fevnut's blog: Batley v Fev (March 25)

Match 8: Batley (Away - Championship)

fevnut's musings

Up and Down the Mountain

Whenever the fixtures come out we look for our away match against Batley. That’s because we love to go there. Mount Pleasant is one of those grounds with real character as far removed as possible, thank goodness, from those hermetically sealed new grounds which have no character and no atmosphere either. People make much of the slope at Batley, one which makes ours seem like the mildest possible. It makes for a fascinating change at half time. How will we play up the hill, how will we play going down (or vice versa depending on the toss of a coin)?

So many people think that there is a huge advantage playing down the hill at Batley. It’s not as simple as that. Of course it is much easier to clear one’s line with a big kick downfield, but can you control those kicks. It becomes even more difficult with a strong wind behind you. Speccies also often fail to take account of how difficult it is defending when you are playing downhill. Ours is a game that requires defending players to run backwards ten metres to get into position at each play the ball. Just imagine what it is like having to repeatedly run backwards up a hill with a slope like that!

We are so pleased that the renovation of Post Office Road has left our slope intact. I wonder how many fans are left now who can remember the old Thrum Hall ground in Halifax. So much more character than The Shay. And then there was that crazy huge dip in one corner despite most of the ground being flat! We would even prefer to watch a game at Wheldon Road than the plastic of the Widnes ground. When we’ve been to Widnes it seems so hard to realise that the location is still the same as the old very atmospheric Naughton Park.

90 years on (part 2)

Last week we wrote about the wonderful achievements of the Fev side in the 1927/28 season. We are very sad, albeit unsurprised, that none of that team made it into the vote on Fev Legends to adorn the new ‘Legends Suite’ in the clubhouse. Three in that team certainly deserve recognition. There was centre and occasional halfback, Jack Hirst. He was Fev’s first ever international and a Yorkshire County player. He played nearly 300 games for Fev, scored 115 tries and got four hat tricks including 5 in a match against Bradford Northern in 1928/29. Then there was Ernie Barraclough. A wonderful prop forward who played 435 games over 13 seasons. And, of course, Jim Denton who holds the record with 440 appearances, 129 tries (5 hat tricks) and 377 goals.

The problem in the vote was that all these players had finished their careers before almost all those voting were born! That’s why we were not surprised by the result. These were true legends of Featherstone Rovers who had a huge role in establishing the club in the professional game. And don’t forget that their achievements were against all the top clubs of the time. They were regularly playing against the likes of Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, Hull, Hull KR, Halifax, Saints, Wigan, Warrington, Widnes, Leigh and Swinton. The top teams of their era. There are several players who got into the vote who never ever played for Fev in the top flight. Wonderful players, yes, but are they greater Legends than Hirst, Barraclough and Denton?

Maybe, in retrospect, it would have been better to ask fans to vote for players of the last 50 years with a panel of Fev historians asked to submit a few names from the earlier years.

STOP PRESS!

It is with great relief that we have just learned that Jack Hirst and Jim Denton will feature in the Legends Suite after all as members of the Rovers Hall of Fame.