Many words have been written by historians and supporters of the game of rugby league - about its beginnings and the reasons for the break away in 1895 and the massive impact that historic move had. However One Hundred Winters, by Maurice Bamford, is written by someone who has been at the sharp end of the game and has seen a myriad of changes in over 65 years of service as player, coach and writer. As the author relates, the game just did not start and stop with the break away - the ripples of rebellion that raced out of The George Hotel on 29 August 1895 had far reaching and sometimes disastrous effects on many of the smaller clubs clambering to be free of the shackles of the autocrats in Twickenham. This book not only covers that momentous event in Huddersfield but also the many offshoots, impacts and developments of the game. In One Hundred Winters Maurice Bamford describes the evolvement of rugby league through the perspective of the players, directors, the rules and regulations, the logistics of travel before the motorway systems, the referees, the changing power of the press, the game tactics, the dangerous job of the early scouts who risked their lives in the task of signing rugby union players and the general movement from the dark into the light.