Peter Harvey came to national prominence as a member of the hugely successful St. Helens Rugby League Team, which culminated in triumph in the Championship Final when the Team demolished Wigan 21-2 at the end of the 1965-66 season. This run saw the club, which also included big names like Ray French and Alex Murphy, pick up 5 major trophies. However this was to be the pinnacle of Peter's Rugby League career, which then saw him move to Warrington both as player and as coach.But it might have been very different. Born in Scotland but moving to Lancashire as a child, Peter's original path was in Rugby Union, where he balanced a teaching career - which included stints in Loughborough and London - with a successful playing career in Lancashire which gave him schoolboy honours and took him to the fringes of the England Team. Failure to make the international team after a full trial in 1963 led to his decision to become a full time professional RL player.Redhead with Fire in His Boots - named for Peter's searing pace playing either in the centre or on the wing - gives a wonderful flavour of this golden age of Rugby League but also his early life growing up and as a schoolboy Rugby Union player in the 1950s and early 60s, lifting the lid on life in the 15-a-side game in this very different era.
| BOOK ISBN |
9781781551820 |
| FORMAT |
234 x 156 mm |
| BINDING |
Paperback |
| PAGES |
224 pages |
| PUBLICATION DATE |
15 October 2014 |
| TERRITORY |
World |
| ILLUSTRATIONS |
40 colour photographs |
Peter Harvey was born in Scotland in 1940. He is the son of a Lancashire coal miner. Of Irish and Scottish descent he played for Lancashire and England Schools, Captaining both teams. Educated at The St Helens Catholic Grammar School (West Park), St Mary’s College (Strawberry Hill) and Loughborough College of PE he is a teacher by profession. Gaining qualifications from four Universities, London, Leicester, Liverpool and Lancaster, he was a teacher from 1962 till he retired from his third Headship in 1997.Married to Ruth, also a teacher, they have three children Simon, Louise and Rachael.
