Former St Helens forward Josh Gaskell passes away

Former St Helens front rower of the 1950s Josh Gaskell has passed away at the age of 84, it has been confirmed.

Gaskell began playing rugby league at the Junior Services Club, before signing for St Helens, where he made his debut in March 1954, operating at blindside prop against Liverpool City.

He went on to make 50 appearances for the Saints, scoring 11 tries, before moving to Warrington, where he scored four tries in 61 games.

Gaskell spent much of his working life away from rugby as a drayman at Greenall Whitley.

“He was a huge man in his playing days. Six feet and sixteen and a half stones,” Denis Whittle, a former veteran rugby league writer and Saints historian, told the St Helens Star.

“He was very much the old type of front-rower.”