A Champion Day for the Hunslet club today as they fought a final and a semi-final of the top four play-offs.
1907/08 had seen the Yorkshire Cup, the Yorkshire League Trophy and the Challenge Cup find their way to the Parkside trophy cabinet and the possibility of a clean sweep of all four trophies was in Hunslet’s hands. In their way were league leaders and Lancashire Cup holders Oldham who had finished seven points clear of Hunslet with only two league defeats all season. The only meeting between the two was at Parkside in the 2nd round of the Challenge Cup, Hunslet winning 15-8.
The Weaste, Salford, was the venue on a day which was more fit for cricket than football. The crowd of 14,000 would have been higher if the entrance fee of one shilling had been lower. Freddie Farrar was missing from Hunslet’s team, reportedly having caught a cold at the Challenge Cup final the previous Saturday listening to Mr Ashton’s lengthy presentation speech!
The early stages of the game were littered with penalties as both sets of forwards played offside and from one Oldham took a two point lead. Albert Goldthorpe soon equalised only for Oldham to kick a second penalty. Dixon of Oldham then made a mistake which cost his side five points. Fielding a kick he found himself facing Albert and Walter Goldthorpe. He rose and as he played the ball failed to prevent Albert kicking through and following the ball to touch down for an easy conversion. 7-4 at half-time. In the second half Hunslet could not score again, the best chance coming when Fred Smith broke through and passed to Billy Eagers who only had to touch down but spilled the ball. This seemed to rally Oldham who were soon on level terms when Wright touched from a scrum. Walter had chance from a cross-field kick from his brother and Oldham missed with a couple of drop goals but there was no more scoring. 7-7 at full-time and a replay at Belle Vue, Wakefield next Saturday.
In 1958/59 a third place finish gave Hunslet a semi-final tie at Central Park, Wigan. A big blow for Hunslet was when Brian Gabbitas cried off with a sceptic leg, Dennis Tate taking his place. Also out was Eric Ashton, Wigan’s captain, again with leg trouble.
The only scoring in the first half was a Ronnie Colin unconverted try. Wigan kicker Griffiths had missed two easy penalties so Hunslet went in with a slender lead a half time. Hunslet were reported to have been twice the side in the second half, stand -in Tate having a wonderful game. Nevertheless Wigan got two early tries but the goal-kicks failed. Hunslet gained two touch downs from Preece and Colin, both converted by Langton. Stockdill got a further converted try. Two further Langton penalties saw Hunslet into the final with a 22-11 victory.
A third place finish in 1983/84 saw Hunslet promoted to the Slalom Lager Premiership but they were only there one season before relegation back to Division Two. The last match of the season at Carlisle saw the try-scoring debut of prop Mark Wood. Over eight seasons Mark made 105 appearances scoring six tries.
Having won the home leg 16-3 Hunslet would have been confident of progressing in the 1942 Challenge Cup 2nd leg at St Helens. They achieved this despite losing the match, their 30 point aggregate being enough to take them through 30-24.
A week after winning the Challenge Cup Leeds welcomed Hunslet to Headingley for the 1923 Lazenby Cup. Hunslet sent their full strength side. For Hunslet’s 0-9 defeat the match report pointed the finger at stand-off Titch Brogden for trying too much individual play and not connecting up with his three-quarters. Arthur Feltham was singled out for praise as his full-back play was “very pleasing “.
In 1936 a benefit match for Henry Moss and George Broughton was played at Parkside against a Yorkshire XIII. For an hour the match was taken seriously but as points were scored at one a minute towards the end, the players “descended to comedy efforts” to entertain the crowd. The result was 35-23 to Yorkshire. Highlights were two tries from Wakefield’s future Hunslet player Eric Batten and a try by Walkington where he sidestepped four or five men in as many yards.
