Career Record for Featherstone
Appearances			Tries	Goals	Drop Goals	Points
Total	Start	Sub
97	97	0	16	0	0	48

Local back-rower Fred Richardson came through a baptism of fire to be a good servant to Featherstone at the back of the scrum over five seasons. With the side missing eight first team regulars, Rovers saw Frank Hemingway break his leg in the local derby against Castleford. They gave a good account of themselves and “Richardson’s debut in senior football was very promising”. So it proved, as Richardson went on to play 17 games that year, firmly establishing himself as first choice loose forward the following season. The club’s ability to unearth good local talent had once again saved the day. In his third year, he even stepped in at centre in another injury crisis. His nine tries that season was second only to Walt Tennant in the try-scoring chart.

However, a bad injury in March 1949 curtailed that season and he appeared less and less at first team level after that. The emergence of Les Payne and Laurie Gant as competition for a back-row spot restricted Richardson to just 18 appearances over the following three years. When he finished, Fred Richardson had played just short of 100 first team games for Featherstone in some of the most challenging of times.