Name Damieon Pickles | ||
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Damieon Pickles (born December 2, 1970 in Halifax, West Yorkshire) is a former professional rugby league player.
Pickles studied at Exley Secondary school in Siddal Halifax where, when 11 years old, he started playing rugby league at Siddal ARLFC. Damieon continued to progress through the Sid-dal ranks before signing for Halifax ARLFC under Roger Millward in 1991 where he spent two years and made his try scoring début on Sky in a 36-24 defeat against St. Helens before moving to Huddersfield ARLFC under the inspirational guidance of ex-Halifax reserve coach Brendan Finn in 1993 who died soon afterwards. From 1995 onwards Damieon continued to ply his trade on a semi-professional basis with stints at Hunslet, Lancashire Lynx before settling at Bramley ARLFC for a couple of seasons coached by Ray Ashton then Paul Fletcher. It was not until 1996 that Damieon returned to his hometown club of the now Halifax Bluesox where John Pendlebury was at the helm. One more season at Bluesox pulled the curtain down on his professional career but ending on a high with top points scorer in the reserve team league. Damieon spent several more years back at amateurs Siddal ARLFC.
Joining the Manchester Police
Damieon opted for a career change in 2002, joining ranks within Greater Manchester Police and becoming a police constable. From the very start of his police career Damieon was introduced to the police rugby league. From then until the present he has taken on the role of player coach within Greater Manchester Police rugby league which also incorporated playing for GB police coached by former Bradford Bulls prop Jon Hamer. This gave Damieon the chance to travel the globe representing the British Police at international level, in New Zealand in 2005, Serbia in 2007, and the Czech Republic in 2008 Serbia 2013, Florida Dayton 2015 and then Marid 2016. With 23 GB caps under his belt and at the age of 38 Damieon retired to concentrate on the coaching aspect of rugby league where in 2009 he became assistant coach with the BPRLA British Police Rugby League Association assisting Jon Hamer. Damieon has competed in several marathons for charity: London 2007, New York 2008 Wales 2011, London & Manchester 2012 and Wales 2011.