With Barrow he scored a club record 351 tries and kicked 20 goals in exactly 500 appearances from 1943–57. He scored 50 tries in his last season, 1956–57, another club record. He retired after Barrow's Rugby League Challenge Cup Final defeat by Leeds in 1957, one of three Wembley appearances he made with the Cumbrian club during that decade.[citation needed]
On the international front he travelled to Australasia with Great Britain in 1946 – the famous "Indomitables" tour, named after the vessel on which they sailed, HMS Indomitable. He top-scored with 25 tries on that tour despite not making the Test team.[4] He also won one England cap.[5]
Career records
Jimmy Lewthwaite holds Barrow's "Most Career Appearances" record with 500 appearances,[6] and is first in Barrow's all time try scorers list with 354-tries.[7]
Life
He represented Cumberland at rugby union and association football as a schoolboy, as well as winning a medal in the All-England Schools Athletics competition at the age of 13. He moved to Woodley, near Reading, shortly before turning 15 to work at an aircraft factory but later relocated to Barrow to take up an apprenticeship at the town's shipyard.
He continued as a footballer and had trials with Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End before switching to rugby league with Barrow in 1943, making his first-team début against St. Helens in April that year.
He later played golf around the district.