fevnut's musings #04: Dane Chisholm, 1895 Cup and Matches against Dewsbury

  

Special players

We felt really sad at the news of Dane Chisholm’s transfer to Keighley and the subsequent realisation that we won’t be seeing in a Fev shirt again. Why so sad? Because of the great enjoyment we have had over the last 3 years watching him produce a whole host of special moments that were so enjoyable to witness.

Thank goodness we won’t be playing against Keighley this year. We say that because after Bradford let him go and he joined Fev in his first appearance for Fev against the Bulls, a few weeks later, he scored a hat-trick and kicked 5 goals, masterminding a 42-4 win for the Rovers.

Watching your team is about more than just wanting a win (although that is always very welcome). There are so many factors that contribute to our enjoyment and not least is watching those special players who put smiles on our faces. Dane has been very much one of those. It’s not always the greatest players but it is the ones who do something unexpected and produce moments of magic. Thank you, Dane. You so often put a smile on our faces and greatly enhanced the pleasure we have had in watching Featherstone Rovers when you were in the team.

His departure made us think about some of the other players we have watched who had that ‘put a smile on your face’ factor. There are many one could name but here are four that always produce a smile when we think of them in the famous navy and white hoops.

Have a think about it? Who were the players that regularly made you smile?

 

1895 Cup

Sat in the main stand alongside the people we have sat next to for ever so many years and the conversation turned to who would be going to the 1895 Cup Final. From two great friends the response was that they would not be going because it was a ‘tin-pot cup’.

Although we are unable to go this year for health reasons we thoroughly enjoyed our day out at Wembley last year and believe that the 1895 Cup is a great idea. Since the development of Super League, the opportunities for major events for the clubs outside Super League have been far too restricted.

We used to be able to dream of getting to Challenge Cup Finals, Yorkshire Cup Finals, Premiership or Divisional Premiership Finals, Regal Trophy Finals (although Fev never made that one) and even in the Summer Era there used to be the opportunity to play in the Northern Rail Cup Final.

Last year, at Wembley, it was extra special. A real double. Watching Fev win and then watching Cas lose as well!!

Too little attention has been paid to opportunities for fans who support teams outside Super League. We really lost something special in rugby league when fans of all clubs used not go down to Wembley for the Challenge Cup Final. What a festival that used to be! 

We also think that attention ought to be given tor opportunities for the players outside Super League. Back in 1999 there was a match between a Northern Ford Premiership Select Team and Villeneuve Leopards (the French RL champions at the time). Two Fev players got to play in that match (Asa Amone and Matt Bramald). We believe it would be a great idea to arrange an annual match between a Championship Select team and one drawn from the French Elite 1 competition. Maybe you could also have a match against the England Knights team. There is so much quality in the Championship now that we are sure that would also produce a good game.

 

Dewsbury 150

The first time that Featherstone played Dewsbury was in our first season in the professional competition on the 6^th December 1921. We lost 12-0 but did manage to win the return match a month later by 12-5. Since then we have met regularly in league competition apart from the few seasons when we were in different leagues.

Sunday is a special day because it will be the 150^th league match between us.

In the 149 matches so far Fev have won 95, Dewsbury 50 and there were 4 draws.

Fev have scored a total of 2,740 points to 1,982 for Dewsbury.

Amazingly there was a period when Fev won 17 successive league matches against Dewsbury. That occurred between August 1953 through to October 1964.

The longest winning run by Dewsbury was 7, from February 1945 to January 1948

Fev’s highest score in the 149 matches was the 68-24 win at Dewsbury in June last year.

Dewsbury’s highest score was 46 when they beat us 46-26 (again at Dewsbury) in May 2000 although they scored even more (56) in a National League Cup match in 2008.

Perhaps the strangest fact about matches between Fev and Dewsbury is, despite the fact we have played a grand total of 171 fixtures we have only met on one solitary occasion in the Challenge Cup. That was in 1992 with Fev winning 23-10 at Dewsbury in the second round.

The Flags

Recently we were asked about the flags in the box below. They are all the representative teams that players in the 2022 Fev squad have played for or are qualified to play for. It's a real song and dance to make changes to it but nevertheless we have done so. We added Cook Islands in and then we had to add Tonga as well.

Can you name the players (other than the Yorkshire and England ones that each flag relates to? We're a right United Nations!