Last updated 11:05, Friday, 15 February 2008

SOCIAL graces were not brought to the front row table in the days when scrums were scrums and props were props.

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Cumberland's 1972-73 team: back row from left: Raymond Thompson (masseur),Les Gorley, "Tally" Thompson,Eddie Bowman, Ray Morton, John Pringle, Johnny Rae, Tony Colloby, Bob Nicholson (county chairman). Front: Mike Gracey, Bob Nicholson, Phil Kitchin, Paul Charlton, John McFarlane, Frank Foster (captain), Joe Bonner, Rodney Morris.

And there used to be some rough, tough forwards about in rugby league, some likely to take your head off as soon as look at you, others like Whitehaven’s John Pringle had running power and preferred to do their damage in the open spaces.

Brought up on Kells and later Frizington, at Winder and Lingla Bank, John was not only the quickest prop at Whitehaven but he was also one of the fastest in the whole of the rugby league when there was only one division and Haven faced all the top teams.

Such as Terry Clawson, Dennis Hartley, Frank Foster, Big Jim Mills and the Martin brothers were formidable, intimidating opponents, or enforcers, before the word became fashionable.

The raw recruit from Moresby Rugby Union when he signed professional for Whitehaven in 1965 soon grew up in a hard school and became a force to be reckoned with, as his 265 appearances for the chocolate blue and gold in 14 years with Cumberland honours in the county championship thrown in testifies.

If necessary, Pringle could dish it out himself but his powerful six foot frame allied to exceptional speed for a front rower enabled the female fans pin up to keep his features intact while cutting a dash down the middle and leaving some of the less nimble types or pack horses of the day in his ‘catch me if you can’ wake.

The late lamented Jeff Bawden, of Huddersfield fame and at the time Whitehaven’s assistant coach to Jim Brough, proved a wise mentor, converting the rugby union rookie from a centre into a forward who could make tries for the backs and score more than a few himself.

“Brilliant was Jeff,” he enthused, “Whenever we were on the way back from a match on the bus, Jeff would get up and went to every player, speaking to each one individually, telling them not only if they’s had a good game or if they hadn’t where they had gone wrong, he did in such a gentle way, we didn’t feel as though we had been given a rip-roaring rollicking, Jeff just explained where you had gone wrong and made you a better player for it.”

How did you come to turn professional? – “Well there was a knock on the door one night, two blokes were standing there and asked if they could speak to Mr Pringle, the lad that plays rugby. “All right,’ I said, ‘you’ll want my younger brother (George)......’Oh, no it’s John Pringle we’re after.’

“Jim Brough, who was the Whitehaven manager, said he would like to sign me. I thought I was still learning the game but Mr Brough said ‘son, we’ve seen enough of you and we think you will make it all right.’

“Prior to that I’d played half a dozen trial matches for Workington Town in their A team, playing alongside the likes of Rodney Smith and “Spanky” McFarlane , but I was tired of being fobbed off and went back to Moresby, it was a sin then of course to play league but nobody let on.

“I hadn’t even seen a rugby ball until I was 21 and went to Moresby, just by chance because soccer was my game for a very good Windscale United team, I was playing either centre half or centre forward, just like John Charles who was my idol!

“Anyway I went down to Whitehaven, a late developer I suppose at the age of 26. Winning pay was £12 and half of that in the A team, the Recreation Ground was a bit run down, and I’ll never forget the bath in the old changing room, it was made of stone and it was so rough in places that you could cut yourself to pieces on it.

“My first team debut was at home in the second row against Blackpool,the Olympic sprinter Alf Meakin was playing for them; I wasn’t having the best of games and I heard a wag in the crowd shouting ‘Come in No. 11 you’re time’s up.’

“Anyway, we were waiting for a drop out and the ball soared over to me, I managed to catch it and went from inside our own half to score a try, I glanced up to where that voice had come from ....’ah, well, you’d better stop on a la’al bit longer,” I heard him.

