As the close-seasons came to an end, activity at the club stepped up in preparation for the new seasons. The programme for the opening game of the 1953/54 season against Keighley today hoped for a continuation of the previous season where the first team won eight of their last nine matches, the “A” Team finished top of their league and the junior sides brought four trophies to the club. It also bemoaned the fact that “National Service somewhat retards the progress of these juniors”. Lou Artis, Brian Gabbitas, Geoff Gunney, Ron Guthrie, Norman Reynard and K Sanderson were all serving but the editor thanked the co-operation of commanding officers in releasing them to play where possible.
Today’s programme for the first match of the 1959-60 season noted that the only new players were Welshmen John Griffiths and Terry Robbins. John was with the club until 1965 and was on the wing in the Wembley side. Terry’s opportunities were limited due to the quality of the back-rowers at the time and he moved on to Bradford Northern and Bramley in the early 60s.
Terry Robbins
Pre-season friendlies played today were the 1952 Lazenby Cup at Headingley, won by Hunslet 18-7, a 1982 warm-up at Craven Park where the Robins won 29-18 and 1990’s Yorkshire Rider Trophy match at Belle Bue where Hunslet brought back the silverware 26-24 with Tim Lumb getting three tries and three goals.
We’ve previously looked at Hunslet’s Welsh stand-off Phil Morgan and today it was his half-back partner and fellow Welshman Cliff Williams’ debut in 1966. Losing Brian Gabbitas and Alan Marchant from the Wembley side was a big loss and season 1965/66 saw Ray Abbey, Peter Hallighan Mick Chamberlian and Alan Preece tried at scrum-half and for 1966/67 Hunslet brought in Cliff from Abercram RUFC. He was a Monmouthshire RU County player and he made his debut in the 1966 Lazenby Cup game. He was with the Parksiders for 5 seasons, playing 103 games and gained a Wales cap.
