By Alan Irving

Last updated 16:02, Wednesday, 17 September 2008

WHEN Bill Smith says “I did it my way” there are few who played with, or for him, in Cumbrian rugby league who would attempt to disagree.

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Toast of the Town: Coaches Harry Archer and Bill celebrate Town’s promotion success in 1984

Whether it was starring for Workington Town and Cumberland, coaching Town and Whitehaven or at the grass roots with Egremont Rangers, Wath Brow Hornets and Millom, Bill went about his work without fear or favour. His straight-talking motivational powers were renowned as was his ability to turn out entertaining, winning teams.

As a player Bill was good enough to play in Super League today. As a coach the former Beckster Engineering welder’s tenacious character and outspoken manner didn’t allow him to take rugby fools lightly on or off the field, not a man to allow things to stand in the way of licking his teams into successful shape.

There was one barrier, however, he never really managed to shift – this was in the shape of Harry Archer.

Had it not been for Archer, then Smithy would have played far more first team games for Workington Town, at the time one of the best club sides in Cumberland RL history. The lad who started out at Wath Brow with the likes of Bill (“Happy”) Holliday and the late Alan Burns seemed to be the eternal understudy to one of the most brilliant halfbacks in the game during the late 50s and early 60s.

Archer and Smith have remained firm friends to this day and never for one moment did Bill wish that Harry would fall down and break a limb!

Bill had his moments, usually when Harry or Sol Roper, the other half of the great Town double act, got injured; it meant he could plug the gap either at stand-off or scrum-half. Which he did with such ability and aplomb that the county selectors had no hesitation in calling him up when needed.

Perhaps his biggest honour came in 1966 when he helped Cumberland win the county championship. A team that was truly outstanding under Brian Edgar’s captaincy and which the following year beat the Australian Test side!

Smithy got the chance to play his part at scrum-half in the absence of the injured Sol, which meant that he and Harry paired up. Paul Charlton, Tony Colloby and Eddie Brennan were among the backs but what a pack of forwards to choose from for that championship series: Brian Edgar, Les Moore, Bill Holliday, Frankie Foster, Matty McLeod, Bill and Dennis Martin, Malcolm Moss, Spanky McFarlane and a young Billy Pattinson.

Neither will he forget another county game, being paired up with Phil Kitchin, then at Whitehaven. “It was a muddy pitch at Whitehaven, Phil scored two tries against Lancashire but he came off spotless, whereas you couldn’t see me and “Ecky” Bell for muck. Young “Kitch” had just been picked for his Test debut against New Zealand, I got hold of him and said ’better get your finger out today, Phil, or it will be me not Danny Gardiner giving you a smack; you’re playing for Cumberland, never mind Great Britain. I ended up hitting Danny a pearler, three days later Danny and me were trotting out together in the same Town team,”

When Bill signed for Workington Town, the team had just been to Wembley and the legendary Jim Brough was coach.

“What an awesome side, I was 18 when I went to Derwent Park from Wath Brow, as raw as hell. I’d been playing for Moresby rugby union as well but preferred league. That same year the great Bill Holliday and the late Alan Burns went to Whitehaven. It’s funny because I was playing for Wath Brow in a cup final against Kells; Eppie Gibson said ‘I’m impressed with what I’ve seen, would you like to have a trial at Whitehaven?’

“I said ‘I’ve already had three, Eppie’ – anyway Billy Miller just lived up the road at Moresby, got Tom Mitchell involved and I was off to Town.

“When I went down to Derwent Park it was a team of bloody stars. I suppose this is what held me back. I learned a lot but Harry (Archer) would tell ‘Ecky’ everything and me nowt. You just kept your lugs open and watched. We still laugh about it today, it was a pleasure being with Harry.

“I knew I would have to bide my time, if Archer got injured I played stand-off and if it was Sol scrum-half; it didn’t bother us playing in the A team, many a time we were up against internationals at Wigan and St Helens. I was there seven years and only played about 60 first team games.

“In the end I had a bit of a ‘do’ with Tom Mitchell. All because my boots weren’t in the skip to go and play at Leeds one Saturday. Tom played hell but it wasn’t my fault. I told him: ‘You didn’t come for me until half past ten last night; I was supposed to be playing in the A team but now you want me to go with the first team at Headingley; Sol had cried off so I agreed to stand in.

“But when I went for the bus Mr Mitchell kicked off again. I said ‘if that’s your attitude. Tom, you can stick it up your backside I never went back’.

“A pity, I was still only 25 and starting to play good rugby and Harry was passing his peak, so in the end it was Kitch who went to Workington from Whitehaven and took the No.6 shirt, that’s life.”

Did you ever think of playing professionally anywhere else? “Only once really; it was after I’d been struck off by Town. I was playing for Millom in the annual Sevens down at Blackpool. At the end of the competition Blackpool directors asked me ‘can you come back down on Tuesday night and play for us against Leeds on Saturday’ but I wasn’t all that fit. I was just getting up to go when this bloke put some money in me top pocket. ‘That’ll do for your expenses’......I went into the bar to get a drink, looked into me pocket and there was two quid.

“You can guess what I said to that lot!

“At Workington I just enjoyed my rugby wherever I was playing. It was special to come up against Boston, Murphy, Hardisty, Hepworth and all the top men, including the great Lewis Jones. We were playing Leeds at Headingley, and Harry said ‘don’t worry about that Lewis Jones’. Anyway Jones scored a try and I said ‘what are we doing to do about Lewis Jones, then Harry?’ You can’t print his reply!

“I remember playing against him on Lonsdale Park, Town first team against second, this was when Edgar and Ces Thompson had a big fight, knocking hell out of one another. You had to be on the same field as Archer to appreciate all his skills but Harry used to like knocking me down; he had a bit of a mean streak. He told me ‘Billy, lad, do you never get sick of coming,’.....all I said was that at the moment Harry you’re better than me but you don’t frighten us. He was a great bloke, we still meet up and have a crack.”

