All Eddie Waring was, was a smart mouth with little talent who had the field to himself with the BBC, not half as good as Keith Macklin, even that dirty bar steward from St Helens Ray French, the prop always second or third man into a tackle accompanied with the customary punch was better, I have one memory of Waring or perhaps lack of it, and that lasted a long time and that was despite coming from Dowsbury as he would say, I never heard him once say a good thing about Wakey,

Different time different game.

Well we got a government that is corrupt , IF it was any other country that was doing what we are doing we would be calling it .Think when you got the Welsh guy saying our government is stagnent it makes you wounder ,Worst covid numbers ever (that's with out the new one) ,1 in 45 have now got it ,They are playing politics with people lives

51% of the population, but that won't count to a blowhard like you.

He does but you don't, you just bandy the word around like the ignoramus you are.

It's not my particular wish to defend Farage but he is a nationalist and that doesn't make him a xenophobe (correct spelling Mr Expert). Nelson Mandella was a Nationalist or are the black variety ok?

Nigel Farage has never stated that Legal immigrants should be deported or that Legal immigration should stop. He was against the EU's disastrous open border policy and is now fighting the tide of illegal financially motivated immigrants.

Do your homework instead of attempting to sound right on.

In what way?
From what I remember you weren't even watching rugby league when he was commentating.

He was certainly the face of Rugby league in the 60s and 70s.

Can you imagine any other commentator since him, or even a player for that matter featuring on prime time light entertainment programmes. Mike Yarwood, It's A Knockout and Morecombe and Wise were the absolute top of the tree then.

He was apparently a really good administrator too turning Dewsbury in to a force.

Anyone that gets a gig on the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show is a top bloke!

These days there seems to be no balance and perhaps it's always been that way.?

But if you take a look at the Empire then on balance the legacy it left was more positive than negative.

The problem was not the empire but how the aftermath was handled, empires of all sorts have come and gone throughout history. We left a legacy to people who were not ready for it and since that point we, mainly the USA liberals and arms dealers have endlessly interfered. They will get there in the end and find a version of democracy that suits them, it took us a thousand years!

We've given the world a template that's all, one that can be endlessly improved and adapted and I don't think that's a bad gift to the world.

It's not that I'm blinded or am plain stupid, I can see all that was wrong with colonialism, hindsight is a great gift. But the world has never developed peacefully and if the British Empire had not existed the vacuum would almost certainly have been filled by a far worse one.

The four greatest and most dynamic empires of all time were the Greek, Roman, Chin and British Empire. Almost all the worlds greatest discoveries and systems come from them. All were warlike and all had a dark side but their achievements far outweigh the negatives.

List of British achievements off the top of my head.

Marna Carta, the post-Roman worlds first bill of rights, all be it very limited.

The reformation, the reason we became a Protestant nation doesn't matter, the way it energised this tiny island from sub servient to Rome to a superpower does.

The English Revolution, the first Parliament to cease power from a king.

The industrial revolution, say no more.

Postal services, the welfare state, NHS, BBC in its day, the Train the first real form of public transport, America, Australia, Canada, NZ many of the world's greatest democracies. The defeat of Nazi Germany and Napolian, dictators all. Even the short-lived slave trade was eventually brought down by British activists from a nation that itself never allowed slavery, servitude yes but not outright slavery.

As national CV's go, not too bad, warts and all but for some reason, we seem obsessed with celebrating the negatives,

I never said he was a bad thing, he was ok in his way. But the greatest advert for the game?

I'd suggest Clive Sullivan or the Fox brothers or young Sinfield or any number of other players have a far better claim.

Nope not even close.
You are using hindsight to make your judgement.
The game was bigger when Neil was king so was widely known but go to Wimbledon or Old Trafford or Lords and ask who Neil Fox is. They won't know, sad as that may be.
Bet only the young ones don't know who Eddie Waring is.

Don't agree, are you son?

Anyway, it's a bit bogus as an argument as Warring really shot to national fame on its a knockout. Up until that point he was only known to people who watched Grandstand and the CCup (mainly one particular CCup), which even then was far from everybody.

If any one person was the greatest advert for the game, certainly since the 1960's it was Martin Offiah. Probably the only nationally recognised start RL has ever produced. The early '90s was the first time in my memory that a player really excited the British public and re-ignited interest in the national games. Those test matches in that era were the best attended ever since those of the early sixties and may well have been better attended, I have not checked.

I don't understand the 'son' comment.

I don't disagree about Offiah. He was amazing for the game. But it doesn't distract from Waring.

The very fact Mike Yarwood's impression was of him saying Up an Under or He's in for an Early Bath shows that he was known for rugby league.

