A STORY in the Guardian has sparked interest which has revealed that Warrington Wolves' youngest team captain to date is Tom Fairclough Barber.

Fair Barber, as he was known, captained both Warrington and Lancashire in 1895 at the age of 19.

His son Harry, who lives in Warrington, contacted the Guardian to point out his father's achievement.

It followed a story in which the Guardian revealed Paul Noone was going to be captain of the Wolves for the last game of the season against Castleford and, at the age of 20, he was believed to be the youngest to be bestowed with the honour. But, as it turned out, Tawera Nikau made a surprise appearance and skippered the team to success at The Jungle.

Fair Barber was a class act in his day for Wire, as the team was then called.

Harry did not see Fair play but has done his own research to find out about his father's career.

He said: "Old timers tell me he was one of the best centres the club had in those days. He was about 5ft 11ins tall and 14 stones in weight and made quite an impression!"

Fair joined Warrington after transferring from playing Union for Cheshire in 1894. Following injuries sustained in a game at Oldham he retired after making 70 first team appearances, in which he had scored nine tries.

He later served on the committee before becoming president from 1924 to 1927 and was awarded honorary life membership for his services to the club.

Wire's youngest skipper, who was one of four children, was born in Burtonwood and lived there, on a farm, until his father died. His mother then bought a house in Latchford.

Rugby League was not his only sporting love. Fair was a keen cyclist and won several medals from 100-mile road races. One of them was completed in a little under seven hours which was a considerable achievement on the pedal machines of those days.

Fair moved into the pub trade and ran the Royal Court Hotel, which used to be on the corner of Bridge Street and Rylands Street.

Fair died towards the end of 1932.