AIrving

Last updated 01:00, Thursday, 13 September 2007

IT was something special for a talented young Cumbrian to play on the same side as Brian Bevan, the Australian wonder winger at Warrington. Louis Shepherd recalls the time in the mid-50s when he was invited to Wilderspool for trials with Warrington, one of the powers of the game in a golden era.

“There they all were, all these household names, not only Bevan, but the likes of Ray Price, Jim Challinor, Albert Naughton and Harry Bath. It was an honour for me to be rubbing shoulders with them.

“Ces Mountford, the great coach, put me into the team for a trial match. I was in the centre alongside Laurie Gilfedder, who went on to play for Great Britain as a loose forward on the 1962 Tour when we won the Ashes. I enjoyed it but it only lasted a week before I was back home.

“I could have signed for Warrington but it would have meant moving down to Lancashire to live, and I wanted to stay at home.”

The teenager had a chat on his return with another famous Aussie – Nev Emery, the ex-Wallaby union international who was coaching Whitehaven. Lou signed, instead, for his home-town club.

In 13 seasons at the Recreation Ground Louis Shepherd became one of the most rugged no-nonsense backs to wear the chocolate blue and gold.

He was a kind of Mike Sullivan of The Recre, an enforcer of the back division.

The man whose father christened him after the “Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis, when he won the heavyweight boxing title in 1938, proved intimidating. But it was strength allied to skill and the sort of speed that saw him run in the Army championships in Berlin’s Olympic stadium on the same track as the great Jesse Owens.

With the sine-die suspension soon to be lifted, Lou won a place on the wing in a magnificent Cumberland team. Lou was in the sides which won two county championship (1963 and ‘66) as well as playing against the Kangaroos at Workington in ‘63, having made his county debut as a 20-year-old in 1958.

It was a natural progression from the rich promise of his Hensingham amateur rugby league days when outstanding performances for Cumberland (open age, under-18 as well as under-21 shield winners) brought him international recognition for Great Britain under-21’s alongside John (“Loppy Lugs”) O'Neill and Ian Coles.

In a Whitehaven side abounding with star backs, including his cousin Syd Lowdon, the young man from Bigrigg made his first team debut against the Oldham of Bernard Ganley, Alan Davies, Rocky Turner etc and he was soon to make an impact in more ways than one.

But it wasn’t the best of starts for a happy-go-lucky 19-year-old; he had his first serious brush with the RL lawmakers – and it ended in a sine-die suspension no less.

One uncompromising clash saw the ref call him over: ‘What’s your name,’ demanded the man with the whistle? ‘It’s in the programme,’ Lou replied brashly. ‘Then it’s an early bath for you,’ said the referee.

Rugby League’s disciplinary committee were not amused, especially as Lou didn’t appear before them. “No one told me I had to,” he told me. “My only defence was concussion,” he laughed.

Not many wings or centres relished man marking Lou Shepherd and although he could play a bit he soon established a reputation as a teak-tough three-quarter not to be taken liberties with.

As Vince Karalius, the game’s legendary hard man, was also to discover to his cost.

“It was in our county championship year of 63, Cumberland were playing Lancashire at Workington, and I clouted Karalius. I think I knocked him off the field.

“We were playing Australia also at Derwent Park a week or two later and apparently Vinty had told the Aussies to look out for this loopy bloke up in Cumberland, I didn’t know this at the time. Also before the match Jim Brough told me that the Kangaroos hard man winger Peter Diamond was going to bray me, but Diamond lasted five minutes before he was carried off.

“I got off lucky; all the Aussies went after Eric Bell because he was wearing the jersey Karalius had told them to look out for, so it was Ecky who got clattered, he was in the centre and I was out on the wing which was a bit easier after Diamond went off.”

So you were a bit of a hard player yourself? – “It was the only way I knew, you chanced your arm a time or two.”

Didn’t Karalius say he’d never been tackled by anyone harder than you, it was like going through a brick wall? “So I keep hearing, but these tales seem to get bigger every time we come home,” he joked.

What’s not in dispute is the fact that Louis Shepherd became the first man to be sent to a rugby league sin-bin while playing for Workington Town. He was frog-marched out of Craven Park by the police for fighting, even though he wasn’t even on the field.

“We were at Hull Kingston Rovers and I was credited with starting a fight from the bench. What happened was that this Hull KR fella was going to hit Boxer Walker on the touchline within striking distance of the bench where I was sitting, so I got to the bloke before he got to Boxer, he was only a kid and he was going to get hurt.

“I saw what was going to happen next and I stopped it. The ref brought two policeman across and said ‘get that man out of the ground’. Which they did and I finished up out on the street until half time with these two coppers until they let me back in.

“Mr Keane, from Oldham, the referee, had some explaining to do to the Rugby League but my mate, “Smiler” Allen was to blame for getting it in headlines – he told the Daily Mirror.”

What made you join the old enemy then? – “Well, I’d broken my arm and after being at Whitehaven 13 years I wasn’t given the benefit I was promised, just a note saying ‘your services are no longer required’.

“I got my revenge by going to Workington. I lied to Tom Mitchell about my age, knocking three years off, but Tom was a smart man and would know I was only really conning myself.

