One particularly notable debut on this day was in 1928 when Billy Thornton was selected at stand off to partner Ernest Young. Only the Leeds Mercury report mentions Thornton – “Young was a constant thorn in the side of Bradford. He had a new colleague in Thornton from the reserve team who did so well that it will be a pleasure to meet him again in first-class company”.
Billy went back to the reserves for a few weeks before playing in the last 14 games of the season.
The following season Billy’s chances were restricted by the arrival of George Todd at stand-off, but the following season, following Young’s retirement, the famous partnership of Todd and Thornton was born, arguably the finest half back partnership in Hunslet’s history.
They played together in the 1929 Yorkshire Cup final against Hull Kingston Rovers and the 1934 Challenge Cup final against Widnes.
By the time of the 1938 Championship final against Leeds, Todd had moved to Halifax but Billy had another class stand-off to work with in Oliver Morris, the Wales RL international.
Billy was an England and Yorkshire representative, and also played for Northern Command RL while in the forces in WW2.
As a junior he played for a Hunslet Carr team which didn’t lose a match between 1921 and 1924 and allegedly scored 145 points in 55 minutes in one match!
Registered on 17/09/1927, living at 12 Norwich Place Hunslet.
His Hunslet record was played 433, 106 tries and 25 goals.
7th January 1933 saw the debut of a winger signed from Featherstone Rovers, Ernest Winter. A shrewd signing as Ernest went on to play 235 times for Hunslet, crossing the whitewash on 59 occasions. He played at Wembley in 1934, was a try scorer at Elland Road in the 1938 Championship final against Leeds and played in both legs of the wartime Yorkshire Cup final in 1944 against Halifax.
Whist at Hunslet he represented England and Yorkshire and played for a RL Xlll He trialled for the 1932 tour to Australasia when at Featherstone but was not selected.
Although playing at Hunslet until the end of WW2, he was always registered as resident of either Streethouse or Featherstone.
In 1957 Colin Byrom was signed from Hunslet Supporters for £250. Colin made 56 appearances on the wing, scoring 17 tries before moving to Dewsbury in 1962.
In 1987 we signed Andy Sykes, a prop from Featherstone Rovers. Kelvin Skerrett had been the regular starting prop but had moved on to Bradford Northern. Andy proved a more than useful deputy as promotion to the First Division was secured. He also played in the following season’s First Division campaign.
