WIGAN RL 1922 CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY OFF WINNERS
Photo: Keith Bowen

Taken at The Cliff, Broughton Park where Wigan 13 points beat Oldham 2 points on May 6th, 1922 in the Championship Play-Offs, it was called the League Cup in those days. The team is labelled on the photo :- Left to right, Standing :- Webster, Woods, Shaw, Roffey, Hodder, Banks, Walford Seated :- Howley, Shea, Hesketh, Coles, Coldrick, Sullivan, Smith, Jerram, Hurcombe. I think I'm right in saying that this was the legendary Jim Sullivan's first year at Wigan, after having been signed as a prodigiously talented 17 year old who was playing for Cardiff RU first team and destined to be a Welsh RU international but signed professionally before he could represent Wales. Somehow he just doesn't look a mere 18 year old teenager in this photo. Jim mentioned, many years later, that Jerry Shea, the Wigan centre and a fellow Welshman and ex-boxer, was the hardest player he'd ever come across in League, that's saying something when you consider Jim himself was no "softie"!! There are no fewer than nine Welshmen in this photo.