It was the 1940 wartime international England v Wales at Oldham today with Eric Batten on the wing. England had taken an 8-5 lead towards the end which won the match but Wales had two late tries disallowed. Oliver Morris, the former Parksider was at stand-off for Wales. In the first half the players had to leave the field when the air raid warning sounded and couldn’t return until the all clear was sounded.
In 1907 Albert Goldthorpe broke his own record for goals in a Northern Union match at home to Bramley in a 50-0 win in the Yorkshire Cup. His 8 goals broke his previous best of 6 and with his 2 tries he took back the points in a match record, his 22 beating the 1898 record of 17 by Billy Hannah.
It was Yorkshire Cup semi-final time at The Boulevard in 1912. In the first few minutes Walter Guerin took a bang to the head and played the rest of the game in a daze, even packing down with the Hull forwards on a couple of occasions! In the second half winger Albert Jenkinson received an internal injury in a tackle and had to leave the field and later in the half Fred Smith took a hit to the jaw which was so badly bruised he had to attend the Infirmary on returning to Leeds. Hunslet were the sharper side in the first half, Billy Batten intercepted a loose Hull pass and whipped the ball to Jenkinson who made it to half-way before returning the ball to Batten who ran to the line for a try but he missed his conversion. Hull pulled back a try and a goal and Danny Wyburn had a try disallowed before Batten made a strong run and on being tackled close to the line passed to the supporting Bill Jukes to make it 6-5 to Hunslet at half-time. In the second-half Hunslet’s reducing numbers gave Hull the opportunity to move a forward out of the pack as an extra three-quarter and, despite Hunslet’s stubbornness, they got the winning try despite strong protestations for a forward pass from the visitors.
Forward Jack Rathmell made his debut today in 1887 at Selby. He played throughout the Union era and in the first season of Northern Union. He was a try scorer in the 1892 Yorkshire Cup win. He gained three Yorkshire caps and was selected in the annual charity match South of Leeds v North of Leeds twice. His Hunslet record is played 205 and 36 tries.
Across the city in 1929 Great Britain were playing Australia in the second test with Dai Jenkins in the pack. A “villainous” rain storm before kick-off left the pitch with mud patches and while this could be said to have disadvantaged the visitors it was not the reason for their defeat. Despite the storm over 31,000 turned up to see the hosts win the match 9-3 to level the series.
A trip to Workington in 1975 in the John Player Trophy did not provide New Hunslet with any joy as they went down 6-23.
On his home ground of Parkside winger Freddie Williamson took the field with Yorkshire against Lancashire in 1946. The Yorkshire Post questioned the wisdom of playing County matches on a weekend when only 5,000 turned up against a 10,000 gate across the city for Leeds against Dewsbury. Wigan had six players in the Lancashire side and in next week’s Wales England match both Wigan and Bradford Northern would have five reinforcing the call for midweek fixtures. It was 8-5 to Yorkshire at half-time and a converted try to Lancashire against a penalty seemed to be sending the match to a draw before a late Yorkshire raid brought a winning try and a first County Championship since 1930/31 for the White Rose.