“It’s funny when I first took up RL I didn’t even know any of the players, if someone had said ‘Vollenhoven’s coming up today or we’re up against the likes of Brian McTigue or John Mantle I’d say ‘who are they, lads, which positions do they play.

“I soon found that, it was hard but I started to really enjoy the game especially moving up to prop. It restricted me at first because I was a runner, but Jeff said ‘get out and run in the open spaces, it’s easier running against someone smaller than yourself. I did my job up front but when we had the ball attacking Jeff wanted me outside.”

One of Pringle’s most memorable moments came in 1971 – even thought it was in an A-team shirt!

Whitehaven won the Lancashire Shield by beating Workington Town over two legs, John played No.8 and alongside him in the front row for the second leg at The Recre was all-time great second rower Dick Huddart who was back from Australia.

“This was the first silverware for any Whitehaven team since they won the same trophy in 1955, it was my only medal from rugby league and I am very proud of the honour, also to play on the same side as Dick Huddart. “Although Dick was at the end of his career you could see the power was still there and also the flair, he had these huge hands and he just seemed to know when to take a ball and go himself or put you through.”

Pringle was in a power-packed Whitehaven pack alongside the likes of Les Moore, Eddie Bowman, Dennis Williamson, Alan Burns and his Moresby rugby union pal, John (“Trackie”) McVay, then later both the Martin brothers, Bill and Dennis.

“They were hard men, those Martins, but they were also funny men, Bill especially. I was all right playing with Bill, he would take the humpty for the youngsters so long as he knew you were doing your work, he could give it and take it, both with a smile on his face.

“Big Bill was still one of the quickest props in the game, even in his twilight. One match, he said ‘follow me’, he took the ball first receiver and went wide, stopped in the tackle and turned to give me the ball, but I was yards away and he shouted ‘where the hell have you been, Pringle.’ I said ‘Bill, I didn’t know you were still that fast, he was in his 30s then, but he cracked back ‘That’s about as far as I can go these days, lad.’

There were to be some milestone matches and historic achievements for him to share in under the coaching of the great Sol Roper, who took over from Jim Brough, and Jeff Bawden, who was to succeed Sol as first team supremo.

One of the most memorable came in September 1969: Whitehaven were sitting pretty right on top of the rugby league for the first time in their 21-year history. Wigan, Castleford, Leigh, Widnes and St Helens were directly below them. Haven did “the impossible” by beating Huddersfield away in mid week then confirmed it with a wonderful 13-9 home win over Warrington three days later.

Haven’s team was: Donnelly; Buchanan, Powe, Shimmings, Barnes; Ryan, Roper; Burns, Mike McFarlane, Bill Martin, Bowman, Pringle, Gainford.

In 19 Recre matches that season Roper’s side pulled in 40,000 spectators and signalled one of the greatest club revivals seen in rugby league. Whitehaven made it through to the Top-16 play-offs but with an way tie against mighty Wigan nobody gave them a cat in hell’s chance at Central Park.

Result: 20-20, an incredible draw in an incredible match. One report said ‘With big John Pringle playing the game of his life, tearing huge gaps in the Wigan defence, Billy McCracken and Keith Hunter equally effective, and Tom Gainford tackling everything that moved, Whitehaven ran in three first half tries to lead 13-10 at the interval...but into injury time Wigan almost brought heartbreak, second rower Dave Robinson looked a certain scorer but from nowhere came unsung hero Ron Barnes and prop John Pringle showing remarkable speed, stamina and sheer courage to drag him down in the shadow of the posts. The final whistle went, Whitehaven had defied all the odds.”

More, and even better heroics, were to follow in the replay at the Recreation Ground just 48 hours later. Doug Laughton, Bill Ashurst, Brian Hogan, Bill Francis, Colin Tyrer and Co were rocked on their heels as brave Whitehaven triumphed 9-4 in front of an ecstatic 4,000 crowds. It still ranks as one of Haven’s greatest ever wins, Dennis Martin, Gainford, McCracken and Pringle were reported to have torn star-studded Wigan to shreds. Player-coach Roper, twice felled brutally by Laughton and enforcer Ashurst, emerged battered but victorious.

