Eddy Waring

I grew up watching Rugby League. Eddy Waring had worked himself a contract whereby all Rugby League broadcast on the BBC would be commented on by Eddy. His work in his early years promoting the Dewsbury Black Knights, organising international trips for the Great Britain team. Hell, there's an argument that Rugby League would not have become Australias national sport were it not for Eddy. He was also joint presenter of 'It's a Knockout' , a comedy game show where teams competed in comical games dressed in strange costumes along with Stuart Hall, still the most poetic of radio football reviewers working today. Little was known about Alzhiemers and Eddy Waring was allowed to paraid his deterioration on national television for a good decade before he was sectioned to High Royds mental hospital. Opinions in the Rugby League world are mixed. Some say that through the ironic angle, 'The Eddy Waring Appreciation Society', a zany student group, that the game at least got attention. Others say he brought ridicule on the game. The tragedy for me was watching the deterioration of a great and knowledgable man. I sometimes where a trilby. Many have accused me of Pete Doherty affectation. The truth is that I wear it as a tribute to Eddy Waring, in memory of when his brain worked properly, before people began to ridicule him and his desent in to senility.