Ged Lowe article

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Ged Lowe, who died last week at the age of 68, was a key player in the Widnes side that lifted the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 1964 but, that game apart, he rarely grabbed too many headlines in 341 games for his only club. Yet he was the sort of player that no side can do without.
Ged’s regular position was stand-off though he occasionally filled in at centre and there was a move to loose forward late in his long career. Standing at just five foot seven and tipping the scales at less than 11 stones in his prime, here was a man who played above his weight.
Former Great Britain captain Frank Myler lined up with Ged Lowe many times for Widnes and recalls him as a tough competitor.
“Pound for pound he was the hardest player I knew” says Frank. “He would tackle the biggest forwards head on and knock them down on the spot - you would sometimes see the look of surprise on their face as they hit the floor.
“When Ged was breaking into the first team the coach, Joe Egan, took me to one side and asked if I would switch to centre to make way for him. I was the Great Britain stand-off at the time and I wasn’t exactly happy at the move, but number six was Ged’s best position, so I agreed to it because I knew he could help the team.
“He could bottle-up even the best opposing stand-offs but he had more to his game than that. Ged was an astute footballer, clever with the ball in his hand and he could time a pass to perfection.”
Born Gerald Lowe in the summer of 1941, Ged was a good player in his youth but his early progress was overshadowed by his brother Tommy, a year older and a brilliant junior footballer of whom great things were predicted. The two siblings signed for Widnes in the late fifties but, in one of those quirks of sporting fate, Tommy’s career stalled after just a couple of first team games whereas Ged went on to establish himself as a regular in the team.
The undoubted highlight of his career came at Wembley in 1964 when the Chemics defeated Hull KR 13-5. One of the Robins’ danger men was pacy stand-off Alan Burwell but Ged Lowe managed to keep him quiet for 79 of the 80 minutes, which had a major bearing on the result that day. Burwell did escape those clutches on one occasion, scorching in for a long range try, but Frank Myler is ready to shoulder the blame for that lapse. “I didn’t move up quickly enough from centre” he recalls “and left too much space on the outside. It wasn’t Ged’s fault”.
Predictably for a man who put his slight body on the line so often, Ged was no stranger to the treatment table but his was still a regular name on the teamsheet throughout the remainder of that decade. In 1971 he was rewarded with a testimonial and there was talk of retirement. But he soldiered on for another four years, his experience and commitment providing a perfect example to the young, up-and-coming Widnes outfit of the era.
Ged Lowe may not have too many paragraphs dedicated to him in any definitive history of the game of Rugby League Football but he is one of a breed of skilled and dedicated professionals who represent the backbone of the sport and, as such, he and those like him deserve to be remembered in the same way that we recall the deeds of the all-time greats.
As Frank Myler says: “He was a players’ player and a lovely man. He’ll be sadly missed.”