107 THE DENTISTS DIARY
“It’s a good job we have Dykesy playing for us” was the
comment of Mrs R half way through the second half yesterday,
and as always she hit the nail right on the head because without
him we would probably have bowed out of the cup at Widnes!
He and Richard Whiting were, for me, the stars of a show, which
was once again, much the same as we have now come to
expect this season!
Too much dropped ball, too much letting the opposition back in,
silly penalties and abject failure to understand some of the
plays, brought another frustrating display for the 1000 or so
Pilgrims that made the long trek to Cheshire. Every time we
scored, they kicked off, and we dropped the ball in the next set
of six! Silly penalties conceded and too much opposition ball in
our 20 was egg and milk to the enthusiastic Widnes outfit! We’ve
seen it all before! However we did at least see Berro kick the
first 40/20 for over 2 years! So there’s something to celebrate!!
The performance showed glimpses of real class, particularly
when Berrigan passed to Dykes and he ran at the defence,
however too often most of the rest of our players seemed
bemused by what was happening and failed to capitalise on the
little Aussie’s magic!
All you have to do in the Cup is win? Well we did that but
Widnes and their crowd can be proud of the effort they put in
and it is a credit to them that the outcome was still in doubt with
ten minutes to go!
At half time I stood on the steps under the stand and looked at
the faces of the 1000 or so of the Faithful that had made the
journey over to the other side of the country as they partook of
some half time refreshment. No one is happy, and most people
are getting utterly fed up with the excuses, the injuries, the game
plan and the tactics we are adopting this season. I know I am,
and believe me that sort of performance will not be good enough
to beat the Quins on Saturday and definitely not good enough to
beat the Saints!! Worrying times indeed!
As we got back to the top of the Pennines on the return journey,
the voice of Gwilym Lloyd crackled through the ether to
announce that it had been a great day for Sport in the City of
Hull. He might have been right, but the great days, I fear, are still
some way off for my team!!!
In this weeks Diary we look at that game, the Halton Stadium,
Steve O’Connor and the Cricketers Arms. Then there is rumours
abounding again, Kingy, Craig Hall, Our Board, James Rule,
KCFM, Mr Moloney, The Ginger one and Codgers corner goes
back to the days when we never ever lost a game. Plus Boots
and All, Franchises, Gareth Raynor and much more……….(well
a bit more anyway!)
……………………………………………………………………
The trip to the Stobart Stadium, the Auto Quest Stadium, the
Halton Stadium or as I prefer to call it Naughton Park, was a
nostalgic one in some ways, although I had forgotten just how
far down the M62 Widnes was!!! The “new” set up, standing as it
does on the site of a ground were we have, over the years, had
some great games and titanic tussles, is very impressive indeed.
The fare on the pitch however was rough, very tough, and as far
as we were concerned still very patchy. At times we showed
flashes of real class, as Adam Dykes wove his magic, but the
problem appeared to be at these time, that a few of the players
did not quite realise what was happening and missed the point
completely. However for the most part although, as always, we
fought manfully and battled hard, we lacked spark and were
again flat and stereotyped for long periods of the game. Widnes
fought hard too, it was their Cup final really, and a chance to
show their Franchise credentials to the rest of the Rugby
League.
The problems were the usual ones though, we scored and then
in the first set of six after the restart we coughed the ball up and
took the pressure off! This happened after all but one of our
tries! Another “Old Hand” sat behind me and whose company I
enjoyed, pointed out, quite rightly I think, that we are still
suffering from not practising enough together (Dykes missed a
lot of training again last week). However where there was an
understanding, like for Manu’s try, when Berrigan and Dykes
combined close to the line, we look really slick!
Sadly those occurrence’s were few and far between and the
Widnes fans, who incidentally shouted “Forward” even more
times than the crowd in the East Stand at the KC, got good
value and should be proud of their team. I thought Ian Morrison,
Lee Pattison and John Duffy all had great games for them!
For us, the most memorable performance was from Adam
Dykes, who had been doubtful right up to the kick off, and who
got a bit more protection than of late from his forwards. Not far
behind, for me though, was Richard Whiting who had another
great game. For any player to have been out as long as he has
and to then step straight back into the team and show such
class, augers well for his and Hull FC’s future. In the first half,
before injuries forced him into the backs, he was into everything
and had, over all, a great game. There is still no substitute for a
player with a brain! Berrigan too, although perhaps a little
quieter than of late, had his usual 100% game which was
capped by him kicking the first 40/20 for the club in about 2
years!!
