View a clip on King Kurt lifting that cup
Click the Link to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ZIKr-pg_Y

Video Clips - king kurt sorenson of the widnes vikings
click the Links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ZIKr-pg_Y
(21-10-06) - Some clips from the Widnes golden era.
Featuring Sorensen, Offiah, Davies and others..
Watch out for John Bentley meeting Koloto, (just after Offiah scores at Leeds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3LpUBFx1iM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnl8TNodEYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE3hC7Vrk_U

Stats available from 1976 on -

CRONULLA SUTHERLAND DREAMTEAM ANNOUNCED July 2006

Fullback ... David Peachey
Winger ... Mat Rogers
Centre ... Steve Rogers
Centre ... Andrew Ettingshausen
Winger ... Ray Corcoran
5/8 ... Chris Wellman
Half ... Tommy Bishop
Lock ... Greg Pierce
S/r ... Gavin Miller
S/R ... Ken Maddison
Prop ... Cliff Watson
Prop ... Jason Stevens
Hooker ... Ron Turner
Reserve .... Dane Sorensen
Reserve ... Steve Kneen
Reserve ... Brett Kimmorley
Reserve ... Mark McGaw

Kurt had played the season of 1984 with Easturn Suburbs Roosters after leaving Cronulla in 1983. He had resigned with the Sharks for 1985 and was heading back to Endeavour Oval from his stint at Bondi.

Jack Gibson was the New Cronulla coach for the 1985 season and was taking over from Terry Fernley. At the time and as the story goes Kurt approached the laid back coach Gibson and asked if it would be alright if he played the off season in the UK.

Apparently Kurt was a bit concerned about player burn out and in particular, his own, after playing a full 84 season with the Roosters, then an offseason in the UK, and then straight back into it with the Sharks.

It was reported that Gibbo's answer to Sorensens concerned enquiry was something like as follows.
"Why not, you did nothing all 1984, so you may as well go" (or words to that effect)

Short, sweet, and to the point. That was Jack Gibson.

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Kurt played for Widnes from 1984 to 1993 and was in our World Club
championship winning side of 1989.
Equally loved by the Widnes fans over here. A great, hard-hitting forward.


Look him up on
http://www.widnesvikings.co.uk/search.php?q=sorensen

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The game took place in the mid 80's, and the coach in charge of Leeds at the time was former GB and Bradford coach, Peter Fox.

Leeds had been told by the Great Britain management to 'soften' up the Kiwis for the first ten minutes so that they would be carrying a few cracks into the upcoming test match with GB the next weekend.

Well, to be fair, Leeds actually started it and started it with some silly high shots. The problem was that New Zealands pack consisted of some VERY hard players, the likes of Sorenson, Tamati, Graeme West, et al.

Leeds were playing in their change strip, which was white, and not one player came off the field without blood on his shirt. Seven players were stretchered from the field that day, and Keith Rayne, Leeds ex GB prop suffered a broken nose and broken fingers, yet still refused to leave the field.

It was only when he recieved six broken ribs through knees in the tackle that he was forced from the field. Things got so bad that the Leeds directors made Peter Fox attempt to take his players from the field of play, and yet everyone refused. Leeds lost the game 14-11, if I remember correctly, and finished with 11 men.

Many thanks to "GHOUT" UK for submitting this game

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We were named after you guys.
Kurt 10
Dane 8
You guys were great!!!!
Can we get a photo?

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You have a picture showing Andy Greg and Kurt Sorensen scrapping with gentleman Mick Adams looking on!!
viking means this one "Quigs"

Ironically all 3 played for the Widnes club in the UK!!

Are we the hardest club? we also had Vinty Karalius, Jim Mills and Kevin Tamati... whilst our Hulme
brothers were labelled by gary freeman as the dirtiest men he'd ever played against.

And he should know!!

More recently Penrith Rock Steve Carter played for us too.

Hail to the Chemics.. the Worlds hardest team.

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Players story: Kevin Tamati & Kurt Sorenson

____________________________________________

When i played at Warrington rugby Union team in approx 1994/95 Kevin Tamati and Kurt Sorenson both played as "ringers".

Admitedly they didnt both play every week but they were more often than not listed in the starting line up.

As a 16 Year old Second rower i had no fear lining up against anyone in those days as i knew that if i got into "trouble" i would have back up in the form of Kev and Kurt....

Imagine the feeling of playing Rugby (Of either code) lining up with your terrace hero's..... It was fantastic.

Just thought i would share my little piece of Rugby History.

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Unfortunately I never got to see Karalius & Mills play live but some of the old video footage was frightening to watch. It makes some of todays so called hard men look like ballet dancers.

Years ago when I was a student I had a summer job working for a building company owned by former Saints & GB hooker Eddie Cunningham (elder brother of Keiron). As most players were amateur back then quite a few current & ex players worked for the company during the week including former international Tommy Cunningham & the then current Saints & GB player Roy Haggerty.
Roy really was what you would call a hard man and on more than 1 occasion left opponents flat out (usually with an illegal punch or 2). Roy claimed the the hardest players he ever played with were GB duo Andy Platt & Chris Arkwright, and the hardest opponent he ever played against was Kurt Sorenson. In fact he admired Kurt so much that he named his son after him.

Interestingly though he said some players liked to portray a hard man image but where nowhere to be seen when it actually kicked off. One of these he said was Wigan prop Kelvin Skerrett. There was 1 story Roy liked to tell where it all kicked off with players running in from all over, Skerrett ran up to him & started to punch Roy in the head. Roy just stood there & took about 4 or 5 blows to the head, grabbed Skerrett by the throat, punched him once in the face and left him spark out on the floor.

