Nicknamed the Towoomba Ghost, Eric Harris is still the leading try scorer for Leeds RLFC. After joining the club from Western Suburbs, Brisbane in 1930 he stayed for 9 seasons, crossing the line 392 times in 383 appearances. Many of these tries were memorable, not just for their artistry but also for their importance and one such occasion came in 1938 in the Rugby League Championship semi final when Leeds played Swinton. Harris provided the decisive moment with one of his trademark try scoring efforts. Ken Dalby described the try as follows in The Headingley Story: Volume 1:,

'..Eric Harris, whom Swinton must surely remember as the dreaded Towoomba Ghost, intercepted a pass between the Leeds 25 and the half way line. His devastating pace took him clear of all but Barnes the full back. Harris turned inside across him and the crowd cheered his stride as he went relentlessly to the Swinton posts to make Evan Williams conversion a mere formality. Harris, who had put paid to Swintons’ hopes of a cup final triumph in 1932, had snatched this game too out of the fire, and the Leeds supporters mobbed him joyfully from the field.'

Leeds won the match 5 points to 2 to set up a history making clash with neighbours Hunslet in the final.

Ken Jubb was one of the greatest second row forwards to play for Leeds. He joined from Castleford in 1933, aged 20, and enjoyed a 14 year spell at the club which ended with his retirement from the game in 1947. He unfortunately missed the 1938 championship final against Hunslet, one of the biggest sporting events ever to take place in the city, following his suspension for being sent off in previous game.

In the book Nothing but the Best, Ken Dalby paid him the following vivid tribute to Ken Jubb,

Highest today, Jubby! Resilient as an India-rubber ball, restless as a panther patrolling its patch, Ken Jubb was a rattling good forward, whose ‘party piece’ was a massive punt, occasionally way off target, that soared into outer space to the accompaniment of good-natured banter from Headingley’s South Stand. Moreover, from time to time, as an encore to one of his pile driving touchline cover tackles, he would slip in an acrobatic extra, cartwheels and flips being his speciality. We loved the guy!

Like most Rugby League players, Frank began playing the sport for his local amateur club. Although his career began almost by accident, its subsequent progression reflected the strength of amateur Rugby League in one of its traditional strongholds. The mining communities of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria boast a succession of leading amateur clubs and the area to the south of Leeds, which includes Frank’s home village Kippax, has been particularly prominent. Clubs from that area have produced a host of professionals and. Thirteen players, from the Wakefield District League were signed by professional clubs in 1932-33 alone. Local interest in amateur Rugby League was also high during this period and in 1933 more than 10,000 people watched the final of the Wakefield works competition.

Frank became one of many amateur players to sign for a professional club when he joined Hunslet, for a brief spell in the mid 1930s, before moving on to Castleford. He signed for the south Leeds club during on of its most successful periods and, after winning the Challenge Cup in 1934, Hunslet reached the League Championship decider four years later. They met their neighbours from north of the river Aire in the only all Leeds final and the match was played at the Elland Road football ground, to accommodate a huge demand from the city’s Rugby League supporters. Over 54,000 people watched the game, a record for a match in England at the time, as Hunslet triumphed 8-2 to take the title for the second time in the Club’s history.

In their 80 or so years watching Dewsbury, Morris and Harry have great memories of many outstanding players.  Amongst those which stand out are:-  

Frank Gallagher

Frank Gallagher played loose forward for Dewsbury after the First World War and was one of the club’s few international players at the time, going on tour to Australia in the early 1920s. He became infamous amongst Dewsbury supporters for switching teams to arch rivals Batley just before one of their hotly contested West Yorkshire derbies. He went on to captain Batley to the league championship in 1923/24.

Vic Hey

Rated by the Child Brothers as the best all round Rugby League player of all time, Vic was brought over from Australia by Leeds in 1937 and went on to make 145 appearances for the club, scoring 73 tries. Leeds paid the strong, skilful and elusive stand-off a then-record £1,400 signing-on fee to prise him away from Australia, but his capture was controversial for other reasons.

Along with other Aussie stars such as Earnest Mills and Ray Markham (Huddersfield) and Eric Harris and Jeff Moores (Leeds) Vic was seen as a major loss to the Australian Rugby League game. In frustration at the lack of quality in the Australian leagues and in the ‘Kangaroo’ touring side which lost to the British Lions in 1937, the RFL imposed a ban on international transfers which lasted until 1940.

He was later player/coach at Dewsbury from 1944-47, before playing nine times for Hunslet after his ship back to Australia was delayed. He continued to play in Australia, turning out and coaching for Parramatta, before going on to coach Australia to an Ashes victory in 1954.

Jimmy Ledgard

Another key member of the great post-war Dewsbury team, full-back Jim kicked 1,560 goals during his career, the eighth highest of all time. Remembered by Morris Child for his catching ability, “he appeared to have suction on his hands!” he played at the time when full-backs had regular kicking duals during a match. Needless to say, Jim usually won.

He became perhaps most famous for being vice-captain of the British team that won the inaugural World Cup in 1954. Written off as no hopers before the tournament began, largely because most of the Lions team had withdrawn from the competition, Jim was able to stabilise a patched-up team and played in the 16-12 final win over France.

He left Dewsbury for a Rugby League record fee of £2,650 in January 1948, bought by Leigh. It was there he spent the next ten years of his career, making 336 appearances for the Lancashire side, scoring 1,043 goals – still a club record – and 36 tries. He was to finish up back at Dewsbury in 1959, where he played on for a further two years. His extraordinary connection with Rugby League continued after his retirement, when he proudly attended every annual reunion of the British Lions until his death at the age of 82 in February 2007.

The name of Charlie Seeling rung around rugby league for two generations, with Seeling Senior becoming a legend at Wigan before his son, Seeling Junior, played his career for Warrington, Wigan and then Dewsbury.

 Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, Seeling Snr had established himself as a great Rugby Union prop-forward and centre, touring Britain in 1905/06 and winning 11 caps for his country. He was attracted over to the other code in 1910 by Wigan and became one of the best open props of his era. He played his League career out at Wigan, finishing in 1923. He was bigger than most of that era and won the nickname “Bronco” for his toughness during his playing days in New Zealand. British critic of the time, E H D Sewell, wrote: "This splendid specimen of manhood has everything necessary to the composition of a good forward. Search where one may, a better forward than Seeling does not exist." Glowing praise indeed!

His son never won that sort of acclaim but was highly rated and captained Dewsbury in the years before he retired. The opponent of Charlie in Morris’ story is a forward known as ‘Plonk’ Rhodes, who played for Dewsbury after the First World War and was still going when Dewsbury lost 13-2 to Wigan in 1928, the first Challenge Cup final to be played in Wembley.

Phil’s boyhood ambition to play for Bradford Northern was stirred by the arrival of Willie Davies, the clubs great Welsh stand off half, to teach at Bingley Grammar School where he was a pupil. Davies had been a schoolboy international in Rugby Union and after making his senior debut for Swansea in 1934, he won his first full Welsh cap in 1936. When he first moved north in 1939 it was to take up a teaching position in Yorkshire and, initially, he continued to play Rugby Union, joining the Headingley club. But it not take Bradford Northern long to persuade him his future lay in the 13 a side code and he made his debut for the club in a match against Castleford on 26th August 1939 after signing for £1000. Although his career was initially hampered the outbreak of war, Davies went on to become a key member of perhaps the greatest side ever to play as Bradford Northern. He appeared in 5 Challenge Cup finals over the next 10 years, including successive trips to Wembley in 1947, 1948 and 1949, and was victorious on 3 occasions. The first trip to Wembley, in 1947, saw him win the Lance Todd trophy after playing a decisive role in the victory over Leeds. On the International front Davies played for Rugby League for Wales on 9 occasions and made won 3 caps for Great Britain. His career at Bradford ended in 1950 after 237 matches and 55 tries. But the full story of his contribution to the side cannot be fully told by statistics alone. In the first volume of his Gone North series of books, Robert Gate described Davies as

…an exquisite playmaker who seemed to skate or glide over the ground. Over the first 10-15 yards he was extremely swift and he could break through the tightest situations….Light on his feet, Davies’ probes would eventually find a weakness where none was thought to be and opponent might as well chase shadows. When Davies was in possession the crowd would be on tenterhooks for the only thing to be sure was that he would not kick….his passing of the ball was perfect, its release was precisely timed. 

