History of Rugby League in Castleford

[Ken Smith]

Sorry again. First line should read Yorkshire Cup, not Yorkshire Clubs. Also in the 10th line it should read ‘Lee Crooks converted to give Cas the lead’

[Ken Smith]

The 1991/92 season saw the debuts of a host of new players including Tawera Nikau, Mike Ford, David Nelson, Simon Middleton, Richard Blackmore and for one season only Graeme Bradley, whilst Kevin Beardmore played his last match for Cas early in the season and John Joyner towards the end with a distinguished record of 185 tries in 613 appearances. On the field of play Cas won their 5th Yorkshire Cup Final. It started with an away win at Batley 36-12, then home wins over Hull KR 34-12 and Featherstone 18-10 before a crowd of 8,890. The Final at Elland Road against Bradford Northern only attracted a disappointing 8,538 but a fairly easy win 28-6 with 2 tries from Graham Steadman and one each from Tony Smith, Mike Ford and Neil Battye. Steadman also kicked 4 goals which earned him the White Rose Trophy. In the Regal Trophy Cas won away to Hull KR in the First Round and at home to Doncaster in the Second Round, but lost 4-24 to Leeds in the next round. However the season will be remembered for their League form and a fine Challenge Cup run. Admittedly the early League form was only average with only 3 wins from the first 7 matches, the most notable of which was the first match of the season when Cas won at home to Wigan 38-26 before a crowd of 8,983 after trailing 12-18 at halftime. By the end of the year Cas were only in mid-table, but then came a run of 9 wins and 3 defeats as Cas won home matches against Hull 30-8, Salford 26-12, Bradford 24-10 and Warrington 40-8 as well as away wins at Widnes 14-4 and Leeds 18-4. The Challenge Cup started with a 50-0 at Headingley against Trafford Borough, then a 28-12 win at Hunslet before a 19-12 home win against Featherstone before a crowd of 10,480 set up another Semifinal match at Headingley against Hull for the 4th time in 10 years. After a scoreless first half Cas broke the deadlock in the 56th minute when Taware Nikau found space on the right making a subtle pass to Tony Smith who drew Hull’s Richard Gay before sending Mike Ford underneath the posts which Lee Crooks duly converted. Ten minutes from the end Crooks scored a penalty giving Cas an 8-0 lead. Paul Eastwood scored for Hull with 4 minutes remaining, but Cas held out to win 8-4. Meanwhile Wigan thrashed Bradford 71-10 at Burnden Park in the other Semifinal and many pundits were predicting an easy win for Wigan in the Final; after all Wigan had won 5 Challenge Cups in succession. However Cas played fairly well in the Final, but a Graham Steadman fumble on his own goal line allowed Martin Offiah to touch down and Frano Botica’s conversion put Wigan 6-0 up after only 5 minutes. By halftime Cas were 0-19 behind and looked as if they were in for a real trouncing. However a much improved second half from Cas with tries from Richard Blackmore and Keith England helped Cas to outscore their opponents after the interval to make the final scoreline Cas 12 Wigan 28 before a crowd of 77,286. Cas won 3 of their final 6 matches to finish 3rd in the table with 32 points from 26 matches, 4 points behind St Helens but 12 behind Wigan. In the Premiership Playoffs Cas beat Wakefield 28-18 at home, but lost their Semifinal encounter at St Helens 14-30. Top try scorer for Cas was Graham Steadman with 29, whilst St John Ellis scored 15, Simon Middleton 14, David Nelson 13 with Tony Smith and Grant Anderson 12 each. Lee Crooks scored 111 goals and the average attendance was 6,455. Featherstone and Swinton were relegated to an 8 club Second Division whilst Sheffield and Leigh were promoted to the First Division for the following season. A new Third Division saw Huddersfield and Bramley promoted, whilst Ryedale-York and Workington were relegated for the ensuing season.

