Career Record for Featherstone
Appearances			Tries	Goals	Drop Goals	Points
Total	Start	Sub
64	64	0	10	0	0	30

What a game Derek Altass picked for his senior debut on the wing for his hometown team. Snow turned the pitch to sludge and the farcical conditions should have seen the match abandoned, but instead Rovers lost out to Batley in appalling conditions. Nevertheless, Altass kept his place in the Rovers team for the following week, and indeed the best part of the next two years, before giving up rugby to pursue a military career.

Born and raised in Featherstone, his rugby career had to wait until he had played his full part in World War Two. He served in the Parachute Regiment, was captured at Arnhem by the Germans and sent to a POW camp in Austria. He escaped twice, and ended joining up with the Russian Army as they advanced on Berlin. After that experience, Altass must have taken the trials and tribulations of his local rugby league side within his stride. He was a virtual ever-present in 1949/50 missing just one of 41 matches, and finishing as the club’s top try scorer for the season, albeit with a modest seven tries. The following year, he appeared less regularly and left to rejoin the Parachute Regiment where he worked his way up to Company Sergeant Major before retiring and moving to Australia.