fevnuts' musings #04: Fingers Crossed, Is Hull a top club and a Great Place

Fingers crossed

 

When we get up on Saturday morning it will be no less than 553 days since Fev last lost a competitive match. That, of course, was the ‘Million Pound Game’ in Toronto on October 5^th, 2019. And even with huge odds stacked against us we still managed to be in the lead at half-time.

 

We suspect that even the most passionate of Fev fans believe it is very unlikely that the 553 day run will continue after Saturday, but you can only dream!

 

It seems to us that there are two problems. Firstly, Fev have played three games this year and won them all but we seem only to play to anywhere near our full potential for brief periods of each game. Secondly, Hull were excellent in their 35-4 victory against Salford last week.

 

Still, fingers crossed. When we kick off we’ll be leve with them and you never know what might miraculously happen in the next 80 minutes. After all, Fev were rated as having no chance at all when we faced Hull at Wembley on Saturday May 7^th, 1983.

 

If we do win there will be a mixture of elation and sadness. The sadness will be at Fev recording a magnificent victory but without us sharing the occasion with our friends.

 

 

 

Hull, a top club?

 

Whenever the pundits talk about the top clubs in rugby league they seem to include Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Hull. But history doesn’t bear out their right to a place in that élite group. Maybe it’s because of the sheer magnitude of their support. In 2007 their home league match against Hull KR drew a crowd of 23,004.

 

People often forget that the Summer Era began without either Hull team in Super League. At the end of the 199/4/95 season Hull and Fev were both relegated from the top flight. Hull actually finished in 15^th out of 16 so would have been relegated even without the late decision to relegate two extra clubs to make room for London and Paris. Fev, of course were one of the two clubs (along with Salford) who were treated so shabbily.

 

As to Hull KR, they started the Summer Era in the bottom tier (then known as the Second Division).

 

Going back to whether Hull should be regarded as one of the élite clubs, the record speaks for itself. Just look at these figures for major trophy victories.

  

 

Great Place

 

Just in case anyone should imagine that fevnut has a downer on Hull that is very far from the case. We think it is a great place. How could you not love a city that has street names such as the Land of Green Ginger?

 

We really look forward to Eastward trips along the M62, whether that be to enjoy Hull itself or as the setting off point for trips to Bruges, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

 

In 2017 we made several journeys to Hull for their wonderfully organised year as the UK City of Culture.

 

The only place in Hull we don’t like is Craven Park where we have often watched dull games in freezing conditions and often getting very wet. There was even one occasion when we sat near the back of the main stand, well under cover, and still had to suffer getting snowed upon, the wind off the Humber blowing the snow right into the back of the stand.

 

Many years ago, we were very involved in the government’s decision to re-organise the regional arts associations. At that time Hull were not in Yorkshire Arts but in Lincolnshire and Humberside Arts. The government made the ludicrous proposal to merge Yorkshire with Northern and Lincs and Humberside with Eastern. That would have put Sheffield in the same region as Newcastle and Hull in with Southend! We had many meetings with Hull City Council about persuading the government (eventually successfully) to put Humberside back into Yorkshire. We’ve never forgotten being told by the leader of Hull Council that they wanted to join with Yorkshire but didn’t want to be seen to be on the periphery. How do you solve that then? Just imagine the face of the government minister who told us that he had agreed to our proposals whereupon we said that we wanted Rotterdam in our new region. ‘What are you talking about?’ said the minister. ‘Well’, we said, ‘Hull don’t want to be on the periphery and that’s the only solution we can think of!’.

 

Hull will always be on the periphery and that is one of the joys of the city. You may think that all these cultural thoughts are a long way from rugby league. Not a bit of it. Rugby League is an absolutely essential and major part of the culture of places like Hull and Featherstone.