History of Rugby League in Castleford

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 25 Apr 2020, 19:54

Harry Poole took over as coach for the 1971/72 season as Alan Hardisty signed for Leeds having scored 206 tries, 78 goals 42 drop goals, a total of 858 points in his 401 appearances. Trevor Bedford, Tony Thomas and Bill Kirkbride all left, and in came George Claughton, Steve Brunyee, Alan Dickinson, Charles Birdsall, Kevin Worsley and Cliff Wallis as Cas made a great start to the season. The Yorkshire Cup ties were all played before the League matches started, and Cas reached the Final with home wins over Batley 24-5, Wakefield 13-10 and Keighley 12-7 but lost at Wakefield to Hull KR 7-11 in the Final. Then came 15 wins and 2 draws with only 2 defeats in the next 19 matches. One of those defeats was surprisingly at home to Huddersfield 7-8 in the First Round of the Floodlit Trophy, and the other at high-flying Bradford 15-36 in the League, but amongst the wins were a fantastic 25-8 win over the New Zealand tourists, and home League wins over St Helens 22-13 and Wakefield 12-5. By the beginning of November Cas were top of the League with 27 points from 15 matches. The season then disintegrated as Cas struggled to beat bottom of the table Hunslet 9-8 in a replay of a new competition, the Player’s Number 6 Trophy. Cas then lost 11-13 at home to Leeds in the Second Round. They won again at Whitehaven 17-0 in the Challenge Cup, but could only draw 8-8 at home
against Warrington in the Second Round and subsequently lost the replay 5-11. The season then petered out as Cas won only 7 of their final 19 League matches to finish 10th with 41 points from their 34 matches. It was a disappointing end to the season although they did win their Championship Playoff First Round tie at Featherstone 18-14, but lost the Second Round match 12-22 at Bradford. The average crowd attendance was 5,889.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by 43s flyer » 25 Apr 2020, 23:22

Ken Smith wrote: 25 Apr 2020, 19:54 Harry Poole took over as coach for the 1971/72 season as Alan Hardisty signed for Leeds having scored 206 tries, 78 goals 42 drop goals, a total of 858 points in his 401 appearances. Trevor Bedford, Tony Thomas and Bill Kirkbride all left, and in came George Claughton, Steve Brunyee, Alan Dickinson, Charles Birdsall, Kevin Worsley and Cliff Wallis as Cas made a great start to the season. The Yorkshire Cup ties were all played before the League matches started, and Cas reached the Final with home wins over Batley 24-5, Wakefield 13-10 and Keighley 12-7 but lost at Wakefield to Hull KR 7-11 in the Final. Then came 15 wins and 2 draws with only 2 defeats in the next 19 matches. One of those defeats was surprisingly at home to Huddersfield 7-8 in the First Round of the Floodlit Trophy, and the other at high-flying Bradford 15-36 in the League, but amongst the wins were a fantastic 25-8 win over the New Zealand tourists, and home League wins over St Helens 22-13 and Wakefield 12-5. By the beginning of November Cas were top of the League with 27 points from 15 matches. The season then disintegrated as Cas struggled to beat bottom of the table Hunslet 9-8 in a replay of a new competition, the Player’s Number 6 Trophy. Cas then lost 11-13 at home to Leeds in the Second Round. They won again at Whitehaven 17-0 in the Challenge Cup, but could only draw 8-8 at home
against Warrington in the Second Round and subsequently lost the replay 5-11. The season then petered out as Cas won only 7 of their final 19 League matches to finish 10th with 41 points from their 34 matches. It was a disappointing end to the season although they did win their Championship Playoff First Round tie at Featherstone 18-14, but lost the Second Round match 12-22 at Bradford. The average crowd attendance was 5,889.
Ken, it was Keith Not Kevin Worsley