Sport in general boomed in the years after World War II as people had gone over six years without it. Rugby League was no exception. Many players had fought during the war as well as the majority of the supporters. When the war finished the country wanted to get back to normality as quick as possible, and watching rugby league was one way for people to do this. The late 1940’s and early 1950’s bared witness to some of the biggest crowds sporting events have ever seen. Fartown drew in the crowds as the club started to attract a lot of talent. By 1948 Fartown had gifted players which were also playing well as a team. The difficulty of living up to the ‘team of all talents’ from the 1910’s was daunting, but for the supporters this team was as good as any. The 1948/49 season saw Fartown win the Championship play-off against Warrington at Main road in front of what was at the time a world record crowd of 75,194. This capitalised on a season which also brought home the Yorkshire League title. More success followed in the next season as Huddersfield retained the Yorkshire League title and reached anther Maine Road Championship decider. Unfortunately, on this occasion Wigan proved too strong, winning 20 points to 12, in front of 65,065 people. But before by the end of the 1950s Huddersfield had won 3 Yorkshire cup finals, in 1950/51, 1952/53 and 1957/58, and the Challenge Cup final, in 1952/53.

Neil was fortunate enough to watch most of the big names from this decade in action. Here, he talks us through the main players from this period.

Fartown was the home of Huddersfield Rugby League between 1875 and 1992. The ground was originaly known as the St Johns Ground, after Huddersfield St Johns cricket club which became its original occupants in 1868. In 1875 the cricket club merged with Huddersfield Athletic Club and the Huddersfield Cricket and Athletic Club was born. Although the Athletic Club had formed a rugby football section in 1866, it could not play at Fartown until a series of ground developments were finished in 1878. The famous venue quickly became synonymous with Huddersfield Rugby League team and was soon cemented as one of the sports most famous venues by the ‘team of all talents'.

For Neil and many others who watched the Club in the 1940s and 1950s, the old terrace side of the ground was an area which held many special memories. This was where the majority of fans stood all kitted out in the clubs colours, waving rattles and making high levels of noise with the same thoughts in mind, to urge the club on. The ground may not have provided today’s high tech standards of comfort but, with a soup stand and much camaraderie, the fans made do.

But in the 1990s Huddersfield left Fartown to look for pastures new. First they went to Leeds Road before moving to their current home at the Galpharm Stadium. This was much to the anguish of most followers, as Fartown was the place they had been brought up watching the club. Many felt it wrong watching Huddersfield elsewhere and some stopped all together, as it no longer felt like the same club without the old ground. But those who stayed on as supporters have managed to keep the clubs link with its spiritual home alive and chants of ‘Fartown, Fartown’, can still be heard reverberating around the Galpharm Stadium on match days.

Despite the many great players and significant games which had been played at Fartown, the 1980’s saw the stadium decline rapidly as the club struggled to pull in spectators. Neil was one member of the team which helped get the ground up to the correct specification in order to keep rugby in Huddersfield. Geoffrey Moorhouse shares his anguish at the decline of Fartown in 1989 in his book ‘At the George’:

“There are some grounds, alas, in such a state that one’s first and lasting response to them is dismay, especially if you have known them in much better days. To visit Huddersfield now is to be numbed by the catastrophic decline in the fortunes of a club which used to be such a matter of civic pride that the elders of the town competed strenuously to be seen there in positions of authority. Here Wagstaff, Rosenfeld, Cooper, Hunter, and many more giants played football.

Fartown these days looks as if it has hit rock bottom indeed, with its grandstand – once one of the most commodious in the championship – and its shed both deemed too unsafe to use, with vegetation growing out of the steep terracing opposite the stand, and with a raggle of barbed-wire entanglement at the score-board end; where, if you look hard, you will discover a tablet in memory of the late and great David Valentine, who must be turning in his grave, along with all the other magnificent Huddersfield ghosts.”

In 1929 Dewsbury Rugby League Club found itself at the centre of one of the sports most significant events. It won through to the final of Rugby League Challenge Cup to be played at Wembley Stadium.

Originally the clubs that formed the Northern Union could only play in local knockout competitions, as the then Rugby Football Union authorities refused to sanction a nationwide tournament, in fear of it leading to the game changing from its amateur status to the professional game we see today.

But, with the demands of both professionalism and competition playing key roles in the inception of the newly formed governing body in 1895, a national Northern Union knockout competition was quickly established. The first Challenge Cup tournament was first played in 1896-97. 56 clubs competed, with Headingley, Leeds, showcasing the final, between Batley and St Helens, which Batley won 10-3 in front of 13,492 spectators.

The competition quickly became a success and by the 1920s it was increasingly difficult for any of Rugby League grounds to satisfy spectator demand to see the final tie. Moving the final to London was suggested as a means of providing the game with a national showcase and the motion was carried by 13 votes to 10. Wembley hosted its first final in 1929, when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13-2 in front of 41,500 fans. Crowds increased steadily over the next few decades as the annual pilgrimage to Wembley became one of the sports most celebrated events, which has more than achieved its aim in bringing the sport to the forefront of the national consciousness.

Like a host of other youth Rugby League clubs, West Town Boys was a short lived organisation. Many such clubs struggled to establish any permanent roots as amateur rugby League remained in an almost continual state of flux whilst under the control of the professional governing body. However, the formation of the British Amateur Rugby League Association in 1973 provided a more stable platform from which the sport has gone on to flourish at recreational level. One of the few amateur Clubs to establish itself at a relatively early stage was Dewsbury Celtic and the West Town Boys, along with Sam, were fortunate to become part the club in the late 1950s. Originally known as Dewsbury Shamrocks, the Club was playing rugby football matches as early as 1879 and, apart from a spell trying out association football between the 1890s and 1910, has remained as one of the cornerstones of amateur Rugby League in Yorkshire ever since.  

Frank Whitcombe will be best remembered for the eleven years he spent playing for Bradford Northern between 1938 and 1949. An uncapped rugby Union convert, he became a Rugby League international, representing Wales fourteen times and playing two tests for Great Britain against Australia on the 1946 tour. He was often referred to as ‘The Big Man’ and competed in three successive Wembley Challenge Cup finals between 1947 and 1949. His greatest performance on the sports highest domestic stage came when he took home the Lance Todd trophy in the 1948, despite the fact Northern lost 8-3 to Wigan. In doing so, he became the first ever player to win the award after being on the losing team. Another personal record came in the 1949 final when, just  29 days short of his 35th birthday, he become the oldest player to play in a Challenge Cup final. Four days later he retired and was awarded a bronze medal for his services to the game and to commererate his award the previous year.

Whitcombe went on to become director at Odsal and was included as one of Bradford’s Millennium Masters at the turn of the century.

In 1977, just 4 years after the inception of the independent governing body of the amateur game, the BARLA Great Britain Open Age Rugby League Team staged its first tour to the southern hemisphere. The tourists were away for 38 days, travelled a total of 30000 miles, visiting Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, and played nine matches in total.

Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, was their first stop for a series of three matches against Zonal sides, with the local crowds playing a key role.  The first game at Rabaul, was a fairly one sided game with the Great Britain team running out convincing 41-13 winners, in front for 5600 supporters. The second game at the Rugby League Oval in Lae was a much closer encounter. After 74 minutes the locals were 4-2 up, but then in one corner of the ground, local spectators invaded the pitch and began attempting to attack the British players, causing the match to be abandoned. The British team were ready to leave, but after constant discussions they stayed to complete the series. A thrilling final game saw Britain hang on to a 26-25 victory at Mount Hagen and in a good position heading to the next stage of the tour.

Two matches were then played against University representative sides in Australia, at Leichard Oval, home of the famous Balmain Club, before the last leg of the tour began across the Tasman Sea. In New Zealand the party was given a cocktail reception at Parliament House by the Prime Minister and the groundbreaking tour ended with a match against Waikato Province which was televised live the ‘Sport on One’ programme.

Although the 1954 Rugby League British Lions failed to retain the coveted ashes trophy, they took part in one of the most eventful tours of all time. Perhaps the most unforgettable experience of the trip took place before a match had been played, as this party was the first to fly out to Australia. The four day journey was described as a ‘nightmare’ when the plane arrived in Sydney on Monday 17th May with the passengers ‘t ired and shaken’. Then, following its arrival, the party began a gruelling schedule which lasted just over 3 months, and included 22 matches in Australia with a further 10 in New Zealand. But perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most infamous, incident of the tour took place on Saturday 10th July, the weekend before the third Test Match against Australia. The tourists played a New South Wales side which included many of the Australia team who had been selected to play on the following Saturday. However, with the series level at one win each, the Great Britain management decided to rest most of their Test players and field a side which was predominantly made up of forwards. The match was an exceptionally brutal affair and ended when referee Aubrey Oxford took the unprecedented step of abandoning play with 17 minutes left, causing many of the 27,000 strong crowd to gather outside the Great Britain dressing room in protest. 

As well as the ideological conflict between amateurism and professionalism, the split between Rugby League and Rugby Union has also been seen to represent other social and cultural divisions in British life, such as the north/south divide and prevailing distinctions between the social classes.

Like many other aspects of life in Britain, these issues came to the surface as people from all backgrounds mixed together during military service in both world wars. For the servicemen who played Rugby, perhaps the most telling distinction was that Union remained the only code to be played in the Armed Forces.

But, ironically this provided Rugby League players with an opportunity to fly the flag for their sport in a unique and significant way. Many Rugby players with a League background played Union with distinction in the services and provided the foundation for a series of successful sides. The first of these was the Army Services Team (Motor Transport) at Grove Park in south London, which included Harold Wagstaff, Ben Gronow, Douglas Clarke and Albert Rosenfeld from the all conquering Huddersfield ‘Team of All Talents’, along with Rochdale’s Joe Corsi, international Earnest Jones and Oldham’s Frank Holbrook. The side won 25 of its 26 matches in the 1916/17 season, only losing to the United Services team which included 8 Rugby Union Internationals and two leading Rugby League players.

However, for Rugby League players and supporters, perhaps the most significant matches to be played in the Armed Forces came during the course of the Second World War. In 1943 and 1944 opposing teams made up of Rugby Union and Rugby League players played against each other twice under Rugby Union rules. The first match was played at Headingley, between a Northern Command Rugby League XV and Northern Command Rugby Union XV, and the second at Odsal, when the Combined Services Rugby League XV met the Combined Services Rugby Union XV. Both matches were won by the teams of Rugby League players which, despite the inclusion of a handful of former Welsh Rugby Union internationals, were mostly made up of players who had little experience of the fifteen a side game.

As Len’s memories of playing the sport in the armed forces show, key social and cultural differences between Rugby League and Rugby Union became apparent when players from the two sports came together in these circumstances. Both codes had clearly developed contrasting approaches to playing rugby and differences between the two styles were highlighted in the Northern Command Rugby League XV’s 1943 victory, which saw them score 6 tries to 1. Distinct contrasts also existed in the social background of the players and the Rugby Union sides which took part in the 1943 and 1944 matches contained nine and ten officers respectfully, whilst neither of the Rugby League sides included a single officer.

Since the great split in 1895, rugby union has always sought to distance itself from its northern counterpart. From the outset the RFU emphasised its rules against professionalism and strove to prevent any contact between Rugby Union and Rugby League.

Unfortunately Len found himself caught in the middle of this ongoing feud between the two codes of rugby as he set out on his career. Like many young men with a Rugby League playing background, Len played Rugby Union during national service, as it was the only code of rugby that was played in the Armed Forces during the 1950s. But instead of returning to his roots after being demobbed in 1950, he was persuaded to stay in the 15-a-side code, and play for Cleckheaton Rugby Union Club, alongside friends he had made in the Army.

However, whilst RFU regulations against professionalism in general and, more significantly for Len, Rugby League in particular were suspended in the armed forces, they remained strictly enforced elsewhere in the sport. Indeed the RFU had gone to great lengths to ensure all rugby union clubs were aware of the penalty of signing players who had played rugby league at any level. As Tony Collins explains in his book ‘Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain’:

“Although the policies of the RFU had serious consequences for transgressors, the impact went much deeper, helping to create an atmosphere of fear within union itself and of contempt towards rugby league. Using a variation of the Catholic Church’s concept of culpable ignorance, the fear of inadvertently transgressing the union’s amateur code was encouraged by the posters distributed by the RFU for display in dressing rooms and clubhouses from the 1920s to the late 1950s. These outlined seventeen different ways in which amateur rules could be violated, including ‘signing any form of the Northern Union (Rugby League)’.”

Today it may seem odd that a player can be banned from one sport for participating in another, but this was still the case within the rugby world both during and after the 1950s. So even though he had only played rugby league at amateur level, once his background was brought to the attention of the RFU, Len became one of the many players who received life time bans from rugby union because they had played rugby league as a youngster.

Thankfully these restrictions were broken down in the 1980s following a series of challenges. Initially, after its establishment in 1973, BARLA began to campaign for a ‘free gangway’ for amateur players at recreational level, and their cause was subsequently taken up by the campaign for Freedom in Rugby and the All-Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group during the following decade. Under this pressure, the RFU had no option but to relax its regulations and in 1987 a ‘free gangway’ between the sports at amateur level was introduced. But individual cases of discrimination continued, resulting in the Sports (Discrimination) Bill, which was introduced by MP David Hinchcliffe in 1994. However, the partition between the codes was finally ended, following a complete turn around in Rugby Union which saw professionalism legalised in 1995, ninety nine years and 363 days after the Northern Union had broken away.

When Len Haley signed for Bradford Northern in 1950 he joined a club that was enjoying one of the most successful periods in its history. An unprecedented array of honours had been won during the previous decade including, the Challenge cup in 1944, 1947 and 1949, the Yorkshire cup in 1940-41, 1941-42, 1943-44, 1945-46, 1948-49 and 1949-50 and the Yorkshire league title in 1939-40, 1940-41 and 1947-48. The era was spanned by the careers of Earnest Ward and Trevor Foster, two of the greatest players of this or any other generation and, although nearing the end of their careers, they both made a big impact upon Len.

A classy centre, Ernest Ward was signed from Dewsbury Boys Club on his 16th birthday in 1936 and spent the following 17 years at the club. Amongst many other highlights, he Captained Bradford at Wembley in three Challenge Cup finals, represented Great Britain in 20 Test matches and went on two Ashes winning tours to Australia; the first with the ‘Indomitables’ of 1946 and the second in 1950, when was given the honour of captaining the Lions. He played 391 games for Bradford Northern, scored 117 tries and kicked 538 goals in amassing 1,427 points.