[Ken Smith]

The 1992/93 season would be the last for head coach Darryl Van der Velde as well as Neil Roebuck and Shaun Irwin early in the season, and Neil Battye, Giles Boothroyd and Graham Southernwood later on. However Tony Morrison and Andy Fisher made their debuts as did Peter Coyne who made 29 appearances before leaving at the end of the season. What was to be the last season of the Yorkshire Cup after 87 years
Cas were beaten at home 10-16 by Bradford Northern in the Preliminary Round. Cas had won the Cup on 5 occasions all since the Second World War, and beaten finalists on 8 occasions. Since the Second World War, only Leeds with 10 wins, Bradford with 9 and Wakefield with 6 had won it more times than Cas.
The League season didn’t start too well for Cas with only 3 wins from their first 7 matches, but Cas then won their next 8 matches, 5 of which were in the League and notable away wins at Bradford 28-6 and Hull KR
8-2, as well as a 16-6 home win over St Helens. The Regal Trophy started with a 40-22 win at Oldham and a routine 54-0 home win over Carlisle. The Third Round match was away to St Helens only 8 days after the League meeting between the two clubs and Cas won again 12-8 after being 6-8 behind at halftime. The Semifinal match against Bradford was played at Valley Parade but Cas were beaten 12-19. After a League win against Hull 14-2 at the Boulevard Cas then started their Challenge Cup campaign with a fine 21-6 win at Warrington in the First Round followed by a 34-16 home win over Hunslet in the next relegation. However they lost their Third Round tie at Headingley against Leeds 8-12. Two League defeats at St Helens and Halifax preceded 4 consecutive wins, 3 of which were at home against Hull KR 36-18, Halifax 32-16 and Champions elect Wigan 26-17 before a crowd of 8,734. Cas also won 14-8 at Wakefield, but lost their last 2 League matches to finish 6th in the League with 29 points from 26 matches. In the Premiership Playoffs Cas
won at Bradford 19-6, but lost in the Semifinal 8-25 at Wigan. Top try scorer was Tony Smith with 24, whilst Mike Ford scored 21 and Simon Middleton scored 19. Lee Crooks was top goalscorer with 112. There was no relegation from the First Division as it was decided to increase the number of clubs to 16 for the following season so Featherstone and Oldham were promoted, whilst the Second Division was also to contain 16 clubs with the Third Division disbanded after the bottom 3 clubs, Chorley Borough, Blackpool Gladiators and Nottingham City all resigned.

[Ken Smith]

Sorry again, the 15th line should read ‘34-16 home win over Hunslet in the next round’ not ‘next relegation’

[Ken Smith]

John Joyner became the new Castleford coach for the 1993/94 season and Richard Russell, Ian Smales and Tony Kemp we’re new signings. During the season Andy Fisher and Chris Watson played their last matches. The New Zealand tourists played Cas in early October and were soundly beaten 16-4, but both Leeds and St Helens inflicted early defeats on Cas at Wheldon Road early in the season. However Cas’s away form was very good as they won at Sheffield 20-11, Widnes 37-12, Salford 34-0 and Halifax 35-10. They also thrashed Wigan at home 46-0, their biggest ever win against the pie-eaters at that time. However it was their exploits in the Regal Trophy that put Cas on the map. Having a bye in the First Round Cas won away 16-12 against Hull KR in the Second Round and followed that up with home wins over Leigh 54-14 and Carlisle 44-4 in the subsequent rounds to reach the Semifinals where they won 23-10 at Bradford. The Final at Headingley was against Wigan and proved that their earlier 46-0 win was no fluke with another emphatic win 33-2 before crowd of 15,626. Graham Steadman, Tony Smith, Mike Ford and Richard Russell were the try scorers with Lee Crooks scored 6 goals and Tony Kemp scored a drop goal for good measure.
Cas were on a real winning streak at the time and the Regal Trophy win was one of 10 in 11 matches. The Challenge Cup was now restructured so that Cas didn’t enter until the Fourth Round when they demolished Salford at home 36-4 and then Keighley away 52-14 in the Fifth Round. Cas then beat Leigh 70-6 at home in the League before beating Widnes 30-6 at home in the Quarterfinal. The following week they beat Widnes again this time in the League 42-6 and Hull KR away 44-24. So going into the Semifinal against Wigan again at Headingley and having accumulated 238 points in their last 5 matches, Cas were pretty confident of turning Wigan over again. Alas it was not to be as Cas lost 6-20 before a crowd of 17,049. Wigan went on to beat Leeds 26-16 at Wembley, their 7th successive Challenge Cup win, and just for good measure beat Leeds again the following year 30-10 to make it 8 in a row. As for Cas they fell away somewhat with 4 wins and 4 defeats in their remaining League fixtures to finish 4th with 39 points from 30 matches 7 points behind Wigan, Bradford and Warrington all tied on 46 points. In the Premiership Playoffs Cas beat Halifax 28-23 at home, then Bradford away 24-16 in the Semifinals to book a Final place at Old Trafford against Wigan before a crowd of 35,644. Cas were 8-16 down at the interval, but rallied in the second half to only lose 20-24. Nevertheless it had been a good season for John Joyner’s first season as coach as Cas scored a total 1,169 points in all matches. St John Ellis set a new club record for tries in a season for Cas with 40 in 41 matches, Mike Ford scored 22, Simon Middleton 21, Richard Blackmore 20, Graham Steadman 16 and Grant Anderson 15. Lee Crooks scored 135 goals and St John Ellis left for South Queensland having scored 97 tries in 175 appearances during his 5 seasons with Cas. Surprisingly the average League attendance was only 5,207 for the season. Hull KR and Leigh were relegated with Workington and Doncaster ready to take their places in the following season.

