What a League Campaign!
Having been recording Fev stats for many years now, very occasionally we
have to process a new record being set.
In the 2021 campaign they came many times over. It’s close to being
unbelievable but we set a new highest score ever achieved against five of our
opponents.
Halifax.
Matches
between Fev and Halifax tend to be quite tight affairs and so it was when we
went to Halifax this year and won 16-8. But then, when Halifax came to Fev, we
won 54-22 beating Fev’s previous highest score in a league match which was set
on 21st January 1973 when we won 50-8.
That win this year was the highest score in a league match although
Fev did beat Halifax 64-18 in that incredible Regal Trophy match in 1991.
London Broncos. On 14th
February 1993 (when they were called London Crusaders) Fev set our highest
score beating them 58-12. This year we broke that record winning 63-14.
Oldham. The
record score for a league match against Oldham was 61 which was achieved
twice, in successive years, on 27th June 1999 (61-6) and 26th
March 2000 (61-26). Yet another record set in 2021 with our 68-0 in May.
Outside league matches we had put 68 points past Oldham previously in a
Northern Rail Pool match with another 68-0 win in 2012.
Sheffield Eagles.
The
previous high score was achieved on 25th February 2018 with a 58-14
win. Last week we beat them 78-10. What was extra pleasing about that was that
Sheffield’s record of 60 against Fev was higher than Fev’s – no longer the
case.
Dewsbury Rams.
We left
this one to last because it is extra special. The record points scored against
Dewsbury was 60 with a 60-18 win on 10th June 2012. In 2021 we beat
that in both home and away matches with a 68-24 win away and a 64-6 win at
home.
Points scoring. In 2021
we scored a total of 943 points in league matches. That is the third highest in our 100-year
history beaten only by 996 points in the 1992/93 season (the season in the Second
Division when Paul Newlove scored 48 tries and Owen Simpson 34) and the highest
ever of 1,040 in 2018. The 2018 total is a little misleading because it was
during the Super 8s period when Fev just missed out on the Qualifiers and went
rampant playing against the other bottom 8 clubs in the Championship Shield. In
those seasons we played more matches (28 in 1992/93 and 30 in 2018) than the 21
in 2021.
The only fair way of comparing seasons with different numbers of games
played is to calculate the average points scored per match. On that calculation
2021 is the highest ever with an incredible average of 44.9, beating 42.0 in 2011,
the only other time we managed to average over 40.
Win Percentage. The win
percentage used this year proved to be very unpopular with many fans but it is
useful for comparing league performance between different seasons with
different numbers of games played. Our win percentage for 2021 reflects what
happened on the pitch not what happened in the clubhouse!
We need to discount 2020 when we had a win percentage of 100% but only played
4 league matches. That leaves 2021 as our highest ever success rate in a league
campaign with a win percentage of 95.24% (20 wins out of 21 matches). There
were 2 other seasons when we achieved 90% or over – exactly 90% in 2010 and 92.5%
in 2011.
WHAT A YEAR!!
Andrea Dobson
Featherstone Ladies captain, Andrea Dobson, has announced her retirement
after playing rugby league regularly since the age of 12.
She has been an amazing player whose career includes captaining England
and Great Britain for whom she is the most capped ever player.
We are really going to miss watching her. She has been a tremendous
line-breaker and is a brilliant passer of the ball with immaculate timing and
accuracy. A player who has made so many opportunities for her colleagues.
We hope you have a really happy retirement and we know that she is not
being lost entirely to the exciting development of women’s rugby league.
Not bad for a Lancastrian lass!
Milestones
Against Sheffield Eagles there were yet more milestones set.
At long last, Jack Bussey was back on the pitch making his 100th
Fev appearance and his try took him past 100 points for Fev.
Brett Ferres’ two tries took him past 450 career points.
Craig Hall (him again!) went past 350 points for Fev and 1,800 career
points. He also kicked his 100th goal in 2021.
Sitting in the stands we desperately felt like running on the pitch to
give a message to Craig after he scored his 5th try. The message
would have been that he only needed one more try to equal the Fev tries in a
match record and he only needed 2 more points to equal the Fev all time record
for points in a match which is held by Martin Pearson with 40 points against
Whitehaven in 1995. Sadly no more tries and Craig missed the4 last 3
conversions leaving him on 38. But that is a summer era record for points in a
match and guess whose record he beat. His own, set at 36 earlier this year
against Dewsbury in June.
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