Trevor Foster’s remarkable association with Bradford began in 1938 when he signed from Welsh Rugby Union club Newport. He went on to serve the club for over sixty years, acting as player, coach, director, timekeeper, President of the Supporters Club and Chairman of the Floodlight Fund. Although interrupted by the war years, his playing career at Odsal spanned 428 games, in which he scored 128 tries. In addition to a wealth of honours won with Bradford, he also appeared 3 times for Great Britain, accompanying Earnest Ward on the 1946 Lions tour, and 16 times for Wales. Although his playing career finished in 1955, Trevor Foster is also remembered with equal affection for his devotion to the club in the years which followed. Perhaps most importantly, he played a central role in resurrecting the club after its resignation from the RFL in 1963, due to financial difficulties. He continued to work for the club into the Super League era and as timekeeper in the 2000 Challenge Cup final was able to savour the moment when the trophy came back to Bradford for the first time since he played in a final 51 years earlier. His outstanding contribution to the sport was recognised with the award of an MBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List.

Len’s arrival at Odsal also coincided with the signing of New Zealand All Black Rugby Union Internationals Joe Phillips and Jack McLean. Both men proved to be popular and highly successful additions to the side, before their departure in 1956. Mclean scored an amazing 261 tries in 221 games, including a club record 63 in the 1951-52 season, and Phillips kicked 661 goals in six seasons.

Following the Second World War the Leeds club struggled to make a serious impact in rugby league despite having a financial advantage over the majority of its competitors.

It wasn’t until the late fifties, when the club secured its first post-war Challenge Cup victory, that the young side being built began to show signs of maturing into a dominant force in English Rugby League. Joe Warham joined the club as coach in 1958 and a Yorkshire Cup triumph followed, but the side still lacked enough quality to compete at the top of the Lancashire section of the competition in which it was then playing.

The turning point for the club came in 1960 when Dai Prosser was appointed to assist Joe with the coaching duties and the club signed a new back three of Jack Fairbank, Bryan Shaw and Dennis Goodwin to strengthen the forward pack.

In 1961, under the guidance of Prosser and Warham, Leeds finally won their first ever rugby league Championship with a 25-10 victory over Warrington. The final was played in front of 52,177 fans at Bradford’s Odsal stadium and Leeds dominated from start to finish. Led by the legendry Welshman Lewis Jones, the Loiners opened the scoring through a Jack Fairbank try which was subsequently converted by Jones. Derek Hallas then added a further two tries to put Leeds 18-0 up before Warrington hit back.

Jim Challinor touched down twice for the opposition with Laurie Gilfedder kicking both conversions. Fittingly though Jones capped a superb performance with a converted try to make the score Leeds 25 Warrington 10 and give the club it’s first ever Championship trophy.

The Championship trophy returned to Headingley for the second time in the club’s history at the end of the 1968/69 season following a dramatic late victory over Castleford in another play-off final at Odsal Stadium.

The success came despite the departure of legendary manager Roy Francis who had helped propel Leeds into a major force in European rugby league. Under his guidance Leeds finished top of the league and won the Challenge Cup at Wembley in the famous ‘watersplash final’ of 1968. However Francis then decided he had achieved everything he could at Leeds and quit the club to take up a coaching position in Australia with the North Sydney club.

Although he began the season in his now established managerial role, Joe took charge as coach on an interim basis in tragic circumstances midway through the campaign and guided the club to its second ever Championship trophy just months later.

The final itself against Castleford, who Leeds had coincidently beaten earlier in the season to collect the Yorkshire Cup, was won in nail-biting fashion. Trailing by three points with just five minutes to go Bev Risman’s superbly judged kick was collected by Great Britain winger John Atkinson who touched down to put Leeds level at 14 points each. Risman then converted the try to secure victory for Leeds and mark possibly the greatest era in the history of the club.

Following the victory, Leeds Rugby League Football Club Chairman Jack Myerscough gave the following tribute: 'Joe was called upon overnight to resume control of coaching. He did not flinch but stepped into the breach and by immense skill and dedication successfully steered the team to another championship win. He thus has the unique distinction of being in command on the only two occasions on which the club has won the championship.'

The signing of former New Zealand Rugby Union All Black Lou Brown for £500 from Wigan in the autumn of 1930 proved pivotal to Halifax gaining their first major honours since before the First World War. The enigmatic Brown added a finishing ability which saw him top the club’s try scoring that season and play a vital role in the successful Challenge cup run which resulted in the club’s first appearance at Wembley.

However, Brown, who had been part of the successful Wigan side that played in the first final to be held at the stadium two years earlier, was controversially left out of the Wembley line up. The dramatic decision was taken following a breach of club discipline which centred on his unavailability for the final league match of the season, against Featherstone Rovers. With little detail given about the incident, rumours abounded amongst supporters.

Nevertheless, an estimated 7,000 fans made the journey from Halifax to form part of the 40,368 Wembley crowd and they were not to be disappointed. After trailing 8-5 at half time, a scintillating second half performance produced 17 unanswered points and a 22-8 victory, as the Cup came to Thrum Hall for the first rime since 1903. The team returned home on the following Monday to a magnificent reception, which as Club historian Andrew Hardcastle explains; 

began with 22 fog detonators (one for each point) exploding on the lines as the train passed over, followed by a coach journey through an estimated 100,000 crowd to a civic reception at the Town Hall, the King Cross band leading the way just as it had done in 1903.

Like most professional sports, Rugby League was struggling financially in the mid 1970s. Attendances were dropping off and as a result clubs were left with a crisis. For too long revenue from attendances had been looked on as a main source of income and by 1972 Rugby Football League had been forced to loan money to twenty five clubs, totalling £143,000.

A change of direction was needed and when David Oxley was appointed as the new General Secretary of the Rugby Football League in 1975, he set out to make sure that “no club will ever again pay its way through the turnstiles alone”. Commercial sponsorship was a revenue source of growing importance for many sports and the RFL had already begun to attract corporate interest. In 1971 a new competition was introduced which combined sponsorship from John Player with increased exposure from television coverage by the BBC. Rugby League had also been one of the first sports to be sponsored by breweries and, keen to develop their business on the other side of the Pennines, the Leeds based brewers Tetley’s began to sponsor the Lancashire Cup in 1971.

Nevertheless, by 1974 RFL income from sources other than gate receipts and TV fees amounted to just £4,000. But under Oxley’s direction things began to change. By the end of the 1976/77 season the RFL had raised £28,075 in sponsorship and related activities. Six years later this figure had grown to £413,350.

The Halifax Club was particularly hard hit by the financial situation in the late 1960s and 1970s. Fortunes on the pitch suffered as too often the club’s shortfall was met by selling players rather than looking to raise the money in other ways. An attempt was made to alleviate these financial troubles by arranging a concert at Thrum Hall in 1970. But unfortunately the ‘Halifax Pop and Blues Concert’ was not a success. Horrific weather conditions in the lead up to the event meant that the audience fell well short of the anticipated 35,000 people. Only around 3,000 arrived leaving a financial shortfall of £6,000. This added to the severe financial hangover which, despite victory in the inaugural John Player Trophy final in 1971-72, continued to plague the club for the next decade. It was finally lifted in 1983 by local businessman David Brook. He provided much needed investment in the club and eventually brought success back to Thrum Hall in the form of a championship title in 1986 and a Challenge Cup final victory in 1987.

From the end of the Second World War to the middle of the 1960s, playing standards in British Rugby League were arguably at their highest. Between 1946 and 1962 the Great Britain national team beat the Australians in five out of seven Ashes series and won the Rugby League World Cup in two out of three tournaments. The remarkable depth of talent that was responsible for this run of international success can also be seen in the highly competitive nature of the sport at a domestic level. The Challenge Cup was won by 10 different clubs during this period and there were also seven separate winners of the League Championship.

