And so we get to the number five shirt – left wing.
As I said last week, this trawl through our iconic jersey wearers – from full-back to left wing – has really highlighted to me the versatility of the many much-loved characters who have graced the last line of defence and our threequarters.
I am going to start this week with a truly iconic star of our sport who, despite only making 40 appearances for Dewsbury, is synonymous with our town – Mick Sullivan.
Where do I start?
Mick was capped 46 times by Great Britain – an all-time record he jointly holds with Garry Schofield.
Amongst those games he was twice a World Cup winner and four times an Ashes winner – that is incredible when you think of the many subsequent decades of heartache that our international team have endured.
Mick was 20 years old when he played in Great Britain’s inaugural World Cup triumph in 1954 – a feat he repeated in 1960.
His four Ashes series triumphs came in 1956, 1959, 1960 and 1962 – what an era!
Mick was a product of Shaw Cross Boys Club and signed professionally for Huddersfield. Ironically, his try-scoring debut for the Fartowners was against Dewsbury at Crown Flatt.
He also won a Yorkshire Cup winners medal whilst in the claret and gold.
But the greatest days of his club career came across the Pennines.
He moved to Wigan and achieved one Championship and two Challenge Cup winners medals for the cherry and whites.
He then moved the short distance to Knowsley Road to wear the red vee of St Helens, where he claimed his third Challenge Cup winners medal – ironically beating former club Wigan at Wembley.
He also got two Lancashire Cup winners medals whilst at Saints to join the unique band of players who won County Cups on both sides of the great divide.
After St Helens he moved back to god’s own county to play for York.
From the Minster City he finally achieved the ultimate honour of coming home to Dewsbury!
He was player-coach at Crown Flatt and almost took us to Wembley in 1966 when we battled his old club St Helens to their absolute limits before going down 12-5 in the Challenge Cup semi-final at Swinton.
Mick had a stint coaching in Australia before coming home to Dewsbury.
What a stupendous career – and little wonder that he was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame.
How do you follow Mick Sullivan?!
Well, we will move on to another international – Darren Rogers.
Darren started and finished at Dewsbury having been a product of the Stanley Rangers junior club.
He made an immediate impression in our colours before moving to Salford, and he starred at The Willows too before returning to Yorkshire to play for Castleford.
He was an integral part of a very consistent Cas team who came within 80 minutes of the Super League Grand Final and Challenge Cup Final in 1999.
Darren returned to Dewsbury when Andy Kelly made a triple swoop on Wheldon Road to also bring Francis Maloney and Ryan Sheridan to The Tetley’s Stadium.
Darren scored 206 career tries, including two in five appearances for England.
When we discussed the number two shirt I gave star billing to Eddie Rombo – and we all remember who was his mate on the other wing – Dennis Bailey!
If we are talking about the most iconic pair of wingers ever to wear Red, Amber and Black I don’t think you can look past Rombo and Bailey!
Both were classic entertainers who made you excited whenever they touched the ball – so many great tries.
Dennis was from the Queens amateur club in Leeds and was still turning out for them long after he left Dewsbury.
I recall that during the period when he was scoring tries for us that Birmingham City football club had a prolific goal scorer of the same name!
On to our 1973 Champions, and we find Terry Day at number five in that team – every player from that glory day at Odsal deserves a mention in our shirt series.
We must also mention Austin Buchanan.
He played for several clubs before settling down for a long career at The Tetley’s Stadium.
Austin was a very loyal and popular player, and a consistent try scorer. In 131 games for Dewsbury he scored 59 tries.
Austin is the half brother of Leeds Rhinos legend Jamie Jones-Buchanan.
Sylvain Houles is the coach of Toulouse and enjoyed a stint at The Tetley’s Stadium in 2003 before moving on to Wakefield Trinity.
A popular local lad was Adrian Flynn. He was part of our all-conquering squad who dominated the Northern Ford Premiership for several seasons.
Adrian was a product of Dewsbury Moor and gave good service to several other West Yorkshire clubs, including all three in that geographical triangle of Castleford , Featherstone and Wakefield.
Going back to my early days supporting the club I recall Alan Child and Jeff Yoward.
Back to our dominant Northern Ford Premiership era and yet another spectacular winger was Alex Godfrey.
Alex will be enjoying the exploits of his son, who is a professional footballer at Premier League Norwich City.
Ben Godfrey began his pro career at home town York City before moving to the Canaries.
He enjoyed an extensive loan period at Shrewsbury Town and has also appeared for England at under-20 & 21s level.
Could the son of an ex Dewsbury Ram become a full England football international?
So, who is the worthy successor to that illustrious group of men?
None other than yet another international – Will Oakes.
Currently on loan to us from Hull Kingston Rovers, Will is a Scotland international who will no doubt have hopes of being a part of the 2021 World Cup.
