Brian Bevan
Brian Bevan
Brian Bevan ~ one of the most talked about players throughout the world of rugby league. His strike rate at Wilderspool alone, echoed what the people on the terraces were saying, During 331 appearances he scored 464 tries and kicked 28 goals ~ giving him a try rate of 1.5 per match
Born in 1924 at Bondi, The Sydney born Brian Bevan was destined to be the best winger in rugby league history, although a member of Eastern Suburbs he never played first grade rugby in Australia he never played test rugby. He joined the Royal Australian navy in 1942 and set in motion a chain of events that would take him on the path to greatness. Warrington Rugby Club gave him a trial game in the reserves gave him a first grade start against Oldham on 17th November 1945 on the right wing.
It was 19 years later when he retired that he had amassed 796 tries for Warrington ,Blackpool Borough ,other nationalities and various representative XIIIs. He could run backwards faster than some players could run forwards, within four years at Warrington he had broken the try scoring record of Jack Fish 215 tries, it had taken Fish 13 years to attain that total. In 1952-53 he set a club record of 66 tries in the season, the 1953-54 season saw him become the highest try scorer in the games history when he passed the 446 tries mark set by Alf Ellaby (1926-39) 1955 brought him his 500th try.
He played for Warrington till 1962 clocking up 740 tries in 620 games as he helped the club lift two Challenge Cups, three Championships, a Lancashire Cup and six Lancashire League Championships. Although never appearing in a test for his country he played for other Nationalities 16 times scoring 29 tries .His career ended in 1964 after 2 seasons at Blackpool Borough. A bronze statue of Bevan can be seen at the town end of Wilderspool Causeway Warrington on Brian Bevan Island
But he scored 796 tries in his first-class British career, and the runner-up Billy Boston got no closer than 571. Brian Bevan has been described as the deadliest winger in history,
he played briefly for Eastern Suburbs like his father before him, but never in first grade and without making any mark. In his first season at Wilderspool, 1946-7, Bev scored forty-eight tries, which was fourteen more than anyone else in the league. After that there was no stopping him. Within four years he had overtaken the club try-scoring record of 215 that had taken Jack Fish thirteen seasons to reach at the turn of the century. Five times in all, Bevan topped the British try-scoring table and in fifteen seasons he was only once lower than fifth, his greatest year being 1952-3 when he scored seventy-two.
He missed a proper international career representing his country, but he played for the Other Nationalities of self-imposed exiles twenty-six times. Chiefly, though, he was the most vital part of Warrington's line-up for sixteen years, in which they won two Challenge Cups, three championships, a Lancashire Cup and six Lancashire League titles.
He played his last game for them on Easter Monday 1962, then turned out for Blackpool Borough in semi-retirement for a couple of years. Born beside the Australian Pacific, he finally made his home overlooking the Irish Sea,
He died just down the coast at Southport in 1991. A great crowd, to whom he was a legend like no other they could even dream of, turned up for his memorial service a month later on the pitch at Wilderspool.