Although some of the era’s biggest stars, such as Billy Boston and Tom Van Vollenhoven, came from outside Rugby League, most were produced by the amateur game. This meant that amateur players like Alan Bradford, brushed shoulders with many young men who were destined for greatness. Alan Hardisty and Keith Hepworth, who gained domestic and international honours as a half back combination with Castleford and Leeds, played amateur Rugby League at Glasshoughton together in the 1950s. Roger Millward, the great Hull KR and Great Britain halfback, found fame at a relatively early age when he starred for the Castleford inter-town junior team in matches that were screened on Independent Television in the early 1960s. The three Fox brothers, Peter, Don and Neil all began playing Rugby League at Sharleston School, where they each gained either county or international representative honours before making their mark in the professional game. Peter then went on to become arguably the game’s greatest coach in the 1970s and 1980s and, as well as winning the Lance Todd trophy Don represented Great Britain. Their younger brother Neil became one of the sport’s greatest ever players and after scoring a record 6,220 from 358 tries and 2,574 goals in 828 matches and winning a host of domestic and international he was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 1989.

Although Rugby League has maintained a strong presence in the adjacent mining villages of Thornhill and Overthorpe since at least the end of the Second World War, for much of that time those who ran and played for local clubs fought a constant battle for survival. As was the case in most of the sport’s traditional strongholds, finance and other resources for clubs like Overthorpe Rangers, were at a premium, especially in the immediate post-war period. So community support was vital and, whilst often close to the poverty line themselves, local residents willingly gave what they could spare to keep the sport alive. Public Houses also provided much needed support and Overthorpe Rangers had links to both the Scarborough Hotel and the Church House Inn, whilst the current Thornhill Trojans club, began life as the Gate Inn in 1967. But with the help of grant aid from Kirklees council and Sport England, and a tremendous amount of voluntary work from its members, the Thornhill Trojans club now has a permanent home with excellent facilities. Based at the Thornhill Sports and Community centre the club maintains the area’s strong links with Rugby League by providing nine junior teams at different age levels along with a successful open age team. 

Those difficult years in the immediate post-war period were also significant for the groundbreaking contribution of Cora Haley as secretary of Overthorpe Rangers. Women had watched Rugby League in significant, if not considerable, numbers since the late nineteenth century, and there was a tradition of women school teachers who coached Rugby League, such as Winnie Powell, at St Austell School in Wakefield during the 1940s. But there are few instances of women becoming involved in the administration of clubs at amateur or professional level before or during this period.

One exception was Doris Beard who became Club Secretary of Bradford Northern in the mid 1950s although the first woman to be appointed as a club director was not until 1970, when Betty Haile joined the board at Whitehaven. Since that time, however, women have become much more prominent in the sport and now occupy a number of different roles. As well as playing Rugby League, there are numerous women volunteers at amateur level. Many more work in the administration of the professional game where women have occupied leading roles since the 1980s. In 1984 Barbara Close became Chairperson at Fulham, and in 1995, 100 years after the birth of the sport, Kath Hetherington was the first woman to be elected president of the Rugby Football League.

There were peaks and troughs in the history of Halifax RLFC during the 1930’s. The decade began well for the club with a victory in the 1931 Challenge cup final. Under the disciplined leadership of Dan Jenkins, Halifax beat York 22-8 to record the club’s first success in the competition since 1903. But the victory was followed by four seasons of relative decline as Halifax drifted down the Championship table.

The club’s upturn in fortunes began in unusual circumstances. Towards the end of the 1937 season the Streatham and Mitcham Club - one of many attempts to launch Rugby League in London - folded after just one full season in the League. The club had made a number of high profile signings from the New Zealand All Blacks, including George Nepia arguably the greatest player in Rugby Union at the time. Halifax moved swiftly to sign Nepia, for just £300, along with fellow former All Black Charlie Smith. Although Nepia, who was by now at the end of his career, appeared in little more than a handful of games for Halifax, Smith played over 300 times for the Club. The team building continued and he was joined by Harry Beverly, for £850 from Hunslet, Harry Field, a test hooker, from York, scrum-half Jack Goodall and back-row forward John Chadwick from Keighley. As a result, in 1938, Halifax reached the semi-final of the Challenge Cup, after winning three replays on the trot, before they were knocked out by Barrow at Fartown in the dying seconds of the game.

But success came the following year when Halifax became the last team to win the Challenge cup final before the war. Harry Beverly lifted the cup at Wembley after favourites Salford had been beaten 20-3 in front of a record 55,453 spectators.

Despite the flourishing state of the game in the 1950s, there was little change in the money that could be earned from playing Rugby League. But although Phil saw virtually no increase in wages throughout 13 or so year professional career the sport was not his only source of income. During this period, and for some years after, professional Rugby League was a part time occupation and players also worked in full time jobs outside the game. So playing as a professional provided a second wage and winning pay could more than double Phil’s weekly income. Yet there were other reasons for pursuing a professional career in the sport. In the areas where Rugby League is played, reaching professional level offers a unique status which many aspire to but relatively few attain. For many players, like Phil, reaching professional level also fulfilled a boyhood ambition of playing for their hometown club and they became well known figures in the local community. Then there was the special camaraderie that built up between these men as together they faced the incredibly tough challenges that the sport provided on the field of play.

With the incredible success of Bradford Bulls in Super League, it is hard to believe that just over 30 years before the summer era began the City’s premier Rugby League club had folded. But, after completing just 17 matches of the 1963-64 season, the original Bradford Northern club went out of business. The crowds for the last 2 fixtures at Odsal reveal much about the clubs demise. Only 324 spectators watched the penultimate game against Barrow, which was a record low for a match at the stadium which just 10 years earlier had housed 69,429 for a cup tie against Huddersfield, whilst 841 attended the final game which was against Leigh on 7th December 1963.

But by April 1964 moves to resurrect the club were already taking place. A meeting on the 14th of that month saw 1500 people turn out to discuss the formation of a new club, and those present promised a £1000 to help get plans for the new organisation underway. Amongst those who lead in these proceedings were former players Joe Phillips and Trevor Foster and the response from the Bradford public also secured the backing of the Rugby Football League. Also present was Earnest Ward, who had captained the club in the 1940s during its greatest period of success. He was called upon to make an impromptu speech and told those present, ‘It’s gratifying to see so many people here tonight and it is up to us to back these people on the platform’.   

Support for the proposed new club continued to build over the following months and, after continued fund raising, a squad of players was assembled and the tenancy at Odsal secured.
Then, on 20th July 1964, Bradford Northern (1964) Ltd came into existence. The club’s new side had been built for around £15,000 and included former International Jack Wilkinson, as coach, and Ian Brooke, a young player of great promise, who had been bought from Wakefield Trinity for £2,750. On 22nd August 1964 Hull Kingston Rovers provided the opposition in the Club’s first match and 14,500 spectators turned out to show their support, as Odsal hosted its first 10,000 plus gate for a Bradfrod Northern match since 1957.

The signing on fee was an important part of the income that Rugby League players were able to accrue from the game. Until the 1990s, the sport provided only part time employment for nearly all the men who played at professional level. Despite the absence of a football style maximum wage, player payments were not sufficient for full time professionalism and it was only through winning bonuses that any significant financial gain was possible. The employment of a Football League style retain and transfer system also placed restrictions on the players' bargaining power. But unlike football, in which a nominal maximum fee was in force for much of the twentieth century, there were no restrictions on the amount of money that could be paid for Rugby League players to sign with their first club. So the signing on fee was a primary incentive for leading players, especially from overseas or Rugby Union, to join Rugby League clubs. In some cases large cash sums were even placed in front of prospective signings as a psychological inducement. When Swinton approached the Cumberland representative Rugby Union player Jim Brough in 1924, the club chairman placed £350 in notes on the table and said he could take it home with him if he signed. Brough resisted the offer and eventually joined Leeds a year later when, after gaining his first England cap, he commanded a fee of £600.

