Des Drummond - A Tribute

The RFL sends deep condolences to the family and friends of Des Drummond, who has died at the age of 63. Des played 24 times for Great Britain, won the Championship with Leigh, and was a player whose brilliance, athleticism and personality transcended the sport.

We are grateful to Mike Latham, the Chairman of Leigh Centurions and Rugby League historian, for allowing us to reproduce parts of the tribute published by the Leigh club.

Leigh Centurions are devastated to learn of the passing of Des Drummond at the age of 63 and pass on their sincere condolences to his family and friends at this incredibly sad time.

Des was a true superstar of Rugby League and one of Leigh’s all-time great sporting heroes. He lit up the rugby pitch with his explosive skills and off the field was a humble and caring person who perhaps never realised just how much of a hero he was to so many people.

Jamaican born, Des had an amazing career in his adopted sport, scoring 141 tries in 280 games for Leigh and being an integral part of the Championship-winning side in 1981-82.

He later played with distinction for Warrington and Workington Town - where he was also extremely popular and loved by the supporters - and had short stints with several other clubs.

He played 24 times for Great Britain and in 1983 achieved national fame with his amazing performances on the BBC programme Superstars, finishing second.

He reached the world final in Hong Kong and represented the sport of Rugby League outstandingly, in the company of some of the world’s leading athletes, impressing them all with his strength, pace, endurance and lighting up the television screens with his beautiful smile and engaging personality.

Des had come over from Jamaica with his family as a youngster and he lived in his adopted town of Bolton for the rest of his life. He formed a lifelong friendship with the highly respected former Leigh chairman and director Brian Bowman, the Leigh Centurions president.

Brian told me one day how he signed Des Drummond for Leigh. It’s an amazing story. Brian was on the board at Leigh, soon to become chairman. He had already made sure that Leigh had signed John Woods, at a time when other members of the board were hesitating, and it was through his foresight and rugby knowledge that Leigh also signed Derek Pyke and Steve Donlan, among others, who all became key members of the 1981-2 side.

But signing Des was quite possibly Brian’s greatest achievement, in a stellar contribution to the game as an administrator. Des’s elder brother Alva, who tragically passed away in 1994 after an accident on holiday in Cyprus, had played for Leigh and Des was to follow in his footsteps.

Brian took up the story: “We had an A-Team (reserve team) game at Barrow and Des came along on the bus to watch. The coach decided to give him a game and what a game it was! Up until then, he had played a handful of games in the Colts team.

“He was asked to play on the wing, he scored three tries and what tries they were! As a director of the club, I went to all the reserve games, and I did not have to think twice about what to do with this young player.

“I asked him if he would be interested in signing for Leigh and took him along to our board meeting on the following Tuesday night. I told the board, based on what I’d seen, that he was a future star of the game.”

“Des repaid me on the playing field, and I will never forget him as long as I live.”

So began a long friendship between the two men and Des was a regular weekly visitor to Brian’s home in Leigh.

Des was humble and caring, he could never really understand why so many people regarded him as a superstar, which he was.

In recent years he had started watching games at Leigh again and just before lockdown travelled with me to some away games. I took him to watch Oldham against Newcastle in a play-off game in 2019 and as we queued for a cup of tea and later stood on the terrace watching the game it was amazing how many supporters came up to say hello and tell him how much they had enjoyed watching him play, even though he had not played for either club and his career had ended over 20 years ago. Des also attended the 2019 Club Awards Evening as the guest of honour.

The news of his passing, which came through on Saturday evening (January 29) was especially poignant as only that morning we held a reunion of the 1982 team, alongside players from the 1971 Wembley team at Leigh Sports Village when the current players each received their playing shirt from a former player. Des had been invited only a few days ago, but politely declined, saying he had a prior engagement and was unable to attend.

It was amazing how many times his name cropped up during the morning as we looked back to that great season and the Championship-clinching game at Whitehaven when Des scored one of the tries in Leigh’s 13-4 victory.

Tony Barrow, representing the 1971 team, was at the function and spoke movingly to the players about what playing for Leigh meant to him. 

“It’s tragic news,” Tony said. “I can’t believe it. I thought the world of him, as so many people did. The Warrington fans idolised Des, just as the Leigh fans did. But then everyone loved Dessie, everywhere we went. I’ve never heard a bad word about him.

“For me as his coach, he was brilliant, one of my lads. He’d do anything for the team and was never an ounce of trouble. He had such an engaging personality and used to make us all laugh. He was so laid back and nothing bothered him. You’d highlight a star playing in the other team and Des would just say, ‘Don’t worry Tony, leave it to me,’ and he did. The way he crash-tackled people was unbelievable, he was fearless.

