21st May….

The meeting was held today in 1883 at the Cemetery Tavern with a view to creating a football section. The proposal was approved and the club name was amended to Hunslet Cricket and Football Club. Six gentlemen were added to the committee to oversee football matters – Rev Hutchinson, W Gilston, M Carr, W Bond, Seth Wood and T Jackson. Billy Gilston and Matt Carr would both play many games for the new club.

22nd May….

Registered with the club for the first time today in 1948 was Theodore Cecil “Cec” Thompson. He was spotted when playing in a workshops competition at Parkside. He was born in County Durham, his Trinidadian father worked in Leeds but died before Cec’s birth. He spent his early years in orphanages but was reunited with his mother in 1938. He served with the Royal Navy in the war. He credits Rugby League for bailing him out of a bottomless pit of prejudice and illiteracy. He recalls being treated as a second class citizen but says his teammates never mentioned his colour, treating him more like a sibling. Embarrassed at not being able to sign autographs he taught himself to read and write.  He was with Hunslet for five seasons before moving to Workington Town.

In 1951 he was selected for Great Britain against New Zealand and the Daily Herald’s barely believable headline was “Hunslet’s Darkie one of Britain’s heroes”. Towards the end of his career he paid to put himself through formal education, passing his “O” and “A” Levels at the age of 39 and gained a degree at Leeds University, becoming an economics teacher. He was also a founder of the Student Rugby League.

At Barrow he became only the second black rugby league coach (Roy Francis was the first).

An inspirational story put into print in his book “Born On The Wrong Side”.

As the 1942/43 Wartime League came to end Eric Batten finished as the league’s top try scorer with 23. He was credited as a Hunslet player despite the club not competing this season. Eric had spent most of the season with Leeds. Who were expected to secure his signature for the following season but Bradford Northern heard about it and nipped in to add him to their players list. Similarly Billy Thomson was 3rd top goal scorer and all his 45 goals were scored for Leeds.

In 1938 Hunslet played the first game of a short French Tour at Roanne. Hunslet won 19-17.

In 1952 Great Britain played France in Paris and Jack Evans was at full-back kicking a goal in a 12-22 defeat.