1908 and it’s the replay for the Championship Trophy against Oldham at Belle Vue Wakefield. With three trophies at Parkside it was Hunslet’s second chance to grab the fourth and make history as the first club to do this. The teams played out a seven-all draw at Salford a week ago and there was some discussion as to whether there should be a replay as it would be the first time the season had ended in May, the official close season.
14,034 attended on a very hot day. Although the game was reported as disappointing the papers acknowledged Hunslet’s superiority in every aspect of the game, the Terrible Six outplayed Oldham’s forwards, the backs tackled tenaciously and attacked with flair, full-back Place was impressive in attack and defence and Albert played with “adroitness”. Two penalty A Goldthorpe goals gave Hunslet a 4-0 lead, although Oldham missed six kicks of their own. Just on half-time Walter G picked up a ball dropped by an tackled Oldham player, fly-kicked to the posts and touched down, brother Albert missing the simple kick.
Oldham pulled back a penalty kick early in the second-half and attacked for some time all to no avail as a passing move between Fred Smith and Billy Eagers got the ball to Herbert Place who dropped a goal. Towards the end Billy Batten broke free and the ball passed to Eagers, Fred Smith and Walter Goldthorpe who got the try. Hunslet had won the Trophy 12-2.
Albert’s goals had taken him over 100 for the season, the first time this had been done. He was also top points scorer with 217.
The 1981/82 season ended today with a 17-6 win at Batley for a 6th place finish in the Second Division. Graham King with 12 and Eric Fitzsimons’ 94 goals and 217 points took the scoring honours. In this match, centre Phil Tate made his debut. He was at ther club for nine seasons playing 136 games and scoring 45 tries. He played 25 games and scored 11 tries in Hunslet’s 1986/87 promotion season.
Hunslet played the second match of their short 1954 French tour at Villeneuve today losing 22-39.
A year later and Hunslet visited Fartown to play in a benefit game for Lionel Cooper. As usual the game was not too serious as the ball was thrown about on every opportunity. Wigan’s Billy Boston scored five tries for Huddersfield as they won 43-31.
In 1942 Hunslet had qualified for the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup and a 0-29 loss at Oldham in the first leg did not give Hunslet much hope of progress. In the same competition in 2010 Hunslet were drawn at Barrow Raiders where another defeat, 24-42 saw them exit the competition in round five.
In 2001 a heavy defeat at Leigh (4-68) equalled Hunslet largest margin of defeat from 1988 by St Helens.
