of the Warrington club. An Australian winger named Brian Bevan made his debut for Warrington in 1945. He would be Warrington's top try scorer in all but one season until his retirement in 1962 with a total of 740 tries in 620 games for Warrington. The Wire won all the code's major honours during his period at the club. Warrington got off to a bad start to the 1947–8 season but the club signed new forwards Harold Palin, Bill Darbyshire and Bill Riley. Warrington then went two months without defeat. The club also signed centres Albert Pimblett and Bryn Knowelden. With these new signings, Warrington went undefeated in 20 games from December 1947 to April 1948, won the Lancashire League and gained a place in the championship top four play-off. The club's first championship win came that season. Warrington defeated Huddersfield in the league semi-final. The final, against Bradford Northern, was staged at Maine Road and Warrington took the trophy by a margin of 17–5. Warrington won the 1948–9 Lancashire League after 19 straight wins at the start of the season. The record attendance at Wilderspool was set on 13 March 1948 when 34,304 spectators saw Warrington play Wigan. They reached the 1948–9 Lancashire Cup final but Wigan beat them to take the trophy. In the league Warrington lost only five matches all season. Huddersfield exacted one of Wire's few defeats in the play-off final as Wire missed out on back-to-back championships by just one point, 13–12. Wire paid a then record fee of £4,600 for Ally Naughton from Widnes. Naughton would play a major part in a good cup run took the Wire to the 1950 Challenge Cup final. This time they were to play local rivals Widnes. They led 14-nil at half-time, eventually taking the trophy by 19-nil. This was Wire's first Challenge Cup triumph at Wembley. The 1950–1 season saw Warrington finish the year as Lancashire League winners, Lancashire Cup runners-up and championship runners-up. Warrington lost the Lancashire Cup final to Wigan 28–5 at Swinton in front of a record 42,541 supporters. Warrington paid their third visit in four years to Maine Road to face Workington in the championship final. Despite leading 8–3 at half-time, Wire went down to a 26–11 defeat. In 1951 Ces Mountford was appointed coach with a ten-year contract after Chris Brockbank ended 15 years at the helm to take up a hotel