Stanley "Stan" Kielty (20 July 1925 – 31 December 2008) was an English

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, and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

ed in the 1960s. He played at representative level for

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 ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, and at club level for

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 ...

( Heritage No. 537), and Halifax ( Heritage No. 564), as a , i.e. number 7. Kielty holds Halifax's 'most games in a career' record, which stands at 482 appearances between 1946 and 1958. he played the majority of his career at , and formed a formidable halves pairing with Ken Dean. On the field the 'Dean and Kielty' duo became renowned as one of the best and most symbiotic creative partnerships in the game, while off the field Stan and Ken remained good friends years after their playing days came to an end.

Background

Kielty's birth was registered in

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 ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, England, and he died aged 83 in Halifax,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England.

Playing career

International honours

Kielty won

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. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

s for

while at Halifax in 1953 against Wales, France, and

Other Nationalities The Other Nationalities rugby league team are a rugby league representative team that usually consists of non-English players. They have also played under the name The Exiles and more recently Combined Nations All Stars. They competed in the first ...

County honours

Kielty won

s for

while at Halifax.

Challenge Cup Final appearances

Kielty played in Halifax's 4-4 draw with

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 ...

in the

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

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 during the 1953–54 season at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on Saturday 24 April 1954, in front of a crowd of 81,841, and played in the 4-8 defeat by

in the

Final replay during the 1953–54 season at

Odsal Stadium Odsal Stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, is the home of Bradford Bulls Rugby League team. It has also been used by the Bradford Dukes speedway team, BRISCA F1 and F2 stock cars, the football team Bradford City, following the Valley ...

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 ...

on Wednesday 5 May 1954, in front of a record crowd of 102,575 or more.

Club career

Kielty made his début for

during the 1944–45 season, and he played his last match for Wakefield Trinity during the 1946–47 season.

Testimonial match

Kielty's

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 ...

at Halifax took place in 1955.

Honoured at Halifax

Kielty is a Halifax Hall of Fame Inductee.

Honoured by Arriva Yorkshire

Arriva Yorkshire Arriva Yorkshire is a major bus operator providing services primarily within and across West Yorkshire, although it also provides service in some parts of South Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and southern areas of North Yorkshire. It is a ...

honoured 13 rugby league footballers on Thursday 20 August 2009, at a ceremony at

The Jungle ''The Jungle'' is a 1906 novel by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair's primary purpose in describing the meat industry and its working conditions was to advance socialism in the United States. However, most readers wer ...

, the home of the

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, that compete in the Super League, the top-level professional rugby league club competition in the Northern Hemisphere. The club have competed i ...

. A fleet of new buses were named after the 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team'. Members of the public nominated the best ever rugby league footballers to have played in West Yorkshire, supported by local rugby league journalists; James Deighton from BBC Leeds, and Tim Butcher, editor of

Rugby League World ''Rugby League World'' is a dedicated rugby league magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. Other rugby league titles published by League Publications Ltd include the weekly newspaper ''Rugby Leaguer & League Express'' and the annual ''G ...

. The 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team' is;

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 ...

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

, Neil Fox

Albert Goldthorpe Albert Edward Goldthorpe (3 November 1871 – 8 January 1943) was an English rugby footballer from the period around 1895's schism in English rugby, which led to the formation of rugby league football around the turn of the century. Career One ...

Alan Hardisty Alan Hardisty (born 12 July 1941), also known by the nickname of "Chuck", is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and coached in the 1970s and 1980s. He played at representative level ...

, Stan Kielty, Lewis Jones,

Roger Millward Roger Millward (16 September 1947 – 2 May 2016) was an English rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. A goal-kicking , he gained a high level of prominence in the sport in England by p ...

, Malcolm Reilly,

Garry Schofield Garry Edward Schofield OBE (born 1 July 1965) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and is a member of the British Rugby League Hall of Fame. At the time of his retirement he was the most ...

Keith Senior Keith Andrew Senior (born 24 April 1976) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Sheffield Eagles and the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League. A Great Britain and England international representative , he is co ...

David Topliss David Topliss (29 December 1949 – 16 June 2008), also known by the nickname of "Toppo", was an English World Cup winning professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. He pla ...

Dave Valentine David Donald Valentine (12 September 1926 – 14 August 1976) was a Scottish representative rugby union and Rugby League World Cup, World Cup winning rugby league footballer, a List of dual-code rugby internationals, dual-code rugby internatio ...

and

Adrian Vowles Adrian Vowles (born 30 May 1971) is a former professional Scotland international rugby league footballer who played as a or in the 1990s and 2000s. He played in Australia for several years, gaining State of Origin selection in 1994, but spent ...

Genealogical information

Kielty was the younger brother of John Kielty, Michael Kielty
birth registered
during fourth ¼ 1915 in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

distric
death registered
during fourth ¼ 1915 (aged 0) in

district), the for

( Heritage No. 538); Norman C. Kielty, and the older brother of Catherine Kielty, Michael Kielty
birth registered
during first ¼ 1929 in

district), and Terence Kielty.

References

External links

Dean's tribute to 'a great pal' Stan Kielty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kielty, Stan 1925 births 2008 deaths England national rugby league team players English rugby league coaches English rugby league players Halifax R.L.F.C. players Place of death missing Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Castleford Wakefield Trinity players Yorkshire rugby league team players