Hope you find these little stories amusing, Regards Mark

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King Kurt was awesome, and the 1989 World club championship at Old Trafford is etched in my memory for ever, Long live King Kurt

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King Kurt Sorensen, Never seen him have a bad game for Widnes.He came over to England in 1985 after Widnes had won at Wembley the season before.

Kurt then returned home after 1 season, with his wife who was pregnant, and there was a doubt about whether he would return.

The great man did return and so did the glory times for Widnes R.L.F.C.

When he came over to Britain, Kurt had never won any domestic honours in his career, but retired with over a dozen medals to his name.

His greatest wish was to play at Wembley and was denied at the semi-final stage so many times until, 1993 he got his wish in what was his last ever game for the Chemics as they were known then.

3 things that i remember most about King Kurt was that he is a gentleman off the pitch , Wigan made a big offer for him before Widnes became successful, but he decided to stay, and an incident in a derby match against the Chemics bitter rivals Warrington about 1988.

The Widnes Winger Offiah got a high shot by his opposite wing Drummond, which caused the players from both teams to run over and have a bit of a push and shove. As things were calming down Kurt winked at Les Boyd who was in the Wire side, walked over to him, and punched him clean on the nose, whitch resulted in a mass brawl.

Players like Kurt Sorensen are legends and will always be remembered as one in Widnes.

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i have watched some epic tussles between wigan and warrington when les boyd wanted to fight the whole wigan team.

the bloke was a nutter!!!! likewise you could look forward to a bit of spilt claret when kurt sorensen was around, if he lasted the game out!!

the hardest and possibly the quietest player i have ever seen was the legendary brian mctigue. No one messed with mac more than once ,once was usually enough!!

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As a child I remember watching an athletics competition on television in New Zealand.

There was much excitement around the 100m sprint with Alan Wells from Scotland and Hasely Crawford from Trinidad both competing.

As part of the fun a celebrity 100m was also staged with Brian Williams All Black winger, Kurt Sorenson and other prominent footballers and sports people lined up.

My father who was an avid Rugby man choked in his tea as the "Bloody League Prop"!, ran away with it.

I went on to play league.

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Not exactly a rugby story but memorable anyway.

September '72

My family finally got to visit our Kiwi relatives during a three year stit down-under. One cool afternoon we went to visit the Sorensen family. I got to meet uncle Peter and cousins Dane and Kurt for the first time.

Being a rather skinny 14 year old (55kg) these two guys were HUGE - even cousin Ken was on the skinny side in comparison. He's made up for it in later years though...

To pass the time Dane propsed a quiet softball game in the back yard. No worries, at least I would avoid any painful physical contact. First to bat; Kurt (a 15-stone 14 year old with no real understanding of his own strength).

First swing at the ball - crack - the bat breaks in two and goes flying into the neighbours back yard. "You stupid B-rd" Dane comments. An intense wrestling match insues and Ken joins in. I quietly fade into the background....

The story continues some 30 years later when I got to play a game of touch with the 'Gators. Ken and Kurt gave me a quick resume of the rules and off we went. First time on the pitch Kurt sets me up beutifully and I scored my first try in 30 years..,

Cousin Peter (Sweden)

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I was at a Wakefield V Widnes game in the 80's.

An old bloke in his 70's shouted every time Kurt Sorenson had the ball

"he's an ANIMAL,an ANIMAL" praise indeed!

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A friend of mine used to work in Warrington as a sales manager and he was a real bastard to his employees.

He was proud of the fact that 'he was the most hated man in Warrington after Kurt Sorensen'!

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Cronulla without the Sorensens is like the movie 'Jaws' without the shark - tame and boring.

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He damaged a lot of sides.

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1985 - The Sorensens had both returned to Cronulla that year, after spending 1984 at Easts following the club's financial crisis.

Kurt Sorensen left Australian football at the end of 1985, heading to England to play for Widnes.

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warrington versus widnes the only man to chin kurt
sorensen while lying on the deck with kurt stood over him was les
boyd.i dont think kurt fancied it after his nose exploded

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I played against Kurt Sorensen in under 17s....he was an outside back for Mt Wellington and I was an outside back for Manurewa...thats the year I decided tackling big guys that run like the wind wasn't much fun. I also played against Olsen Filapina when he was with Mangere and I was with Otahuhu....jesus they made them backs big in our day.

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Kurt Soresen-watched him play for widnes against my beloved St Helens.

Hard but fair-he would wait till you looked at him before he ripped your head off!! .... hhaha

Pure Animal

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Kurt Sorensen ended up playing at Whitehaven at the end of his career and then became our coach.

We started to do really well, then our local rivals somehow managed to get lucky and get promotion.

Sorensen then decided that he'd go and coach them instead.

Needless to say he's not very welcome at The Recre any more.

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I watched a reserve team game at Widnes in 1989 against Workington when Johnathan Davies had just joined the club.

Kurt Sorensen had been injured and was playing to get back into the groove. He certainly did that when the opposing prop forward had a go at Kurt in the Scrum. Ever careful not to be penalised in such a lowly game, Kurt waited for the ball to go out to the flanks and dropped their prop with one hay maker of a punch.

You could literally hear the thud from the clock end of the ground (He was on the 40 yard line! Kurt just carried on with the game, their prop was carried off!

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Kurt was a true legend in Widnes, loved by the fans and truly hated by the opposition many of whom forget that apart from been a hard man, he was also a top player who lifted all of the major trpohies whilst with us in a famous team.

Apart from lifting all of the silverware the game had to offer several times, I suppose the best memory of him running around the Wigan full back and centre to score at Wembley in 93.

Wigan were the top team then and Kurt was in his late 30s which makes the try even better.

Like I say, hard man but a great player

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