[Tiger53]

These little summaries are fun and good to read so please don’t take this as criticism. Not sure where you have got the Regal Trophy Final scorers from. The scorers that day were:

Tries: Kettering’s (2), Anderson, Nikau, Crooks

Goals : Crooks (6) Kemp (dg)

Keep up the summaries.

[Ken Smith]

Apologies for my mistake, you’re quite right. I quoted the try scorers from the Semifinal win against Bradford by mistake which Cas won 23-10 and Lee Crooks landed 3 goals and a drop goal, the try scorers in that match being Graham Steadman, Tony Smith, Mike Ford and Richard Russell. I haven’t yet seen a recording of the Final on YouTube, but I seem to recall that Martin Ketteridge was man of the match because of his 2 tries.
I’m pleased you enjoy my reminisces, only 3 more to record now before the start of Super League.

[Fumper27]

If I remember rightly, that semi final against Bradford was on New Years Day and it was absolutely freezing!!!

[Ken Smith]

The 1994/95 season was the 100th season of Rugby League, not for Castleford of course as they were admitted to the League only in 1926, but from the initial break away from the Rugby Football Union and was in fact referred to as the Northern Union for many years. But it was also to become an important season as Super League approached in 1996. The initial theory was to have big city clubs only in Super League by the amalgamation of some of the smaller Northern clubs to make 10 clubs plus London and Paris. One suggestion was to amalgamate Castleford, Featherstone and Wakefield under the name of Calderdale. Of course all 3 clubs objected to that idea, so it was important that Cas finished in the top 10 to safeguard their position. As it happened on the field of play Cas were never in any danger of not making the top 10 but nevertheless it was to be worrying time as Super League expected that all Super League grounds should be fit for purpose within 3 years. Cas gave debuts to 11 players in the season but only Richard Goddard made more than 8 appearances. On the field of play Cas won their opening 4 matches with away wins at Widnes
30-16 and Hull 48-18, and home wins over Workington 26-14 and Sheffield 28-9. They then won only one of their next 5 League matches as well as suffering a 12-38 defeat against the Australian tourists. One of those defeats was away to newly promoted Doncaster 28-35, their first defeat there since 1958. However that was a wake-up call as Cas won 8 and drew 1 of their next 9 matches, 3 of them in the Regal Trophy. Entering the competition in the Second Round Cas beat Halifax at home 32-26, then both Dewsbury 30-2 and Leeds away 34-14 before coming a cropper in the Semifinal at Wigan 6-34. That defeat at Wigan started another wobble as Cas only won once in their next 6 matches included a Challenge Cup exit at Warrington 2-17.
However Cas won 9 of their last 10 matches including beating Wakefield twice, 36-25 away and 86-0 at home on Easter Monday scoring 17 tries. They finished 3rd in the League with 42 points from 30 matches, albeit 7 points behind Leeds and 14 behind Wigan. In the Premiership Playoff Cas lost 22-30 at home to Warrington, their 4th defeat to Wire during the season. The average attendance was 5,424 and top try scorers were Richard Blackmore in his final season with 24, Tony Smith 22, Tony Kemp also in his final season 18, Simon Middleton and Chris Smith each 17. Other players to play their last matches for Cas included Jon Wray, Martin Ketteridge, Andy Hay and Tony Morrison. Lee Crooks was top goalscorer with 111 and actually notched up his 1,000th point for the club in the 52-10 home victory over Hull in November,
whilst Graham Steadman scored his 100th try for the club in the 39-18 home victory over Bradford in October. The massive reconstruction of the League meant 5 clubs were relegated to Division One - Featherstone, Salford, Wakefield, Widnes and Hull whilst Doncaster were relegated to the Division Two. The only club promoted was London Broncos who actually only finished 4th and Paris St Germain who were fast-tracked. Divisions One and Two would each consist of 11 clubs next season with Hull KR leading a posse of clubs in Division Two.

