WE at The Press received a nice letter from former York Wasps chairman and lifelong York RL supporter John Stabler this week.

It concerned the late, great Edgar Dawson, who, as reported, recently past away, aged 83.

Dawson, who was among the first seven players to be inaugurated in the York RL Hall of Fame, starred for the club from 1951 to 1962, scoring 55 tries and one goal in 339 appearances. The famed forward was also one of only seven players to don the Great Britain shirt while with the Minster city club.

His funeral was held yesterday.

Stabler wrote: "It was so very sad to read about the passing of Edgar.

"I watched him play from my earliest days of being a fan circa 1955 as a young boy.

"He was one of my favourites along with Baz Watts who he is standing next to on your photo 'last ever match at Clarence Street' (as published in the obituary in the Press on July 1).

"Next to Baz is the late Brian Smith, then Denzil Webster and Geoff Hunter (who I bumped into at Heworth when the Knights played London Skolars). Bill Riley is far left on the photo, with the glasses applauding.

"This group represented the 1958 Yorkshire Cup finalists. We invited all ex-players to the last match at Clarence Street and we made strenuous efforts to get all the players from this final plus all the players from the 1984 Challenge Cup semi-final team. We managed to locate all those involved and they all attended including Graham Steadman who had moved to Featherstone and later Castleford.

"The most difficult man to find was Gordon Smith, a centre from the 50s side. We eventually located him living in Ossett, literally in the next street to where I was living at the time!!

"Back to Edgar. I met him many times after the last match, what a lovely man!

"He was an absolute joy, a real gentleman.

"I'm sure there will be a tribute to a York RL great at a match coming up soon. I hope it can be at a venue worthy of such an occasion."

On that note, the club are hoping to do just that next week, with a minute's silence ahead of the big match against play-off rivals Newcastle Thunder, subject to approval from the Rugby Football League.