Arthur Clues (2 May 1924 – 3 October 1998) was an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative second-row forward, he played his club football in Sydney for the Western Suburbs club before moving to England to play for Leeds ( Heritage № 847) and Hunslet. Clues has been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

Playing career

Australia

Clues played

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

for Parramatta at the age of seventeen before moving to rugby league and he was also a capable first-grade

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He has the distinction of scoring a try and a

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

at both

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

, and the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

. Clues joined Wests in 1943 and quickly established himself as a constructive and creative second-rower. By 1946 he was representing at an international level for the Australians against the touring British Lions. He played in all three Tests. Clues is listed on the Australian Players Register as kangaroo No.220.

England

Lured by the offer of a lucrative contract with

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Clues was the first Australian to join an English club after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Clues played 238 first-class games for Leeds but a dispute with Leeds' management in 1954 ended his career at the club. He played for the

British Empire XIII The British Empire XIII was a rugby league football team in that played a fixture against New Zealand in 1952 at Stamford Bridge. List of players * Trevor Allan * Robert "Bob" Ayres * William "Billy" Banks * Robert Bartlett * Frank Barton *Har ...

versus

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on Wednesday 23/1/1952 at

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in L ...

. Harry Hornby, the Chairman, and financial power behind

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predomi ...

in the 1940s paid a record fee for

Frank Whitcombe Frank William Whitcombe (29 May 1913 – 17 January 1958), also known by the nickname of "The Big Man", was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s and 1940s. He played rugby union (RU) for Cardiff ...

. Frank was a hard player during an era when the game was at its toughest. His rivalry with Arthur Clues who played for

was legendary. Their confrontations on the field during the

v Leeds local derby games are part of Rugby League

Folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

Trevor Foster Trevor John French Foster MBE (3 December 1914 – 2 April 2005) was a Welsh rugby footballer, and coach. He played rugby union for Newport and rugby league for Bradford Northern. Trevor Foster was a Sergeant Physical Training Instructor in t ...

, , recalled an incident during one of these games in the late 1940s when Clues kicked out violently at

scrum half back Gwylfa Jones. Immediately Frank stood up from the scrum and confronted his reckless action. He ran towards Arthur with both fists clenched Whitcombe drove the full force of his 18 stone frame in to Arthur Clues' chest and pole axed him. Clues could not get his breath and for ten minutes received emergency medical attention in front of the 17,000

Odsal Odsal is an area of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Odsal Stadium is the home of Bradford rugby league club. The Richard Dunn Sports Centre is named after the boxer who lived in Bradford at the time of his 1976 bout against Muh ...

crowd. The referee sent Frank off for his actions while Arthur Clues was carried off on a stretcher and also sent off. In time honoured tradition the two men shook hands after the game to show their mutual respect for each other. Frank Whitcombe and Arthur Clues became great friends when their playing days were over. They used to spend a lot of time in Whitcombe's

Public House A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

"The Kings Head" in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

. Needless to say there were no problems. Clues moved on to Hunslet where he played a further three seasons before retiring in 1957. Unable to represent Australia while playing in England, Clues was selected to represent Other Nationalities on fourteen occasions between 1949 and 1955. Clues did not return to Australia at the end of his playing career, instead he chose to stay in Leeds and open a sports store. He died in 1998.

Accolades

In September 2004 Clues was named in the second row of the Western Suburbs Magpies team of the century. In February 2008, he was named in the list of Australia's ''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, and

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives compan ...

to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.

References

Sources

External links

*(archived by web.archive.org
Arthur Clues at hunslet.org.uk
*(archived by web.archive.org
Profile at leedsrugby
*(archived by web.archive.org
France defeated in ‘Battle of the Boulevard’
*(archived by web.archive.org
Floodlit feast at Odsal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clues, Arthur 1924 births 1998 deaths Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players British Empire rugby league team players City New South Wales rugby league team players Hunslet F.C. (1883) players Leeds Rhinos players New South Wales rugby league team players Other Nationalities rugby league team captains Other Nationalities rugby league team players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league second-rows Western Suburbs Magpies players