My Life in Rugby: Peter Squires – former Ripon, Harrogate, England and Lions wing
I made 49 first-class appearances in the Seventies just when the great Yorkshire side was on the wane and racked by divisions between those for the captain at the time, Geoffrey Boycott, and those against.
As far as I can recall my pace between the wickets prevented him from ever running me out!
Being a professional cricketer meant I missed selection for the 1974 Lions tour but I was one of only five Englishmen to tour New Zealand three years later. I only played in one of the Tests, the first in Wellington which ended in a 16-12 defeat. It was disappointing because I don’t think I played badly. Hamstring problems curtailed my involvement thereafter.
Even though I didn’t play as much as I’d hoped, it was a great tour to be involved with. I had a ‘horror’ room with Moss Keane and Willie Duggan, probably the biggest characters on tour who were both hardened drinkers. Willie tended to keep his own hours, and the only way you knew he was back in the room was because he was a chain smoker.
It’s fair to say I got to know them better than most of my England team-mates. It was New Zealand’s wettest winter for 20-odd years but it was still great to see the country and the passion its people have for rugby.
I’d got a taste of New Zealand four years before as a member of the England team that became the first nation from the Northern Hemisphere to beat the All Blacks on home soil in a test. Scrum-half Jan Webster was man-of-the-match and put me in for a try but the back row of Uttley, Ripley and Dixon weren’t far behind him; they were a pretty formidable unit.
I’d love to say my try – my second in three games for England – was a classic but it was from about two yards out. Still, it’s in the record books and that’s all that counts! It was some party afterwards; it’s a miracle we all made the flight back home the following morning.
I’d made my England debut some six months before, against France at Twickenham in the Five Nations. The game was a real step up in pace and the only thing I can instantly recall is my relief at catching my first pass and not losing the ball in contact.
It was similar to my Yorkshire CCC debut when I was just glad to survive a first-ball bouncer from Surrey‘s Robin Jackman.
I won 30 caps for England and score six tries. Not being the biggest of wingers I had to use my footwork and pace off the mark to threaten defences. My best score was probably in a non-capped international against Argentina in ’78 when I stepped past several defenders on my way to the line.
Another memorable moment was beating JJ Williams to the ball in the in-goal area to save what Welsh fans must have thought was a certain try in the 1974 Five Nations. We went on to beat Wales that day and we were all pretty euphoric afterwards as they had some of the best players in the world in their team at the time.
I don’t think I’d ever anticipated going on to play for my country; I’d never even made it into the Yorkshire Schoolboys set-up and, as a club player at Harrogate, I used to play fly-half not wing.
It was only really by accident that I ended up there. Yorkshire favoured a counter-attacking style and had a preference for ball players out wide. It was me on one wing and Ian McGeechan on another. Eighteen months later I was playing for England.
*As told to Jon Newcombe