Todd Byrne had another sound game, and Hall continues to
impress. You can coach out most of his failings, but you cannot
teach a player to have the natural ability he obviously
possesses. We saw this manifest again yesterday when he ran
40 yards, invited the Widnes defence to close him down at the
corner before motoring round them on the outside to score!
Yeamo had a shocking first half, when he looked to me to be
disinterested, but perked up in the second and could have
scored three times but for desperate last ditch tackles.
Washy tried hard again but suffered when moved to centre,
whilst Dowes, Cusack, Thackerey and Radford all battled hard
with the Widnes 6, without ever really getting completely on top
of them. The loss of both Raynor and Sing in the second half
reduced our interchanges and tested our stamina in the intense
heat, and it looks like Gareth will be side lined for a while with a
torn stomach muscle. Whilst Matt, who was pushed into a
perimeter wall by a Widnes player, should be OK.
For me though, it was still poor fair against what was, at the end
of the day, a NL1 team. For long periods we played one man
rugby, we dropped the ball a lot and kept inviting the opposition
back into the game. Still we are through!
Standing as it always has right next to the Cricketers Arms, and
with a capacity of 13,393, the Stobart Stadium is better
equipped than several current Super League grounds, and
certainly better than the one across the river! The Cricketers,
was always our usual watering hole when back in the late 70’s
and early 80’s, I used to travel with the then equivalent of
“Wolfies” Fun Bus the “Half Way” coach. We would arrive at
about 11-30am be admitted through the back door and supplied
with copious amounts of Beer and a free buffet that seemed,
looking back, to feature the best Savaloys in Cheshire! My most
memorable games from the past were a victory in a Cup replay
in March 1985, on the way to the Wigan final. Then there was
the game in 1980/81 when we got all the way over the Pennines
in snow and hail, only to find that the game had been postponed
(at 2-30pm), because of a frozen pitch.
It was sad to see the club almost disappear through insolvency
last year but just at the last moment, as all looked lost, it was the
intervention of a Liverpool supporter no less; the now local hero,
and transport mogul Steve O’Connor, that saved the famous
club from obscurity. Their 100 page Franchise submission to the
RL which includes a DVD featuring everyone from the Lord
Mayor of Widnes to the lady who washes the shirts, is now
lodged and being considered by the RL and I for one wonder if it
will be hard to turn down. In fact the club has put copies of their
bid on sale to the fans that want to see the strength of it for
themselves! No promises of new grounds here Wakey, it’s all
finished and ready to roll!
O’Connor continues to take the club forward, spending hundreds
of thousands on improving the facilities further and has even
recently given the club a motto in Latin. It reads “Dirfstu ao
dreyma” which when translated for plebs like me invites the fans
to “Dare to dream”, I think over their in Widnes they can do just
that!!
I watched the Super League show last Wednesday and of
course, it was our turn to have our suitability to receive a
franchise assessed by the sages from Sky TV. It came as little
surprise that we came out as likely to get a franchise and be in
the top banding as far as successful clubs are concerned. We
might be going through a really difficult spell form wise, but off
the field we are flying. The retail side is probably the best in the
League, attendance’s are well up on a large percentage of the
other clubs and financially, on our trading account at least, we
are stable and moving forward. James Rule has certainly turned
things round since he took over from the previous incumbent!!!!
I don’t think we will have any problem gaining a franchise, and
despite the hopes and prayers of many FC supporters, I don’t
think the Dobbin’s will either. They have almost gone into hock
to ensure that they meet enough of the criteria, and although
they will probably be in the bottom band, I would see them
getting a licence too.
The news that Gareth Carvell has stalled on his deal to stay at
the club came as no surprise whatsoever to me, and is based on
the fact that the club have offered him as much as they can
under the current wage set up. To offer more would just do “A
Dobson”, break the clubs wage structure, and upset a whole
host of other players who signed up to the club in good faith,
when a reasonable offer was made to them.
You just cannot have players demanding over and above what
their colleagues are getting! That would lead to an auction and is
something that could destabilise the whole club. Rule said last
week that we would be signing the players that we wanted to
keep and those who wanted to stay at the club. Obviously
Gareth has been knobbled, (Interesting word that the spell
checker rejects it and insists it should be Knobbed!!!) probably
by Saints and sees this as one last big payday before he retires.
He is a great player who I would really miss, but on the other
side of the coin, he frees up a bit of salary cap allocation to
spend, and his injury record over the last three seasons is not
that good! With Matt Sing’s and Carvell’s wage to play with for
next year we should be able to bring in some new blood. Let’s
get Wheeldon and Kingy signed up now! More about Kingy and
the rumours surrounding him though later!