How else can he make a judgement without hindsight?.
Neil Fox was king in the north of England, but seriously do you expect him to be fully recognised in London never mind in Wimbledon or Lords your opinion is so flawed.
When Waring was at the height of his fame it was as vasty said for his part in it's a knockout probably because nobody with any self respect would go near it, he certainly had a charmed life at the beeb that's for sure, not sure if you were around watching rugby in those days, I suspect not tbh but there were only 2 teams in those days according to Mr Waring Wigin and saints and no other team got a mention over here apart from Leeds, to be honest I used to be embarrassed for him, he was a lot like a lot of people the BBC still employ nowadays talentless and pinching a living.

I was around. And as his most famous quote is about us, it seems not to be true.

You can judge without hindsight if you were there at the time.

Sorry, I meant to sat are you his son, as you seem so keen, just keeping it lighthearted



Mike Yarwood did dozens of impersonations of people nobody remembers now. Eddie was well known I grant you, but to me, he was far from our greatest advert. And don't get me wrong I'm not one of those inverted snobs embarrassed by his northerness I just don't think he was.

Well I got that wrong, I didn't think you were around at the time, if you think he was good for the game then fair do's I didn't, tbf though the likes of Eddie Waring were tailor made for Mike Yarwood, don't remember his most famous quote about us is though.

Might be 'The poor lad he's missed it' when Don missed the goal in that final against the Winos!
IMO Eddie Waring did spread nationally the game of RL over the media with his comments, some of them plain daft but , again IMO he did seem blinkered towards some clubs.
Keith Macklin was a better RL commentator.

The thing is with Eddie is that he went too long. He was ill at the end and people probably remember that.
I can remember thinking French was going to raise things intellectually but I think he showed how good Waring was at his best.

Don't get me wrong, he wasn't Bill McClaren who could make a really boring game sound like a classic Greek epic adventure but he was a character that was well known so helped the game a lot.

I'm 53, just young at heart.

Does that include the hundreds and thousand of slaves transported from African nations to toil in the cotton and sugar plantations of the new world and other regions?

LOL you really have swallowed the left wing revised history of the world hook line and sinker.

Look up the Barbary slave trade to find just how daft this constant reference to Britain’s evil past is.

The Barbary coast pirates terrorised Europe up until the 19th century, including the west coast of England and Wales. In that time they sold more people, nearly all white, into slavery than the British, Spanish and French combined. Of course the victims being mainly white takes away the socialist street cred I’m afraid but please don’t let the truth get in the way of that, nobody else does.

So although it’s no excuse for the part we played, the fact is slavery was a worldwide trade and its victims were very far from all being black or it’s perpetrators white. There is simply no need for this national self loathing, just because you’ve seen it on the TV and silver screen don’t make it true.

What should impress you more but won’t because it spoils the hard done by narrative is that the first nation to outlaw the slave trade was, drum roll, Great Britain. God that must stick in your craw. Look up William Wilberforce (think that’s how you spell it), you’ll like him.

Do you know why the Royal Navy became the biggest in the world? Not as is often thought to defend trade in the empire but to destroy the slave trade and totally eradicate the truly evil Muslim run North African slave trade. It’s a fact, I don’t make it up, it’s how it was. History told truthfully has a nasty way of upsetting popular opinion.

You really need to look deeper than the rubbish you’ve been indoctrinated in.

I’ve no flag to fly politically I just like the truth. I don’t blame you for falling for it, the propaganda and misinformation peddled on this subject since the sixties is staggering. Yet you really don’t have to dig deep to find out how twisted the story has become.

Wikipedia despite being constantly bagged is an excellent starting point, it’s all there.

Really poor effort Redscat.

I'll go with the thread drift....and point out that the Arab slave trade was THE largest slaving out of Africa.

Shamefully there is STILL an Arab slave trade TODAY!

The Portuguese slave trade was particularly brutal, and the Belgians' little better.

The British undoubtedly played their part, but were also the nation that ultimately "ended" the slave trade.

No wonder Encyclopeodia Brittannica shut up shop when their biggest competitor can be found on a minority sport forum in a medium sized Yorkshire city. I was forced to learn about William Wilberforce at school as one of our four school "Houses" was named after him in his honour A Hull lad as as I recall.
I think I'll give up trying, vasty






Ps I bet you've never got 23 questions correct on University Challenge as I have.

I thought it was modern day Haiti who banned slavery first or are we using size as the defining factor.
That is all good if we lived in the 19th century luckily in some respects we don’t despite the best attempts of Jacob.
We may have been considered Great but unfortunately it is now 2021 and our position in the world is much diminished. We can all look back but it is today and now that defines a country not what it was over 200 years ago. The Roman Empire could have been considered as one of the great dynasties but would you still apply the same to Italy in 2021, what about the Egyptians and modern day Egypt.

The "ending" of slavery in Haiti, was done by an act of rebellion and uprising.

The British abolition was a universal act of legislature.

BTW - the "Great" in GB, means "big" - it's the big island.

It's a matter of coincidence that the British Empire was so successful and wide-reaching. Nothing to do with the name "Great Britain".