THERE aren't many Saints fans around these days who can lay claim to having watched the great Alf Ellaby play...but Stan Bagshaw can.

And so to celebrate the 100th birthday of one of the club's oldest supporters, his family ensured he received congratulations from two familiar faces of rugby league.

Club chairman Eamonn McManus and former player and BBC pundit Ray French popped along to The Stanley Arms in Eccleston to mark Stan's milestone.

Both are family friends and have known Stan's son, also named Stan, for many years.

Stan junior, a former Liverpool St Helens and British Lions rugby union kit man, told the Star: "I played rugby with Eamonn at Moss Lane in the 70s and we grew up knowing Ray in the next street. My dad has been watching Saints since 1926 and while I'm not saying he's the oldest Saints fan there can't be many older.

"Although he doesn't go now he has been to Langtree Park and liked it. But he's a Knowsley Road man. The player who got him hooked into watching Saints was Alf Ellaby. After he saw him play he thought that was it. They got bigger crowds when he played. Dad was a young man then and thought he was fabulous."

Stan's passion for his beloved Saints was cut short when he was called up during the Second World War. He spent four years away from home and saw action in Cyprus and North Africa and was torpedoed in the Mediterranean. He was rescued by a Royal Navy ship after around 1,000 men ended up in the water.

Stan, 69, from Eccleston says his father lives in the same house in Parr he shared with his wife of 62 years, Rita, up to her death in 2001.

A great-grandfather, Stan senior owned his own barbers on Junction Lane until he was 50 then went on to work for Sidac on Lancots Lane.

Describing his dad as a "strong character", Stan senior was still making regular trips into St Helens up until last Christmas.

"The only thing he did apart from work was watch Saints," said Stan.

"In later years he became a big fan of Vollenhoven, Alex Murphy and Kel Coslett."