6th October is a date which should be familiar to us all – the day a Hunslet Rugby team took the field for the first time. At Woodhouse Hill the opposition was Hull “A” and the team was G Dickinson, back, W H Gilston and C M Carr, three-quarter backs, A J Patchett and Pullan, half-backs, W Hill, W Mallinson, W Mitchell, W Whiting, E Barlow, F Anderson, Collins, J J Baines, S Simpson and H Passmore, forwards. W Hill had the honour of scoring the first try and Gilston the first goal, Hill got a second and Mallinson the third with Gilston kicking two further goals. Hunslet won by 2 goals to one. The attendance was not recorded but the gate receipts of £1-18s-11d were. The club president said in later years in a newspaper interview that it was about 5 shillings! This suggests a crowd of between 60 and 100. Many thanks to Steve Calline for the stats and figures.

Five years later at Oldfield Lane, Wortley, a young full-back played for the first time. Following in the steps of three of his brothers James, John and William, Albert Edward Goldthorpe was in the Hunslet side which won the game 2 goals to nil but there is no mention of Albert in the papers in the Newspaper Archive. He can’t have done any wrong as he was the custodian in 26 of the next 27 matches. He scored his first try on 24th December at home to Egremont and his first goal on New Years Day at Cleckheaton. Even in this first season he was setting records – 19 goals in the season and 4 in a match were new records. Brother Walter made his debut at the start of the following season and took on the full-back position, Albert moving into the three-quarters. He was now the club’s primary goalkicker. His first winners medal was the 1892 Yorkshire cup as he scored a try and three goals. In 1902/03, after a few previous appearances, he made half-back his position. Of course, his crowning glory was leading the side to All Four Cups in 1907/08. In 1909/10 he was at the end of a career which had seen him appear 701 times (that we know of – there are quite a few games where line-ups are not available. We do know that he kicked 981 goals and 81 tries in his 22 seasons playing for Hunslet. His last game was against Salford at Parkside on 9th April 1910 in a 2-3 loss. He played in nine Cup Finals but his club and Rugby League records are far too numerous to list. On the representative front, in Union he played in eight Yorkshire matches and a further six in the Northern Union era. Truly “The First Sporting Superstar”.

A’hr Albert

In 1974, New Hunslet had installed the infamous ‘tuning fork’ posts at the Greyhound Stadium and against Oldham today Bob Pickles became the first player to kick a goal between them.

Bob Pickles

Rugby League, except for 1903-1905, had been played as one league but for 1962/63 it was decided to start a three season trial of two divisions. Hunslet had finished 25th the previous season condemning them to second division football for the first time. The Eastern Division and Yorkshire Cup matches had taken up the early weeks of the season and today saw the start of the league campaign with a game at Doncaster. Highly fancied Hunslet were 8-0 down at half time and it took a further 18 minutes to get in front. Ronnie Watts started the fight back with a try and Johns Griffiths and Billy Langton got the five points to level things. Fred Ward got a converted try to put Hunslet ahead and Geoff Shelton scored to put Hunslet 16-8 in front and Price got Doncaster a late try to make it 16-11 at the whistle.

A fair number of representative matches today –

Cumberland played Lancashire today in 1906 at Maryport. Billy Eagers was on the wing and James Jackson at half-back. In the first-half Jackson was singled out by the press for mis-fielding the ball and giving Lancashire possession and Eagers for a couple of long runs. Cumberland lost 4-15.

1908 was a Yorkshire Trial at Dewsbury and six Hunslet players were on show – Billy Batten, John Higson, Bill Jukes, Herbert Place, Fred Smith and Harry Wilson in the Probables team which lost 13-22 to the Possibles. All six would appear with the County this season.

The Australian Tourists of 1937 were in Bradford today to face a Yorkshire side with Cyril Morrell at centre and Harry Beverley at loose forward. Yorkshire gave the Aussies some anxious moments early on with some determined thrusts, one by Morrell, but the game settled into a defensive battle which the Tourists won 8-4.

Alf Burnell and Cec Thompson were in the 1951 Odsal Test against the New Zealanders. The Kiwi pack outplayed GB although Thompson was picked out for his individual skill. Burnell got a ‘dazing’ head knock early on which may have contributed to him being second best to his opposite number. He did make a ‘superb’ try saving tackle on the NZ loose forward right on the line when a try might have swung the game their way. Alf’s half-back partner (and future Hunslet player) Dickie Williams was marked out of the game which proved to be more restriction on his creativity. Despite all this GB came through to win the game 21-15.

1954, under Odsal’s floodlights and on a heavy pitch, Yorkshire took on Lancashire with Sam Smith at hooker. Sam was slightly beaten in the scrums but Yorkshire took the win 20-10 to retain their County Champions tag.

Hunslet played two Yorkshire Cup semi-finals today. In 1938 at Hull they were well beaten especially after the dismissal of Mark Tolson. Hull deservedly won 18-2. It was a similar story in 1950 when Huddersfield visited Parkside. The Fartowners were far too fast for Hunslet and won through 20-7.

In 1945 there had been a first round first leg tie at Batley. Hunslet negotiated this comfortably 21-5 with the second leg to come.