[Ken Smith]

The 1995/96 season was to include only 11 clubs as Paris were to enter in the 1996 season called Super League 1, so although the Challenge Cup started for the smaller clubs in this season, the Super League clubs didn’t enter until February 1996 only 2 weeks after the 1995/96 season finished. However this would be the last season for the Regal Trophy and Cas were eliminated in the Second Round 18-19 at Carlisle. I ought to have mentioned that in the Preliminary Round of the previous year’s trophy, there were 2 massive results
on Thursday 24th November Barrow beat Nottingham City 138-0, and 3 days later Huddersfield beat Blackpool 142-4, matches that actually did look like cricket scores. As for Cas they won 6 home matches against Oldham 28-22, Leeds 22-18, Workington 32-24, Warrington 34-25, St Helens 26-18 and Bradford 32-26, and drew with Halifax 26-26, but won only 3 away matches at Bradford 18-12, Workington 22-16 and London 50-44 to finish 6th with 19 points from 20 matches. The season was no more than a dummy run or prelude to the Super League which started only 10 weeks later. Only newcomer Adrian Flynn reached double figures in the try scoring department with 10 whilst Lee Crooks scored 38 goals and Richard Goddard 21.
Now just before we look at Super League you may have noticed that Cas unlike during the Super League period, frequently seemed to beat St Helens. In fact at home In the 14 seasons prior to Super League Cas only lost once to the Saints. Starting with the 1982/83 season the results were as follows :- W31-10, W26-22,
W30-12, W32-18, W12-10, W20-10, W46-12, W34-24, W28-4, D8-8, W16-6, L18-35, W18-16, W26-18. Their away form wasn’t too shabby either with a sequence of 7 wins in 11 matches from the 1980/81 season:- W8-5,
W40-10, W24-23, W22-10, L16-30, L12-62, W10-8, L6-14, D14-14, W26-24, W29-16. These are League matches only, so Cas did the double over the Saints in 6 seasons in 1980/81, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1986/87, 1989/90 and 1990/91 the last season that Cas have won away to them in a League match. Strange also that in the 1996 Super League season that the first match should be in the Challenge Cup at home to St Helens with Cas quickly eliminated by a massive score of 16-58. I’ll review the first season in Super League tomorrow.

[Tamworth Tiger]

That record against Saints is unbelievable. I’ve been following Cas since the early 1960s and I have very few memories of victories over Saints, the most memorable being the 1970 Cup Semi

[Ken Smith]