What was the difference between you? – “Well, I remember Tom Mitchell saying before we had the fall out that my approach to the game was very uncompromising, that I never took a backward step. Nothing much got past me in defence, I think I also had it up top to play a bit of football. When Harry first came to Workington (from The Zebras) they reckoned he couldn’t tackle to save his life.”

So what would it have taken to oust Harry from the No.6 shirt? “For him to retire I’d say!

“Once at Featherstone I was playing against Carl Dooler, who was an international. I scored a hat-trick against him but the following week I was back in the Workington A team.”

After leaving Town, Bill returned to his roots at Wath Brow as player/coach.

“At the time the Hornets were getting stuffed, but I got them fit and organised, and we went on to win the league. Dick Armstong was A team coach, and we had some good young lads coming through like Ronnie Proud, Brian Rose and big Sid Carson.”

Another player/coach role took Bill to Millom. “I was there for three years, we did all right. The lads gave 100 per cent all the time, they were bouncing and fit, then David Wigham came along and said’ how do you fancy coming to Whitehaven for the coaching job?’ I did.”

Yet it ended in tears? – “Yeah, I was up at Hensingham, a bloke came into the club and said ‘Dave Wigham wants to see you in the car park’. David said:’ I’m sorry, Billy, we’ve had a Board meeting and we’re sacking you. It seems as though you have gone as far as you can’. I said ‘fair enough but why don’t you get us in front of the Board and let’s see their bloody faces?’ At the finish I said: ‘David you are a very brave man because I just feel like smacking you’. I was sick as the proverbial parrot, it hurt.”

After that, it was back to Millom as coach again as a prelude to rejoining Harry Archer at Workington. “Harry was in charge of the first team, I was A team coach and fitness conditioner.”

You got them promotion didn’t you? – “Sure, but Harry was a wiser man than me. He obviously saw that what we had wasn’t going to be any good in the first division. Harry packed in, went out at the top. I was given the job and Jackie Davidson came in with me.

“I remember sitting in the bath one night after training when Jackie came in with the team sheet saying he didn’t agree with this or that, so I just said to Jackie ‘here’s the bloody sheet, pick the team yourself’. After a while, he came back and said’ you’re bloody right, marra’.

“We could only pick from what we’d got. Once at Oldham, we couldn’t get five of the players off the bus, they were playing cards at the back. I had to go and ask them to get changed to play. Our Gary had just signed and I thought ‘fancy him having to play with a heap like this’, we were getting stuffed and at half time I gave them a right going over at half time. Coming back on the bus John Bell (director) says ‘Billy, they’re not playing for you lad’ ......I said, ‘John, they’re not playing for the club. There’s cancer here and if you don’t get shot of it there’s going to be more of the same’.

“Upshot was that they sacked us and Jackie took over. Same thing happened to him after one season.

“We had brilliant lads like David Beck, Alan Sewell, big Harry Beverley, and Paul Grimes who’d go through a brick wall for you, it was just some of the others who were a waste of time.”

After another parting of the ways, it was off to Egremont Rangers coaching top amateurs such as Mark Bawden, Alan Kelly and Great Britain scrum-half John Brocklebank.

“One day I played Brocky on the wing at Ellenborough, he said ‘what you doing that for?’ I said ‘Murdock’s playing, you’re terrified of him!

“I am putting la’al Peter Hall in at scrum half, he’ll battle with Murdock. At half-time it wasn’t going so well, so I told Brocky I was putting him back in at scrum-half ...and he played Ellenborough on his own.”

“Brocky always said ‘there’s one thing about you, mate, there’s no back doors. If you’ve something to say you’ll say it’. Sometimes I wish I could have got a bit more out of him but we respected each other, John reckoned I was innovative, always coming up with something new; Kenny Evans at Millom said ‘Smithy you are 10 years ahead of your time, you work the ball all the time’.

“My view is that if you get blokes fit, then when you give them the ball in training they don’t even know they are doing the boring stuff like 10 laps and 50 sprints. The ball is kingpin, I think there’s far too much kicking done under the rules today.”

You won a few things at Egremont? – “Oh, aye. We won the National League and the National Cup. This was after Ian (Hartley) became player/coach and I moved back to assistant. I’d had enough of all the travelling, then I got a bad injury at work and could hardly walk, let alone run. That was it, I’d been involved in rugby for 40 years, I packed in and it’s never bothered me.

“In the words of that song ’I did it my way’ that was me, I didn’t take anything from anybody, like.

“Frank Foster, another mate, was the same. Frank actually got me to go and play for him at Barrow, it was supposed to be as A team coach but I finished up playing a full season in the first team, I was 33, Dennis (Stonewall) Jackson and me were the half-backs.”

Bill’s son, Gary, also enjoyed a distinguished career in the game, following in father’s footsteps, both for Town and Cumberland, having the honour of playing against both New Zealand and Australian Tourists. He was full-back in the county side which defeated the Kiwis at Whitehaven in 1980.

Who was the better player father or son? – “ Gary had a bit more flair than me. He was light but quick and showed he had plenty of bottle the way he came back from so many injuries.”

Now there’s a third generation taken up the game, Gary’s 14-year-old daughter, Kendall, who goes to Whitehaven School and has been selected for North West Counties against Yorkshire at Castleford a week on Saturday.

“She’ a speedy winger, lacks a la’al bit tackling-wise but she’ll learn.”

Grandfather Bill was a hard taskmaster: “Once I got the bit between my teeth that was it it, I couldn’t do anything half hearted. I never minced my words, what’s the point?”