coverage by BBC or London radio. I rang central park but no one answered!

My best teams were 82/83 punching above their weight a trophy and gave the aussies there closest game; 86/87 a few changes in personnel made a good team great;92/93 so close to winning the lot and great competition with saints; 94/95 a clear cut above the rest.

Definitely agree with everything you've said there. I remember Davies being laughed at when he made the switch, with people saying he was too small, slow, weedy, not good enough to make it. Credit to the man, he worked hard at Widnes to gain all the attributes needed, and he became a great RL player.

He also went to Widnes around the time when they were seemingly buying up half of Welsh RU. Not surprising really, given that Jim Mills was their chairman. In terms of spending a fortune on big (untried) names, Widnes were as bad as anyone.

Some interesting players names have cropped up in this thread including Brian Case, Hampson, Dermott and Robbie McCormack.

All four were IMO class acts and a big reason why the teams they played in were successful because they made big contributions to those sides. I don't think Case was the best prop we have ever had but he is certainly up there and I always think of him as one of if not [ithe[/i toughest prop I have ever seen at Wigan.

I certainly appreciate the comment from Monie about Hampson of "If he's fit he plays". He is best full back bar none I have seen play for Wigan.

The two hookers were better than anything that came after including Newton IMO. Dermott is the best of the lot but McCormack was the type of player Newton should have been in that he was as hard as nails but didn't have the rushes of blood to the head that ended up with him getting sent off.

Dave

A player who always gets overlooked because of his few appearances, but, was outstanding in those few, is Phil Blake, 1989-90 season, 11 apps, 7 tries, 17 goals and outstanding in each game, a quality player who was replaced by Frano Botica, talk about an embarrassment of riches !!!!

86-87 season does it for me, Wigan won 7 out of 8 trophies, including the world club and thats at a time when there wasn't much difference in the teams. Widnes won the league 2 years consecutive after that, which prooves that the competition was "closer".
Whereas in the 90s, Wigan had a clear advantange in the number of "professionals" in comparison with other teams. So depending on how you judge the game, you can settle for the 86-87 side or the "globe trotting all stars" of the 90s

If I could pick any of those today I would have Bill Ashurst.

He would have kicked a '40 - 20' after every 4th or 5th tackle.

All games won !