RONNIE WATTS, who died on Sunday 8 March at the age of 77, was a scrum-half who spent four years with his local club Hunslet before moving to Batley, for whom he played two games before sustaining a career-ending head injury.
Watts put pen to paper with Hunslet on 31 May 1961 for a fee of £250 (five times the Parksiders’ usual `going rate’ for youngsters) having impressed with Hunslet Juniors.
He made his first-team debut against Halifax at Thrum Hall on 4 April 1962 and went on to make 40 appearances, scoring four tries.
He moved to Mount Pleasant on 17 August 1965 for a fee of £650.00 (reduced to £400), making his debut in a home game against Whitehaven a few days later.
His funeral will be held at Rawdon Crematorium, Leeds Road, Leeds, LS19 6JP on Friday (20 March) at 11.00am. Proceeds from a collection will be passed on to the Gary Chappelow Fund.
Ronnie Watts’ life will be celebrated afterwards at East End Park Working Men’s Club, Vinery View, Leeds LS9 9LX.
So sad that this virus means that so many of his mates from the Parkside days won’t be at Ronnie’s Funeral today. But we’ll be thinking about him. RIP Ronnie