Leigh Centurions • 85/86 to 86/7 seasons

1) 85/6 Althoughthe loss of Woods left a massive hole, Murphy covered this position by signing underrated uttility player John Kerr and Trevor Cogger a stand off from Australia. Added to this, there were stalwarts like Jeff Clarke, Des Drummond, Phil Fox, Derek Pyke and Ray Tabern, and also astute signings from local amateur teams like John Henderson, Tony Cottrell and Chris Johnson. But the icing on the cake was the signing of Steve Halliwell, who had been out for a year injured in Aussie. A one season wonder, he not only broke the Leigh record for scoring tries in. season, he also set a world record of 48 tries in the centre position. This side was far to good for the 2nd division with pace to burn, and won 33 out of 34 matches with 1,156 points scored in those games.
Highlights included an upset win over Widnes in the JPT trophy 35-31 in front of over 8,000 at H.P., and a brave display against Hull KR in the 3rd round of the Challenge Cup infrint if 7,925. Then on a cool Wednesday evening in late April at Hilton Park I saw anther record as Keighley were hammered 92-2, with Halliwell crossing for 5 tries and Johnson kicking 14 goals and a try.
Chris Johnson kicked an amazing 171 goals and proved a worthy successor to Woody in the goalkicking stakes, while apart from Halliwell, Fix scored 29, Drummond 21, Jerr 16 and Johnson 14. As for Alex., he left again mid season for another big brother in St. Helens, but Tommy Dickens proved a more than able deputy.
2) 86/87 Bacm in the first division proved to be very tough with only 3 wins in the first 13 matches which saw arch rivals Wigan complete a double without conceding a point, losing 35-0 and 31-0!! But then a change of coach to Billy Benyon saw an amazing revival. In the Challenge cup, a run to the semi final included a superb 12 -8 at Hull. This meant a meeting with Saints at Wigan, and one of may worst disappointments, when winger Ian McCulloch looked a certain scorer in the corner, when Barrie Ledger came out of nkwrer to nab him just short of the line. We went on to lose by just 14-8, but meanwhile the league form was picking up to the extent that 8 of the l ast 11 games were won, including a last match of the season at Wilderspool, still needing victory to stay up. This was a clever with 2 Henderson tries and a Johnson goals.
Yet again Chris Johnson starred with 84 goals and John Henderson crossed over for a very creditable 27 tries in the first division, as we eventually finished 10th.
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Statistics: Posted by CHEADLE LEYTHER — Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:05 pm — Replies 0 — Views 38

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