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 26 Apr 2020, 06:50

43s flyer
Thanks for the amendment. I’m pleased that some folk are alert and hopefully enjoying my blogs.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by 43s flyer » 26 Apr 2020, 09:43

Ken Smith wrote: 26 Apr 2020, 06:50 43s flyer
Thanks for the amendment. I’m pleased that some folk are alert and hopefully enjoying my blogs.
Keep them coming Ken, enjoy reliving the past.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 26 Apr 2020, 14:13

Sadly for Cas Keith Hepworth joined Leeds for the 1972/73 campaign to join Chuck, Derek Edwards went to Keighley and Dougie Walton retired, but under the new coach John Sheridan, Gary Brook, James Huddlestone and more significantly John Joyner emerged although Cas lost their first 4 matches including a 10-35 thumping at Wakefield and a First Round 5-19 defeat at Dewsbury in the Yorkshire Cup. However Cas then won 15 of their next 17 League matches, the only defeats being at Rochdale who completed an astonishing League double over Cas and Leeds. However because of their low finishing position of the previous season, it has to be said that the fixtures for this particular season had been kind to Cas. Hull KR knocked Cas out of the Players Number 6 Trophy 20-10 in the First Round, and although Cas won 15-9 at Huddersfield in the Floodlit Trophy they were beaten 7-9 at Oldham in the Second Round. The Challenge Cup then started another long sequence of successive wins, 13 in all of which 4 were in the Cup. First of all Cas beat Swinton at home 13-9, then Hunslet away 39-0, followed by a 25-11 Quarterfinal success at home to Oldham. The 9 League wins in that sequence included home wins over Leeds 22-16 and away wins over Hull KR 11-10 and their neighbours Hull 12-11. However the Challenge Cup Semifinal at Headingley against 2nd placed Featherstone was a match too far and Cas were swamped 3-17. Cas then lost their last 3 League matches at Keighley, home to Wakefield 5-13 and away at Featherstone 0-15 to finish 7th with 50 points from their 34 matches when in fact another 4 points would have placed them runners-up. In the Championship Playoffs Cas beat Hull KR 24-12 at home but then lost 5-30 at Leeds in the Second Round. I had already purchased my Cup Final tickets so felt obliged to support Fev in the Final and I have to admit they were outstanding as they demolished Bradford Northern 33-14.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 26 Apr 2020, 20:06

First of all I need to apologise if I caused confusion about my statement in the previous season’s coach. John Sheridan was of course the ‘A team’ coach as Harry Poole continued as the First team coach. Also just to tidy up last season I should have mentioned that Steve Norton was the top try scorer with 19, followed closely by Derek Foster and Keith Worsley with 18 each. The 1972/73 season was also the last season to embrace all 30 clubs in one division, as the following season was to be split into 2 Divisions with Division 1 to comprise of the top 16 from the 1972/73 and Division 2 to comprise of the bottom 14. One result of this split was that Wigan who finished 16th were only elected to Division 1 on the same number of points as York but with a superior tries and goals difference, whilst York along with famous clubs such as Halifax, Bradford, Huddersfield and Hull would have to start life as Division 2 clubs. It also meant that less fashionable clubs such as Rochdale Hornets, Bramley and Whitehaven would start season 1973/74 in Division 1.
The Floodlit Competition saw Cas once again having to start in a Preliminary Round and beating Huddersfield 32-10 at home and 18-0 away before disposing of Halifax 26-10 at home but surprisingly losing 2-13 at Bramley in the Second Round. The Yorkshire Cup proved slightly more profitable as Cas disposed of York 32-8 and Huddersfield 29-8 both at home before losing 18-19 at Wakefield in the Semifinal
In the Players Number 6 Competition Cas recorded their biggest win ever at the time by beating the Cumbrian amateur club of Millom 88-5 when Sammy Lloyd broke the Cas scoring record of 17 conversions in a match. However Cas lost 9-18 at Warrington in the 2nd Round. For one season only there was and Cup competition called the Captain Morgan Trophy where Cas again beat Huddersfield for the 4th time in the season 32-7 at home, but again lost to Warrington 7-15 in the 2nd Round. All these Cup matches plus a match against the Australian tourists which Cas lost 10-16 took place before Christmas as well as 13 League
matches. In February Cas lost at home 4-15 to Bradford in the Challenge Cup, so it hadn’t been a roaring success in Cup competitions. The League form was distinctly average too as Cas finished the season in 9th
position with 28 positions from their 30 matches, although there were notable wins away from home after Christmas with wins against Hull KR 22-15, Leigh 9-5, Wakefield 15-14 and Leeds 17-11. In the playoffs Cas won 14-0 at Bramley but lost 9-25 in the 2nd Round 9-25 at St Helens.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 26 Apr 2020, 22:19

Malcolm Reilly having returned from Manly-Warringah returned to Cas as player/coach for the 1974/75 season, and with Cas having released Danny Hargrave, Ian Van Bellen and Ian Stenton, the latter to Hull in the previous season signed Alan Hardy, Geoff Morris, Alan Bence, Jamie Walsh, Steve Fenton and Tony Miller during the 1974/75 season although Miller only stayed for the one season. On the playing field Cas were quickly eliminated in all 3 of the Cup competitions before the end of September. They lost 13-19 at York in the First Round of the Yorkshire Cup, at Huddersfield 4-12 in a Preliminary Round of the Floodlit Trophy, and 5-36 at Salford in the First Round of the Players Number 6 Trophy. The League fixtures had started with a 12-12 draw at Wakefield and went on to beat Wigan at home 22-12. By New Year Cas had won 7 and drawn 1 of their opening 9 fixtures including the 10-10 draw at home to St Helens and home wins against Wakefield 35-8, Featherstone 23-5 and Bradford 20-18 on New Year’s Day. Following a 22-16 home win against Leeds, Cas drew 13-13 at home to Bradford in the First Round of the Challenge Cup on Saturday 8th February, but were forced to play the replay at Odsal the very next day and duly lost 7-10. From then on Cas won only 2
more League matches out of their remaining 9 matches ending with a 13-33 defeat at Leeds. Cas thus finished in 8th position with 31 points from their 30 matches. In the Premiership playoffs involving the top 8 clubs Cas beat Wakefield 37-7 at home but lost in the Second Round at Leeds 8-28. John Joyner was top try scorer with 15 followed by Terry Richardson playing in his second season with 12, and Sammy Lloyd also with 12 to add to his 110 goals.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Tiger53 » 26 Apr 2020, 22:37

Ken Smith wrote: 26 Apr 2020, 14:13 Sadly for Cas Keith Hepworth joined Leeds for the 1972/73 campaign to join Chuck, Derek Edwards went to Keighley and Dougie Walton retired, but under the new coach John Sheridan, Gary Brook, James Huddlestone and more significantly John Joyner emerged although Cas lost their first 4 matches including a 10-35 thumping at Wakefield and a First Round 5-19 defeat at Dewsbury in the Yorkshire Cup. However Cas then won 15 of their next 17 League matches, the only defeats being at Rochdale who completed an astonishing League double over Cas and Leeds. However because of their low finishing position of the previous season, it has to be said that the fixtures for this particular season had been kind to Cas. Hull KR knocked Cas out of the Players Number 6 Trophy 20-10 in the First Round, and although Cas won 15-9 at Huddersfield in the Floodlit Trophy they were beaten 7-9 at Oldham in the Second Round. The Challenge Cup then started another long sequence of successive wins, 13 in all of which 4 were in the Cup. First of all Cas beat Swinton at home 13-9, then Hunslet away 39-0, followed by a 25-11 Quarterfinal success at home to Oldham. The 9 League wins in that sequence included home wins over Leeds 22-16 and away wins over Hull KR 11-10 and their neighbours Hull 12-11. However the Challenge Cup Semifinal at Headingley against 2nd placed Featherstone was a match too far and Cas were swamped 3-17. Cas then lost their last 3 League matches at Keighley, home to Wakefield 5-13 and away at Featherstone 0-15 to finish 7th with 50 points from their 34 matches when in fact another 4 points would have placed them runners-up. In the Championship Playoffs Cas beat Hull KR 24-12 at home but then lost 5-30 at Leeds in the Second Round. I had already purchased my Cup Final tickets so felt obliged to support Fev in the Final and I have to admit they were outstanding as they demolished Bradford Northern 33-14.
Just a slight error in that one. Derek Edwards left Cas for Leeds in 1972-73. However, he didn’t get much game time (John Holmes was preferred at full back) and he didn’t stay too long at Leeds. He moved to Keighley from there.

I seem to remember that he signed for Leeds over the Christmas period 1972. I have a pretty good memory for such things but I was beginning to think I’d imagined it as all the wiki pages etc., also have him as only playing for Cas and Keighley. However, after trawling google I found an article giving a month by month summary of the Leeds 1972-73 season and that references signing Cas ‘utility player’ Derek Edwards in December of that season.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 27 Apr 2020, 06:32

Tiger 53
Well done. I’m quite happy for anyone to find amendments to any of my posts. I have a few John Players annuals but not enough to always form an accurate guide and trawling through Wikipedia is sometimes tiresome and as you state not always accurate.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Lofthouse Tiger » 27 Apr 2020, 12:14

All good posts Ken, enjoy reading them and remember the old days.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 27 Apr 2020, 21:57

Before the 1975/76 season started Cas lost 3 stalwart forwards of their 1970 Challenge Cup winning side; Dennis Hartley retired after 9 years with Cas, Clive Dickinson after 12 years, and Brian Lockwood after 10 years tried his luck in Australia. In came Tony Fisher, Clive Pickersgill, Paul Orr and Geoff Wraith formerly a Wakefield full back. On the field of play the season started badly as Cas won only one of their first 7 League matches in a season when 4 clubs were to be relegated. The solitary win was at home to Warrington 24-14,
whilst Cas lost twice to Wakefield 14-18 at home and 12-21 away. In the Yorkshire Cup Cas drew at home to Hull 16-16 and 4 days later won the replay at the Boulevard 16-15, but then lost 5-8 at Featherstone in the Second Round. Once again Cas had to play a Preliminary Round tie in the Floodlit Competition but lost 10-21
at Leeds, although they did win their Players Number 6 home tie against York 26-15. Five weeks later Cas won the Second Round tie at Wakefield 24-14 and then another 19-10 away win at Huddersfield saw them progress to a Semifinal tie at home to Widnes which unfortunately they lost 9-17. On Boxing Day an 18-18 draw at Featherstone meant that Cas had gained only 9 League points from their first 13 matches and perilously close to the relegation area. But despite losing at home to Salford 3-25 in the First Round of the Challenge Cup, it was maybe a blessing in disguise for it allowed them to concentrate on improving their League position, and they certainly did that with 12 wins from their next 14 matches. This included a run of 8
successive wins with standout home performances against St Helens 26-10, Dewsbury 45-2, Wigan 28-10
and Widnes 17-12, plus away wins at Huddersfield 42-0 and Leeds 18-13. Unfortunately Cas lost their last 3 matches 18-23 at Warrington, and home defeats to Leeds 18-24 and Featherstone 15-18. Nevertheless Cas finished well safe from relegation in 9th place with 33 points from their 30 matches. Dewsbury, Keighley, Huddersfield and Swinton were relegated, while Barrow, Rochdale, Workington and Leigh were promoted at the end of the season.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 27 Apr 2020, 23:33

Alan Ackroyd left after 7 seasons, along with Gary Brook, Dennis Fowler and Charlie Birdsall at the end of the following season, but In came Paul Khan from Brisbane, but probably more significantly Bruce Burton from Halifax for the start of the 1976/77 season, and what a season it proved to be. First of all Cas won 6 of their first 7 League matches including wins at Wigan 29-19 and Warrington 18-11, but the main performances were in the Cup competitions although the Yorkshire Cup was the exception. After winning 18-12 at Hull KR Cas drew 12-12 at home to Leeds in the Second Round only to lose the replay 20-21. However Cas recovered
their mojo certainly for two of the three remaining Cup competitions. In the Floodlit Competition Cas beat high-flying Hull KR 16-8 at home, then Leeds 17-2 and Hull 15-8 both away to reach the Final and another away fixture at Leigh and victory by 12-4 and silverware at last. But more was to come in the Players
Number 6 Trophy where Cas started with a routine win at the newly formed New Hunslet team 24-10, but followed that up with wins against the big guns of St Helens 22-18 and Leeds once again 17-2 both away
from home. The Semifinal was at home to Widnes which Cas won 15-10. At this stage of the season Cas had played 11 Cup matches as opposed to 10 League matches and naturally enough their League form had
suffered as they had lost 3 League matches in succession, twice to Hull KR and once to Salford. Cas then repaired some of the damage by taking 7 points from their next 4 matches before the Final of the Players
Number 6 Competition to be played at Salford against Blackpool Borough, the surprise team of the competition. Blackpool were to finish 2nd from bottom in the Second Division with only 5 wins, yet here they were having won 4 matches to reach their first ever Cup Final. All of their wins had come against struggling
teams, Barrow 16-15, Halifax 7-3, Workington 11-5 and Leigh 15-5, whilst Cas had had to beat 3 of the top guns in St Helens, Leeds and Widnes. Surely Cas would have little difficulty in winning this match! Well Cas didn’t disappoint although the scoreline of 25-15 was closer than one might have imagined. The crowd was
a stingy 4,512 but who cared; Cas had won two pieces of silverware for the first time ever in the same season. In the Challenge Cup easily beat New Hunslet 27-6 at home and then Rochdale away 10-2, but in the Third Round were beaten at home by Hull KR 15-25. Cas won 7 of their last 10 League matches including home wins over Widnes 11-9, Warrington 15-13, Featherstone 16-14, Wigan 18-3 and Wakefield 26-3 to finish 3rd in the League with 39 points from 30 matches level with 2nd place St Helens, but 5 points behind the Champions Featherstone. Sadly the League match between Salford and Leeds had to be abandoned due to a fatal injury to Chris Sanderson the Leeds half back and was never replayed. In the top 8 Premier playoffs Cas beat Salford 25-17 at home, but the Semifinals were played over two legs and Cas lost at
home to St Helens 12-36 and 13-25 away. But arguably one of the best seasons in the history of Castleford
Rugby League club.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 28 Apr 2020, 22:21

Mick Redfearn played his last gave for Cas before the start of the 1977/78 season having kicked 387 goals and accumulated 868 points in his time with Cas and Alan Lowndes having scored 83 tries retired during the season, but Cas signed Dave Sampson, James Crampton and Paul Norton. The season started with 2 Rounds of the Yorkshire Cup and Cas won 12-5 at Dewsbury before beating York 23-17 at home. Hull, Dewsbury, Bramley and New Hunslet had been promoted replacing Rochdale, Leigh, Barrow and Oldham. Cas started their League campaign with a 33-21 home win over Wakefield but then lost 17-39 at St Helens before surprisingly losing at home to New Hunslet 10-13. A 14-4 win at Keighley then assured Cas of a Final place at Headingley against Featherstone conquerors over Hull in the other Semifinal. But first Cas had 4 League matches to play and they only managed to win one of them, a 26-2 home win over Bramley. So Cas went favourites going into the Final, but nevertheless prevailed by winning 17-7. This was the first time Cas had won the Yorkshire Cup after losing 4 previous Finals. Two more cup ties then followed, a 13-0 win at Dewsbury in the newly named John Player Trophy and a 10-7 win at Hull in the First Round of the Floodlit Trophy. The form team that season was Widnes and Cas played them away twice in successive weeks, unfortunately losing there 11-21 in the League and 19-26 in the John Player Trophy. After a 14-14 home draw in the League, Cas had successive wins over Leeds, 14-10 at home in the John Player Trophy and 28-16 in the League. As Cas had now reached the Semifinal of the Floodlit Trophy one wondered if Cas were again going to win 2 pieces of silverware in successive seasons, but disappointingly the answer was no as Cas were outplayed at Wheldon Road by Hull KR 5-23. Cas’s League form was now causing some concern with only 5 points from their first 9 matches. Over the Christmas period though Cas having lost a dour match at New Hunslet 1-5 suddenly hit some form beating Featherstone at home 17-7, Bradford away 20-18 and were 7-5 ahead at Wakefield before the game had to be abandoned. In the Challenge Cup though Cas struggled to beat the amateurs of Pilkington Recreation 23-22 at Knowsley Road then needed 3 attempts to beat Workington 20-13 at Wigan after a couple of 8-8 draws. However having to play 4 Challenge Cup ties
in 8 days was too much and they lost 15-25 in the Third Round. Cas did manage to beat Featherstone away in the League 32-15 on Easter Monday and rounded off the season with 4 matches in 9 days, three of which they won, Wigan and Leeds at home 34-10 and 36-25 respectively, and also Wakefield away 20-17 to finish in 10th place with 28 points from 30 matches.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 28 Apr 2020, 23:19

There was a lot of transfer activity in the 1978/79 season as Sammy Lloyd left having scored 741 goals and a total of 1,616 points for Cas, Steve Norton having played in Australia in the off-season signed for Hull having scored 56 tries for Cas, Trevor Briggs having scored 92 tries in 338 appearances, Ray Newton, Peter
Cookland and Tony Fisher. Incoming players included Kevin Ward, John Kear, Barry Higgins, Gary Hyde, David Finch, Brian Hughes and George Ballantyne. On the field of play Cas beat Dewsbury in the Yorkshire Cup at home 18-11 but a week later lost 8-20 at Second Division side Halifax. In the Floodlit Trophy Cas beat Wakefield at home but were then thumped 5-47 at St Helens. In the John Player Trophy Cas beat Swinton 18-10 at home and Workington 20-9 away before losing at the League leaders Hull KR 10-23 in the Third Round. In the League Hull, New Hunslet, Bramley and Dewsbury had been relegated to be replaced by Leigh,
Barrow, Rochdale and Huddersfield. Cas’s League form was largely erratic though as they lost 11-20 at Wakefield but beat them at home 32-10, although they did the double over Featherstone 14-10 away and 20-7 at home. They also completed the double over Bradford 31-19 away and 28-12 at home, but failed to beat Leeds losing 12-19 at Headingley and 10-34 at home. The only time that they established a sequence of results was late in the season with 7 wins in 8 matches which included home wins over Warrington 11-2 and Wigan 21-7. The Challenge Cup had started with a splendid 15-9 win at Warrington followed by a routine 31-15 home win over Dewsbury, but their nemesis St Helens won the Third Round encounter 10-6 at Wheldon Road. Cas finished 7th in the League with 33 points from 30 matches but lost their Premiership Playoff First Round encounter at 2nd placed Warrington 10-17.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 29 Apr 2020, 21:24

Our neighbours Featherstone who finished top of the League only 2 years ago were one of the 4 clubs to be relegated last season along with Barrow, Rochdale and Huddersfield to be replaced in the 1979/80 season by Hull, New Hunslet, York and for the first time Blackpool Borough. Cas said goodbye to Kevin Worsley, Derek Woodall, James Huddleston, Brian Garbutt, Tony Halmshaw, George Ballantine, Peter Taylor and more significantly Bruce Burton who scored 353 points in his 135 appearances for the club. However Ian Birkby, Andy Timpson, Steven Gill, Paul Martin, Neil James, Ian Orum, Barry Johnson and the Beardmore twins made their debuts. On the field of play it was another topsy-turvy for Cas as they lost their first match of the season 14-26 at Headingley in the Yorkshire Cup. They also lost in the First Round of the Floodlit Trophy 12-25 at Craven Park to Hull KR. However there was more comfort in the John Player Trophy with home wins over Dewsbury 15-12 and Wigan 24-10, before losing at home 6-13 to Salford in the Third Round. In the League Cas beat Leeds at home 24-16 but lost 21-33 at Headingley, lost at home to Wakefield 13-26 but beat them away 35-12, and also beat Wigan at home 21-13 to finish 11th in the table with 28 points from 30
matches. The Challenge Cup didn’t throw much joy either as though Cas won 21-5 at Keighley in the First Round, they then lost away to Hull KR 3-28 in the next round. John Joyner was top try scorer with 15, Kevin Ward scored 11 and Steve Fenton scored 10. Goal kicking duties were shared between Paul Norton with 72 and David Finch with 40.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 29 Apr 2020, 22:33

Wigan, Hunslet, York and Blackpool were relegated in the previous season and replaced by Featherstone, Halifax, Oldham and Barrow for the 1980/81 season which also saw the introduction of Fulham in the Second Division. Cas recruited 4 new players, Gary Stephens, Philip Johnson, David Sampson and Brian Hughes, and certainly had a much better season in two of the Cup competitions. Last season had been the last one of the Floodlit Trophy which Cas had won 4 times and more than any other club, but there were still 3 Cups to play for. In the Yorkshire Cup Cas won 18-8 at Halifax and 26-25 at home to Bramley, but again lost at home 7-11 to their nemesis Hull KR in the Semifinal. In the John Player Trophy Cas beat Pilkington Recreation 30-17 at home, then 15-8 at Salford before accounting for Widnes 18-10 at home to reach another Semifinal where they were drawn to play Warrington at Wigan. That match finished all square at 5-5, but Cas lost the replay at Headingley 10-22. The Challenge Cup saw Cas easily beating Huyton 42-7 at home with Terry Richardson scoring a hat-trick, but they then lost 5-7 at Widnes in the Second Round. However it was the League form that was much improved as they won 9 successive matches including 5 successive away matches at Leeds 34-9 (their biggest ever win at Headingley at the time), Featherstone
27-26, St Helens 8-5, Widnes 15-13 and Wakefield 23-8, plus a 19-18 home win against League leaders Bradford on New Year’s Day. Then followed a period of only 1 win from 6 matches, but Cas recovered somewhat with home wins over Featherstone 26-6, Leigh 18-13, Warrington 18-13 and Wakefield 15-13 to finish a respectable 5th with 38 points from 30 matches. In the Premiership Playoffs Cas beat 4th placed Wakefield 25-8 at Belle Vue, but then lost the Semifinal tie at home to Hull 11-12. Terry Richardson was again top try scorer with 28, Brian Hughes scored 19, Ian Orum 17, Gary Hyde 15 and Kevin Ward 13. Again the goals scoring duties were shared by Gary Hyde with 87 and David Finch with 32.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 29 Apr 2020, 23:40

Halifax, Salford, Workington and Oldham were relegated in the previous season, but replaced by York, Wigan, Fulham and Whitehaven for the 1981/82 season. The Second Division was extended to 17 clubs with the addition of Cardiff and Carlisle. Jamie Walsh, Geoff Morris, Paul Orr and Barry Kear left during the season, whilst Paul Spedding, John Harrison, Tony Marchant and Stuart Horton made their debuts. On the field of play Cas won their Second Yorkshire Cup Trophy by winning 3 home matches against Featherstone 18-16, York 42-30 and Batley 40-3 before overcoming Bradford 10-5 at Headingley with tries from Gary Hyde and John Joyner. In the John Player Trophy Cas beat Leigh, who were eventually to finish top of the League 21-7, but lost in the Second Round at home to Hull, the eventual League Runners-up, 5-23 such was the inconsistency of Cas in this season. In the Challenge Cup Cas had a good run to the Semifinals by winning 3 away matches at Carlisle 17-2, Batley 31-6, and Leigh 8-3. The Semifinal against Hull at Headingley before a crowd of 21,207 saw Cas make a recovery from 4-11 down at halftime to just fall short at 11-15 though Hull scored 4 tries against Cas’s solitary try from Mal Reilly and Gary Hyde’s 4 goals.
However Cas’s League form was poor. They lost twice to Leeds 9-18 at home and 5-18 away, won at Featherstone but lost at home to them 5-21, and lost at Wakefield 5-14 but won at home to them in the penultimate match of the season 15-7 when defeat would have relegated them as they finished with only
21 positions from their 30 matches only 2 points above Fulham and Wakefield who were both relegated along with York and Whitehaven. Gary Hyde was top scorer with 160 points (16 tries and 56 goals), whilst Andy Timson scored 14 tries with Kevin Ward and Bob Beardmore each notching 13.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 29 Apr 2020, 23:44

Sorry, the third last line should read 21 points from 30 matches.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 30 Apr 2020, 22:02

Fulham, Wakefield, Salford and Whitehaven were promoted as Cas signed Kevin Anderson, Keith England and Darren Coen for the 1982/83 season although George Claughton and Paul Norton left the club very early in the season and Bob Spurr, Terry Richardson, Geoff Wraith and Ian Kirkby at the end of the season. On the field of play design losing 10-33 at home to Leeds in the First Round of the Yorkshire Cup and to Wigan 10-16 at home in the First Round of the John Player Trophy, the League form after a shaky start wasn’t too bad. A run of 8 wins in 11 matches up to the end of the year including home wins over high- flying Hull KR 10-8, Featherstone 30-13, Warrington 14-10 and Leeds 32-5 plus a 24-23 win at St Helens moved Cas into the higher echelons of the table. A couple of defeats against Bradford and Wigan were only a slight blip as Cas then comprehensively completed the double over St Helens 31-10 leading up to the Challenge Cup. Cas didn’t have the luck of the draw with a First Round match at Wigan on the horizon, but Cas prevailed 17-7 with 2 tries from Tony Marchant and 1 from Kevin Ward. Two more away wins at Barrow 14-9 and 13-8 at Hunslet set up another Semifinal tie against Hull this time at Elland Road before a crowd of
26,031. But Cas lost again to the Black and Whites, this time 7-14 with a solitary try from Keith England. Strangely only 2 days later on Easter Monday Cas extracted some revenge at home against Hull with 5
tries from Terry Richardson, Tony Marchant, Gary Hyde, John Joyner and Kevin Ward in a 21-16 win before a crowd of 6,223, and finished the season with aplomb at Wakefield where they thrashed Carlisle 66-8 and had other big wins 32-5 against Workington, 47-2 at Halifax and 22-10 at Oldham to finish 7th in the table with 37 points from 30 matches. Unfortunately they couldn’t carry forward the momentum as they lost 14-35 at Craven Park to Hull KR in the First Round of the Premiership Playoffs. Gary Hyde was top try scorer with 22, whilst Tony Marchant and Kevin Beardmore each scored 16, and brother Bob scored 14 plus 117 goals.

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Re: History of Rugby League in Castleford

Post by Ken Smith » 30 Apr 2020, 22:07

Sorry, the 4th line should read despite losing 10-33. I hate this predictive text.

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