However, the situation was different for most locally produced players. Very few had any guidance when they joined the professional game and were unaware of their value. So only star junior Rugby League players who were chased by a number of clubs could command a significant signing on fee, as most clubs, like Hunslet, were on tight budgets themselves and usually offered as little money possible when trying to sign local youngsters. Some, like Sid who had gained county representative honours as a schoolboy, nevertheless, held out for a better deal and received a lump sum payment which helped to provide a small degree of financial stability as they began adult life.

Throughout much of the last century Hunslet was one of Rugby League’s greatest strongholds. The sport held such a special place in the local community that, despite the close proximity of Leeds United’s Elland Road home, it was Rugby league the kid’s played in Hunslet’s streets and schools. Consequently, the area was one of the sport’s most prolific sources of junior talent. Local schools like Hunslet Carr produced a stream of professional players, such as Bill Thornton and Cyrill Morrell who both starred in the Challenge Cup and Championship victories of the 1930s. Sid Rookes also enjoyed a successful career as in junior Rugby League. He went to the Hunslet National School where his team mates included Frank Watson who also joined Hunslet after leaving school, before moving on to Leeds in the late 1940s.

Match days were eagerly anticipated by many Hunslet residents and droves of local people regularly made the short walk to the Parkside ground on Saturday afternoons. The venue was a much loved institution in the community and future Hunslet players like Sid Rookes and Alf Burnell remember watching matches from the famous Mother Benson’s End. This part of the ground was named after the old lady who washed the players’ kit and lived in one of the Low Fold farm cottages which were situated at that end of the ground. Sid Rookes’ early years as a spectator also coincided with the club’s successes in the 1930s and he had the good fortune to be asked to act as a ball boy when the club made its successful appearance at Wembley in 1934.

Keith Burhouse and his family took supporting their local Rugby League club to a new level towards the end of the 1980s. Keith first become actively involved with Huddersfield RLFC when he answered an appeal for help to get the Fartown stadium ready to stage a John Player Trophy semi-final in the mid 1980s. He thought his skills as a maintenance engineer could prove useful to the club he had supported since boyhood. But much to his surprise, the first time he turned up to help at the ground there were no other volunteers.

This unfortunate situation was a sign of things to come. Initially, Keith spent a week’s holiday helping some of the Club’s directors to replace the West Stand roof and the stadium was passed fit by the RFL to stage the match. But the old ground had fallen into a state of chronic disrepair and over the next few years more and more of Keith’s spare time was spent on patching it up. Despite these efforts the club’s decline in fortunes continued as the decade wore on and by the late 1980s Keith was not the only member of the Burhouse family whose help had been enlisted. His wife Carol took on responsibility for catering, his father Ronald helped with ground maintenance and took charge of parking arrangements on match days, whilst his sons operated the scoreboard.

Fortunately, for both the club and the Burhouse family, help arrived in 1989 when a new board of directors took over and injected some much needed financial resources into the club. Keith continued to help out and in the same year received well deserved recognition for his efforts. He was awarded the Traveleads Top Fan award for 1989 which included an expenses paid trip to America to watch an exhibition match between Wigan and Warrington in Milwaukee, and a week long holiday in Florida.

Although the 1980s was a time of almost constant despair for Huddersfield RLFC’s diehard supporters, the decade ended with an air of renewed optimism. In 1988 a three man consortium led by Mick Murphy finally came forward to rescue the club. Aberdeen based Murphy had achieved international honours as a player, representing Wales in the 1975 World Championship competition, before building a successful hotel business. He teamed up with Neil Shuttleworth, a lifelong supporter at Fartown, and Jim Collins, a local builder and property developer, who had made a previous attempt to rescue the club.

Although unable to offer sufficient financial input to join the consortium, Keith continued working tirelessly for the club and his contribution was recognised by the new owners who made him an Associate Director, a position which he still holds today.

As well as beginning to improve the playing staff, the new owners also carried out a considerable amount of work on the Fartown stadium and by the end of the 1989/90 season significant progress was being made. The side included former Australian Schoolboys captain Greg Shuttleworth, dynamic fellow countryman Wally Gibson and recently capped Great Britain Colts and Under 21 international Anthony Farrell as average crowds topped 1,500 for the first time since the 1970s.

In contrast to the previous decade the 1990s was a time of almost constant progress. Shortly after the 1991/92 season had begun, Mick Murphy was able to persuade his friend and namesake Alex Murphy, to take over as coach of the club. At the time, the first team found itself in the third tier of a restructured competition. But by the end of the season Murphy, who had won just about every other honour in the game as both player and coach, was adding the Division 3 championship to his collection.

More trophy success followed in the next season when Huddersfield won a one off European Championship tournament in Barcelona and in 1995 the first team reached the final of the second division premiership competition at Old Trafford. By this time the club had been forced to say a sad farewell to the old Fartown stadium, which had been its home since 1878. Yet after a brief spell sharing Huddersfield Town’s home ground, Leeds Road, both Football and Rugby clubs moved to the newly built McAlpine Stadium. The state of the art venue was a joint venture by the council in association with the two clubs and provided a perfect platform from which a place in the newly launched Super League could be sought.

After the great side of the 1930s had won Challenge cup in 1934, Hunslet did not reach Wembley again until the famous 1965 final against Wigan. But they came close on two occasions just after the war, falling at the semi final stage in 1946 and 1948. The first of these cup runs was one of the most thrilling and controversial in the clubs history. Following victories against Dewsbury and Broughton Rangers in the first two rounds Hunslet travelled to Salford to play for a place in the semi final. With 3 minutes left in the match all looked lost as the home team led 8-5 and the Parksiders were reduced to 12 men. At this point some Hunslet supporters began to set out early on the trip back to Leeds. But, those who stayed saw their team pull off a remarkable comeback, scoring 10 points in the final few minutes, including a Sid Rookes interception try, to secure a famous victory.

The semi final against Wakefield Trinity took place at Headingley in front of 33,000 spectators and the result hinged on a disallowed Willie O’Neill try in the second half. The flying Cumbrian winger was a Schoolboy 100 yards record holder and had been signed from Leeds University to add some much needed pace to the Hunslet outside backs. His speed and the vision of Frank Watson looked likely to prove decisive when O’Neill collected the scrum half’s chip kick and outstripped the Wakefield defence to dive over the line. But way back in the Hunslet half, touch judge Clifford Ramsden was standing with his flag raised and the try was disallowed. Mysteriously, however, the game was restarted by a scrum and not a penalty to Wakefield, which would have been awarded had the try been ruled out for offside. The Hunslet supporters were so incensed by the decision that, in the heat of the moment, one fan ran onto the pitch and punched the unfortunate Mr Ramsden, breaking his jaw. The assailant was subsequently escorted from the field and later served a jail sentence for the attack. Wakefield went on to win the match 7-3 and were again successful in the final against Wigan.

With the Huddersfield Giants now a well established Super League Club, it’s difficult to imagine that around 20 years ago professional Rugby League in the town was just days away from extinction. But that was the unfortunate situation which faced the club at the end of the 1980s. The previous decade had also been a disappointing one for the club. After the introduction of two divisions in 1973, all but one of the following seven seasons was spent in the second division and a mediocre start to the 1980s saw average crowds drop below the 1,000 mark.

