When I started playing rugby at the age of 10 in 1973, the first game I went to see was at Waterloo, but the second was Orrell, and for some reason they captured my heart. For the next 5 or 6 years, Saturday afternoons were about watching Orrell and Lancashire, until the joys(?) of the fairer sex and the need to get a part-time job to pay for dates with the previously mentioned creatures, altered my Saturday habits.
Billy Lyon, John Carleton, Barry Fishwick, Phil Moss, Peter Williams, Dave Gullick, Will Aspden, etc etc heroes all.
Back then I used to collect autographs, and I think I was the first person to ever ask John Carleton for his, as I remember running on the pitch at the end of his debut, thrusting my book in front of him and asking him to sign. He did, but as he took the pen and book from my hand, he said, "Who? Me?" He was genuinely surprised that anyone would ask him.
It's so sad to see where Orrell are now, one of the victims of the change to professionalism.