Centre Cyril Morrell made his first appearance in the first team today in 1931. Having played his schoolboy rugby at Hunslet Carr he signed for the senior club from Hunslet Supporters. His first game was against Widnes at Parkside playing stand-off and despite only playing the one game was made a reserve in the next month’s Yorkshire Cup final. The incumbent stand-off was George Todd so it would prove difficult for Cyril to get regular football and in 1933 he was tried at centre and made the position his own for the next 12 seasons. In the 1934 Wembley final he was a first half try scorer but broke his collar bone going over the line leaving the team one man short for the rest of the game. Four years later in the Championship final at Elland Road he gets mentioned frequently for his strong runs at the Leeds defence and would have scored the first try if the last ditch tackle hadn’t knocked the ball free. During the war he was a regular at Hunslet but still found time to guest with other Yorkshire clubs most notably with Dewsbury in 1942/43 (the season Hunslet did not compete) and playing in their Championship final (both legs, 1 try) and Yorkshire Cup final first leg. Eddie Waring was team manager at Dewsbury and his policy of signing the best guest player paid off as they won the Championship (with nine guests in the team), Yorkshire Cup and were runners up in the Challenge Cup. Cyril ended his career in 1946/ 47 after playing 372 games and scoring 138 tries. His representative career was cut short by the war after three England and four Yorkshire caps. Between Christmas Day 1939 and 17th April 1940 he played and scored tries in 11 consecutive matches, a record for the club.

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Another centre made his debut in 1908, Joseph Mitchell reversing Cyril’s career by starting out as a centre before moving to stand-off after the war. He had signed from Burley Lawn and played 178 games scoring 34 tries.

Cup ties today were….

1914 v Leeds at Headingley, a 13-11 win in the Yorkshire Cup 1st round.

1928 it was the replay following the 7-7 draw at Belle Vue but Wakefield Trinity were too strong on the day winning 20-11.

In the first post war Yorkshire Cup Hunslet had a quarter-final tie at Odsal but were held pointless as Bradford Northern progressed 8-0.

In 1981 in the John Player Trophy 1st round it was a bad day for home side Hunslet as Widnes came and returned over the Pennines after a 44-8 win.

In 2023 after a second placed league finish and a 26-14 win over Doncaster, Hunslet would be hoping for further progress against North Wales Crusaders but the visitors had other ideas and knocked out their hosts 25-18.

On the representative front it was mainly County action today….

1892’s Trial saw Charles Bennet with Leeds District against Bradford District, a 26-7 win for Leeds in a match played at Armley.

1894 was Yorkshire Stripes with James Deacon against Yorkshire Whites with Jack Mitchell. Played at Leeds Parish Church the Stripes won 18-12 and Mitchell scored a try.

The 1906 Trial had Billy Brookes, Bill Jukes and Albert Everson with Possibles against the Probables with Harry Wilson. Played at York the Probables won 30-28.

In 1908 Yorkshire played Cumberland at Huddersfield. Hunslet were represented by Billy Batten (1 try), John Higson (1 try) and Bill Jukes with Yorkshire and Billy Eagers with Cumberland The White Rose won 30-0.

Hector Crowther was in the same fixture in 1923 on his home ground of Parkside in another easy win for the homsters, this time by 52-12.

Len Smith, George Todd and Jack Walkington were in the 1931 Yorkshire side against Lancashire at Warrington but could not prevent a Lancashire win by 11-8.

In the 2009 European Cup Neil Lowe was with Scotland to face Italy in Padua. The Scots ran away with the game winning 104-0.