It's rare enough to have your first play staged at all.

But Dave Windass's experience of seeing the first full play he had ever written put on stage was as rare as the proverbial manure from a rocking horse.

Not only was it performed in the main stage space of one of the country's most important theatres, more used to John Godber and his plays, but night after night he watched grown men openly weep and laugh, and several times witnessed standing ovations.

It's a wonder he wasn't filled with terror when it came to writing anything after Sully.

"It was an incredible experience and more than anything I could have hoped or imagined would happen," says Windass.

"It did mean there was a little bit of panic when it came to writing the next play. It could have been very easy to be paralysed by the success of Sully."

Sully told the story of Clive Sullivan, the first black man to captain Great Britain in the Rugby League world cup and the first to move between Hull's two rugby teams and remain universally loved in the city.

Windass admits that he was on to a winner when he decided to put the story of Sully on stage. Sullivan was revered by all in his adopted city of Hull.

Windass admits it was tempting to write another sports play. But there was something else about Sully. While the fact it was centred around a local hero certainly helped bring tears to the eyes of Hull folk, the script showed the former theatre critic for The Stage and Hull Daily Mail journalist had a talent for telling a story and an ear for dialogue.

Gareth Tudor Price, associate director at Hull Truck and the man at the helm of Sully, says: "Dave came to us through our
new writers group. His background reviewing plays meant he understood the language of the theatre, but he could also write really cracking dialogue.

"When Sully was the success that it was, we asked him in to discuss any other ideas he had. We want to support new playwrights coming through."

Windass was bursting with ideas, but one in particular had been with the budding playwright for years.

While at the Hull Daily Mail, Windass worked in a district office and part of producing stories meant going out to find local "characters". He ventured to
a part of the area where
he had spent time as a youngster, as many around Hull will have done.

"I'd gone down to Spurn Point which is most famous for being the place where the country's only full-time RNLI crew is based," says Windass.

"I thought they'd make a good story. It took a few visits, but eventually the crew opened up and started talking to me."

Spurn Point is the three- mile sandy peninsula that marks the end of the Yorkshire coast, flanked on one side by the Humber and on the other by the North Sea.

A number of families have built a community around the RNLI station.

"I had always thought about that community and those people I met," says Windass. "It was the first time I had come face-to-face with real-life heroes. I thought they would make a fascinating group of people to look at and put on stage. Heroes can be one-dimensional, but this group of incredible people who chose to live their lives out on the end of this three-mile strip of land were complex and ordinary and human.

"I knew I wanted to tell their story."

Windass returned to spend time with the crew on a number of occasions and heard stories of the brave acts of this hardy group
of men.

"There were stories of men who went to drag a body out of the sea which had been there for days and pulling off nothing more than the arm of a rotting corpse," he says. "You realise that the minutiae and the mundanity of daily life which these men face, punctured by these extraordinary moments of heroism and drama, makes for a fantastically good story."

The tales have been turned into On A Shout which premieres at Hull Truck tonight.

"Sully is a hard act to follow. It resonated with an entire city and had a ready-made audience," says Windass. "This is a real test for me now. I'm happy with it and I'm happy with the story, the rest is up to the audiences now."

By discovering such good raw material, Windass has also given himself every chance of creating another Sully.

On A Shout, Hull Truck Theatre, to February 16. 01482 323638, www.hulltruck.co.uk