How Owen got a D-I-Y move to Halifax

GARFIELD Owen had broken into the Wales team during the second half of the Fifties when a report in the Daily Herald caught his attention. It said that Halifax Rugby League club wanted to sign the Newport fullback.

The days passed without any approach, raising the possibility that somebody at the Herald had got the wrong end of the stick. Owen, the story goes, decided to find out for himself by phoning Halifax, strictly on the QT because any Union player caught even talking to a Rugby League club was liable to be banned for life.

It seemed that Halifax were not planning a move for Owen but, rather than look a gift horse in the mouth, they wasted no time making one. A whole host of Welsh players found a happy home at Thrum Hall but none could match Owen’s figures over six seasons: 166 matches, 535 goals, 1,082 points.

An all-round sportsman who played schools cricket for Wales and threw the javelin far enough to set a British schools record, Owen’s entry into the Five Nations had to be delayed because of a freak mishap in training.

Retrieving a ball from some bramble bushes on the edge of the Glamorgan Wanderers ground, Owen cut his knee badly enough to miss the big game the next day, against England at the Arms Park. Arthur Edwards of London Welsh took his place and settled the match with the only score, a penalty ten minutes from time.

A schoolteacher, Owen had to bide his time making his bow.

After Halifax, he racked up another 705 points during four seasons at Keighley before retiring in 1965. His passing last week at the age of 86 prompted tributes to ‘a wonderful man’ from two of his Halifax compatriots, Wales Rugby League chairman Brian Juliff and former GB Test player Jim Mills.