Matt Creevey - Player for St. Helens (Saints) Rugby Football Club

Matt Creevey was one of the greatest all round sportsmen ever to don a Saints’ jersey. Besides becoming a great half back for the Saints, he was also an accomplished professional sprinter and handball player. Furthermore, he was a music hall ‘trick jumping’ artist who held several related world’s records and reputedly was able to perform a jump over the head of an adult from a standing position.

Matt recalled his early experiences in a candid interview in the St Helens Newspaper during the depression years following World War I.

''Jumping on the canal bank was how I got started. It was a popular sport in those days and I was quite young when I took it up professionally”

The same interview served to illustrate the temporary nature of fame and fortune as Matt found himself without work in the hard times of the late 1920s. He longed to become a football trainer: -

''I myself had the finest trainer in the world and I would like nothing better than to put some of his precepts into practice”

The most sensational feat he performed was the standing jump with two weights over the backs of two 16 hands high horses standing side by side. He astounded Music Hall audiences all over the British Isles with his hazardous leap over 11 chairs and two tables, seven chairs on the floor, four on top and a card table at each end. He performed at the Kelvin Hall Glasgow for six weeks, jumping backwards as a stunt, farther than any challenger could jump forwards!

The talented Saints half back could run the 100 yards in 10.4 seconds well into his thirties. His biggest win in a wonderful succession of handicap triumphs was at the Broughton handicap in1916 when he beat 343 runners! Matt was also decorated by the Royal Humane Society for the rescue of a woman from the local Sankey Canal .

Matt signed for Saints from Pocket Nook Shamrocks in 1904. He made his first team debut on October 6th 1906 in the home defeat by 22 points to 8 against Runcorn. His first goal and points for the club came in the same match.

That season Matt went on to play 20 matches in his inaugural season netting 4 tries and kicking 5 goals. It was this season that the Creevey clan established a notable first in the history of the Club. In the first ever 13 a side derby against Wigan on March 9th 1907 Matt accompanied his brothers, Charlie and Jimmy in the first team as the Saints defeated Wigan by 10 points to 8. It was a red letter day for the family as Matt scored a try and Charlie kicked two goals. The same three brothers also played in the corresponding away fixture in the same season. No other family trio have played in a Saints fixture together.

The following season Matt played in 31 out of the 36 matches scoring three tries and six goals. At this point of his career he was playing mostly at scrum half but he had already appeared at stand off, in the centre and on the wing. His appearances in the 1908/09 season were curtailed as Matt sailed to the USA to trade local fame for fortune. The final match of the 1913/14 season saw Matt capture a brace of tries in the home match against Hunslet.

The 1914/15 season witnessed Matt making 33 appearances for the Saints as the team marched to the Challenge Cup Final to face the great Huddersfield team. Matt played stand off in the May Day final at Oldham , that saw the Saints go down by 37 points to 3.

During the following three seasons the War Emergency League were not counted as official matches but Matt did play 16 matches in the 1915/16 campaign resulting in a personal haul of one try and one goal.

Matt’s all round athleticism and agility were reflected on the rugby field. He was ‘lightning’ off the mark and extremely evasive with the ball in his hand. He played 3 official matches in the 1918/19 season and played his last match for the Club on March 1^st 1919 in a 10 points to nil home defeat by Leigh.

In all Matt played 58 games at scrum half and 54 at stand off with the rest in the centre or on the wing. His family background and all round abilities make him one of the most colourful and rich characters ever to have played for the Club.

Adapted from an article on the Saints Heritage Society website and included with their kind permission