COLIN Welland, who died last week aged 81, was a man of many parts.

He was an Oscar winning writer for Chariots of Fire, he was a popular actor in Z Cars and Kes, he was a director of Fulham Rugby League Football Club and a playwright.

But, deep down, he was a Warrington supporter and a huge admirer of Brian Bevan.

When Warrington played Fulham at Craven Cottage in September 1981, Welland revealed his love for the club and the Australian-born winger in the match programme.

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“The Greatest Ever”

Ball out, ball out, hear supporters call

Scrum-half, stand-off, centres pass the ball

It goes to Knowelden, he’s a bolden

Albert Pimblett hears the ball

Sling it out to Bevan, he’s the man to beat ’em all!”

"When I was a lad you couldn’t see my bedroom wallpaper. It was plastered with pictures of primrose and blue, Warrington, The Wires.

They engulfed every nook and cranny of my schoolboy mind – the players’ names were listed solemnly, decoratively, in reverent Gothic print down the spine of every book.

Cowboy Jones, Albert Pimblett, Bryn Knowelden, Albert Johnson, Gerry Helme. They mean nothing to most of you of course.

Great though they were their names were never powerfully buoyant enough to travel this far south on the wind. But maybe one did, the name of the most exciting player I have ever seen on any sports field in any arena, under any rules, anywhere in the world...Brian Bevan.

You would have laughed if you had seen him...bow shouldered, bald, toothless, bandaged from head to foot and chain smoker to boot.

But like me you would have thrilled to the very dregs of your soul to watch him in flight. He was the only player I have ever known who brought the stand to its feet whenever or wherever he touched the ball. Glyn Moses, that fine St Helens full-back, recounts how he played five seasons against Bev and never laid a finger on him.

I remember Workington leading us 8-5 in the Cup with five minutes to go.

It was frosty and the pitch was surrounded with piles of straw.

Bevan took a pass at full tilt. Gus Risman, the greatest full-back of his generation, was crossing to intercept, loping, confident he’d got his angles absolutely right. He dived, Bevan went into overdrive, and Gus flew gracefully over his wake, landing headlong in the straw.

When I close my eyes now I can see him sitting there applauding and shaking his head as Bevan touched down under the posts. He was the greatest. He scored 800 tries in his career, say 15 seasons at the most. Work that one out!

I am a Fulham man now, but if you dig real deep you will unearth a layer of Wirepuller still in me. Certainly, if that frail, little, incongruously bald figure was puffing and blowing on Warrington’s wing again today – I might even be shouting for them!”

I was fortunate enough to interview Welland in August 1983 in my first week as a trainee reporter with the Warrington Guardian Series.

His headmaster at Newton-le-Willows Grammar School had just died and Welland paid a moving tribute to the man who had inspired him to become an actor and a writer, a man he described as “a real Mr Chips”.

Even now, 32 years later, the interview remains one of the highlights of my career.