Letter - Leeds paid £5 more, so he bought mum a fur coat

Published on 22/02/2013 10:58

It was interesting to read in the Wakefield Express on the nostalgia of Alf Watson who played for Wakefield Trinity and also Leeds.

Alf lived with his mother on Warren Avenue, Portobello. I lived not far from him on Duke of York Avenue.

I came across Alf when he was in the old Pinderfields Hospital as a patient about 13 years ago when I took him for an x-ray.

We had a good chat about the good old days when he came into the park on Portobello and watched us kids trying to play rugby.

Alf would help us telling us what to do.

There was Bob Couson and his brother, Barry, Albert Bates, Ronnie Smith, Stuart Blackburn, David Nicholson, Peter Reynolds and myself.

Bob was the one who had a rugby ball which was made with hard leather.

One day the inner tube burst. So I had a brain wave.

I stuffed the case with an old sacking. That was okay - until it got wet, then it was a dead weight.

We had muscles likes Charles Atlas the bodybuilder.

Alf told me he went to play for Leeds because they paid £5 more a game than Wakefield.

He saved the extra money and bought his mother a fur coat.

My mother and Mrs Watson used to go every Wednesday afternoon to Sandal Methodist Church to a ladies’ bright hour meeting.

Alf had a very bad accident at Wembley playing for Leeds.

I can remember him walking passed our house with two walking sticks, plus a big frame strapped to his back.

Alf never worked or played again.

Thank you for the memory - happy days when we were kids.

John G Wildie

Briar Grove

Sandal

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Letter - Leeds paid £5 more, so he bought mum a fur coat

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