By Alan Irving

Last updated at 11:58, Thursday, 02 August 2012

“A HANDY fella to have around, one of the best,” says Bill McAlone.

Honour: Bobby Vincent, pictured centre, with pack-mates John Tembey and Bill McAlone, receiving their Cumberland county caps

Whitehaven’s legendary pack leader was never prone to handing out praise lightly but this week he was speaking about the late Bobby Vincent, the good friend he fought many a battle alongside in the most feared forward pack to wear the chocolate blue and gold.

Many Haven forwards of the era built up their strength working down the pit – Bobby was an exception. He carried carcasses in a nearby slaughterhouse.

Bill McAlone was among many ex-players who packed St Andrew’s Church, Mirehouse, for Vincent’s funeral service last Thursday.

Afterwards Bill said: “Bobby Vincent was as good as anybody in the front row, he was also a loyal friend.”

Bobby played so well in the early rounds of the Whitehaven’s iconic Challenge Cup run of 1957 that Mighty Mac, generally regarded as Whitehaven’s greatest prop, couldn’t get back into the side for the semi-final.

Bill recalled this week: “Our team beat St Helens, Hunslet and Widnes to get to Odsal, I’d been out injured and Neville Emery didn’t want to change a winning pack, so Bobby and Ray Donaldson kept the front row spots – nothing I could do about it – but it was good that the club kept me with them right through the Cup run.”

Former Haven skipper and Great Britain Test stand-off Phil Kitchin always talks fondly of how Bobby sent him over for a try on his county debut, the famous Recreation Ground night when Cumberland walloped Yorkshire in 1960 when all-time great second rower Dick Huddart scored a hat-trick playing in the centre opposite Neil Fox.

Back in 1999, when Bobby was 67 years old, he told me the secret of his teak-tough fitness – it was his occupation in Whitehaven Abattoir, just a stone’s throw from the Recreation Ground.

“I had one of the hardest jobs in Great Britain,” he said. “I would lug those great slabs of beef around in my arms and over my back - 356lbs was the heaviest I ever carried, four quarters of bull.”

Bobby – a former junior with Kells and Distington – was adamant that the forwards of his era were every bit as fit as today’s full-time Super League packmen.

“I could speak for all of us at Whitehaven then in saying we were just as fit even though we only trained a couple of nights a week and were playing on sludgy grounds a lot of the time.

“Most of us did hard manual jobs, many of the lads grafted down the pits and so we got this so-called upper-body strength naturally. After leaving the slaughterhouse I also had another fairly hard job up at Marchon; no doubt about it we had strength and dedication. We were also a happy bunch, with a lot of spirit.”

That spirit took the team to the semi of the Challenge Cup when a Jeff Stevenson “drop goal” robbed Whitehaven of a place at Wembley. The club has never been as far since.

“Leeds were a great side but we were better on the day and deserved to go to Wembley,” reflected Bobby. “Even after Stevenson’s goal we got a penalty. John McKeown came up to go for goal, it was way inside our own half towards the touchline but Mac said: ‘Didn’t ga far away, it’s gan ower’.’

“Believe it or not it dropped just short of the posts, it was a helluva kick, even though it missed.”

Strong men were not ashamed to shed a few tears in that dejected Odsal dressing room and Bobby was no exception.

Three years on and he was still in the front row alongside pack leader McAlone when Haven established another milestone finishing sixth in the league when there was only one division and played Wakefield Trinity at home in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals when a record 18,500 plus crowd packed the old Recre.

Bobby admitted: “Trinity (Don Fox, Rocky Turner etc) were the better footballing side and they had a great pack, but the hardest team I ever played against were Widnes, home or away.”

Turner at Wakefield and Vince Karalius (St Helens and Widnes) were among the toughest he battled with, but none harder than McAlone.

“I admired Mac. I would switch from blind side to open side prop whenever Bill was out and that happened in the ‘57 Cup run when he’d been injured.”

Packing down behind the likes of Bill, Bob, Ray Donaldson and John Tembey in two great sides were back-rowers Geoff Robinson, Steve McCourt, Bill Holliday and, in ‘57, a teenage Dick Huddart.

“It’s nice to think we helped ‘The Tiger’ on his way,” Bobby laughed. “Young Dick went right to the top, best in the world but I’m not blowing our own trumpet when I say it counts a lot does a good front row.”

First published at 11:05, Thursday, 02 August 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk