Wakefield
Trinity RLFC: Fifty Great Games
Les Hoole
Wakefield Trinity Rugby League Football Club is one
of the game’s most famous clubs. One of the
founder members of the Northern Union at the time
of the great split from English Rugby Union in 1895,
it has since those early days been involved in countless
memorable matches. This selection of 50 of the club’s
greatest games recalls famous and inspiring victories
throughout the club’s history and in more recent
times.
Gruelling Edwardian encounters against the
first Kiwis and Kangaroos to tour Britain are recounted
in detail, as are hard-fought league victories ground
out in the driving rain and mud of the deepest northern
midwinters. Heroic Yorkshire Cup Final triumphs against
some of the county’s finest sides are remembered,
along with the very first Challenge Cup Final victory
against Hull at Headingley in 1909. And the single-point
sucess over the mighty Wigan at Wembley in 1946, with
Billy Stott’s dramatic final kick, finds its
place among these proud wins. Wakefield’s successes
down the years are well charted, from the glorious
games of the 1960s when Trinity seemed unbeatable
and brought every trophy back to their Belle Vue base,
to the modern age of Super League and classic summertime
victories against all the odds.
Each of the featured games has been meticulously
researched using contemporary newspaper match reports.
There are full descriptions of all the action and
details are given of the players involved. The accounts
are highly illustrated, with many previously unpublished
pictures complementing each of the chosen matches.
Les Hoole’s carefully compiled selection of
classic matches is sure to appeal to anyone with an
interest in the history of Wakefield Trinity.
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