Super League got on its way on Friday 29th March 1996 at the Sebastien Charlety Stadium in Paris where the local club named Paris St Germain hosted Sheffield Eagles before an encouraging and enthusiastic crowd of 17,873 in a stadium with a maximum capacity of 20,000. Paris won 30-24, whilst Castleford Tigers started at Odsal Stadium 2 days later in a stadium which still had the largest capacity at the time in Super League of 27,000, but a far cry from a ground that once boasted a crowd of 102,569 for a Challenge Cup Replay in 1954 between Warrington and Halifax. Cas lost 18-30 before a crowd of only 10,027. Cas had always been known as the Glassblowers, although it was never used in the title, but now added Tigers as its suffix and Wheldon Road became known as The Jungle for its first home match of the season against Leeds who at that time hadn’t added Rhinos as a suffix to its name. Cas won 26-23 with tries from Jason Flowers, Richard Russell, Andrew Schick, and newcomers Richard Gay and Frano Botica who also kicked 3 goals before a disappointing crowd of only 7,179. Four days later Cas won 34-30 at Thrum Hall agaInst the newly worded Halifax Blue Sox, a suffix they eventually discarded. Wigan Warriors were next in town and a slightly improved crowd of 7,985 rejoiced as Cas took a 10-6 interval lead with a Tony Smith try plus a conversion and 2 penalties from former Wigan player Frano Botica. Unfortunately that’s as good as it got with Wigan scoring 4 second half tries as Cas suffered a first home League defeat 10-28. Worse was to follow though as Cas lost 20-24 at home to Oldham Bears and 12-20 away to Sheffield Eagles. Cas then beat Workington Town 50-16 at home, but lost their next 3 matches at home to London Broncos 20-21 and Warrington Wolves 17-22, either side of a 24-62 defeat at St Helens. Wins in Paris 54-22 and at home to Bradford Bulls 26-23 comics back from a halftime deficit of 8-10 slightly eased the situation, but 3 more successive defeats at Leeds and Wigan and a 20-24 home defeat against Halifax showed Cas with only 5 wins from their first 15 matches. The season turned around slightly with away wins against Oldham Bears 30-20 and Workington Town 46-20 plus a 36-31 home win over Sheffield Eagles, but losing 3 of their remaining matches at home including a 16-20 loss to St Helens and away defeats at Warrington and especially at The Valley the home of Charlton Athletic 0-56 were hard to bear. Cas did manage to win their
last home match of the season against Paris 22-18 to finish in 9th position with 18 points from 22 matches. Tawera Nikau and Gary Stephens played their final matches in the Challenge Cup defeat to St Helens and Frano who was top goalscorer with 84 also left after only one season. Only 3 players reached double figures with tries, Tony Smith, Chris Smith and Jason Fowers each with 10. The average attendance was only 5,180. St Helens were Champions but lost 14-44 in the 4 club Premiership final to Wigan, whilst Workington were relegated to be replaced by Salford, and St Helens retained the Challenge Cup by beating Bradford 32-22 at Wembley.

[Ken Smith]

Sorry again for the predictive text writing ‘comics’ in the 18th line instead of ‘coming’. I hope that these irritating problems don’t spoil the sense of the article.

[Ken Smith]

The 1997 season known as Super League Il started again with the Challenge Cup matches with Cas entering in Round 4 with a home tie against Salford Reds with Jason Roach, Adrian Vowles, Sean McVean and Jason Lidden making their debuts, but Cas lost 18-36. Cas then had a 7 week break before their first League match, again against Salford but this time away. The score was closer this time as Cas only lost
0-4. However it was a dreadful start to the season as Cas lost their first 11 matches including the Cup defeat and coach John Joyner was dismissed. Mick Morgan took temporary charge until Australian Stuart Raper was able to take over in the 8-13 home defeat to Paris. Amongst the casualties in that terrible start were Tony Smith after that first League defeat at Salford, Richard Goddard after the 14-22 home defeat to Wigan and Adrian Flynn after the 20-42 away defeat against Sheffield. At last Cas won a match 12-10 at home to Salford in the middle of May, but Cas failed to win any of their next 5 League matches although they did manage draws at home to Leeds 30-30 when Cas rallied from an 8-18 deficit at halftime, and then at Oldham 12-12 where Cas came back from 6-2 down at the interval. Cas were then involved in the World Club Challenge losing at home to both Australian clubs Perth Reds 16-24 and Hunter Mariners 14-42 in which Lee Crooks made his final appearance for Cas. Successive defeats against London and Bradford had Cas rock bottom with only 4 points accrued from 16 matches. Cas though then won 20-8 in Paris and 25-20 at home to Oldham before setting out to Australia for the return matches in the World Club Challenge but again lost to Hunter Mariners 8-26 and 14-24 against Perth Reds in which Grant Anderson made his final appearance. Back home and Cas lost at home to London Broncos 13-22, but then caused the shock of the season by thrashing St Helens at home 35-16 with a commanding second half performance after the match being level 16-16 at halftime. Cas scored 5 tries through Jason Critchley with 2, and the others coming from Ricard Gay, Chris Smith and Jason Lidden in his one and only season with Cas. Cas were now virtually safe even though they lost at Warrington in their penultimate League match, and they finished their
League programme at home by beating Sheffield 12-10 to finish 10th with only 12 points from 22 matches, but that was 3 better than Oldham with 9 who were relegated. It now proved how vital the narrow win at home to Oldham had become. The Premiership Playoffs involved all 12 Super League clubs with the top four clubs getting byes in the First Round. Cas won at Halifax 23-18, then caused another surprise by beating the Champions Bradford 25-12 in the Second Round with tries from Jason Critchley, Chris Smith, Brad Davis and
Brendon Tuuta, with 3 goals from Brad Davis, one from Graham Steadman and a drop goal from Mike Ford. So after such a miserable season Cas had reached the Semifinals, but it proved to be a match too far as Cas were beaten 18-32. Jason Critchley was top try scorer with 12 from 16 appearances, whilst Brad Davis scored 21 goals, Danny Orr 18 and Lee Crooks 13. It would be remiss of me not to mention 2 stalwarts of the game who played their final games for Cas in this particular season. LEE CROOKS spent over 7 years for Cas making 222 appearances, kicking 596 goals, one drop goal and 18 tries giving him a total of 1,265 points an average of 5.7 per match. GRAHAM STEADMAN spent 8 years with Cas making 237 appearances scoring 121 tries, 174 goals and 8 drop goals giving him a total of 840 points an average of 3.44 per match, considerably lower than Crooks. But imagine if he had been the regular goal kicker he might well have scored over 700 goals and almost 2,000 points and well over 8 points per match, purely hypothetical but it would have put him as one of the all time greats, if indeed he is not already.

