Career Record for Featherstone
Appearances			Tries	Goals	Drop Goals	Points
Total	Start	Sub
353	350	3	84	373	63	1145

On his first sight of Deryck Fox, who had signed for the club from St John Fisher, Dewsbury in August 1983, Rovers coach Keith Goulding said: 'Only seen the lad in training, but you can smell 'em. Has pace, ability and a very good pair of hands, and undoubtedly a star of the future.' It did not take long for the prophecy to come true. In his first professional game with the reserves, he kicked four goals, one drop goal and set up the two tries scored. He was immediately drafted on to the senior team sheet and, after two substitute appearances, made his full debut v Whitehaven (away) on 18 September 1983. Another sparkling display earned him the first of many Man of the Match awards and his team their first victory of the season. He had arrived and the fans were set to enjoy what was to be a remarkable run of consistency by the young starlet. In the return game with Whitehaven two months later, he weighed in with two tries and eight goals (24 points) and yet while he was a very capable goal-kicker, he did not get many opportunities in his earlier years with Steve Quinn and Graham Steadman around.

Yet no-one was able to oust him from the number 7 spot and from 1983 until the end of 1991/92, he played in 309 of the 322 games played by the club - an average of almost 35 appearances per season. In this remarkable record, he made 60 consecutive appearances from 14 February 19BB to 7 November 1989.  Representative honours had to follow and, again, his consistency shone through. The call came from his country first when he played for the Great Britain Under 21 side v France in December 1984 and his full senior debut was v France at Leeds on 1 March 1985. He won the Man of the Match award with two tries and one goal in the 50-4 victory and made nine successive appearances before losing his place to Andy Gregory in November 1986.  From 1989 to 1992, he made four substitute appearances. He also toured Australasia with Great Britain in 1990 and 1992. On the county scene, his Yorkshire debut was against Lancashire on 11 September 1985 - the start of a run of eight consecutive appearances until September 1991.

On the club front, the Rovers were in a constant battle for survival in the First Division and were eventually relegated to the Second Division in 1987.  Deryck was a model of consistency as he led Rovers back into the First Division at the first attempt, but there was disappointment at the 28-26 Premiership Trophy defeat to Oldham in May 1988. Yet in spite of his 100 per cent effort and endeavour, he thought he could better himself with another club. The seeds were sown in 1986 after he had spent a summer with Western Suburbs in Australia, from where he submitted a transfer request which he later withdrew. The Rovers were thankful that he renewed further contracts, but when Rovers were again relegated to the Second Division in l992 (despite his first century of goals -109), the writing was on the wall. He returned from the 1992 tour of Australasia and Papua New Guinea, where he had captained the mid-week side, declaring that he wanted to move, despite being in contract, and he didnot resume training. He was reluctantly transfer-listed by the club and was transferred to Bradford in September l992 for £140,000 - a then club record.

He returned to the fold from Bradford in November 1995 after yet another model of consistency. He made 107 appearances in just over three seasons, scoring 744 points (with centuries of goals in 1993/94 (131) and 1994/95 (123). Predictably, he starred in his opening return game, inspiring a 34-18 victory over Hull on 20 November 1995. He made 45 appearances before transferring to Batley after his last game for the Rovers v Wakefield (away) on 8 June 1997, after a flurry of 46 goals in 13 matches. A year later, he reappeared at Post Office Road as player-coach to Rochdale and, typically, kicked seven out of eight goals and set up half of the tries as his team won 48-18!

Featherstone's knack of producing top-class scrum-halves is legendary and Deryck Fox was another out of the top drawer. His consistency has been the underlying theme of this profile and has been bettered by very few players. In his Rovers career he was only substituted in 3 of 354 games and with Bradford once in 107 games - a total of only 4 in 461 games! He was utterly dedicated in his commitment and with his scurrying darting runs he had defences guessing most of the time. His kicking game was superb as he developed the art of the 'up and under' and switch kick to devastating effect. Apart from his own points-scoring, his scintillating and productive play created so many tries for his colleagues - and, of course, he had a particular liking for drop goals (63).  To win the John Jepson Player of the Year Award on three occasions was a rare achievement and to retire finally from the game with a total career record of l,982 points ( 109 tries, 733 goals, 80 drop goals) in 506 matches confirms Keith Goulding's assessment.

 

Biography by Ron Bailey