Bygones: ‘What they did to me absolutely broke my heart, but I still wanted to play for Bradford’

IT WAS a decision which “broke his heart” and still haunts Peter Roe more than 30 years on.
Peter Roe in action.Peter Roe in action.
Peter Roe in action.

When the pacey centre suffered a serious knee injury while playing for champions Bradford Northern in 1981, he was told his club would cash in a £30,000 insurance policy and let him go.

As pained as he was, Yorkshire star Roe, who was on the verge of Great Britain honours, agreed to the deal but now, for the first time, claims he was misled by the Odsal hierarchy.

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“They lied to me saying, though I could never play for them again as they’d have to return the cash, I could still play elsewhere,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“It turns out I couldn’t but I’d believed them and I’d trusted them. When the Rugby League told me otherwise it all left a very bitter taste in my mouth.

“I was about to play for GB against France when I got injured, I was 24, flying, at the peak of my career and I just got shelved.

“But the club told me they did it for the money. They were absolutely broke. It was the lowest ebb of my life. I felt let down by everyone.

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“Chairman Harry Womersley was the only person who rang me once the dirty deed was done to wish me all the best.

“He said: ‘I know you feel bad about it but please forgive me’.

“He actually asked me to forgive him. I think he was under pressure from the board.

“I got told by Bradford’s financial director they were constantly a day or two from being written off with winding up orders and that 30 grand saved them from going out of business.”

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Roe, who figured heavily in the ‘79-80 title-winning team, recalled how Northern – who bought him for £7,500 from Keighley – broke the news.

“While I was in rehab’ Bradford took me on a club trip to Mallorca near Christmas and I thought ‘great, I’m back in,’” he said.

“But the directors asked me to go out for dinner with them and that’s when they told me they were washing their hands of me.

“I told them it wasn’t right and I had real money problems as I couldn’t work – I was at a security firm – and my wife was pregnant with our first child.

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“They agreed to give me three grand out of the 30 but when it came to that they gave me two in a white envelope. I asked where the rest was and was told they’d had to pay the tax man that.”

Roe, who is out of the game now having proved a successful coach with the likes of Keighley Cougars, Halifax and Featherstone Rovers later in his career, admitted he was furious when discovering his professional career was over.

“Why should that happen to me when it’s Bradford’s choice and the opinion of a surgeon who I later found out didn’t ever get paid by the club?” he said.

“Why should that determine my future in RL? I had a meeting with the Rugby League and they effectively said ‘hard luck’. I argued it was restraint of trade.

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“A players’ union formed which had some really smart solicitors, I paid my subs and they took it on.

“They came to a compromise with the Rugby League that if I wanted to play again I’d play as an amateur for X amount of months and if my knee went I couldn’t claim anything.

“In those days the Rugby League paid you £30 a week if you couldn’t work.”

Roe was out of action for around 15 months due to the injury but York gave him a chance to resurrect his career even though he concedes he had lost some of that pace.

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“Initially, nobody would touch me as they thought I was on a money tirade; there was a stigma attached to it as everyone thought the money paid to Bradford actually went to me,” he said.

“It’s amazing how you can go from hero to zero within two seasons but York, who had a very clever chairman who looked into it thoroughly, took me on.

“I had to play as an amateur for a while to prove my knee was alright – nearly a full season – and then the Rugby League re-registered me as professional.”

After that year with York, Roe spent three seasons with Hunslet and then on to Keighley before another Yorkshire club made a surprise move for his services.

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“I ended up being player-coach at Keighley but – touching 30 – I got myself so fit Bradford coach Barry Seabourne tried to sign me for season 86-87,” he revealed.

“I trained with them. Karl Fairbank said he’d never seen anyone as fit. Still says it now.

“But Bradford said in the press it’d be fraught with complications to sign me back. They were probably worried about paying that cash back.”

Would he have re-signed given the chance?

“Of course I would as I love the club,” enthused the 58-year-old. “When I go up there now it still brings hairs up on the back of my neck. I’ve always been a bit of a romantic.

“What they did to me absolutely broke my heart, but I still wanted to play for Bradford.”