ALTHOUGH hard-as-nails Peter Clarke was sent off 19 times as a rugby league player, his son Graham explained there was another side to his character off the field.

Peter from Cumberland Street, Latchford, died at home from an illness unrelated to Covid-19 on Tuesday, February 23, aged 75, having left a considerable mark on the sport he loved - and all that knew him.

After first featuring with Crosfields’ works team as a 16-year-old the hooker moved on to Latchford Albion, where he was picked up by Rochdale Hornets in 1969 for the start of a 15-year professional career that also featured spells with Blackpool Borough, Swinton, Huddersfield, Wigan and Bramley.

Warrington Guardian: And on their wedding day

Peter on his wedding day to Pat, 57 years ago, and on their golden wedding anniversary

Warrington Guardian: Pat and Peter Clarke

Graham told how his dad was proud to be a member of the first Blackpool side to gain promotion to the top flight, while he also won promotions and reached finals of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy and Player’s No6 Trophy with Rochdale.

And then he turned his hand to coaching, said Graham, Latchford Albion’s second team, juniors at Crosfields and then Soap’s open-aged side whom he steered to BARLA National Cup glory for the first and only time by a Warrington side over Kells in 1989.

> Funeral arrangements for Peter and the request to wear club colours

He moved on to help out new professional club Trafford Borough before further coaching stints at Laporte and Weaverham Rangers.

Priorities changed for Peter when his grandsons started playing and he put his time into encouraging and supporting them, just as he had done with his sons Graham and Colin as well as daughter Debbie when they all took up the game.

Warrington Guardian:

Graham Clarke, nicknamed 'Blower', playing masters rugby league

Rugby league has always been in the family, as Peter’s dad Joe coached at Crosfields and his three brothers all played professionally – Jim at Huddersfield, Doug at Warrington and Leigh, Gordon at Warrington and Barrow.

As a player, Peter, who worked in the building trade from the day he left Bewsey and then Orford Second Modern Schools until his retirement, was highly skilled in the number nine role in an era when scrums were contested and winning possession for your team ‘by hook or by crook’ was all-important.

He will be remembered for that just as much as the 19 red cards.

“We’ve had messages from people living as far away as Australia, lads who he played with and against. Big Jim Mills put a nice comment on one website. They have been comforting,” said Graham.

“On the field, dad was a real rough handful and all kinds of shenanigans went on.

“In his days you played for winning money or losing money. He used to say ‘the guy opposite wanted to take my head off’ because if it was winning pay you could still go out and have a pint on a Tuesday and Wednesday but if you picked up losing pay you might only go out after the game. That’s how all the teams looked at things in those days.

“My dad always said if you lived by the sword you had to accept it. He said ‘I give it out but I came second best quite a few times’.

“The hooker was the boss of the pack then, wanted his blindside packmen low and the open-side up. One of his sayings was, when it was asked of the referee who’s head and feed is it, my dad used to always say: “If you think it’s your head, go for it.” It was crash, bang, wallop in those days.

“But when they came off the field it was a case of what happened on the field stayed on the field.

“He had a soft side to him as well.

“He was a very big family man. He loved all the family being around.

“They had a caravan in Anglesey for a good 10 to 12 years and he spent a lot of time there chilling out. He really enjoyed his summers there.

“He was a hard-working man. We never went without as kids, he was absolutely brilliant. He took pride in bringing money home.

“He would do anything for anyone. Kings Club in St Marys Street was his local, and there used to be a few old blokes who’d say for example they had a hospital appointment and he’d say ‘It’s all right, I’ll take you.’

“He did a hell of a lot of running round in the community.

“There’s a garden project on Victoria Park and my dad went along to help out. If he could help anybody out, he would. He would always say I’d rather do 10 good turns than one bad turn.”

Kings Club also played a part in Peter’s naughty boy list of red cards.

“It ended up being 20 dismissals for my dad in the end,” explained Graham.

“We had a charity match at the Kings Club, and Bernard ‘Sconny’ Creaghan refereed the game. It was rigged up that my dad flattened someone. And Sconny said ‘Right Peter, off!’ And my dad said ‘that’s sound, that, that’s my 20’. It was a daft little thing but something memorable.”

There are other fascinating anecdotes, including one infamous contest from Peter’s playing days with Huddersfield.

“My dad played in the Battle of Fartown where six got sent off,” said Graham.

“It was on an old RL Action programme in 1981.

“My dad was sent off 19 times yet that day he actually stayed on the field. It was against Wigan, when they were in the second division and three walked from each team.”

Wigan were Peter’s only club where he did not play in the first team.

“Maurice Bamford was in charge at Wigan and they took my dad there basically to bring young lads on in the A team, and to show Nicky Kiss how to hook, to add some extras to Kiss’ game.

“Bamford moved on to Bramley and took my dad there with him.”

Through his own passion for the sport, Graham said he is able to appreciate what his dad achieved.

“Too right,” he said.

“I used to go with him everywhere. And then when I was old enough to play, I played at school, the town team, and he’d be watching me.

“A lot of my mates went to Crosfields so that’s how I ended up there. And my dad used to say ‘I’ll push you if you want to do it, but if you don’t want to do it then don’t worry about it’.

“But he was always there for us, me, Colin and Debbie, who played for one of the first women’s teams in Warrington in the 1980s.

“And when he packed in playing around 1983/84, he said he took he had taken a lot out of the game and wanted to put something back into the game so that was how he started to do coaching.”