Debut: vs Hull (H) 2nd November 1963

Leeds Appearances: 434 (420 starts, 14 subs)

Leeds Tries: 80

Leeds Honours: Championship (Winner: 1969, 1972, Finalist: 1970), Challenge Cup (Winner: 1968, Finalist: 1972), BBC 2 Floodlit Trophy (Winner: 1970-71), Yorkshire Cup (Winner: 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975)

Born in York on 23rd September 1945, rugby was in Ray Batten's blood, rugby the very air he breathed from being a mere toddler. 

His Uncle Eric, a winger with the same penchant for hurdling, returned in triumph from the 1946 Tour and brought a gleaming winner's medal to show him the following May, after Bradford Northern had beaten Leeds at Wembley.

Schooldays could scarcely have been more encouraging, the successful Tang Hall teams proving to be ideal for young hopeful's sprouting talent. Selection for the City Boys was the first rung on the ladder, before Heworth Junior R.L. Club took over as a 'finishing school' of proven merit. In February 1963, the 17-year-old Batten signed for Leeds, initially as an amateur, on the recommendation of Billy Riley, the former York scrum-half.

He was to play more frequently at scrum-half during his early apprenticeship but it was at loose-forward that he made his first team debut against Hull at Headingley in November 1963, in circumstances that were daunting to say the least, since the Loiners had been humiliated in all but one of their previous eight matches. A rousing victory by 30 points to 7 saw Batten touch down for a try and from there, he seized his opportunity. When Harry Poole returned from the 1966 Tour with a troublesome knee injury, Ray became more or less a fixture, making 33 appearances during the season, and developing his technique match by match as the Loiners emerged from a five-year tunnel of despair, to win both the League Leaders Trophy and the Yorkshire Championship.

1967-68 saw the Shoebottom-Seabourne-Batten triangle be an unfailing source of inspiration as Leeds served up vintage rugby of imperial splendour. League Leaders on four more occasions, and Yorkshire Champions on three, of the fifteen Finals they contested between 1967 and 1975, Ray played in all but three (injuries ruling him out of the R.L. Cup in 1971, as well as the John Player and R.L. Championship in 1973), and twice only tasted the dregs of defeat.

Utterly reliable as he was in defence, with an uncanny ability to read the game and thus nip danger in the bud, in attack he was in his element around the scrum and at play-the-ball, bamboozling flustered opponents with his sleight-of-hand, before slipping surreptitious passes to those colleagues best placed to profit, with record-breaking Bob Haigh the chief beneficiary in 1970-71. Not that Ray was averse to selling a fine line in dummies on his own account from time to time, as his tally of eighty tries confirms. As for the highlights of his career in Leeds colours, the 1968 Wembley Final must surely have held a special place in his heart. 

His representative honours were limited to just four appearances with Yorkshire, and three each for England and Great Britain. Yet the first Test at Wembley in 1973 saw his guile and subtle distribution inspire a resounding victory over Australia by 21 points to 12.

Moving up to second row and prop in his final season, Ray's retirement in April 1976 signalled the end of an era. Chief coach at Wakefield's Belle Vue from April 1980 to May 1981, and again from May 1982 to July 1983, he was also a Director of the York Club and a member of the Rugby League Council.