1966 Challenge Cup Final Minnie Intervenes
This week it’s Minnie Cotton’s lodger JOHN WARLOW.
The action at the Challenge Cup semi-final in 1966 was not confined to the players on the field; St.Helens fan, Minnie Cotton, took offence to the treatment of her Lodger, Saints’ second-rower John Warlow by Dewsbury’s Trevor Low and ran onto the pitch with a borrowed umbrella!
Thankfully, the only damage done was to the umbrella before Minnie was led off the field with Frankie Barrow offering words of solace.
This is the complete article (including sub-headings) that was published by the St Helens Newspaper on April 19th 1966 under the headline:
“Dewsbury Player Told… Lay Off My Lad – Disgusted Grannie Goes Brolly Bashing!”:
“The 15-st umbrella-swinging grandmother, who became the darling of Saints’ fans on Saturday when she charged on to the Swinton pitch and set about a Dewsbury player was still laughing yesterday as she got through her Monday morning wash.
And 57-years-old widow Minnie Cotton made an offer. “It wasn’t my umbrella that got smashed in the kerfuffle,” she said. “I think it belonged to a couple sitting next to me. I just grabbed it. But if they get in touch with me we shall see they get a new one.”
Surrounded by the Sunday paper cuttings in the back-kitchen at 9, St. Luke’s Road, Mrs. Cotton told how she saw red after four Dewsbury players had tackled Saints’ second-row forward John Warlow – her lodger.
MILLIONS SAW INCIDENT
It was four minutes from the final whistle. “I was sitting on the front row of the ringside seats with my grandson, 12-years-old David Reisler, 11, Marshall Avenue, when I saw number 11, Trevor Lowe, kick John when he went down after the four Dewsbury lads had tackled him. Well! I just saw red. Lowe hadn’t even been involved in the tackle.”
And before the eyes of millions of tele-viewers the booted, brown macked fan of 40 years’ standing, made a 25 yards burst after a retreating Lowe.
She rapped him on the shoulder with the borrowed brolly – and the shocked Lowe spun round, grabbed the Cotton weapon and neatly snapped it in two over his knee.
“I wasn’t afraid,” said the woman who has been to 18 Wembley finals, “after all I’m bigger than he is. I told him he was a dirty devil.”
DUMBFOUNDED GRANDSON
Dewsbury prop forward Walker prevented menacing Minnie from striking Lowe a second time and a police inspector and Saints full back Frank Barrow escorted her back to a dumbfounded grandson and a cheering crowd.
“They were yelling ‘Hands off’,” laughed Mrs. Cotton. “They kissed me, and congratulated me. I think two things got me so worked up. One, the fact that John was already injured – his eye had been scratched by a finger nail.
“And two, that referee. . . ! That Sgt. Major Clay – he hates the sight of our players. He’s got them all frightened.”
HUSBAND WAS A PLAYER
Minnie’s views should not be taken too lightly. Her husband George, who died of a heart attack in July, 1963, was a Saints player and her grandfather Tom Topping was too.
George Cotton was also a former Lancashire winger and secretary of Saints’ Supporters’ Club.
After his death Mrs. Cotton decided to take in lodgers – rugby players naturally.
John was preceded by Roy Pritchard and David Evans. She said: “John’s a smashing lad to look after. I imagine I felt I had to protect him.” She added: “But I don’t think I’ll do it again.”
But she did! A month later during Saints cup final win against Halifax, Minnie repeated what the St Helens Newspaper called her “player clobbering act”.
Again, the TV cameras captured her on-field activities and, subsequently, this letter appeared in the Newspaper from someone calling themselves “Disgusted Billinger”:
“Don’t you think it’s time that the “brolly woman” was banned from rugby football? I am not a fan of any team but twice recently I have watched TV on Saturday afternoon, and it’s been a repeat performance.
“She would be better at home doing some baking, or is she after a part in films? I would be ashamed if I was her. What can you expect from teenagers, when older folk are so silly?”
On her first field-storming at Swinton, Minnie had been returned to her seat. But on the second occasion she’d been evicted from the ground and missed out on the celebrations. As a result, Minnie said she would not be watching Saints anymore after 40 years. But the Saints team had other ideas and came up with a compromise – that The Guardian described on June 4th 1966:
“Members of the St. Helens Rugby League team, who won both the Rugby League championship and the Challenge Cup this season, yesterday decided to buy a season ticket for one of their supporters, Mrs Minnie Cotton. Alex Murphy, the St Helens captain, said yesterday:
“We had to do something to get her supporting us again. The players thought it would be a good idea to have a whip round and buy her a stand ticket. It will fence her in and keep her out of trouble, and we shall still have our No. 1 fan.””
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
