Yarn from Gary Kitchner, Leeds,

A story on Big Jim Mills and an encounter with the young buck Roy Dickinson.. Time : 1970's.

Just been reminded about a story I heard at a sportsmans dinner a couple of months ago about Big Jim Mills of Widnes, it was told by Roy Dickinson, a big daft lad who played prop for Leeds in the 1970's, Roy is getting into the after dinner speaking lark and he's very funny, this may or may not be true but it's typical of his humour.


Jim in action against Artie Beetson

He(Roy)was only 19 when he was picked to prop against Jim Mills for the first time, when Jim was at his peak and a frightening sight for us in the stands let alone for those on the pitch.

Roy was taken aside by the Leeds coach Roy Francis and told that he wanted to see some aggression and that the only answer to Jim Mills was to hit him hard in the first tackle to get his respect, he was assured that after that he'd have an easy time, you nust had to hit Jim hard enough for him to know that you meant business, thats all.

Roy says that three minutes into the game a scrum was called and as he took his place in the front row he saw Francis signalling to him with his fist, mouthing the words "hit him Roy". As they packed down Roy was just about to swing an uppercut from his knees when he was hit with something and woke up with the trainer wafting smelling salts under his nose and was told to "get after him Roy, he's making a fool out of you"

The next scrum came up and once again Roy got the instruction from the bench to hit Mills first, they packed down again and smack, Roy got another one on the chin, woke up again with the trainer telling him that Francis had said that if he didn't hit Mills the next time then he'd be substituted.

At the third scrum Roy managed a half hearted punch which missed Mills by miles and as the scrum broke up Mills had Roy in a headlock using his face as a punchbag.

He stopped to tell Roy to pack in the rough stuff and get on with the game, to which Roy, on his knees and bleeding from every pore on his face replied "alright Jim, if you've had enough we call it quits".

READ A LOT MORE ON JIM MILLS