The story of Hunslet’s signing of the first black player to play professional Rugby League has been well told, but on the same day as Lucius was being registered as a player, another Banks was also putting pen to paper. Herbert Banks was from a slightly less exotic locale than Virginia, USA, signing on from Purston White Horse ARLFC.

A forward, he made his debut in the same match as Lucius, 27 January 1912, at home to York. Herbert made 29 appearances and scored 2 tries before moving to York in September 1913. From there he moved to Huddersfield, turning out for one match as a guest for Hunslet in WW1.

On the representative front, 1909 saw 3 Hunslet players in the Northern Union (Great Britain) team playing Australia in the 2nd test at St James’s Park, Newcastle On Tyne. Billy Batten was on the wing with Billy Jukes and John Willie Higson in the pack. None of our players troubled the scorers but the home side ran out 15-5 victors to take a 1-0 lead in the series (the 1st test was drawn).

In what may have been seen as a surprise, Geoff Gunney was selected for the Great Britain side to play Fance in 2 test matches in 1964/65, some seven years after his last call up. Today was the second of the two and was to be Geoff’s last representative appearance. The match was played at Swinton and Great Britain won 17-7.