In an attempt to inject new finance into the club, three directors were co-opted onto the board in 1983. One of the men, John Bailey, became chairman and at the end of the season launched an innovative new approach to marketing the club. Fartown was renamed ‘Arena 84’, whilst the first team became the Huddersfield Barracudas and the second team the Huddersfield Piranhas. But although these changes anticipated the subsequent re-branding of the sport as it entered the Super League era 11 years later, they were met with little enthusiasm by already disenchanted Claret and Gold fans.

Over the next few seasons the club’s decline continued despite the introduction of a number of talented local youngsters. Crowds continued to fall and further demands were placed on already dwindling finances as considerable renovation work on the stadium became necessary with the introduction of new safety standards following the Bradford City fire tragedy. Players were sold to help ease the financial burden with, amongst others, Paul Dixon, Seamus McCallion and Wilf George, all moving to local rivals Halifax where they enjoyed both Championship and Challenge cup successes.

Finally, during the 1988/89 season John Bailey abandoned the re-branding approach, much to the delight of the supporters, and offered to give the club away. Keith and the rest of his family, who had already been working voluntarily at Fartown for some years, stepped in to keep professional Rugby League in Huddersfield alive until a consortium with resources to begin to rebuild the club could be found. Their intervention was vital and the controversial outgoing chairman later told the Huddersfield Examiner,

‘No praise is high enough for Keith and his family. They have stuck with the club through thick and thin and the fact that there is still a club is down to them.’
 

Born in Sydney, Australia, on the 24th June 1924 Brian Eyrl Bevan was to become one the greatest players ever to grace the world of Rugby League. Although blessed with extraordinary pace and skill you may be forgiven for mistaking Bevan for anything other than a rugby player. With a slight frame, balding head of hair and heavily bandaged knees, he resembled anything but the stereotypical rugby great. But the number of records the Australian still holds today is proof enough of his phenomenal talent.

Bevan arrived in England in 1946 and on the recommendation of Bill Shankland attended trials at Leeds and Hunslet, but was turned down on both occasions before approaching Warrington. The Cheshire club were willing to give him a trial in the ‘A’ Team in November 1946 and he took his opportunity, scoring a try and impressing the club enough to warrant a first team opportunity and a permanent contract at Wilderspool.

Over the course of the following sixteen years at Warrington, Bevan established himself as a legend in the game. It took him just four years to surpass the club’s all time try scoring record of 215, a figure which had taken the previous holder, Jack Fish, 13 seasons to achieve. He finished as the top scorer in English rugby league on no less than five occasions and in the 1952/53 season touched down 72 times, the second highest return in rugby league history.

But Bevan’s success should not only be gauged in personal achievements. He was also at the heart of an unprecedented run of success for the Warrington club which included three Championships, two Challenge Cups, six Lancashire League titles and a Lancashire Cup.

Nevertheless, his try scoring record is phenomenal. Bevan managed to score a hat-trick of tries in a single game on 100 separate occasions during his time at Warrington. He also holds the club record for scoring seven tries in a single game, a feat he achieved on two occasions. Probably his most impressive achievement and the greatest testimony to his extraordinary ability is the world record of 796 tries he scored from just 688 games. A feat which is even more remarkable when you consider the second highest ever try scorer (Billy Boston) managed 571.

In 1988 Brian Bevan was one of just nine players inducted into the UK’s first ever Rugby League Hall of Fame. The Australian Rugby League followed suit and recognised Bevan’s achievements and impact on the game in 2005 when they inducted him into their own Rugby League Hall of Fame. A lasting tribute to Brian Bevan can be found outside Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones stadium where a statue, which was first erected on a traffic island in the middle of the town in 1993, now proudly stands.

Billy’s career as a Rugby League referee came at a time when the game in Britain was littered with great players and colourful characters. The tough and uncompromising nature of the sport meant that physical confrontations were always capable of boiling over. Matches were often at their most volatile during the ‘softening up’ period in which two sets of forwards battled to gain the upper hand before the backs were able to play more open football. This meant that most sides contained at least one ‘enforcer’ and, as Billy recalls, the challenge for referees was to keep these men in check whilst also allowing the game to flow.

One technique favoured by some referees was to maintain a dialogue with the players throughout the match and, for Billy, this resulted in some highly entertaining exchanges with men like Dennis Hartley the Castleford, Doncaster and Hunslet prop forward. A key member of the successful Castleford side in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hartley had built a reputation as one of the most feared prop forwards in the game. He won nine caps for Great Britain and, along with Tony Fisher and Cliff Watson, was a member of the formidable front row which left such an indelible mark on the Australians during the 1970 Ashes winning tour.

Another legendry prop forward who Billy encountered during this era was the Welshman ‘Big’ Jim Mills. After signing for Halifax from Cardiff RUFC in 1964, Mills played for Salford, Bradford Northern and North Sydney before he really made his mark with Widnes during the 1970s. He too gained notoriety as a fearsome opponent in both Britain and Australasia, and was dismissed 20 times in his professional career.

Alf was one of many Rugby League players who served in the Armed Forces during the Second World War. He joined the Navy in 1942, and spent four  hard years in the Submarine service. Living conditions undersea were particularly harsh. Whilst on patrol the crew had no fresh air to breath, ate mostly rations of canned food and did not see sunlight for days on end. Alf was a crewman on HMS Spiteful, which spent the latter part of the war stationed in Freemantle, Western Australia, and during this time made the 3 longest wartime patrols by any 'S' class submarine - 34, 38 and 37 days. But surviving the rigours of life undersea was a minor concern in comparison to the threat from enemy attacks. Out of around 270 British Submarines that were deployed during the war years, 72 were lost along with their crews, which amounted to over 2000 men.

On returning to civilian life after the war, Alf resumed his Rugby League career with great enthusiasm and no little success. Although just missing out on domestic honours with Hunslet, he represented Great Britain in two test matches against New Zealand in 1951, and three years later toured Australia with the Lions party, led by Dickie Williams. Alf feels that the time he spent in the Navy played an important role in his subsequent success as a player. Surviving the hardships of life undersea gave him a mental strength which suited his combative style as a halfback and he was able to take on the big, uncompromising forwards of the post-war era without trepidation.

During the late 1940s and the 1950s Halifax were amongst the game’s strongest sides, pulling in average crowds of over 11,000 and remaining unbeaten at their home ground of Thrum Hall between December 1952 and November 1956!

Yet for fans of the club this period holds many poignant memories. The team appeared in 3 Championship finals, in 1952-53, 1953-54 and 1955-56, and 3 Challenge Cup finals, in 1949, 1954 and 1956, which all ended in defeat.   

Perhaps the most heartbreaking period came between 1953 and 1956. In 2 seasons out of 3 Halifax reached both the Championship and Challenge Cup finals only to fall at the final hurdle. After securing a Yorkshire league and cup double in 1955-56, the club was in sight of winning all four cups. Wembley was reached for the third time in seven years following a thrilling Challenge Cup semi-final victory over Wigan. Ken Dean and Geoff Palmer scored the tries in an 11-10 victory at Odsal before a crowd of around 58,000. The Club’s hopes of success were increased further by a 23-8 Championship success against Challenge Cup final opponents St Helens in the Championship semi final.

Wembley, however, proved to be a major disappointment as St Helens ran out 13-2 winners. A week later Halifax again came sickeningly close to victory in the Championship match against Hull at Manchester’s Maine Road. In front of a huge crowd, Halifax held an 8-9 lead going into the closing stages of the game and to the fans the match was as good as theirs. However; a call for off-side in the final moments allowed Hull’s Collin Hutton to kick a last minute penalty goal and secure a 10-9 victory for the Arlie Birds, much to the dismay of the Halifax fans.

