\n John signed on the dotted line at Craven Park on February 6, 1947 and made his first-team debut away at Leigh on March 13, 1948, with his final appearance away at Wakefield on October 18, 1952.\n<\/p>\n
\n John was a talented player like many others in the area during the 1940s and 50s, but Barrow\u2019s first team were riding on the crest of a wave in the late forties and early fifties, so it was a difficult period to command a regular place.\n<\/p>\n
\n A winger or centre, John was up against a talented three-quarter line which included an all-international back line of Jimmy Lewthwaite, Phil Jackson, Dennis Goodwin and Frank Castle.\n<\/p>\n
\n He had to bide his time in the \u2018A\u2019 team, and it was 12 months later that his debut came losing 12-3 at Leigh, but he did manage to score a try.\n<\/p>\n
\n After an impressive game he played in six of the final seven games of the season.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two of the six games stand out for John, his first Craven Park try in the game with Bell Vue Rangers, while playing a big part in the 15-9 win at Halifax.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the season of 1948\/49, he managed only five first team appearances including one against the Australian tourist who defeated Barrow 11-5.\n<\/p>\n
\n Realising that a regular spot was not going to be easy and following 34 appearances and four tries to his name, he called it a day to return to the amateur scene.\n<\/p>\n
\n John for many years was a popular butcher in Rawlinson Street.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was the elder brother of Mick, who also played for Barrow from 1958 to 1965.\n<\/p>\n
\n John\u2019s funeral service takes place at St Mary’s Church, Duke Street on Monday, June 8, at 1.15pm.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ronnie Coulthard, a former Walney Central, Britannia and Ulverston player, also passed last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ronnie was a strong ball winning hooker who could also play on the wing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John signed on the dotted line at Craven Park on February 6, 1947 and made his first-team debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-618937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}