Only in Rugby League would you be able do this.

Regards to the thread this is fantastic for people like me Im only 17 and sadly never got chance to see Wigan play at Central Park.
What a fantastic traditional proper rugby league ground it looks I have seen photos and videos of it before but these are more of the fans side of things the passion and colours in the stands are unreal!. I here stories and experiences from my Granddad, Dad and members on this board and its makes me a tad jealous I never had the chance to go and soak up the atmosphere that Central Park gave off.
I guess I can never experience the fantastic times and memoris many of you had at Central Park but with the Ultras now at work I guess the DW is starting to feel allot more homely than times before.

I'm 19 so I only got to go for a few years really, just from like the age of 5 upwards I can remember. Even when I was young it was really special, the excitement going to the ground was so much more! Maybe thats cause I was so young though and I was on my dads shoulders going across the bridge. I remember the last game like it was yesterday!

Or get carried through the turnstyle ......My dad had to stop when I was 13 as I was bigger than him, a firemans lift was required then.

Indeed getting lifted over turnstiles and sitting on the wall is a great memory. Probably should have got piles if the urban myth is anything to go by! Think I used to take a bit of underlay to sit on when it was proper cowd. In the 86/7 championship pitch invasion, westy gave me a piggy back (was a bloody long way up there!). Eeeeee we're like one big happy family eh?! The good thing is that Wigan rflc is feeling more like that nowadays then it has for a while.

Just found an absolute "GOLDMINE" of a site online...!!!

Nine full pages of Wigan RL players from the old days right through to the 80/90's.

One of them below taken from the 1984 Wembley Final.





[uPhoto: Ains. Casson [/u

Dave Bolton





[uPhoto: charnock [/u

The website is: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... by+Players

The website is: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... by+Players

This thread is doing my head in .

Watched Wigan from 1959 on television .(Yes i am an old grey haired fat B*****D). Granstand , BBC2 floodlight trophy, Challenge Cup etc. Finally touched the beast in 1999. You guys are only rubbing in what i was really missing all these years .

Quote ="MattyB"The website is: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... by+Players'" Wow - some great photos there Matty! There are also some good fans photos on that website: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... Rugby+Fans I'm on three of them!

Quote ="MattyB"The website is: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... by+Players'" Wow - some great photos there Matty! There are also some good fans photos on that website: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... Rugby+Fans I'm on three of them!

haha that just reminds me when i used to go with my then best mate ( I was a proper Tomboy) He used to grow facial hair all week so he could get into clubs on a saturday and then shave it on the sunday so he could get in central park for a kid

Thanks Jon, have you got a scanner? It’d be great to see it again. You could argue that that try was a pivotal moment in our history, if Westy hadn’t scored it would have been a first round defeat, as it was we went on to reach the final and lose to Widnes, and get a taste of the big time, go back the following year and beat Hull, etc, etc.

Some great pics on both of those galleries.

Really missing Central Park now! It truly was an amazing place when packed with fans in cherry & white.

Think I'll dig out my '87 World Club Challenge DVD to get me in the mood for tomorrow.

Here you go Rogues
Thanks to Loyal o'riley for a scan of the original picture



Gill's rolled down socks

Quote ="Bert's Medal"Wow - some great photos there Matty! There are also some good fans photos on that website: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... Rugby+Fans I'm on three of them! '" www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo ... &offset=20 Biggest celebrity fan yet! 2nd from the right - Freddie Mercury!

Quote ="Bert's Medal"Wow - some great photos there Matty! There are also some good fans photos on that website: www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showa ... Rugby+Fans I'm on three of them! '" www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo ... &offset=20 Biggest celebrity fan yet! 2nd from the right - Freddie Mercury!

Ha. He's on the far right of the gill and Hanley pic too (see above)!

I may be biased, but I love it!

Iconic. Surely worth Pemps breaking out the t-shirt making machine again for this one?

Due to one of the people on that photo, it won't be happening.

Unless people are willing to pay £30 per shirt??

Ah. Bostonesque image rights demands? Can we not doctor it to look like Ronnie Braithwaite?

That’s my mate Glen sporting the ‘fashionable’ 80s tache (long since gone btw). I’m also on that photo and the other 2 of the group.

Quite an emotional trip down memory lane in that a couple of the lads have since died (RIP Jimmy & Paul).

The lad at the front wearing the Cherry & White hat is now a fully paid up member of the Latics’ ‘Hate Wigan Rugby Brigade’. He swears that he only came to Wembley with us in 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1998 for the ale, that he has never supported Wigan Rugby (even though he was as passionate about the club as the rest of us at matches) and that he has never worn anything Cherry & White at a match (clock the hat!).

That’s a different ‘freddie Mercury lookalike’ on the Gilly & Hanley photo btw – we always stood in front of the Sullivan Bar on the Popular Side at Central Park for efficiency reasons!

I always wanted to do a T-shirt with 'Our Ronnie' on it but I could never find an image.

I love this image



No use for a flag but it would be nice on my office wall.

Great shout Pemps, absolute cracker

You can almost smell the 'wintergreen' !!!!!

Aye 'wraparound' Ronnie !