It will be 50 years this November since the most famous rugby union game played in Workington.
The Ellis Sports Ground had 12,000 packed in for the visit of the All Blacks on November 22,1972 when they were taken on and beaten by the North West Counties, a combined side from Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria.
It was the first time an English club or regional team had ever beaten New Zealand and there was a fair sprinkling of Cumbrians – Peter Dixon, Chris Wardlow, Dickie Cowman and my old school pal David Robinson.
Our editor at the Times & Star Graham Atkinson decided to go big on the game so I was reporting alongside Eric Easterbrook and the finest dual-rugby player that Cumberland has produced, Jim Brough.
Jim had played for England at Twickenham before turning professional with Leeds and going on to represent and skipper Great Britain.
It was Jim who was to negotiate for Gus Risman, a former team-mate with Great Britain, to take the job as player-manager with the fledgling Workington Town club.
He later coached Town and took them to two Wembley finals while also coaching Great Britain on an eventful tour of Australia.
More of Jim later, but the match was a pulsating affair which the combined Counties side won 16-14.
It was an All Blacks side stronger than you would normally expect from a mid-week fixture on tour. Five of them started against Wales ten days later.
The tourists led 10-9 at half-time with the hosts on the scoreboard through a Stuart Maxwell try, Cowman conversion and Wardlow drop goal.
Wardlow’s ferocious tackling was a feature of the game from the Cumbrian prospective and I recall Jim Brough being particularly complimentary on his defensive stint.
An unconverted try (worth four points back then) extended the All Blacks lead before Cowman kicked a penalty to close the gap to just two points.
The Ellis erupted deep into the contest when a short line-out was palmed down to Fran Cotton who barged through, found Cowman in support and via Wardlow the ball went out to Maxwell to score his second – and the winning try.
Jim, of course, had played when Cumberland first won the County RU Championship in 1924 at Carlisle beating Kent 14-3.
He always recalled the scene at the final whistle when it seemed a thousand bowler hats went high in the air – and probably never found their rightful owners.
There weren’t any bowler hats on show in 1972 but the crowd reaction at the end was equally enthusiastic. Spectators invaded the pitch and Cotton was carried off shoulder-high by his jubilant team-mates.
Unfortunately those joyous scenes were soured an hour later at the after match dinner when Jim was refused entry to the clubhouse – all because the former England international had turned professional 47 years earlier. But those were the times we operated in.
Eric and I were walking out in protest when Jim persuaded us to go back as he had rather expected the snub.
Apparently, as reminiscences in later years have revealed, we missed the big story. For afterwards when the two teams were together in a local hotel some of the shenanigans that had gone on during the game spilled over into the television lounge!
Cotton himself said recently: “I’m not sure this has ever come out but it all kicked off that evening at the hotel after the dinner at the New Zealand team hotel,.
“The Kiwis weren’t taking it well because they had been down to 14 men when Stuart scored our winning try.
“Lyn Colling seemed to have taken a knock and they were trying to rush Sid Going straight on but the protocol in those days was quite clear. The player being replaced had to be examined first by the match doctor.
“On the touch-line our coach John Burgess rightly insisted that the correct procedure take place and on the TV coverage you can see Sid sprinting on just before we score our try.
“So they weren’t happy and then later that night in the TV room – hotels had them back then – the Kiwis wanted to watch highlights of the Ali-Foster fight that had taken place in the USA overnight.
“We on the other hand were pretty keen to watch Sportsnight with Coleman which had our match highlights and an interview with Carwyn James discussing the events of the day.
“The Kiwis turned on the boxing at which point Chris Wardlow, who could be a bit mad, got up and turned it back to BBC for the rugby. This didn’t amuse Keith Murdoch – who hadn’t been playing that day.
“Keith basically lifted Chris up by his hair and evicted him from the room. At which point it all got a bit tasty before we decided we wanted to watch the rugby more than we wanted another fight so we went to a nearby pub.”