Quite frankly I want to keep Carvell, but as I have said in this
tome on many occasions, if a player does not want to stay at my
club then I don’t want him here either! I want players that want a
fair wage and who want to pull on the black and white shirt and
play for me, even if that means that we as a club, must to take a
backward step.
This could be Briscoe all over again. If Shaun or his agent had
not been so picky he would have signed up again for us, he
missed his chance of a good contract by delaying too long. The
same could happen to Gareth! We cannot leave the offer on the
table forever, nor should the club do that either. I would rather
keep Kingy who just wants a decent wage, doesn’t want to play
for anyone else, and who will always give his all for my club!! As
for Carvs well I expect the “Bloodhound Gang” from the
Vomitarium to be sniffing round him!
Then we had the news about Dominic Maloney joining us from
Dewsbury next season. Now those who read this drivel on a
regular basis will know that I really rate this player and have
watched his progress week on week in the National League
since I saw him in the pre-season friendly. He is not a Gareth
Carvell, well not yet at least, nor is he a “ Messiah” type
character, he is raw and needs a lot of coaching, and some
definite bulking up, but the potential is definitely there.
He is certainly strong, has really good feet, can pass a ball and
most of all he is young. That of course means that one prop, at
least, is off. He could be to replace Kingy, or Wheeldon or
Carvell. Wheeldon is reported to be “On the radar” of my old
mate Steve Mcnamara at the Bulls. However only time will tell I
guess! Not a real high profile signing but one for the future, who
I hope will one day prove to be an astute capture!
Talking of bringing players in, does anyone else feel that the
current recruitment of new staff seems to be all centred around
James Rule and Kath Hetherington. Does Sharpy have a say in
it at all? He seems to say little about what the pair are up to, and
perhaps that is a sign that indicates that Peter will not get
another contract next season? Then again, should a new coach
be brought in, he will arrive with a “Finished product” as far as
staffing is concerned. All the player appointments will have
already been already made and he will have no chance to put
his mark on the squad with a few appointments of his own. So,
as far as the Coach, the Board and us the fans are concerned, I
guess it is a bit of a “Catch 22” situation really.
Of course there is a reason for all this haste and that is because
with two more teams for next years competition being
announced next July, the teams that wait too long will find
themselves in direct competition with these two new comers.
The new boys will have £1m to spend and there will be a real
scramble for what players are left! So recruiting good youngsters
like Maloney now is a good thing, however we need to see much
more signing going on and a few more of the out of contract
players signed up too. They will be in the shop window as well
once the Franchise announcements are made!
Interesting to read the comments of Gareth Raynor about how
tough this season has been, it really seems to have got to him,
and a few others of the squad. However they all continue to
back Sharpy to the hilt, should the situation escalate and the
Coach go, it will be interesting to see how the players respond!!!
The news that Motu is to be out for a long spell came as another
blow just as we thought we were coming out of the injury jinx
that has haunted us so far this season! I hope he makes a full
recovery and I cannot wait to see him back for probably the last
game of the season at Caravan Park. Good Luck Motu on a
speedy and complete recovery. Congrat’s must go though to
Richard Whiting who has returned, with real impact from his
injury and who played in his 100th game for the club yesterday.
Still think he will be a top quality 13 or second rower for the club
in years to come though!
I applaud our Chief Executives decision to take a regular spot on
KCFM once a fortnight, on a Tuesday, to answer fans questions.
Some fans last Tuesday were however, I guess, a bit neive
when they expected him to discuss how the clubs contract talks
were going. Let’s face it, he just cannot do that, but he did say
that they were confident that they would be signing all the
players that wanted to play for the club. Interesting, though, that
the news of Carvell broke next morning and Rule did not
mention it!
He also said that Richard Horne does not have a career ending
injury although he did admit it could be career threatening, until
at least they get the next batch of specialist’s reports. I am told
that Horney sees his specialist on the 20th! It is obvious for me
that whatever else they may be, the club are at least loyal to
their players and want to give Rich as long as possible to prove
his fitness. That for me is great, because I really admire the
loyalty that Richard has given to our club and me personally as
a supporter over the years. Now we must be loyal to him. Lets
hope he gets back soon.
He also seemed to really rate Richard Whiting, as I do, and felt
that he had done well to keep his weight up and fitness at a
good level whilst injured, he said that his versatility was his
major plus point, and after yesterday you cannot argue with that!
James was also scathing in his criticism of the hotelliers in
Cardiff and said although the atmosphere was great at Millenium
Magic the fans were being ripped off! He said that after trekking
to Catalan, with all the expense that entailed for the supporters,
that was just not on!
