Peter Smith (born 17 September 1955) is an English former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He played at representative level for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, and at club level for

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Post Office Road and currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. Featherstone ...

(

vice-captain Vice-captain, alternate captain (ice hockey) or vice-skip (curling) may refer to a role in a number of sports immediately below the role of captain. The vice-captain may have a number of different roles, including substituting as captain when the re ...

), and Scarborough Pirates (

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

), as a , or .

Background

Peter Smith was born in

Featherstone Featherstone is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, two miles south-west of Pontefract. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 2011 ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, England, and he is the grandfather of the rugby league footballer Morgan Smith.

Playing career

Club career

Peter Smith signed for Featherstone Rovers on 31 May 1972, and he made his first-team début for Featherstone Rovers on Sunday 13 January 1974, during his time at Featherstone Rovers he scored seventy-six 3-point tries, and thirty-four 4-point tries.Bailey, Ron (20 September 2001). ''Images of Sport – Featherstone Rovers Rugby League Football Club''. The History Press. Smith played in

' 14–12 victory over Hull F.C. in the 1983 Challenge Cup Final during the 1982–83 season at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

on Saturday 7 May 1983, in front of a crowd of 84,969. Smith played right-, and scored a try in

' 12–16 defeat by

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in the 1976 Yorkshire Cup Final during the 1976–77 season at

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 Headingley ...

on Saturday 16 October 1976, played as a substitute, (replacing Richard "Charlie" Stone) in the 7–17 defeat by

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield district, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the t ...

in the 1977 Yorkshire Cup Final during the 1977–78 season at

on Saturday 15 October 1977, and played , and scored a try in the 14–20 defeat by

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

in the 1989 Yorkshire Cup Final during the 1989–90 season at

on Sunday 5 November 1989. Peter Smith's benefit

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

took place during the 1985–86 season.

Representative honours

Peter Smith won a

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for

while at Featherstone Rovers in 1980 against France, and won

s for

while at Featherstone Rovers in the

1977 Rugby League World Cup The 1977 Rugby League World Cup was the eighth World Cup held for men’s national rugby league teams and hosted in Australia and New Zealand and ran between 29 May and 25 June. Australia were Champions after beating Great Britain in the Final ...

against Australia (sub) (2 matches), in 1982 against Australia, in 1983 against France (sub) (2 matches), in 1984 against France (sub). Peter Smith won

s for

while at

; during the 1978–79 season against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, during the 1981–82 season against Lancashire, during the 1982–83 season against Lancashire, and during the 1986–87 season against Lancashire.

Honoured at Featherstone Rovers

Peter Smith is a Featherstone Rovers Hall of Fame inductee.

Contemporaneous Article Extract

"Peter Smith ''Second-row. Was signed as the first captain of the newly formed Scarborough Pirates. Smith, 35 years old, is a former international colleague of Pirates coach Len Casey. Had a long career of over 15 years with

, and played in five (

sic The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; ''thus'', ''so'', and ''in this manner'') inserted after a quotation indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated as found in the source text, including erroneous, archaic, or unusual spelling ...

six)

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

s for

. Recognised as one of the most respected players of his era.''"

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

(1 August 1991). ''The Official Rugby league Collection (Card 154 of 160)''.

. ISBN n/a

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Peter 1955 births Living people England national rugby league team players English rugby league players Featherstone Rovers players Great Britain national rugby league team players Rugby league locks Rugby league players from Featherstone Rugby league second-rows Scarborough Pirates captains Scarborough Pirates players Whitehaven R.L.F.C. coaches Yorkshire rugby league team players 20th-century English sportsmen