You know that BBC quiz
programme where you get endless repeats of the phrase ‘We asked 100 people’.
Well, we didn’t manage to
ask 100 people, but we still managed a fair few with the question ‘What can you
tell me about rugby league matches at Christmas and Easter?’
Common responses included:
- Matches were regularly played on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
- Over Easter, matches were played on Good Friday and Easter Monday.
- Holiday period matches were almost always against nearby clubs and usually Castleford or Wakefield.
- The ‘Summer Era’ has deprived us of competitive matches over Christmas.
So, we set about taking a real scrutiny of Fev’s matches over Christmas and Easter. What it revealed is an essence of truth in the beliefs of people we spoke to but there were also a few surprises.
CHRISTMAS
The biggest surprise was that
up until 1959 Fev often played on Christmas Day. Hard to imagine that happening
nowadays. It’s surprising that fans turned up for Christmas Day matches and it
seems to have been very harsh on the players. And even harsher is that in 12
seasons Fev had matches on both Christmas and Boxing Day.
The New Year’s Day match is
rather rarer than many people imagine with Fev playing in only 20 of the 100
seasons.
Of course, since 1996, the Summer Era has virtually put an end to the Christmas games but nevertheless, from 2000 to 2002, during the so-called Summer Era, the Northern Ford Premiership began in December and Fev did have competitive fixtures over the Christmas Period. In 2000 Fev had a game on Monday Jan 3rd which was the New Year’s Day bank holiday because Jan 1st was on a Saturday. 2001 was the last time when Fev had competitive matches on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day
EASTER
As we began perusing the
relevant matches we soon realised that the Easter matches often included re-arranged
matches from earlier in the season that had been postponed from earlier in the
season. Taking the ‘Easter Period’ as stretching from the Thursday to the
Tuesday there were 5 seasons (1926/27, 1930/31, 1947/48, 1948/49 and 1965/66)
when fans were treated to and players suffered from 4 matches over Easter.
In contrast, in 1942/43 and
1980/81 there were no Easter matches because Easter was late and the season
finished before it. No Easter matches are shown for 1995/96 because that short season
before the ‘Summer Era’ began ended in January but fans didn’t miss out because
by Easter 1996 the first ‘Summer Era’ season was in full swing.
It was quite a surprise to
see that Good Friday has not been anywhere near an ever-present day in the RL
calendar. From 1950 through to 1962 Fev had no Good Friday matches. Matches on
the Saturday have been nearly as common as those on Good Friday. There have
been 21 seasons in which Fev played on both Good Friday AND on the Saturday.
An Easter Monday fixture has figured in 82 of Fev’s 100 seasons.
The big surprise for us is the 3 Easter Sunday matches (1980, 1984 and 1988). We would most likely have been at these games and no-one we spoke to mentioned matches on Easter Sunday!
PLAYING AGAINST NEIGHBOURS
It’s certainly true that
holiday period matches very often featured Castleford and Wakefield. When it
wasn’t them, then more often than not the fixtures were against other Yorkshire
clubs.
Nevertheless, there is a
significant number of matches that were against teams from outside the Yorkshire
area. In our second season we played Wigan Highfield at home on Christmas
Day and then played them away on Boxing Day.
THE BEST OF TIMES
Traditionally the Christmas period has not been the best of times for Fev, but it was a really good one in 1923 when Fev beat Hunslet 9-0 at home on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day they went to Belle Vue and won 10-5. On December 27th they were back at home beating Batley 3-0. That's 3 matches in 3 days, 3 wins and only one try conceded.
For Easter games the three years from 1954 to 1956 were remarkable! Each year we played Leeds, Wakefield and Huddersfield. Of those 9 games we won 8 and drew one!
No comments:
Post a Comment