HOWARD ‘Smiler’ Allen is a name remembered fondly by Barrow RL fans of a certain age. He starred for the club at hooker during the golden era of the late 1970s and early 80s.

Before joining the Shipbuilders, Allen had played at Workington Town alongside legendary scrum-half Arnold ‘Boxer’ Walker – who is the subject of an excellent new biography by former Evening Mail journalist Mike Gardner.

This lengthy extract from Gardner’s book recalls a match when Boxer’s cunning antics around the scrum – taught him by Smiler Allen – were used to knock his old mate and Barrow out of the cup at Craven Park

IF you knew nothing more than the simple statistics of Howard ‘Smiler’ Allen’s career, just empty, soul-less numbers, you would be hard-pressed to escape the conclusion that he was a special player.

The hooker, who played his first professional game more than 53 years ago against Salford, made 384 appearances, scored 71 tries and kicked 41 goals.

Statistics say everything and they say nothing. And what they definitely don’t reveal is his expertise as one of the greatest manipulator of rules, particularly in the scrum, in the history of the sport.

Statistics don’t reveal his disciplinary record, which involved 14 dismissals, including two sending-offs in less than 48 hours, and they say nothing about various misdemeanors such as large fines, rows with directors and his separate, secret and probably illegal employment as a newspaper snitch.

Smiler, who was born in Moresby, before moving to Lowca at the age of 10, played for Hensingham before joining the all-conquering stars at Kells.

He signed for Workington Town when he was 18 after turning down offers from Barrow and Leeds.

He is a link with Town’s golden era and played as a teenager alongside some of the club’s greatest players, including Brian Edgar, Ike Southward, Harry Archer, Syd Lowdon and Frank Foster.

He was the incumbent hooker when Boxer joined Town as a raw teenager in 1971 and was added to a long list of benevolent instructors that began with games’ master Kevin McIlroy and continued, among others, with Les Herbert, Harry Whitaker, Sol Roper and Phil Kitchin.

Rugby league historian Robert Gate says: “No matter how rough the going got, and Howard was usually in the thick of things, there would be the grinning face of Smiler, infuriating his opponents, geeing up his colleagues and either endearing himself to or provoking the fans. In popular parlance he was ‘a right character.’

“As he got older, he got craftier and he knew all the tricks and became extremely adept at winning crucial games, either through his chicanery at the play-the-ball or through his penchant for dropping goals.”

Back then, the game did not remotely resemble Sky TV’s slick presentation of the Super League with its action replays and plentiful use of cameras, broadcast into our homes to be viewed on large, widescreen televisions in full High Definition.

In the 60s and 70s, it was rife with hidden violence, watched over by optically-challenged officials, and Smiler was as good as it gets as a master exploiter of inconsistent refereeing. He provided expert tutelage for Boxer Walker.

“I was lucky at Town because there were a lot of injuries,” remembers Smiler. “Malcom Moss had a problem with his shoulder and then they signed old Walt Tabern, who lived in Leigh, to replace Malcom. Then he got injured too and I got in right away. Town had some great forwards back then. Billy Garratt, the Kells coach, took me and my dad Bob to Derwent Park to see Jim Kitchin, Town’s director, who was known as Wacko. The contract finished up maybe at around £5,000 but I had to play so many first team games in chunks of six matches and I got perhaps £50 each time I hit one of them targets.

“If I remember correctly my lump sum was maybe £2,500 and I got extra if I went on to play for Cumberland. I had bonuses until I had played 46 first-team matches so it was all about incentives to do well. That was a lot of money in them days.

“I played a few games in the A-team then stepped up through all these injuries. At my first match at Salford, Walter came to the game and talked to me, giving me a few tips. When the ball went into the scrum in them days it went in the middle and then you would strike.

“If your feet were too far into the tunnel entrance, you would be penalised, or perhaps the ref would pick you up for a loose arm or putting your feet up. Then they changed the rules but that made a mockery of everything and everyone was getting injured.

“Boxer was the mascot when I played for Kells. He was always there at training or at the matches. After I left, the next time I saw him was when he started as an apprentice electrician which was part of the deal when he signed for Town.

“I remember we got this big job in an old people’s home in Sale, near Manchester, and with Boxer being a young boy, he got a bit homesick. We had to stay there all week. His dad used to drink in a pub in Whitehaven called the Ship Inn in Duke Street. Boxer would phone his dad there most nights and as soon as he had done that he would settle down. Once he had spoken to Duncan he was happy.

“I think he would be on about £5 a week and he had to pay his bus fares from that. He was often threatening to finish and I kept telling him to hang on and that he would have a trade to fall back on. But he left and went taxi driving and after that he ended up at Haig Pit.

“We sometimes played in the A team together and I used to tell him how I wanted the ball put in.

“If it was our head I wanted him to put it in the bottom because I was nearer than the other hooker and I had more chance of getting it.

“Against the head I wanted it up in the air and the ball would be all over the place and it would be a free for all.

“If things were going bad and we weren’t winning much possession, I would tell Boxer to throw the ball straight into the other hooker’s face. Of course they didn’t like that but I didn’t worry about Boxer – that was up to him. ‘Hit him right in the nose with the point of the ball as hard as you can,’ I would tell him.

“It came back to haunt me because when I was at Barrow, we played Town in a Lancashire Cup semi-final at Craven Park, in a night match.

“It was very tight and we were right under Town’s sticks, maybe 10 yards off their line and time was running out.

“There was a scrum and all we needed was a penalty or to win the ball and I am sure we would have scored, no bother.

“I couldn’t believe it – Boxer threw the ball right at my nose, just as I had taught him all those years before. Whack, right in my face. It was a cold winter’s night and the ref couldn’t see what was going on. It really hurt.

“Town won the ball and as the scrum broke up I was right after him and he knew that but I couldn’t get hold of him. Not long after that the ref blew his whistle and the match was over. If we had got the ball from that scrum, Barrow would have won but we lost 6-4. There wasn’t a try scored and the little bugger kicked two drop goals too.”

* The book was launched on Sunday at Workington Town’s League One game against South Wales Ironmen at Derwent Park, and will be again, this weekend, when Whitehaven play Hemel at The Recreation Ground.

The book will not be available in bookshops in South Cumbria but you can pre-order a copy, which will be signed by Boxer and the author, for £15 including postage and packing through Paypal to mikegardner@hotmail.co.uk

The book is also available in the Evening Mail office, on Abbey Road, Barrow, with a donation from every sale going to Jo's Appeal – the charity set up in memory of former Evening Mail journalist Jo-anne Davies, which raises money for St Mary's Hospice, The FGH oncology unit and The Eve Appeal women's cancer charity.