George Stubbings by Alex Service and Dave Dooley

A distinctive name, certainly, but we have very little information about this particular player. We do know that he was described as `the Normanton man` and he made his first appearance for the Seniors against Oldham on 1st February 1898. This was a famous match in the history of the club because the Saints beat their powerful visitors from Oldham 15-9, with three tries from Billy Briers, who was later awarded a cap to commemorate his feat by the Oldham club. Stubbings played a total of 8 matches, the last being against Swinton on 14th January 1899, when Saints won 6-5 at Knowsley Road. If anyone has any details about this player’s rugby career, we would like to hear from you. Our recent research indicates that our suspect moved from Louth, to Grimsby and ultimately to the hotbed of Rugby League, Kingston upon Hull. if we have it right the 1911 Cenus has George and family living in Portland Street, Hull. His occupation then was a merchant seaman. George died relatively young in March 1922 at the age of 53.