a fevnut special: In celebration of Craig Hall's Testimonial

  

Hull FC (2007-2010)

Craig made his professional début, as a 19 year-old, on Sunday April 1^st, 2007. Like many players making their débuts, he was drafted in for a Challenge Cup tie. In this case it was an away match against Hunslet in the 4^th round.

But there was to be no April foolery about Craig’s performance that day. What a start he made to his career! He scored a hat trick of tries and kicked 11 goals from 14 attempts to give him 34 points. What a way to begin your career and, unsurprisingly, League Express named him as the Man of the Match.

His performance was good enough for him to be rewarded with his Super League début the following week away to London Broncos (then known as Harlequins RL). Although Hull lost, narrowly, Craig again scored a try and kicked 2 goals. He scored another Challenge Cup hat trick in the 5^th round against Sheffield Eagles.

He went on to play in 15 games that year scoring 13 tries and kicking 20 goals.

By the following year Craig had established himself as a regular in the Hull team with 25 appearances and scored a hat trick against Castleford.

In 2009, Craig played only 15 first team games for Hull (which included a hat trick against Harlequins), although he did play 5 games for Widnes, on loan.

2010 was his last year at Hull FC.

 

Hull Kingston Rovers (2011-2014)

So, he made the journey from West to East and swapped black for red.

In his first season with the Robins he only made 14 appearances.

In 2012 he was a more regular member of the team, playing in 22 games. Three different players clocked up 22 appearances that year but only one (Mick Dobson on 27) played more.

He played even more games (26) in 2013 scoring 14 tries and 10 goals. He played in the halves in 7 of those games. It was the first time he had done so apart from one solitary game at stand-off for Hull in 2008.

2014 saw Craig playing fewer games (18). He made the starting line-up on 15 occasions which included playing at fullback, wing, centre and scrum-half. A notable achievement was the hat trick he scored against St. Helens.

 

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (2015-2016)

For the 2015 season, Craig came across to West Yorkshire to join the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. He played 17 games. Although he yet again played in several positions, he was predominantly at fullback with 10 games there, 3 at centre and 4 in the halves. The team were struggling and finished at the bottom of the SL table but managed to regain their position in the top league by beating Bradford Bulls in the Million Pound Game after finishing 4^th in the Qualifiers. Craig’s season only lasted until late July. Although we don’t know for certain, we guess an injury kept him out thereafter.

Craig also missed the first 3 games of the 2016 season but then went on to play 23 games with 13 tries but it was the first season in which he scored no goals. He did take one goal kick but it missed. Every other Trinity goal kick that year came from Liam Finn.

 

Toronto Wolfpack (2017)

Craig joined the new Toronto Wolfpack team for the 2017 season. Apart from his short loan spell at Widnes in 2009 it was his first experience outside a Super League club. Along with Liam Kay he was the first signing by the Wolfpack and became their captain.

Toronto were far too strong for the rest of the League One teams winning all 15 league games.

Although Craig had kicked plenty of goals thus far in his career, 2017 was the first time when he became a club’s main goal-kicked and he duly obliged by kicking 171 goals with a success rate of over 80% that year. The most he had kicked previously in a season was 41 at Wakefield in 2015.

Instead of moving around into different positions, for Toronto, he played at centre in all bar 3 games and he was an ever present in the team. He also scored 25 tries in his 24 games for them. It’s very rare that a player scores more tries in a season than the matches he played in and Craig has done that three times.

He scored 2 hat tricks against North Wales and Hemel and, in the latter, he scored 4 tries. The first time he did that.

At the end of the season Craig was named as Toronto’s Player of the Year.

 

Leigh Centurions (2018)

Craig signed a two year deal to play for Leigh Centurions. He played 20 games for them before the club had a financial meltdown which resulted in a number of their players going out on loan. Craig was one of those and he went on loan back to Hull Kingston Rovers.

During his time at Leigh he once again scored more tries than matches he played (21 in 20).

 

Hull Kingston Rovers (2018-2019)

As mentioned above, he came back to Hull KR in late July 2018 and played out the rest of the season there. For Hull KR he made 8 appearances and scored 14 tries! That made his total 2018 tally 35 tries in 28 games.

On July 27^th, Hull KR defeated Hull FC 20-16 away in the final SL round of the year. Craig scored 2 tries and kicked a goal. At the end of the match Sky Sports named him as Man of the Match.

In the 2018 Qualifiers Craig scored 2 hat tricks against Leeds Rhinos. At the end of the season awards Craig was named for having scored the ‘Try of the Season’.

Not surprisingly after that magnificent 8 game spell on loan Hull KR signed him for the 2019 season during which he made 30 appearances (12 at fullback, 17 on the wing and 1 at centre), scored 13 tries and kicked 23 goals.

 

Featherstone Rovers (from 2020)

During the 2019-2020 off-season Featherstone Rovers announced that they had signed Craig Hall. It was an announcement that was greeted by Fev fans with a bit of surprise and a great deal of enthusiasm. Fans were really looking forward to watching Craig in the team during 2020 but sadly the season only lasted for 6 matches as a result of the Covid pandemic. Craig played all six games at fullback scoring 3 tries and kicking 13 goals out of 15 attempts.

The 2021 season was also disrupted by the pandemic but this time the season was completed albeit with some games not played and league positions determined on a percentage basis. He played a major part when Fev lifted the 1895 Cup at Wembley and was awarded the Ray French Trophy as the Man of the Match. Craig played in 26 of Fev’s 28 games and scored a remarkable 28 tries including 5 hat tricks with 5 tries scored in a 78-10 defeat of Sheffield. In that match he also kicked 9 goals for a points tally of 38 which broke the Fev record for ‘Points in a Match’ during the ‘Summer Era’ and was only 2 points short of Fev’s ‘All Time’ record. One of the delights that year was to watch the growing partnership between Craig and Dane Chisholm who each appeared capable of bringing out the very best in each other.

Sadly, in 2022 that partnership was shattered by the decision of the coach to get rid of Dane and also to drop Craig for a couple of matches. Nevertheless Craig continued with his remarkable points scoring with 20 tries and 157 goals for a points total of 394, the third highest points tally in a season in the whole of Fev’s history. And, remarkably, in a only two and a bit seasons, Craig has already risen to 14^th place for Fev players points in a career.

 

Featherstone Foundation

Craig’s contribution to Featherstone Rovers must also include reference to his efforts on behalf of the Foundation. He does magnificent work in organising and running sporst sessions in local schools and also in running our holiday camps and we should all be grateful for that as well as his contribution playing in a Fev shirt.

 

We hope that all Fev fans will get behind the events that will be taking place for Craig’s Testimonial Year and reward him in the manner he, so clearly, deserves.

Craig has also kicked 4 Drop Goals, one for Widnes Vikings in 2009, 2 for Hull Kingston Rovers in 2013 and 2014 and 1 for Featherstone Rovers in 2021.