Those whos attended matches at the Greyhound Stadium will remember the terrible state of the pitch in the early seasons. In the 1975, match against Workington, there was a heavy downpour 30 minutes before kick off on an already heavy pitch. The game was abandoned after 68 minutes as referee Vince Moss was unable to identify the players. According to the next programme, one Hunslet player was heard to say “it’s OK, I couldn’t identify the ref”! Referee Moss wasn’t the tallest of fellows and it was said he was running around with the mud up to his knees! And still with the weather……in 1940, today’s match was the first since Boxing Day due to the freezing conditions through the winter. The season was extended to accommodate the fixture backlog, Hunslet finishing on the 1st June and the Yorkshire Cup final closing the season on 22nd June.
In 2003, we suffered our heaviest defeat in all competitions, going down 82-0 to Bradford Bulls at the South Leeds Stadium in the Challenge Cup.
And in 2014 we visited Hemel Stags for the first time. In eight encounters, Hunslet always came out on top, the nearest for Hemel being 14-28 in 2018 on their own ground. Hunslet gave debuts to seven players, these being Andy Ballard, Brooke Broughton, Aaron Lyons, Liam MacKay, Danny Maun, Lewis Reed and Luke Stenchion.
Back in 1920, Hunslet registered forward Joe Band. In eight seasons he would appear 222 times and score 8 tries.
Three-quarter Billy Walker made his debut today in 1957 at home to Bradford Northern. Over eight seasons he scored 93 tries in 178 appearances, including playing on the wing in the 1959 Championship final against St Helens.
The Workington match in 1975 was my first ever game. From memory we were leading 13-0 when the game was abandoned. If memory serves at one point a Hunslet player tackled the referee (Ned Therwell I think?) No wonder he abandoned the game!