- Jeff Butterfield
Jeffrey Butterfield (born in
Heckmondwike ,Yorkshire on 9 August 1929; diedWicken, Northamptonshire 30 April 2004) was an England,British and Irish Lions , Northampton and Barbarians Rugby player and businessman.Butterfield married Barbara Kirton in 1956 and they had one son.Fact|date=September 2008 Butterfield was educated at Whitcliffe Mount Grammar School,
Cleckheaton .Fact|date=September 2008 After school Butterfield attended Loughborough College where he took a B.Sc. in Physical Education in 1951 and he later took up a teaching post atWellingborough Grammar School in Northamptonshire.Fact|date=September 2008 After Wellingborough, Butterfield became a science master atWorksop College and began his senior rugby career with Northampton Saints. He played for Northampton 227 times.Fact|date=September 2008His rugby playing
Butterfield is considered to have been one of the most gifted rugbycentres to have played Rugby for England.Fact|date=September 2008 One of the most memorable features of Butterfield's game was his near-perfect timing of a pass.Fact|date=September 2008
As well as playing for Northampton and England, Butterfield is celebrated for his play on the
British Lions ' tour of South Africa in 1955 where he scored tries in three of the four matches.Fact|date=September 2008 He later toured with the Lions in New Zealand in 1959 but here he was plagued by an injury and was unable to play in any of the matches.Fact|date=September 2008Butterfield was influenced as a player by the Bradford Northern Rugby League club whom he used to watch as a child.Fact|date=September 2008 He used to watch the pre-war international outside half,
Willie Davies .Fact|date=September 2008 Of him, Butterfield said, "Willie always carried the ball in front of him with both hands. Though he always continued to run straight when he passed. I modelled my technique on his."Fact|date=September 2008In addition to his duties at Northampton he also played 54 times for Yorkshire and captained them in two County Championship finals, in 1953 and 1957.Fact|date=September 2008
He was capped by England in 1953 against France; here he played with a fellow Northampton player Lew Cannell. Butterfield played for England for 6 years, including 28 successive matches – in his final season he was captain. Butterfield became England's most capped back, and on his watch, England won:
*the Five Nations' Championship four times,
*two Triple Crowns and
*a Grand Slam.In retirement
After retiring from fulltime Rugby Butterfield briefly worked the paint industry and later opened the Rugby Club in Hallam Street, London, which he and his wife, Barbara, ran for 25 years.Fact|date=September 2008 Butterfield and his family also enjoyed skiing.Fact|date=September 2008 His later years were dogged by ill health.Fact|date=September 2008
Butterfield also had a unique role in developing
rugby union in the Cayman Islands .Fact|date=September 2008
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