I first started going to Headingley when I was twelve.
What fired me really was when the Australians came over to play for us after the war.
First there was Arthur Clues, then Bob McMaster and after that Ken Kearney - it was a great side. Of course, in those days, they were magical figures because we didn’t know a lot about them before they arrived. You had to go and see them and they were larger-than-life characters.
I can remember to this day the photograph of Bob McMaster in the Evening Post with the accompanying headline, ‘McMaster on the high seas’.
After a while of watching them, I had to make a choice which taught me a lot. I had half-a-crown pocket money and there used to be a church dance on a Friday night that was one and ninepence which was exactly the same as it cost to get into Headingley.
It wasn’t a difficult decision and it turned out to be the best choice I have ever made in my life.
I used to stop at home with Dad and listen to Friday Night Is Music Night and go to the game with him on the Saturday.
The next really big debut I’ll never forget was Lewis Jones because we have always had a Welsh connection within the family and Great Auntie Annie wrote to my grandma just as his signature was announced to say ‘Lewis is coming but don’t tell anybody that he gets sick in his stomach’.
Anyone with Celtic ancestry is related anyhow but we did feel that he belonged to us.
Ruth Walker
Originally published in 'Headingley Rugby Voices' Recollections of supporters, compiled by Phil Caplan.
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Memory added on November 26, 2012
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