Frank Whitcombe
Frank William Whitcombe, also known by the nickname of "The Big Man", was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s and 1940s. He played rugby union for Cardiff RFC, London Welsh RFC, Aldershot Services and Army Rugby Union, as a prop, and representative level rugby league for Great Britain, Rugby League XIII, and Wales, and at club level for Broughton Rangers and Bradford Northern, as a.
Early life
Whitcombe was one of ten children growing up at 52 Wedmore Road in Grangetown. His father Frederick William Whitcombe worked as a blacksmith's striker at the Dry docks. His sport was as a prize fighter, bare-knuckle boxing, at Cardiff Docks known locally as Tiger Bay.Times would be hard for Gertrude Whitcombe, Frank's mother, but she was a resourceful woman, for income the family firstly had her brother and Samuel & Emily Leonard as lodgers. Mrs Whitcombe would send one of the children to the brewery for a jug of yeast, and would brew her own beer, the children would sell this to the neighbours, and she would also make sloe gin to sell in the autumn
Along with brother George Whitcombe, Frank attended Ninian Park council school in Cardiff. On leaving school at 14 he worked for McNeil's The Coal and later as a van boy with the Great Western Railway.
Rugby union career
Army Rugby Union
Then after a period of unemployment on 17 January 1931 Whitcombe enlisted as a Sapper in 38th Field Company, Royal Engineers as a motor driver.This was an outstanding sporting unit, in his first year of service, 38th Field Company won the Athletic Challenge Cup, the Boxing cup and the Rugby cup. This was the start of Whitcombe's rugby union playing career with the Army. He had a sparkling career playing 27 times for the Army team and won two caps. On 23 February 1935, Whitcombe played on the winning Army team against Territorial Army at Taunton R.F.C. by 18 – 5. A game used as a trial match for the upcoming inter services. He then won his first cap on the winning Army Rugby Union team against the Royal Navy 11–8, on 2 March, in a famous victory with the Army team having only 13 players, due to injury for most of the match. His fellow prop was the England captain Douglas Kendrew who was one of the players who had to leave the field injured after only 15 minutes.
Then on the losing side 3–6 to the Royal Air Force on 23 March at Twickenham in a game dominated by the RAF standoff Gus Walker, making the Inter-Services title of 1935 a Triple Tie. While serving in the Army, Whitcombe reached the rank of lance corporal, very few non-commissioned officers made the Army side at this time.
Prior to turning professional, Whitcombe played at Twickenham in the final of the Middlesex Sevens on Saturday 27 April 1935 for London Welsh losing 3–10 to Harlequins. The following week Whitcombe returned to Cardiff to play in the Welsh final trial
On 25 July 1933, in Cardiff, Whitcombe married Doris May who lived at 15 Sussex Street also in Grangetown. Whitcombe's father-in-law, Alfie Bryan, was an amateur boxing trainer who worked in the gym with Jim Driscoll. Whitcombe had a brief boxing career while in the army. He won his first 11 bouts, but when he lost his twelfth he decided eleven good wins were not worth one good hiding.
King George V Silver Jubilee Trust
While playing rugby union for London Welsh RFC Whitcombe was selected to play for The Rest V Wales on 4 May 1935 in a special rugby union match arranged to benefit the King George V Silver Jubilee Trust at Cardiff Arms Park.From a Welsh point of view this game served as a guide to discovering fresh talent for the next season. The game particularly showed that there were some very good young forwards in Wales, including Whitcombe.
Some of the players who took part in this game went on to be rugby league greats. On the Wales side that day playing at Stand off was a teenager from Swansea still attending Gowerton county school, one W T H "Willie" Davies, a future Lance Todd trophy winner and teammate of Whitcombe's at Bradford Northern and Great Britain. Playing on the wing for Wales was Arthur Bassett of Aberavon, who would also become Whitcombe's teammate for Great Britain. Bassett famously scored a hat-trick of tries in Great Britain's Ashes clinching victory over Australia at Brisbane in 1946. In The Rest side with Whitcombe on the wing was Alan Edwards of Aberavon, also a future Bradford Northern and Wales teammate. Edwards has the distinction of being one of only five players in the history of the game to win all six major rugby league cups in his career.
A quirk of fate here is Arthur Childs also played in the rest team with Whitcombe, a back row forward from Abertillery who also turned professional with the Halifax club. Twenty nine years later Arthur's son, Rodney Childs, and Whitcombe's son, Frank Whitcombe Jr, were the two prop forwards for the North Eastern Counties side against Sir Wilson Whineray's 5th New Zealand All Blacks team on their tour of Britain in 1964
Wales defeated the Rest 13–5. A special jersey was made for this game and given to the players afterwards. All the proceeds from this match where donated to the Kings Silver Jubilee Trust Fund.
