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Post by red54 on Mar 6, 2019 16:22:55 GMT
Pal of mine in Wales said Dai is suffering that horrendous disease, Dementia, sad, in my opinion and probably only my opinion he is the Greatest Salford player. When I was 15 I heard he was opening a Garden Party at Henshaws on Eccles Old Road. I cycled down hoping to see him, as I got there he was just getting in to his E Type Jag. I asked him if he would sign my Semi Final Program, he said yes, my only problem I had left it at home, so I cycled back to Cholmondly Rd, got it and cycled back. He was sat in his car waiting.
How many Sportsmen would do that these days, Gentleman and Top Bloke.
i still have the programme and treasure it.
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Post by SalfordSlim on Mar 6, 2019 16:46:50 GMT
Great story and definitely not something you'd see much of these days! Wish there was more footage around of some of our past greats for relatively young whippersnappers like myself (41š) to enjoy.
Sorry to hear about the great man's illness and wish him and his family all the best.
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Post by bonitared on Mar 6, 2019 17:19:00 GMT
Iād heard something similar.
So very sad.
Had the pleasure to meet him just before we left the Willows. He said all the right things.
Iāve no idea whether he was the best red ever,impossible to compare with players we havenāt seen, but heās the best Iāve had the privilege to watch.
Lightning fast,big heart and lots of class.
Iāll repeat what the great John Atkinson said when he realised that Keith Fielding had scored 49 tries playing outside DW.
āReckon Iād have scored 149 playing outside Watkinsā
Brings a tear to my eye.
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Post by russ on Mar 6, 2019 17:42:18 GMT
Always sad to hear news like this, he is a top person.
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Post by salford1963 on Mar 6, 2019 19:04:06 GMT
Really sad newsš¢
There was talk of getting a few of the old boys back together this year as Keith Fielding is 70 in July. I think it is planned for the Hull game on 7th April if my memory serves.
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Post by johnh1 on Mar 6, 2019 19:30:34 GMT
Great story and definitely not something you'd see much of these days! Wish there was more footage around of some of our past greats for relatively young whippersnappers like myself (41š) to enjoy. Sorry to hear about the great man's illness and wish him and his family all the best. Sadly I am much older than you. I saw him at The Willows on his debut and many, many times since. Best player ever? Not sure. But for me, he is the one who the great team of the late 60's and early 70's was built around. No doubt that he is one of our all time greats. |
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Post by dixon13 on Mar 6, 2019 19:33:00 GMT
David Watkins.The best I have ever seen in a Salford shirt.Newport Wales The British Lions in Union.Great Britain Wales and also coached Great Britain in Australia in League.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2019 19:58:40 GMT
Such terribly sad news, I remember Eric once telling me he was the silkiest player he'd ever seen and along with Chris Hesketh was one of the most genuinely nice blokes he'd ever met. So sad we didn't know about his illness before last weekend as would have been an ideal opportunity to celebrate our greatest ever Welsh RU convert near St Davids and raise some money for www.dementiauk.org |
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Post by JJR on Mar 6, 2019 20:49:00 GMT
My memory of the great man was of Alex Murphy flattening him on half way near touch: Murphy went after everyone who changed codes and got big money. Watkins was brought round, poured some water over his head and kicked the resulting long range penalty goal to win the match.
To his credit Murphy congratulated him and walked off the field with his arm round him.
Also when kicking the ball to touch Watkins always seemed to gain 40/50 yards unlike the paltry 20/30 in today's game.
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Post by johnh1 on Mar 6, 2019 21:41:35 GMT
My memory of the great man was of Alex Murphy flattening him on half way near touch: Murphy went after everyone who changed codes and got big money. Watkins was brought round, poured some water over his head and kicked the resulting long range penalty goal to win the match. To his credit Murphy congratulated him and walked off the field with his arm round him. Also when kicking the ball to touch Watkins always seemed to gain 40/50 yards unlike the paltry 20/30 in today's game. He had this ability, as a right footed kicker, when kicking to the right hand touch, to spiral the kick so that it went parallel to touch for a long way before changing direction and going into touch on the way down. Could never understand how he did that. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2019 21:50:12 GMT
My memory of the great man was of Alex Murphy flattening him on half way near touch: Murphy went after everyone who changed codes and got big money. Watkins was brought round, poured some water over his head and kicked the resulting long range penalty goal to win the match. To his credit Murphy congratulated him and walked off the field with his arm round him. Also when kicking the ball to touch Watkins always seemed to gain 40/50 yards unlike the paltry 20/30 in today's game. I know this going OT and I know people will decry this but the kicking from hand to touch is a RU trait that is taught in the younger days, in RL kicking for touch is an afterthought, you only have to look at how far Watkins and latterly Davies used to get. Because in RU long down field kicks are the norm the power through the ball is much more apparent. |
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Post by Gill on Mar 7, 2019 13:31:18 GMT
He practised kicking on the slag heaps of South Wales. The ball would always roll back to him. To strengthen his left kicking foot he would take his right boot off so he wouldnt be tempted to kick it with his right foot. My elder brother lives in South Wales and saw quite a lot of him after he moved back to Wales.
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Post by tony13 on Mar 7, 2019 14:40:58 GMT
For jjr re union kicking. You need to remember that, providing you are inside your own 22m area, a kick does not have to bounce in the field of play before going out of play. This means you can go for more distance at the expense of accuracy.
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Post by JJR on Mar 7, 2019 17:01:31 GMT
Yes been there done that but the thing with Watkins tho was that he could bend the ball either way depending on which touch he was kicking to. And it was a leather ball often wet, not the super light modern day ball.
One of the best touch kickers of a ball I've ever seen. He really was amazing; at least 2 or 3 x the distance our kickers get today.
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Post by johnh1 on Mar 7, 2019 18:26:45 GMT
And regarding the goal kicking, he didn't, I think, come as a goal kicker. He played at Wembley, but Ron Hill took the goal kicks.
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