Following the 3-12 defeat at home to Halifax in the first leg of the 1944 Yorkshire Cup final Hunslet had a mountain to climb if they were to take the trophy . With Jack Walkington back in the side to provide experience they were the more enterprising side as Halifax played a ‘what we have we hold’ game. However hard they tried the points would not come and when they lost Doug Billings to injury in the second half it was all over. The only points of the game came from a late Halifax penalty for a 14-3 aggregate win. It was Halifax’s first success in the competition since 1908 when they also defeated Hunslet in the final.
In the 2001 match at home to Rochdale Hornets there were two debutants who would make a sizeable contribution to Hunslet’s cause. Danny Cook had signed from Leeds Rhinos and was a utility player equally at home in the backs or forwards. Over eight seasons he made 132 appearances scoring 22 tries in team which at times struggled in the aftermath of 1999.
Danny Cook
Coming in from Hunslet Warriors was speedy wingman Bryn Powell. He was at South Leeds Stadium for two seasons racking up 49 tries in 63 appearances. In 2004 he moved to Salford for a short spell before going on to play at Batley, Featherstone and Dewsbury. He made six appearances for Wales between 2004 and 2006.
Bryn Powell
The one representative game to feature Hunslet players was the 1911 Cumberland v Yorkshire fixture at Millom. Billy Batten, Albert Jenkinson, Fred Smith and Bill Jukes made the journey and provided all Yorkshire’s points with two Batten goals and three Jenkinson tries. It was not enough however as Cumberland won 16-13.
10th December….
When Simon Wilson made his debut today in 1995 he would become the last player to do so in the winter era. His Heritage number is 1466, the number of players we know about (there are some early matches where the line-ups are not known) since 1883. Compared to those 117 years, the 30 years of summer rugby have seen 626 players make their debuts
Simon Wilson
One of those summer era players was Chris Redfearn who made his debut today in 2000. After his initial spell at the club he moved to Dewsbury Rams before returning for two season in 2005. He then moved over to Keighley Cougars before returning to Hunslet for one last season in 2009. He made 80 appearances in those four seasons.
Chris Redfearn
The one cup tie played today was in 1989 but it was an unhappy trip to Featherstone Rovers for Hunslet as they lost 4-34.
Two representative games from the early days were in 1911 where Fred Smith and Bill Jukes wore their England colours against Wales in a one-sided game at Coventry (39-13 to England) and 1913 with Jack Smales in the Yorkshire side against Lancashire at Huddersfield. Although all four selected three-quarters cried off Yorkshire were still too good for Lancashire winning 19-11.As Lancashire had beaten Cumberland, who themselves had beaten Yorkshire the County Championship was declared shared.
11th December….
Just a couple of representative games to note today. In 1929 Dai Jenkins and Les White saw duty with Glamorgan and Monmouthshire against Australia at Cardiff. Played in a gale and icy rain the match proved to be one-sided as the Tourists won 39-9. And in 1960 Brian Shaw was in Bordeaux for a Test Match for Great Britain against France which the visitors won 21-10.
12th December….
In 1953 Leeds decided to dispense with the services of their international half-back Richard “Dickie” Williams and Hunslet were quick to step in and secure his services. His half -back partner at Parkside would be Ginger Burnell and they had already played together at international level. For his debut today Alf was at centre with Arthur Talbot at scrum-half but still benefitted from Dickie’s presence as the papers reported that he shone due to the early service from Williams. At end of the season Dickie and Alf toured Down Under (Geoff Gunney was also in the party) with Dickie being the tour captain. Dickie was made club captain the following season. He was at Parkside for three seasons making 44 appearances and scoring 5 tries.
Dickie Williams
The first ever Test Match between Great Britain and Australia took place at Queens Park Rangers, London today in 1908. Billy Batten, Bill Jukes and John Higson had travelled down with the team on the morning of the match but were seen by a meagre attendance of around 2,000. The match itself was described as of an interesting nature and the lead changed hands numerous times before ending in a 22-22 draw.
Frank “Dolly” Dawson played the first of his two Yorkshire matches today in 1925 in the Roses match at St Helens Recreation’s ground. Frank was a late inclusion due to the injury to Cook of Hull KR and he himself had to leave the field injured in the second half. Lancashire were the better side throughout and won 26-10 to take the County Championship.
