In 1933 the Australian tourists visited Parkside for a Wednesday afternoon game. On a windy day, Hunslet made the first break through Billy Thornton and George Todd which released Cyril Morrell on a run and his pass put winger George Broughton over but it was called back as forward. Australia took the lead with a penalty goal but Jack Walkington dropped a goal to level things. An Australian attack led to a fortunate try, a long kick to the Hunslet line was fielded by George Dennis who sent a relieving kick on it’s way but did not seem to notice the Aussie centre who charged the ball, caught it on the bounce and scored by the posts which he converted. Future Hunslet player Vic Hey failed to ground a kick to the line and Henry Moss was on it like a flash to score an unconverted try. Just before half-time Hey was fed from a scrum and dodged through the Hunslet defence to score a converted try. But Hunslet were not finished as a Todd kick was caught by Broughton who ran over his opposite number to score. Cliff Whitehead converted from touch and it was 12-10 to the visitors at the break. Hunslet played the second half with 12 men as Hector Crowther had left the field after 25 minutes and was unable to return. It was reported that somewhat unusually Hunslet regularly packed down in the second-half with only four men and played with three centres. The tourists got their third try following a rare break which was converted. At this time the news came through that Crowther had broken his collar bone. The fourth Australian try came after some “bewildering” passing. Hunslet promptly replied as Beverley broke and some clever passing of their own led to George Dennis scoring in the corner. However, there was insufficient time for Hunslet to mount another attack and the tourists won 22-18.

St Helens Recreation were a club formed in the Rugby Union era as a part of Pilkington Glass Co. Sports and Recreation. They decided to abandoned rugby in 1898 to concentrate on Association Football but reversed this in 1913 to join the Northern Union and compete in the Lancashire Combination. In WW1 they were promoted to the senior ranks to bolster numbers in the wartime league but they didn’t cross paths with Hunslet. After the war they were admitted  as full members of the league. After two matches at Parkside, one cup, one league, in 1924 Hunslet made the train journey over the Pennines to City Road for the first time. The previous fixtures were narrow wins to the Recs and only 8-10 down at half-time Hunslet must have been hoping for their first victory but it wasn’t to be as Recs ran away with the game 31-8. The game’s gate was set aside for Jimmy Owen, the St Helens three-quarter who had retired after a serious knee injury. Hunslet finally got their win in 1929, the first of their remaining seven fixtures before the Recreation folded in 1939.

In cup-ties the Yorkshire Cup was in progress and the biggest tie today was the 1948 semi-final replay against Bradford Northern at Parkside. Northern scored an early converted try and Hunslet replied with a Tuss Griffiths penalty goal and he hit the upright with a further attempt. Then came the big talking point of the game. Ernest Ward put in a cross field kick and Greaves, who seemed to be yards off-side, couldn’t resist the bouncing ball with a clear run to the line and picked it up to score. It was reported that that his reaction suggested he didn’t expect the try to stand but ref Laurie Thorpe gave the touch down despite the howls of protest from the home supporters in the 17,358 crowd. Hunslet did get their own decision from ref Thorpe a few minutes later when Freddie Williamson was awarded a penalty try but they never got back on terms with Northern who went through 12-5 to meet Castleford in the final.

Other ties were in 1913 when Dewsbury won a first round match 19-8 at Parkside and 1919 at York where the home side went through 10-5.

Representative games today….

The 1893 County Trial at Bowling Old Lane Bradford saw Ernest Liversedge and Jack Rathmell in the Leeds District side as they beat Bradford District 49-11 (a very high score for the times).

Albert Goldthorpe got a try and a goal in the County Trial at Leeds parish Church in 1899 as his Probables beat the Possibles by 17-12.

The Australasian Tourists faced England today at Fulham in 1911. Billy Battten and Bill Jukes were in attendance. In a bad tempered game marred by many penalties England were reported as too slow to trouble the tourists and they went down by 5-11.

In 1924 Hector Crowther travelled to Whitehaven with his Yorkshire team-mates but there was no reward for them as they lost 0-20 to Cumberland.

Hector was on show again in 1930 in the Roses County match at Wakefield. He got winning money today as the home side overcame the Red Rose 25-15.

The War-time international in 1941 had Eric Batten in the England team against Wales at Bradford. The match finished all square at 9-9.

Alf Burnell and Bill Metcalfe were in the Yorkshire side against Lancashire at Huddersfield in 1950. The Tykes won through 23-15.

In 1969 at Headingley, Welsh stand-off Phil Morgan was up against England. He was reported as providing some neat touches but that Wales would need more star players before they would be truly competitive against England as they went down 23-40.