In 1959 our 1965 try scoring Wembley winger John Griffiths was signed from Pontypool RU for a fee of £2,000. He returned to South Wales in 1961, re-appearing for 1962/63 and announced his retirement after Wembley but again made a re-appearance for 1966/67, finally hanging up his boots at the end of December 1966. 108 tries in 140 appearances was a great return for this winger.
The first of the Goldthorpe brothers to don a Hunslet shirt, John Henry, made his debut today at Dudley Hill. He didn’t reached the heights that his brothers achieved, making just seven appearances in the first team over six years.
Making their debuts today in 2005 were Andy and Marc Shickell. Products of Elland ARLFC, both were with the club for two seasons, Andy making 44 appearances and 13 scoring 13 tries and Marc with 22 games and 1 try.
In the 1897 1st round Challenge Cup tie against Broughton Moor, the 75-5 score created new high score and winning margin records. Also, Billy Hannah’s 5 tries in the match was a new record for both the club and the Northern Union, although the NU record was shared with David Traynor of St. Helens who also scored 5 on the 20th.
The other Challenge Cup tie today was in 1954, the quarter final against cup holders Huddersfield at Parkside. It was reported that Hunslet’s forwards held the Huddersfield forwards in the scrum after the ball came out, giving Gabbitas and Burnell that bit of extra time before the forward cover materialised. This worked as Ginger scored two first half tries. Final score was 16-7 to Hunslet and the semi-final beckoned.
Today in 1938 Cyril Morell was over the Channel playing for England against France in Paris. It was not to be for England as they went down 15-17. Cyril’s wing partner was Les Grainge, his former Hunslet team mate.
In 1929 hooker Les White and prop Dai Jenkins were on duty with Other Nationalities against England. The match was at Headingley and was won by England 27-20.
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