Chev Walker (born 9 October 1982) is an English former 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 last played for the

Bradford Bulls 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 predom ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. He played both rugby league and

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 ...

professionally. A

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international representative , Walker played in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

for the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

( Heritage №),

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

( Heritage №) and the Bradford Bulls ( Heritage №).

Playing career

Leeds Rhinos

He played the position of for Leeds and he made his début against Halifax on 13 August 1999 aged 16. In July 2003, Walker was found guilty of brawling in the street in

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 ...

, and was sent to a young offenders' institution for 18 months. The other offenders were Leeds teammates Ryan Bailey (sentenced to nine months' detention in a young offenders' institution) and

Dwayne Barker Dwayne Barker (born 21 September 1983) is an English former professional rugby league footballer. Barker's usual position was , he could also operate in the centres. Barker has previously played for the Leeds Rhinos, Hull Kingston Rovers, and ...

(ordered to do 150 hours of community service) and

Rochdale Hornets The Rochdale Hornets are a professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, competing in the Championship, the second tier of European rugby league. The Rochdale Hornets are one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs ...

' Paul Owen (jailed for 15 months). He is of Jamaican heritage and expressed a desire to represent the West Indies. Just after his 18th birthday Walker played for England in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup and made his Great Britain début in 2004, coming off the bench against Australia in the opening game of that year's Tri Nations competition. In total Walker has six caps for Great Britain and six for England. He also has representative league honours with England A, England Under-21s and Yorkshire. Walker featured in the Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

Final in 2003. He played for the

club at centre in their

2004 Super League Grand Final The 2004 Super League Grand Final was the 7th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding game of Super League IX. It was held on Saturday 16 October 2004, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and was played between Leeds Rhinos, who fi ...

victory against

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 ...

. As

Super League IX Tetley's Super League IX was the name of the 2004 Super League championship season due to sponsorship by Tetley's Bitter. This was the 110th season of top-level professional rugby league held in Britain, and the ninth championship decided by Super ...

champions, Leeds faced

2004 NRL season The 2004 NRL season (also known as the 2004 Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from Telstra) was the 97th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the seventh run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen clubs competed dur ...

premiers, the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

side in the

2005 World Club Challenge The year 2005 Carnegie World Club Challenge was contested by Super League IX champions Leeds Rhinos and 2004 NRL season premiers, the Bulldogs. The match was played on 4 February at Elland Road, Leeds before 37,208 spectators. Australian Sean Hamp ...

. Walker played at centre and scored a

try Try or TRY may refer to: Music Albums * ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio * ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs * "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987) * "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014) * "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004) * " Try (Ju ...

in Leeds' 39–32 victory. Walker played for Leeds in the

2005 Challenge Cup The 2005 Powergen Rugby League Challenge Cup was played by teams from across Europe during the 2005 rugby league season. Hull F.C. won the cup defeating Leeds Rhinos in the final. Qualifying Round First Round Second Round Third Round Four ...

Final at centre in their loss against

Hull F.C. Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were ...

By the end of the 2005 season he had scored 75 tries in 156 appearances for Leeds, an average of almost one try every two games. He was also part of the Leeds team which won the

when Leeds defeated the

Canterbury Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

. He played for the

at centre in their

2005 Super League Grand Final 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

loss against

. On 6 June 2006, it was announced that Walker had signed for the English

team

Bath RFC Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground in the ...

, and would join the club from the end of the Rugby League season in November 2006.

Rugby union

England's union coach, Brian Ashton, identified Walker as a player with international potential when he helped to sign him in his previous role at Bath but the 24-year-old centre struggled to settle after moving south from Leeds on a two-year contract, and made only eight

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

starts. Walker was linked with a return to rugby league with various clubs before signing for

in September 2007. Chev Walker

Hull Kingston Rovers

Walker began playing for

at the start of the 2008 Super League season. On 18 September 2009, Walker suffered a horrific compound leg fracture in the Super League title playoff against Champions Leeds.

signed Walker on a one-year deal at the end of the 2010 season.

Bradford

Walker appeared in two of the four pre-season games. Walker played against Halifax and

Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...

. Walker featured in Round 1 (

) to Round 3 (

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

). He then played in six consecutive games from Round 8 (

Harlequins RL The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

) to Round 13 (

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

). He featured in Round 26 (Crusaders) and Round 27 (Wakefield Trinity). Walker also featured in the

game against Halifax. He picked up a pectoral injury which kept him out all season. Walker scored a try against

He signed a one-year extension to his contract. Walker appeared in three of the four pre-season games. He played against

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

and Hull F.C. He scored a try against Castleford. Walker featured in three consecutive games from Round 1 (

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

) to Round 3 (

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

). He missed Rounds 4–5 due to an injury. He then featured in three consecutive games from Round 6 (

) to Round 8 (

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

). He missed Rounds 9–11 and Round 4 of the

due to injury. He featured in Round 15 (

). He was then injured for Rounds 16–18. He returned for Rounds 19 (Wigan) to 27 (Catalans Dragons). Walker signed a one-year extension to his current contract to keep him at

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 ...

until the end of 2013. Walker featured in the pre-season friendlies against

and

. He featured in six consecutive games from Round 1 (

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, betw ...

) to Round 6 (

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

). Walker was injured for Round 7. Walker featured in Round 8 (

) to Round 9 (Leeds Rhinos, Leeds). Walker missed Round 10 due to injury. Walker returned and played in Round 11 (

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

) to Round 17 (

). He was injured for Round 18–19. He returned in Round 20 (

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warrington Z ...

) and then in Round 23 (Wakefield Trinity Wildcats) to Round 26 (London Broncos). Walker featured in the

against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and the

. Walker signed a one-year extension to his contract with the option of another year midway through the season. Walker then signed a further one-year extension on his contract despite the Bradford club being relegated to the Championship. He was named captain for the 2015 season. Walker retired from professional rugby league at the end of the 2015 season.

Personal

In November 2019, Chev & Lauren Walker appeared on George Clarke's TV programme ''Old House, New Home''