Dai Jenkins - Scrum-half from Treherbet who They had never met but they were taken to the Simon Foster said: "To meet at the birthplace
signed for Leeds when playing with London front of the queue and, from there, last week's of rugby league and enjoy the company of Joe
club Streatham and Mitcham in 1936. In the reunion blossomed. and Bryn was very nostalgic and an emotional
1940s, Dai played in all four Leeds Challenge experience for us all."
Cup Finals. He made 292 appearances for It resulted in 50 guests arriving at the Heritage
Leeds scoring 55 tries and seven goals. Centre, with Guests of Honour being the only But, with the Heritage Centre packed with
two surviving members of that trip, in Wigan the relatives and children of those exceptional
Joe Jones - Goal-kicking full back who played hooker Joe Egan, just turned 90, and Bryn rugby players, it could only have been an
with Cilfynydd RFC, and had played for Knowelden, of Barrow and Warrington, who honour to hear of such an amazing trip fi rst-
the Glamorgan county side and the Welsh is 89. hand from two of the men who can truly say 'I
Schoolboys when he was signed by Wigan in know because I was there'.
1936, aged 17. He was seen as an understudy at
Wigan for the great Jim Sullivan and later went
on to play for Barrow.
Isaac 'Ike' Owens - Loose forward who
was born in Pontycymmer. He played with
Blaengarw and later joined Maesteg. He
became a sergeant parachute instructor in
the RAF and won the Air Force Medal during
the war. He joined Leeds RL in 1943 and later
moved to Castleford for a then record fee of
£2,750 but soon signed for Huddersfi eld for
the same amount. Ike was the outstanding
forward on the 1946 tour.
Doug Phillips - Second row who was born on
the day of the Versailles Peace Treaty, with his
middle name being `Versailles`. He made his
debut for Oldham in 1945 and later played for
Belle Vue in Manchester. Doug toured again in
1950, scoring seven tries including a hat-trick
against Wellington.
Ted Ward - Centre. He was signed by Wigan
from Llanelli and made his debut in 1938. He
later moved to full-back. In 1951-52, he went
to play for a new side in Cardiff. They only
lasted one season and Ted returned to Wigan
as coach when Billy Boston joined the club.
Frank Whitcombe - Prop forward who
was born in Cardiff in 1913. He was the
cornerstone prop of the great Bradford
Northern side of the 40s. Despite being on the
losing side, Frank was awarded the Lance Todd
Trophy in the 1948 Challenge Cup fi nal against
Wigan.
Now fast forward 62 years. BBC's Antiques
Roadshow hosted a gathering at Lord's Cricket
Ground in support of Sport Relief 12 months
ago. In line, having travelled from up north
and carrying 1946 memorabilia were Trevor
Foster's son, Simon, and Ike Owens' boy,
Michael.
Bev Risman, son of 1946
captain Gus, Joe Egan, Mike
'Stevo' Stephenson, Bryn
Knowelden
sportingwales
issue7twothousand&nine
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52