PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW

Grand Slam winner: Alan Ashcroft on the rampage for England

The Sixties had barely had time to start swinging when two likely lads from Lancashire appeared at Twickenham as harbingers of a phenomenon which would soon sweep the country, the Mersey Sound.
In that context, Alan ‘Neddy’ Ashcroft, the tough-as-old-boots Lion from St Helens, and Ray French, a novice second row from the same town, might have been ahead of the game. Nobody beyond Liverpool had heard of the Beatles because they had only just been formed and Gerry Marsden&rsqu...