“With the ball, as well, he would just run into people and often leave them sprawled on the floor. He wasn’t a big man, but his strength was unbelievable. He’d do weights, but not heavy ones, light ones, and he was ripped to hell. He’s a background in martial arts as a kid and those skills helped him in Rugby League. He had that knack of tackling players to the floor.

“Des had explosive pace and when he got the ball it electrified the crowd, like a big buzz around the ground. Everyone knew something was about to happen and so often it did, a spectacular try or a run as Des would hurl himself headlong into an opponent. Alva, his brother if anything was even quicker. He had blistering pace too, and although he played for the first team at Leigh and Swinton, he never quite made it. It was through Alva that Des got into rugby, and he became a great, great player. There’ll never be another Des Drummond.

“Des, as we know, came into Rugby League by accident and as he didn’t know anything about the game before he started playing it, he was no respecter of reputations because, no matter how great the player, he’d never heard of them. He was one of those blokes that come up occasionally, who try the game, get signed up quickly and find they enjoy it.

“Before you know it, he was playing at the international level. He owed so much to Brian Bowman and Brian will be absolutely devastated by this news.  My thoughts are with him and all Des’s family and friends. Everyone who played with or against him, anyone who watched him play will be so greatly saddened to hear this news.”

During his time at Warrington, Des ran a pub in Moss Side and he later was engaged in community work with Bolton Council and was a regular cyclist around the Bolton area.

The statistics of Des’s career, though hugely impressive, still do not do justice to the superstar he was, or the impact he made on the game.

Des scored the BBC TV Try of the Season in a John Player Trophy semi-final defeat against Leeds at Fartown in December 1983 and by now, with Rugby League regularly covered on television and an international star for Great Britain, he was known throughout the country.

He scored 141 tries and kicked two goals in 280 games for Leigh. Only four players have scored more tries for the club - Mick Martyn (189), Ryan Brierley (154), John Woods (152) and Bill Kindon (149). Quite how many he’d have scored had he stayed at Leigh throughout his career is hard to say, but seeing he played the professional game for another decade he could well have doubled that tally.

In the summer of 1986, Des went over to play for Western Suburbs in Australia, scoring two tries in six games but then on his return did not play for Leigh and announced his retirement.

After a spell out of the game, he joined Warrington for a £40,000 fee under Tony Barrow and made his debut in a 31-10 win v Bradford on 8 February 1987. He scored 69 tries in 182 games for Warrington to 1991-92, playing in the 1990 Challenge Cup Final defeat (36-14) against Wigan at Wembley.

In 1992-93 he joined Bramley on loan making four appearances and then moved to Workington Town and scored 32 tries in 71 games to end of 1994-95 season as Town, under Australian coach Peter Walsh won promotion from the Third Division and ultimately reached Super League in 1996. They lost to Featherstone Rovers in the divisional play-off final at Old Trafford in 1993, but Town beat London Crusaders in the 1994 final at the same venue.

Town also won promotion to Division One for the 1994-95 season when Des scored eight tries in 29 games at the top level at the age of 36. Des was every bit as popular at Workington as he had been at Hilton Park and Wilderspool and he told me that he enjoyed his time there.

Des opened the scoring in Workington’s 94-4 Challenge Cup win over Leigh in 1994, Leigh’s record defeat, an occasion he told me many years later he found bitter-sweet.

In 1996 he scored three tries in 11 games for Chorley and in 1997 he scored four tries in 11 games for Barrow, one try in four games for Prescot Panthers.

His last professional game was on 31 August 1997 for Barrow against Lancashire Lynx, an 8-20 defeat in front of 540 spectators at Craven Park.

On the representative front, Des scored eight tries in 24 tests for GB between 1980 and 1988, seven in five games for GB Under 24s, one in five games for England, three in four games for Lancashire and nine in 10 GB tour games.

He made his GB debut against New Zealand in the Second Test at Odsal in 1980 (lost 12-8) but scored two tries in the Yhird Test win (10-2) at Headingley which made the series drawn. These two tries cemented his reputation on the international stage.

He played in all three tests against the 1982 Australians, known as the ‘Invincibles’, the only GB player to do so. He also played in a promotional game in Venice, for Great Britain against France.

His GB U24s debut v France was at Hilton Park, Leigh on 24 November 1979 (Won 14-2) when he scored a try.

He toured Australia and New Zealand with the Great Britain Lions in 1984 but was controversially withdrawn from the 1988 tour after an alleged incident with a spectator at Widnes, something about which Des still felt very aggrieved many years later.

His last game for GB was against France at Avignon on 24 January 1988, scoring a try in a 28-14 win.

He scored 285 tries and kicked two goals in 617 career games.

He was formerly British Amateur Champion at Judo also.

Des lit up our lives and right now, it feels like a light has just been turned off. He will be remembered in the highest regard and tales of his career will be handed down through generations. He truly was one of the all-time greats. But above all else, a lovely person.