Alan made sure his men punched their weight
The Sixties had barely had time to start swinging when two likely lads from Lancashire appeared at Twickenham as harbingers of a phenomenon which would soon sweep the country, the Mersey Sound.
In that context, Alan ‘Neddy’ Ashcroft, the tough-as-old-boots Lion from St Helens, and Ray French, a novice second row from the same town, might have been ahead of the game. Nobody beyond Liverpool had heard of the Beatles because they had only just been formed and Gerry Marsden’s first No.1 hit was still some three years away.
French had known Ashcroft from the age of ten. As proud sons of St Helens, they went to the same school, Cowley, a famous nursery for both codes and when the Merseysiders stood side by side at Twickenham, the senior one gave his junior sidekick a rough piece of advice which helped him win his England cap.
The pair had been summoned to HQ on December 17, 1960 for the customary final Five Nations trial: England versus The Rest. Waterloo’s Ashcroft, a back row regular for several years, found himself on the outside as captain of the other lot which included his protege, then still a few days shy of his 21st birthday.
“I have never forgotten that match,’’ says French. “I was up against David Marques, an established England international. He was six foot eight inches tall, I was only six-two, very short for a second row. Not surprisingly he was winning every ball at the front of the lineout.
“After a while, I said to Alan: ‘What are we going to do?’
“Alan said: ‘Hit him.’
“I said: ‘You what?’
“‘Hit him. You’ll be all right.’ “I thought I’d better do what Alan says. At the next lineout I hit David in the stomach.
“He gave me a disdainful look and said: ‘We don’t do that sort of thing down here.’
“Then Alan said: ‘Well, we do up north.’”
The Rest went down fighting, so to speak, but French had made his mark with the selectors. They were sufficiently impressed to award him his cap without delay, picking him alongside Marques for the opening match of the Five Nations, against Wales at Twickenham.
“I was more nervous off the field than I was on it,’’ French says. “I didn’t know half the players. I lacked a little confidence so I kept thinking: ‘Am I up to it?’ It was a case of: ‘What am I doing here, type of thing.’
“People sent telegrams before the game in those days and I had many congratulatory messages. I was embarrassed by it all. David Marques helped me very much. He was a great jumper and a really nice fella. A true gentleman.
“Dickie Jeeps looked after me like the good captain he was. He’d be tapping me on the back, saying: ‘Good stuff, Ray.’ And of course Alan supported me every inch of the way even though he wasn’t playing. He said to me: ‘Play your normal game, Ray and get stuck in.’”
They became lifelong friends. Not long after he reverted to League with St Helens, the club asked French to act as go-between in a bid to sign Ashcroft who had been superseded as England’s No.8 by a Welsh dentist from Newbridge, Derek Morgan.
“Alan was offered £4,000 to sign for St Helens. Round about that time I bought a house for £1,200 and they were willing to pay him more than three times as much which made it a big deal. I set it up for the club knowing that Alan would have been a superb loose forward in League.
“He didn’t want to sign because he was teaching art at Liverpool College. He was a very hard lad, very fit with a good footballing brain. He could play. Not the biggest of men but such a competitor and he did enjoy his Rugby Union.’’
A miner’s son, Ashcroft enjoyed it so much that he captained Waterloo’s sixth XV into his 50’s. “He was always willing to come back to Cowley School and play for the old boys, always willing to give something back,’’ says French. “He did a tremendous amount for schools rugby in the North-West.’’
A Grand Slam winner with England in 1957, Ashcroft had the distinction of winning another cap almost 60 years after his last match at Twickenham. When the Lions awarded him a commemorative cap to mark his 18 appearances during the tour of New Zealand in 1959, French did the honours in the Waterloo clubhouse at Blundellsands.
“Alan treasured that cap,’’ says French. “I was really pleased for him because he was such a modest man and because he had done so much to deserve it.’’
Alan Ashcroft died last week at the age of 90. Pre-deceased by his wife, Patsy, he leaves two sons, Paul and Jason, and a daughter, Debbie.
“Alan was offered £4,000 to sign for St Helens. I bought a house for £1,200”