For me personally I rate James Rule. When you find yourself in
our difficult position on the field, with our current plight, people
will point the finger. Mr Rule has had his fair share of that sort of
stick. But for me he is OK. He has the necessary professional
approach, is certainly liked by his staff and is a local lad to boot!
He is definitely approachable and I will be listening to the
programme with interest in future weeks! Incidentally if you ever
miss it, the whole programme is on listen again from the next
day! It’s worth considering!
However for me, and it seems a few others, the problem at the
moment is that the other Directors collectively just do not appear
to be showing or displaying enough ambition as far as driving
the club forward is concerned! NOW that is a worry!!! “Showing
and displaying” is the operative phrase, for me personally,
because I just wish Kath and co. would get a bit closer to the
fans and interact a bit to show their passion for our club. Whilst
they continue to keep their distance, people just suspect that
they are up to no good or even not that bothered, which I am
sure is not the case, (I think)! What is a fact is that silence
unfortunately just breeds rumours and conspiracy theories
amongst the fans!
I see that on one or two web sites some supporters have
suggested a protest against “What is happening to our Club”,
well everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don’t think it would
do much good. Even if they can lucidly explain just what they
mean by, “What is happening”? The fact is over the years I have
seen protests for a whole host of things not the least selling
Crooks and Schofield and the prospect of a merger. In the end I
have to say that I have never yet seen one that has done
anything but infuriate the incumbent board and make them dig
their heals in more and even consider walking away.
In the past that same board has usually been made up of local
folks who have tried to understand the situation. The last thing
we, or any club, needs is for the Board to walk away, because of
the actions of the fans. That would no doubt suit some, but there
is no guarantee that anyone else will step in, in fact if some
reliable sources of information are to be believed no one is
prepared to do that at present! This sort of action, is, for my part
very ill advised, particularly when the RL are scrutinising clubs,
their supporters and cultures, as part of the Franchise
assessments. Silly Banners at televised games do my clubs
future no good at all!!
When you are going through the mill as we are at the present
time, it is easy to despair, I know I do regularly. Equally however
I also look back and realise that there have always been good
times and bad times in the history of our great club, and I guess
that will always be the case. Often, I should add, these states of
flux can almost always be correlated with the ambition of the
Board in charge, at that specific time.
Incidentally I hear that Danny Tickle should have got over his
dead leg in time for the trip to London at the Weekend!
So to this week Dentists, rumour department, which has seen
some interesting theories, to say the least. Firstly of course with
his agent first having asked Rovers if they were interested, it
appears that Carvell is now deffo off to Saints. Wheeldon is
apparently just about fitted for his club suit at the Bulls, whilst
Kingy is having a chat with the Dobbins this week as our club
allegedly, don’t want to offer him a contract.
Then there is the inbound rumour department, with Cockaigne
and James Webster talking to us about a switch across the
City!!! The later despite what Rovers tell you about him being
out for the season, expects to be back playing for the last eight
rounds of Super League. I wonder if that one could happen!
There’s Washy dithering on re-signing for us, and Richard Horne
about to make a surprise reappearance in about 5 weeks time.
All sadly just rumours of course, but also the talk of the terraces
at the moment! Only time will tell with all these I guess!! AND I
stress they’re just rumours!!
For this weeks Codgers Corner we return to the dark days of the
early 70’s, described in the Diary a couple of weeks ago. Then it
seemed as if we would never ever recover from the doldrums,
but of course we did and we entered the greatest period of our
recent history. With the likes of Knocker Norton, Skerrett,
Crooks, Lloyd, Stone and Stirling gracing those famous irregular
hooped shirts those were truly great days indeed. For me
though one of our greatest years ever was the 1978/79 season.
In that amazing year we created a record which it is unlikely that
anyone will equal. We went through the whole season
undefeated with our record at the end of the year showing,
played 26 won 26. They were great times indeed. I saw every
game home and away and still have some great and cherished
memories. We appeared invincible and the fans had a ball. Me
and my pals had a great time, we got left by the coach at
Oldham, congered out of the supporters club at Blackpool, got
drenched to the skin at Whitehaven, and then there was Mabel
the bar maid at the Barley Mow pub at Bramley!! But that’s
another story!
You would not have guessed what was to follow when the
season started with a tight 17-9 win at Bramley, which was then
followed by a comprehensive 61-10 defeat of Oldham at the
Boulevard. In that game Sammy Lloyd actually equalled the
clubs all time goal kicking record for goals in a game. The record
had stood since 1921 when Jim Kennedy set it against
Rochdale. Lloyd in fact went on to attain the club’s record for
total goals kicked that year with a massive total of 170, which is
now unlikely ever to be equalled.
