Arnold Walker, one of the best half-backs to grace West Cumbrian rugby league, has died at the age of 70.
Known locally and throughout the game as Boxer, he is one of the few players to be inducted into both Workington Town and Whitehaven hall of fames, and equally admired by both sets of supporters.
One of those is former Whitehaven chairman Tom Todd who said: “To try and recount all his playing attributes would not be possible at this time but he was in three great teams.
“There was the Workington Town team that won the Lancashire cup, then subsequently an excellent Whitehaven team and for me, personally, when I was Cumbria County secretary there was that great county team that won the County Championship in both 80/81 and 81/82.
“So good was this team they eventually did away with the competition, so much did they fear the Cumbrians.
“I was fortunate enough to be on the board of directors that signed Arnold from our arch rivals Town. I can tell you it was not easy.
“Though Arnold wanted to play for his own home town team the negotiations were hard and constant for days on end. The late chairman David Whigham and the late director Ken Shepherd, worked tirelessly and the code word was – and I kid you not – ‘the eagle has landed’.
“I am not sure who celebrated most Arnold or the board.
“I can remember the day it happened like it was yesterday. For the Whitehaven club it was history writ large.
“I think few could argue that Arnold was the biggest, most important signing the club ever made. Many younger fans may not realise how big a star he was at that time.
“I think it’s also fair to say he was truly the last ‘great’ Cumbrian scrum half. We have not seen his like since, and oh is the game crying out for a player of his calibre.
“A ‘great’ player to me is a player you will go and watch even if he doesn’t play for your team. Arnold was such a player.
“You notice I use Arnold and not Boxer, and there is a reason for that. I used to work with his mother and many a time after a weekend’s game he would come into her place of work battered and bruised and you could see the anguish in her face but more than anguish – the pride.
“If people called him Boxer in her presence she would say “his name is Arnold” and thus I always followed Hettie’s injunction and always called him Arnold.
“It’s hard to sum up famous people in such circumstances but I think of Arnold, like I am sure 99 per cent of his friends do, and the first thing you do is smile – now that’s not a bad legacy either is it?
“My first thoughts when hearing of his passing were for Hazel and his family and friends. But what a family he has, hundreds and hundreds of people in West Cumbria in that great family that is rugby league who almost view Arnold as part of their own family such is the high regard in which this man was held.”
Workington Town chairman John Pleasants has also paid tribute to the club’s star scrum-half.
He said: “I would like to express our intense sadness on hearing the news that Boxer had passed away. I would also like to pass on our sincere sympathy, and heartfelt condolences to his family and close friends at this sad time.
“Boxer was a true legend, not only as an exceptional rugby league player, but as a character renowned throughout the whole of West Cumbria and his memory will live on for ever.
“As a Town fan in the 70s and 80s I experienced first hand the magic, and sometimes outright aggression of Boxer on the field, I can’t imagine many people enjoyed the prospect of playing against him at Derwent Park!! He represented whole heartedly the values and spirit of the game in that era, work hard, and play even harder.
“Boxer may have left us, but his memory will stay with us all for ever. His achievements in the game were immense. He could compete with the best at all levels of the sport, and his contribution to Workington Town was without compare.
“How to sum up his contribution? Perhaps best would be to remind everyone of the accolade paid to him regularly from the terraces at Derwent Park “BOXER WALKER WALKS ON WATER”. I am sure he could of if he had put his mind to it!!
“Rest in peace Boxer, you will never be forgotten at Derwent Park.”
Born in Kells in Whitehaven he earned the ‘Boxer’ nickname after being given a pair of boxing gloves as a child and he never seemed to have them off. “I wore them every day,” he used to recall.
He played amateur rugby league for Kells after starting in 1958 as the tiniest of mascots for the team. Once he start playing open age he was soon attracting the attention of the pro clubs, deciding in 1971 to sign for Workington Town.
Over the next nine years he accumulated 195 appearances for the Derwent Park club, scoring 53 tries, 35 drop goals and two conversions.
One of the highlights of his career at Town was guiding the side to a Lancashire Cup final win in 1977 when he landed two drop goals and was man of the match in the 16-13 win over Wigan at Warrington.
Workington, unfortunately, became a selling club in the late 1970’s and in 1980 for a fee of £30,000 Boxer was transferred from Town to Whitehaven.
But his career at the Recreation Ground was severely curtailed by injuries. In October 1981, he suffered a serious neck injury in a match against Hull KR, resulting in the match being abandoned.
In typical gritty fashion he fought back from that injury to play again but he had to hang up his boots after suffering a second injury at the start of the 1983’84 season against Widnes.
International recognition came during his time at Whitehaven when he was selected to play for England against France and also for Great Britain versus New Zealand, one cap each.
For the last 12 months he has been battling cancer in typically determined fashion but in the end it was the one opponent he couldn’t get the better of.