“Tom Gainford in the back row was 11 and a half stone, just a bag of bones really. At times I thought his body was going to break in two because there was no drawing back with him; when you were tackled by Tom you were tackled, I’ve seen faces change colour when Tom hit an opponent fairly,” said Pringle.

What of Roper? – “Sol was a legend, of course; he could dictate a game, a quieter scrum half than Alex Murphy but he seemed to know just where to put a ball, he led by example as our player coach. If Sol wanted something done he told you or did it himself. Halfbacks then had the flair which I think is missing from the game today.

“For those two Wigan games, Sol told us just to go out and enjoy ourselves, in the first tie we were determined we were not going to be beaten by 20 or 30 points, then in the re-play everybody went out and did their damndest. Wigan were a crack team and we cracked them well out truly.”

More big games were on the way, by this time Jeff Bawden had taken the reins from Roper, and his team did well to reach the semi finals of the Lancashire Cup. Five thousand packed the Recre, but big-money Red Devils of David Watkins, Paul Charlton and Co were too classy, running out 23-9 winners. “I reckon Watkins could run backwards quicker than I could run forwards,” he quipped.Four days earlier (in September ‘73) another glamour side, St Helens, provided the opposition for the Big Switch On before a 4,000 crowd – The Recreation Ground had its floodlights but Haven were eclipsed by the Saints.

However, in between all this, Jeff Bawden in 71-72, his first season as head coach, was able to take a Whitehaven side, Pringle included, back to Central Park and beyond their wildest dreams beat Wigan on their own patch for the first time in Whitehaven’s history.

Jeff’s last season in charge saw the BBC Grandstand cameras come to Whitehaven, it was the Player’s No.6 Trophy semi-final. Bradford Northern proved too strong but the game that got them there lives long in the memory: Haven got the better of Alex Murphy’s Warrington in the home quarter final, coach Murphy was in a rage, claiming Barry Smith’s winning try was a mile offside, but for the likes of Pringle, a young Gordon Cottier and a 38-year-old prop called Keith Irving, the Recre lights sparkled.

Earlier, in October 73, John Pringle’s long wait was over. Injury had robbed him of the honour to play for Whitehaven against New Zealand in October, 65, when Les Moore proved a colossus as Haven beat the mighty Kiwis.

But in October, 73, he finally got his chance. It was Whitehaven vs New Zealand and with Pringle at No. 10, with John McFarlane and Tom Gainford in the second row, and the dashing Ray Martin loose forward, put up a fine fight show only to lose 21-8.

The wait for Pringle to get his coveted Cumberland county championship cap was almost as long!

“I played for Cumberland against the cream of Lancashire and Yorkshire, you had to play three games to win your cap, which I did but the cap never, ever came.

“Finally, one day when I had just about given up when it turned up in a cardboard box delivered to the insurance office where I worked in town, but my face dropped a bit when there was no inscription or name on it, just a fox.

“I was so disappointed, so it still sits to this day with just a fox, which could mean anything, so I would like to get my name on it before I pop my clogs, I did enough to earn it and I would like to get the proper thing.”

And Pringle did have to do it tough against the likes of Terry Clawson, Cliff Watson and Jim Mills.

“I played a fair few times against Big Jim, who wasn’t averse to having a crack with you when the scrum went down. I remember one game when someone shouted from the second row ‘will you two just be quiet.

“I was only stiff-armed once, I think it was at Rochdale, but most of the time it was give and take with a smile on your face.”

Were you ever sent off then? – “Just the once, it was against Howard (“Smiler”) Allen at Workington, there was a bit of pushing and shoving, but the referee decided we had been kicking each other, we both came off with a smile on our faces.”