2008·152 pages·en
Publisher, ISBN & more
- Publisher
- London League
- ISBN
- 9781903659373
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Big Jack Arkwright, Jack ‘Cod’ Miller, Tommy ‘Tubby’ Thompson, Billy Dingsdale and Bill Shankland are rugby league legends. All five made their names at Wilderspool and are now founder members of the Warrington Wolves Hall of Fame. So close to glory is the story of how they and their team-mates in the club’s famous primrose and blue colours helped the club to grow in size and popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. In this period the team played in three Challenge Cup Finals and three Championship Finals. This was a time of poverty, economic hardship and mass unemployment, but Warrington RLFC became a focal point for the town and prospered. Wilderspool was transformed into a magnificent stadium, the club gained a reputation for signing top-quality Australian players, broke the world record transfer fee and even signed a player from Manchester United. This is the untold story of those two decades and is lavishly illustrated with photographs, cartoons, caricatures and cigarette cards from the period. So Close To Glory also paints a picture of what Warrington was like between the wars, from the opening of a soup kitchen to the election of the town’s first Labour MP. The book also profiles the careers of other sports stars with Warrington roots, athlete Chris Vose, jockey Steve Donoghue, cricketer George Duckworth, Channel swimmer Sunny Lowry, boxer Peter Kane and FA Cup-winning footballer Freddie Worrall. The authors, award-winning photographer Eddie Fuller and Daily Telegraph sports journalist Gary Slater, have been following Warrington’s fortunes for longer than they care to remember and this is their third book about the club.