“My first match for Town was against St Helens at Derwent Park, it was rated one of the dirtiest games ever seen on television....the Martyn brothers were going hell for leather.”

Didn’t you play for Town in the 1970 Lancashire Shield (A team) final against Haven: “Yeah, because Whitehaven decided play Tiger Huddart who had just come back from Australia I was put in for one main reason, it was just to niggle Dick – I couldn’t do much else against him at my age.”

In his early years at Whitehaven, Louis Shepherd played in the club’s greatest teams, starting with Nev Emery’s 1957 Challenge Cup side alongside the likes of McKeown, Huddart, Lowdon, Robinson,Banks and the skipper Billy Garratt – “He was just superb. Bill McAlone, well he was our icon. I think I was frightened of Mac, you did what he told you to do or else.

“Bill Smith was one of the wings when I arrived, then when I made the team Bill gave me a taste of the hard stuff, Billy came up with this brilliant plan to stop the great Lewis Jones, I was to go in first, then he would double round and take him, too, but it ended up with Bill kicking me in the mouth. I lost two teeth, Boxing Day, too.

“Another time I was expected to play at Wigan even though I had injured fingers. The daft thing was that before the match I ended up in Wigan’s dressing room sat between Billy Boston and Eric Ashton while a doctor pumped cocaine into my fingers before I could play.

“I signed for Whitehaven in ‘56 but I didn’t make the Cup side. For the semi final there was a change of plan which was to bring Syd (Lowdon) off the wing to mark Lewis Jones in the centre.

“John Tembey was taken out, so it meant a winger to replace Syd. It was between me and Ronnie Mullinder from Egremont. Ronnie was a bit older and more experienced than me, so he got the call.”

Louis missed out again in 1960 when “Eppie” Gibson took Haven on another big Cup run which ended in the quarter final clash with Wakefield Trinity and an 18,500 crowd packing The Recre.

“I’d expected to be involved but that was before a shock defeat at home by York. It seems I was the man responsible, I was made a scapegoat and a forward (Ron Morgan) was picked ahead of me on the wing.”

But you must have been in the frame for the big game against New Zealand in 1966? – “No, even though I didn’t pack in at Whitehaven until I broke my arm in ‘69, this was the first year I retired, I actually retired on several occasions. I fell out with Jim Brough that time.”

Lots of stars, but the team mate Louis most admired was a 100 per cent clubman, the late Hedley Rodgers, killed tragically in a mining accident at the age of 49. “Hedley’s attitude to life and sport was the best. I also lost three of my best friends from the team, John Tembey, Alan Burns and Gary Close, who was best man at my wedding.”

Who was the hardest man for you to tackle? – “Billy Boston, he was unique. I played against Billy a few times, I used to start under his arm-pits, if you went for his hips you just couldn’t get your arms round him, but whatever you did nine times out of ten he trampled all over you and made the line.

“Tom Van Vollenhoven was lightning fast and elusive, maybe halfway in style between Boston and Brian Bevan.

“It was an experience for a young lad to train with a legend like Bev, mind you we had to wait an hour for me to come on to the field, by the time he had got himself kitted up and all his bandages on.”

Shep’s eventual and sometimes tempestuous Whitehaven career almost proved relatively short.

“Dorothy and I were planning to go out to Australia in 1962 right after I was demobbed from the Army. A great lad called George Killen, who played for Whitehaven and Huddersfield at prop, was due back here on holiday from Australia and when he got back he said he was going to fix me up with a club Down Under.

“Sadly, George stopped off in Angola and got killed fighting in the Congo as a mercenary.”

Lou was the first winger to partner Eppie Gibson at Whitehaven and he takes a lot of pride in being the last man to mark Gentleman Jimmy Lewthwaite in his swan-song at Barrow.

The final chapter in the colourful Louis Shepherd rugby story was told where it started, in the amateur code, not at Hensingham but rivals Egremont where the Rangers were on the road to revival under Don Wilson.

“He was a hard man,” said Don, “so much so that I remember we were due to play in a final down at Whitehaven. Louis had been out with an injured arm, but he was so desperate to play that he took the plaster off, he shouldn’t have done but that was Louis who came along at the right time for us and helped get the club back on a sound footing.”

Nothing gave Shepherd greater pleasure than turning out for Egremont at the same time as his four sons, Clive, Neil, Kevin and Nigel, who have all done exceedingly well for themselves Down Under along with daughter Jacquie.

In the professional ranks, representing Cumberland against the ‘63 Australians was one of the Shepherd highlights.

“I reckon they were the best Kangaroos touring side ever. Langlands was at his peak and while we got rid of Diamond early on I was still up against a guy called Mick Cleary, who had been an Olympic sprinter.”

After staying with friends once again in Whitehaven, taking in a game or two at The Recre, Louis and his wife Dorothy have just returned to Australia, home for the last 28 years.

They love the way of life; Lou having working as a fitter building trains; his Hensingham-born wife (nee Burns) as trade consultant with the British Consulate General in Melbourne.

Now they’re in Tarago, New South Wales, nicely out in the sticks but only a couple of hours drive from top class rugby league.

“State of Origin, now that’s something, the best and toughest in the world,” – a drop of the Louis Shepherd-type hard stuff maybe!