Over the years numerous newspapers and magazines have circulated in the rugby league community, bringing different opinions on the game as well as team news.

The Rugby Leaguer served the rugby league fan on a weekly basis for over fifty years, before (in 2002) succumbing to League Publications Ltd which published its rival League Express. However, almost immediately a replacement weekly newspaper was born in League Weekly, and comment and match reports were again available to fans through two rival publications.

Other publications were also available during the long lifespan of the Rugby Leaguer. One of the most influential of these was Open Rugby. Once described as a ‘ground breaking publication in the world of rugby league Open Rugby achieved somewhat of a cult status during its lifetime from 1976–1998. This reputation stemmed largely from its origins as a fanzine and although Open Rugby grew to become a high quality glossy magazine the characteristic enthusiasm and progressive outlook of its creator Harry Edgar remained.

The example set by Harry Edgar was followed by a number of Rugby League enthusiasts who produced a variety of fanzines during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Written independently by the fans and for the fans, these home produced publications were usually focused upon individual clubs and boasted a strong editorial personality as well as a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. Publications such as Oldham RLFC’s fanzine The Roughyed, and Wakefield Trinity’s Wally Lewis is Coming! found popularity for a time. However, the Rugby League fanzine failed to sustain itself for any great length of time as social and technological changes began to provide alternative outlets through which fans could air their views. The growth and ease of access to the internet, has seen the modern day equivalent of the fanzine in  Rugby League independent supporters’ websites and message boards. These are a place where fans can voice their opinions to an international audience. At Salford, the legacy of the fanzine has even been kept alive and the RLFans.com website has become a new medium through which the club’s fanzine Scarlet Turkey is now published.

Norman Berry’s Rugby League Gazette is also an interesting addition to the rugby league literature of the time. A forerunner of the original Edgar style Open Rugby, in that it was mainly written and published by one man, it can also be compared to Stanley Chadwick’s work of the same period. Berry found a resourceful way of distributing the Gazette through a network of young rugby fans, of which Geoff was one, by circulating it at the ground and outside on match days.

Today it is a rare treat for rugby league fans to rub shoulders with their sporting heroes (particularly the super league greats) whilst going about their day to day business However, before the introduction of Super League it was a somewhat different story.

For the first 100 years of the game’s existence, rugby league earnings alone were not sufficient for players to live on. So up until 1995 the vast majority of players, if not already in full-time employment, worked part-time out side of the game to subsidise their playing wages.
 
Not only could players be found working in manual employment, such as mining and engineering, but also in jobs that played key roles within the communities in which they lived, such as delivering milk or even serving in the local fish and chip shop. In most cases, these players lived in the towns they represented on the rugby field. Consequently they developed a strong affinity with local people, as fans found themselves working alongside or socialising with the very men they looked up to and admired from the terraces at the weekend.

John Beaumont has lived most of his life within a short distance of the Fartown ground. Much of his youth was spent helping the groundsman and listening to stories of Huddersfield’s golden era in the 1910’s and 1920’s. Hubert Pogson, or ‘Poggy’ as he was known, was a family friend. Pogson played in the 1919-20 Northern Union Cup and Championship finals when Huddersfield attempted to repeat their achievement of 1914-15 by winning all four trophies. Pogson was normally a second team player but had got his opportunity following an injury to winger Stanley Moorhouse. The Yorkshire Cup and Yorkshire League trophies were already at Fartown when Huddersfield met Wigan in the Northern Union final. It was Pogson’s finest hour as he scored two tries in a 21-10 victory. Widnes were defeated in the Championship semi-final and Hull waited at Headingley as Huddersfield strove for a clean sweep of silverware.

However, 1920 was a year when Britain were touring Australia and New Zealand. The trip by sea took around six weeks and Huddersfield were missing their five tourists (Harold Wagstaff, Douglas Clark, Ben Gronow, Johnny Rogers and Gwyn Thomas) for the final game of the season. Huddersfield had finished seven points clear of second placed Hull but this counted for nothing in a largely uninspiring final which was settled by a try from the legendary Billy Batten as Hull won by 3-2. Pogson always claimed that Batten had stepped into touch but the try stood and Huddersfield were left to rue the fact that Batten had turned down a place on the tour when he refused to play in a trial match.

The difficulties of touring can be highlighted by the itinerary for the 1928 tour. April 20 depart from Tilbury, April 25 Algiers, April 27 Marseille, April 30 Port Said, May 3 Port Sudan, May 5 Aden, May 12 Colombo, May 22 Freemantle, May 26 Adelaide, May 28 Melbourne, May 31 Sydney. A far cry from today when Australia is within a day’s air travel.    

The 1980’s brought renewed hopes that Rugby League’s geographical straitjacket could be broken. Fulham kicked off the 1980-81 season in Division Two, becoming London’s first professional rugby league club since Streatham folded in 1937. The club surged to promotion in its first season, with average crowds topping 7,000. However, as the ageing side struggled to repeat its success and crowds declined, the board of Fulham FC, which had bankrolled the club, began to lose interest. In July 1984 it put the rugby league club into liquidation. For the next decade the club led a nomadic existence changing its name to London Crusaders with stays at Chiswick, Barnet Copthall and the Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium before being bought by the Brisbane Broncos, transformed into the London Broncos and earning a place in Super League by virtue of its geographical importance. The club is currently Harlequins Rugby League and is based at The Stoop in the shadow of Twickenham.
The initial success of Fulham led to a wave of soccer clubs expressing an interest in bringing rugby league to new areas. Soccer clubs ranging from Portsmouth to Hearts, Crystal Palace to Grimsby floated the idea of rugby league. Most of these ideas never got beyond the drawing board yet over the next five seasons Carlisle United, Cardiff City, Maidstone United and Mansfield Town either formed their own rugby league sides or were involved in ground sharing ventures. At the start of the 1985-86 season rugby league had thirty-six professional sides, its highest total since 1903.
Rugby League was seen by soccer club directors as a way of boosting income through diversification – ‘we want to make some brass’, Fulham soccer club chairman Ernie Clay told the press in 1980. When the soccer board’s at Fulham, Cardiff and Carlisle realised that rugby league was not a cash cow they pulled the plug prompting the RFL’s David Howes to remark: ‘The Carlisle board seemed to view the rugby league club like a publican might view a jukebox. Install it. Watch it twinkle. Enjoy the music but take it out the moment it shows signs of losing money.’
Once the soccer clubs had withdrawn their funding, the survival of the expansion clubs was a continuous struggle dependent on the voluntary work of supporters. Carlisle survived to 1997 when financial pressures forced the club under. Cardiff relocated to Bridgend but lasted only four seasons. Mansfield became Nottingham City and were demoted to the National Conference in 1993-94. The team at Maidstone moved to Southend but poor crowds including only 85 for a game against Huddersfield led to their demise after the 1984-85 season.
Sheffield Eagles formed in 1984 were by far the most successful. They caused one of the biggest upsets in Challenge Cup history by beating Wigan at Wembley in 1998 and they played in Super League. However, financial pressures forced them to merge with Huddersfield to form the Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants but the Sheffield part soon disappeared. The Eagles were resurrected and currently play in the National Leagues at the Don Valley Stadium.
Twenty years on the idea of ground sharing to make maximum use of facilities has again taken hold. Huddersfield, Wigan and Hull all ground share with their local soccer club at new, state of the art stadia. Leeds and Harlequins share grounds with Premiership rugby union clubs. Expansion is on the agenda in South Wales with the Celtic Crusaders, based at Bridgend, being promoted to National League one and expected to bid for a Super League franchise in 2009.