We were off and running, and despite Bradford being our Bogey
team and booting us out of all the cup competitions, we were to
go on and never see a “L” in the League fixture list for the rest of
the year.
Some games were tight, as hosting the FC, or a visit to the
Boulevard, was seen by most of the rest of the clubs in the
Division as their “Wembley”. A couple of outfits (Huyton and
Batley) even transferred their home game to the Boulevard to
make more money out of them. And I well remember that the
switched Batley game in February was almost called off ten
minutes before the game took place because of ice on the pitch.
However the referee took one look at the size of the crowd and
listened to their baiting cries in his direction and decided to go
ahead. The game was played in conditions more akin to Iceskating! But we won 20-0. There were some close calls too. We
scraped past Blackpool at the Boulevard in November 14-13,
just beat Bramley 8-5 at home in January and squeezed past
Oldham at a rain sodden Watersheddings in our penultimate
game of the season in May. Boy the weather was bad that day!
So the scene was set for the big game of the season against
second placed Hunslet at the Boulevard on 18th May 1979. This
was it, our chance to have a place in the Guinness Book of
records, and to go through a whole season undefeated.
Although we were already promoted, I remember the Daily Mail
revealing that Arthur Bunting, our coach, had decreed that the
team would not be parading the Second Division salver around
the ground before the kick off. He wanted nothing to take the
teams minds off this last, important and possibly historic, game.
If I remember rightly, Mr Bunting had in fact seen a similar
situation, when he was coach at The Dobbins, end with the
hosts losing the game and he was risking nothing this time.
12, 424 crammed into the Boulevard and I watched the game
from the Gordon Street end of a packed Threepenny Stand.
Hunslet really did not offer much at all on attack, but their
tenacious tackling soon subdued even the fans around me, as
they did everything they could to keep us out. Lloyd, the record
breaker, missed 4 goals in the first half and at half time the
scores stood at 1-0 after Knocker Norton had dropped a solitary
goal. The thorn in our side that night was I remember, little Tony
Dean, a little general and a player who was to sign and star for
us two years later. He was known as the drop goal king of
British Rugby League and although he missed with two attempts
he slid one over in the second half to level the scores.
It looked likely that the game was going to end in a draw
although Hunslet plugged away and another drop goal was
always on the cards. Could we lose out at such a late stage?
Then following a foul on John Newlove, Sammy at last found his
kicking boots and slotted over a penalty. We were in the lead at
last, but it was still touch and go! It was then left for the most
unlikeliest of hero’s to score the only try of the game and seal
the record for Hull FC. Charlie Stone who only scored about 8
tries in 200 appearances for the club, side stepped his way over
the line and although Lloyd missed again with the conversion we
were home, we were the champions, and most important of all
real record breakers!!! It was not a classic game, but with so
much at stake, for me, it still ranks as high as that win at Cardiff
in the final, for sheer tension and ultimate ecstasy.
That season we scored more tries than any other team in the
whole competition and although only playing second division
teams in the League, we still managed to beat Leeds in the Cup
and draw with Bradford away in the same competition. We of
course went up and thus started that Golden Age in the history
of Hull FC, the early 80’s!
Spectator wise last weekend was a poor turnout for the Cup in
general, and the 6,000 that turned up, for their game against
Huddersfield must have disappointed the Dobbins. Still there
were other attractions and my congratulations must go to Hull
City for a great performance at Watford. They, like Widnes are
keeping the dream alive!
Talking of the Dobbins and for all those sad Rovers fans who
still read this totally biased Diary, perhaps instead of
complaining about it so much, you should be writing your own,
or at least concentrating on saving up for Florida!
So with the usual trepidation and the hope that this one could be
the one that kick starts our season, we travel down to the smoke
to face the Quins this weekend! To have a hope of winning we
need to sort out our attack, cut out the mistakes, and get a lot
smarter with the ball in our hands. With Raynor likely to be
missing we have lost our best strike player and it will be a tough
call to get anything down there at the Stoop. Still we can always
hope and get behind the lads who, as I have said just about
every week, continue to try their best and give their all for us the
fans! We just need to be smarter!!! Lets hope this week that
effort is good enough to get a couple of points!
Thanks for reading the Diary after what can only be classed for
me as another adequate (but nothing more) performance. All the
thoughts in the Diary are just my own, an average passionate
supporter who just wants our team to be the best! Keep the
Faith!
Faithfully Yours
Wilf