Talking Sport Now & Then: Knights' best ever wing men and memories of Dons legend

Lewis, who hung up his boots in February of last year, recently came out of retirement to bolster Knights’ injury-hit squad and made his first appearance of the season in the scrappy 15-14 win over bottom club London Scottish at a bitterly cold Castle Park earlier this month.

Although the game itself will not live long in the memory of those who watched it, the fact that it marked another milestone in the club’s history probably will.

Signed from Plymouth Albion back in 2012, Lewis became only the fifth Doncaster player in the professional era to play in 200 games for the club.

Although Lewis, a member of the club’s coaching staff as well as head coach of the club’s academy side, didn’t celebrate the feat with a try, he can look back on a career sprinkled with spectacular scores.

Irrespective of how many more games he plays, or tries he scores, going forward, Lewis will go down as one of the best wings, if not the best, in the club’s long history.

A target for newly-promoted Super League side Leigh, a few years ago, Lewis has all the qualities a wing needs at the level he has played at for over a decade, such as pace and a sound defensive game.

You can also add bravery to that list in Lewis’s case.

Lewis has played alongside some other top wingers during his time at the club including the likes of Dougie Flockhart, another member of the ‘200 club’, Andy Bulumakau and Kyle Evans.

But when it comes to rating the best ever wingers to put on a Doncaster shirt during my time covering the club, Chris Conway has to come into the reckoning.

Conway formed a superb partnership with centre David Fairclough as Doncaster, as they were then known, climbed up the various leagues after starting life in lowly Yorkshire 2 in the late 80s.

As well as being deceptively quick, Conway had the rare ability to swerve either side of a defender in a one-on-one situation. I saw him embarrass any number of good full-backs after getting into the clear over the years and he was always a joy to watch.

It could be argued that he was never tested at the same level as some of the other top wingers to have played for the club.

But, speaking as a former centre/wing in both rugby codes, I feel that he could easily have stepped up several more levels, particularly, had he been exposed to the more professional environment that the others vying for the title of the club’s best-ever wing enjoyed.

*I often think back to New Year’s Eve 2005, which was a sober occasion for me, at this time of the year.

Doncaster RLFC team boss Ian St John Ellis, known throughout the game as Singe, collapsed and died while taking a training session in Castleford just hours before he was due to celebrate the New Year.

The former Great Britain star was only 41 and one of the fittest people for his age that I knew.

Singe was a larger-than-life character and he loved playing practical jokes on people – including the paper’s reception where he often came up with inappropriate names for himself when asking to be put through to the sports desk.

Like most top sportsmen, Singe hated losing, but he knew that he couldn’t reverse a bad result. He knew, however, that he could have a positive impact on the next game.

I saw first-hand that he was a master at picking up the players following a bad defeat, especially on the long drive back from Cumbria, and players who had boarded the coach feeling down often embarked with a smile on their faces and a spring in their step.

One of his favourite pranks was to sit a new player at the table and ask him to try and find the pea under several shells which he kept moving about.

After tricking the player into believing he was better than he actually was, he would suggest a wager ‘to make it interesting.’

But with the rest of the players, most of whom had suffered a similar embarrassment in the past, all looking on, he would reel his target in and pocket a few pounds in the process.

I had worries at one stage that Clive Griffiths, then director of rugby at Doncaster Knights, would also be lost to the Doncaster sporting scene after he collapsed with chest pains.

They were similar characters in that they both wore their heart on their sleeves and were both workaholics. As with Singe, Clive hated losing and the post-match interviews could be tetchy.

To be fair to Clive, he would often ring me up the next morning and offer a different and more rational view of the game.

As was the case with Singe, I had a close working relationship with Clive and regularly spoke on the phone for long periods when discussing the Knights and other rugby-related matters.

It is probably fair to say that Clive wasn’t the same man after his health scare, as would have been the case with most people in his situation. He certainly wasn’t the tracksuit boss he had been before and I know that hurt him.

It was sad that the outbreak of Covid-19 meant that Clive, who was set to leave at the end of the campaign, didn’t get the send-off he undoubtedly deserved.

But I’m sure that he will have been pleased with the job that Steve Boden has done in the last couple of years.

*May I take this opportunity to wish all those who know me seasonal greetings.