Rugby league career
Despite the efforts of his brother George to persuade him otherwise, an earlier offer, in March 1935 from the Wigan Rugby League Club was turned down by Whitcombe. When a second offer came on 18 September 1935 from the Broughton Rangers rugby league club, Whitcombe accepted. He was paid £100 for his services along with two new suits. Of his signing fee, £90 was to buy him out of the Army, leaving him £10 to start a new life at 5 Cawdor Road, Fallowfield, a suburb of Manchester, with his young family. Whitcombe shared his house with former Llanelli RFC and Wales rugby union player, Bryn Howells, who like Whitcombe had made the decision to 'Go north' and seek a better life for their families. He was now the Broughton Rangers, Howells was also a professional Lancashire League cricketer.Whitcombe's new club provided him with a job as a zookeeper at Belle Vue Zoological Gardens where Rangers played at the Belle Vue Stadium inside the motorcycle speedway track. At this time Belle Vue was the leisure centre for North West England.
Whitcombe made his début against Swinton at home on 19 October 1935 and played his last game for Broughton Rangers against St. Helens away on 17 December 1938. During his career at Rangers he played in a memorable victory on Christmas Day, 25 December 1937, when Broughton Rangers defeated Wally Prigg's touring Australian rugby league team 13–0 on their 1937/38 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain. Soon after this Whitcombe was signed by Bradford Northern for a record fee and the family crossed the Pennines, and settled in Wibsey.
Extract from Bradford Northern 1948 Challenge Cup Final brochure:
Genial giant Frank is the wit as well as the heavy-weight of the team. He turns the scales at over 18st. And opposing forwards really know they have been in a game after 80 minutes with him. But as a boy in Cardiff, where he was born in 1913, Frank was a full back. He turned to the pack after joining the Army. He played 27 times for the Army team and won a Welsh international trial.
In 1935 Broughton Rangers signed him and he gained his first Welsh Rugby league International cap the following season. He has been Wales' first choice as ever since, he played in Australia with Gus Risman's team and played in the first two tests. Bradford Northern made one of their best moves ever when they signed him from Broughton Rangers. He takes a well earned benefit this season.
Following Whitcombe's world record transfer fee of £850 to Bradford Northern in 1938 – Rugby League secretary John Wilson added "He is the best in the game",.
Welsh international honours
After turning professional, Whitcombe went on to win his first cap for Wales while at Broughton Rangers, and further caps following his move to Bradford Northern. Between 1938 and 1948 Whitcombe won 14 caps.His first cap for Wales was in their 17–9 victory over England on 10 November 1938 at Stebonheath Park, Llanelli's football ground. The Welsh team was captained by the record points scorer Jim Sullivan. Whitcombe's second cap against France away in Bordeaux in front of a crowd of 25,000 on 16 April 1939 resulting in a 16–10 defeat for Wales. Wales finished runners-up in the 1938–39 European Champions. His last game was against Australia on 20 November 1948 at St. Helens Swansea; Australia won 12–5.
Great Britain international career
Whitcombe was selected for the Great Britain tour to Australia in 1940 which was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second World War. However he won two caps for Great Britain while at Bradford Northern in 1946 against Australia on the famous "Indomitables" tour.On tour Whitcombe did not start the first game against Southern Districts, but then played nine successive matches including the Queensland game in Brisbane, and the two games against New South Wales in Sydney. He scored the second Great Britain try in the 8–8 drawn first test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 17 June in front of a crowd of 64,527. This game was dubbed the 'Commando Test' due to the brutal exchanges in the first test. Shortly before Great Britain centre Jack Kitching was sent off, Whitcombe 'King Hit' his opposite Aussie Frank 'Bumper' Farrell. When an unfortunate St. John Ambulance man ran on to administer the Australian forward with smelling salts to bring him round a still groggy Farrell lashed out at him mistaking him for Whitcombe.
He then played in the winning side against Australia 14–5 in the second Test at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground on 6 July 1946 the crowd was 65,000. Great Britain won the 1946 Rugby League Ashes series. Following this game Whitcombe was referred to as "The Steam Roller" by the Melbourne newspaper 'The Truth'.
Despite the damage the Australian and Great Britain forwards had inflicted on each other only hours before after the third Test, Ken Gee, Joe Egan, Whitcombe, Ike Owens, Arthur Clues, 'Bumper' Farrell and Noel Mulligan drank heartily together at The Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills until the early hours of next morning.
Fellow tourist Trevor Foster said of Whitcombe. "He was an outstanding player on the 1946 Indomitables tour, scoring tries and was the best forward in the scrum. He took on the Aussie pack on his own and was genuinely feared by the Australians. It took sometimes three and often four men to get him down in the tackle. He was strong and fearless".
Whitcombe's performances on tour attracted the attention of the Sydney based club, St. George. Club official Jack Moggridge offered Whitcombe a two-year contract at £600 per season as player-coach plus costs of transport and a lucrative job. Whitcombe signed the two-year contract with St George, however on his return to Bradford the family decided to stay in Yorkshire.
On 21 July the touring party left Australia for the New Zealand leg of the tour over a nine-day period Whitcombe played for Great Britain on 29 July 1946 against West Coast losing 8–17 then five days later on 3 August he played against Auckland winning 9–7 and again three days later on 6 August against South Auckland winning 42–12 and scoring a try. He played against Auckland again on 12 August winning 22–9 his last game for Great Britain. Whitcombe played 19 games on the 1946 tour of Australia and New Zealand more than any other player.