Announcements

SAINTS' earliest surviving debutant was presented with a commemorative shirt as the club announced heritage numbers for each player to have represented the team competitively.

Jimmy Goodier, aged 94, was given a one-off special shirt with his number, 607, on the back by the latest Saints player to make his debut, Jack Welsby.

Jimmy, who grew up on Upland Road, Thatto Heath, was a hooker who made his Saints debut in 1944 during the Wartime Emergency League.

He went to Thatto Heath Council school and then the new secondary school at Grange Park and played in the Saints’ junior league team during the war - and got to play in several first team games.

He made his Saints debut at Halifax on April 15, 1944 aged 19.

The numbers have been created thanks to the painstaking efforts of people including Jack Leyland, Curtis Johnstone, Vernon Roby, Adrian Lawrenson, Paul Cotham, Bill Bates, Dave Dooley, Paul Cunliffe and Alex Service, who all played their part in the process which is a staggering culmination of hard work and endeavour.

Alex Service said: ""It cements their position in the club's legacy. Each individual has got their own story to tell and that really is important in terms of their overall part in the history of St Helens RFC.

"It is social history as well as sporting and economic history."

The numbers record every player to have made a competitive appearance for Saints since the formation of the Northern Union in 1895.

Number one is given to full back Tom Foulkes, the grandfather of former 'Busby Babe' Manchester United player Bill.

Tom made 301 appearances for Saints up until 1905.

Adrian Lawrenson, of the Saints heritage Society, says he began collating details about Saints matches in the early 1970s in a scrapbook, and is delighted to see the heritage numbers being announced by the club.

"It is very pleasing the club have responded the way they have, they've been very positive.

"It is not just the great and the good, it is everyone that turned out. The smallest and the best have all contributed."