A debut day for three of our longer serving Rugby Union players. Charlie Lapping, Joe Mosley and Isaac Summerhill all turned out at Bingley. Isaac was a forward who played for 5 seasons and made 100 appearances. His claim to fame is that he was the first Hunslet player to be called up by the selectors for a representative game when he played in one of the 1886 Yorkshire Trials. Unfortunately he did not make the County side. Signing from Hunslet Albion, Charlie was the club’s half-back from 1885 to 1896 except for 1887/88 when he wa s poached by Leeds St Johns, allegedly on the promise of a Yorkshire cap. He promptly got this in 1887 against Somerset and returned to Hunslet for 1888/89. He played in the 1892 Yorkshire Cup final and was club captain 1891 – 1894. In 1889/90 he scored 16 tries to set an early record for the club.
Joe Mosley was a forward who served Hunslet for ten seasons, playing 220 times including the 1892 Yorkshire Cup final. He had the distinction of scoring the last try at the old Woodhouse Hill ground. Charlie and Joe were the longest serving players to play in both Rugby Union and Northern Union.
Two debuts for Hunslet CF&AC today were Bill O’Neill and Don Hatfield. Winger Bill was a Cumbrian studying at Leeds University when he signed for Hunslet. In his two seasons he played 59 games and scored 25 tries and also played two games for Cumberland. He is famous for scoring the try that wasn’t in the 1946 Challenge Cup semi-final when a touch judge disallowed his try, leading to a supporter jumping the fence and breaking the touch-judge’s jaw. Don Hatfield was playing for Dewsbury in 1953 when Hunslet swapped him for Ralph Ormondroyd and Billy Metcalfe. He played in the 1956 Yorkshire Cup and the 1959 Championship finals. He never played for Yorkshire but it was reported that he had been in 14 shadow squads. In 1957/58, at over 18 stone, it was said he was the heaviest player in the league. After 274 games (23 tries) he transferred to Bradford Northern in 1962 for £400.
A couple of lesser known players from the new club era debuted today. In 1982 Richard John Ackland was a New Zealand second -rower from Mount Albert. He came for just one season but on his return home played for Auckland and New Zealand. He coached Samoa in the 2008 World Cup and was a decent cricketer, playing for New Zealand Under 24s and Auckland. He was a scout for Canterbury Bulldogs and on the New Zealand Warriors coaching staff. In 1976 a young lad from Australia turned up at Hunslet and asked for a trial as he “wanted to learn to play rugby”. His name was Andy Hall and he made his debut today in 1976, spending his first night as a pro rugby player in hospital! In only his 6th match he got to play Leeds’ internationals at Headingley and the press were very complimentary about his performance that night. He stayed for just the one season making just 9 first team appearances.
Andy Hall
We covered the match our returning tourists played in 1910 at Plymouth on the 17th and today they were in action again in a Challenge Match “Tourists v Colonials” at Headingley. They completed their journey from Plymouth at Great Northern Station to be greeted by a crowd 2-3,000 and were transferred by char-a-banc to Headingley for the match. Fred Smith and Bill Jukes were in the side. Following their long journey home it was no surprise that they lost to the Colonials 15-31.
In 1951 Wales were at St Helens to play England in the European Championship (although the papers called it a trial for the upcoming Great Britain -New Zealand test). Les Williams and Jack Evans were among the Welsh backs and Alf Burnell was England’s scrum-half. Les scored a try but it was to no avail as England won 35-11. However the papers were full of praise for the Welshmen as they lost two players in the first half hour and with no substitutes soldiered on with 11 men. Alf bagged a brace for England.
Yorkshire v Cumberland in 1956 at Whitehaven featured Geoff Gunney and Sam Smith.After a quick start by Yorkshire spear-headed by Gunney Yorkshire were 10-0 up in 16 minutes. Cumberland pulled a try and goal back by half-time. Sam Smith had struggled for possession from the scrum in the first half and although he did better in the second half, Cumberland were on top. After an hour Cumberland had come within a point of Yorkshire at 13-14 and a late penalty gained them a one point win.
The same fixture in 1962 at Workington had Geoff Shelton at centre and Fred Ward in the pack for Yorkshire as the Tykes won in Cumberland for the first time in eight years, 11-2.
The first post-Covid season ended today in 2021. Hunslet had finished 6th out of 10 teams and had a play-off game at Doncaster. It was an end to their season after a 10-31 loss.
The first of other cup-ties today was the 1938 Yorkshire Cup quarter -final against Hull Kingston Rovers at Parkside. Just after half-time Hunslet were just in front at 10-7, then Cyril Morrell showed his class, releasing winger Eric Batten three time for tries from 50, 25 and 5 yards out. Hunslet won 23-7 in front of 6,500 (£315 receipts).
Earlier in September 1999, Widnes Vikings had visited South Leeds and beaten Hunslet 24-21. Hunslet had then beaten Featherstone Rovers to set up another match-up with Widnes. There was some dispute before the game as to the venue, Widnes believing it should be at Naughton Park. Under the original rules of the tournament they were correct but Hunslet pointed out a vote by all the clubs in 1997 amended this to the highest placed club at the end of the league season having home advantage throughout the competition. The League agreed and it was down to South Leeds Stadium for the decider for the final. A very tight game saw Hunslet come through 10-8 with a Richard Baker try and three Chris Ross goals. Interestingly, the following day’s papers concentrated on the promotion / relegation issue rather than the game. Their position was that neither Hunslet nor Dewsbury had the facilities for Super League so Huddersfield would retain their Super League status. Huddersfield chairman Ken Davey was more pragmatic saying that an independent committee would consider the matter and nothing was cut and dried until they delivered their decision.
After a few difficult years following 1999, in 2004 Hunslet were in the play-offs again and visited Sheffield Eagles. A fine performance saw Hunslet score 7 tries in a 39-16 win.