[Ken Smith]

The 1998 season know as Super League lll again started with the Challenge Cup as Cas entered in Round 4 with 4 new debutants, Barrie-Jon Mather, Francis Maloney, Michael Smith and Gael Tallec at Headingley as Cas beat Leeds 15-12 with tries from Mather and Andrew Schick plus 2 goals from Brad Davis and one from Maloney plus a drop goal from Mike Ford. Two weeks later in Round 5 Cas beat Bradford 26-21 before a crowd of 10,283 with tries from Jason Flowers, Gael Tallec, debutant Danny Ellison and Brad Davis who also scored 5 goals. A televised home Quarterfinal against Sheffield Eagles then beckoned which Cas surprisingly lost 22-32. However Cas were not the only team to be surprised by Sheffield, coached by ex-Castleford player John Kear, went on to arguably cause the biggest shock in the history of Challenge Cup Finals by beating Wigan 17-8. As for Cas their first Super League match was at Wigan where they lost 4-18.
Cas then beat Sheffield 19-6 at home but lost their next 2 away matches at Leeds and Halifax. Then continued a strange sequence of winning a match but losing the next two that occurred 5 times in succession. They beat Hull Sharks at home 31-18, lost at Warrington 18-33 and at home to Bradford 10-52, beat Salford away 18-8 then lost at home to both St Helens 12-34 and Huddersfield Giants 10-16, then beat London Broncos away 36-16 but lost at home to Wigan 4-34 and at Sheffield 16-22, beat Warrington at Cardiff 23-16 and Leeds at home 22-16 before a crowd of 8,406, then lost at home to Halifax 16-36 and away to Hull 6-18, then beat Warrington 50-24 at home scoring 9 tries, then losing at Bradford 8-24. It was a case of one step forward followed by two steps back. However they finished the season undefeated in 4 matches with a 32-32 draw at St Helens and a 32-20 win at Huddersfield, plus home wins against Salford 30-12 and London 23-18. It was a strange season as Cas never won more than twice in succession, but neither did they lose more than twice in succession as they finished 6th with 21 points from 23 matches.
Danny Orr was top top try scorer with 10 and also scored 21 goals for a total of 82 points, but Brad Davis scored 8 tries, 35 goals and 2 drop goals for a total of 104 points. There were departures for 6 players late in the season- David Chapman, Richard Russell, Mike Ford, Andrew Schick, Jason Critchley and Richard McKell.
The introduction of the Australian styled Top 5 Playoff meant that Cas just missed out being 3 points behlnd
Bradford. Wigan were League Leaders and also Champions as they beat Leeds 10-4 in the Grand Final at Old Trafford.

[Ken Smith]

Huddersfield Giants despite finishing bottom of Super League lll with only 2 wins were spared relegation as the 1999 season saw the extension of the number of clubs to 14 with Wakefield being promoted and Gateshead Thunder fast tracked, with each club playing 4 loop fixtures to make 30 in all. Once again the season started with the Challenge Cup, Cas entering in Round 4 with a home tie against Hull Sharks. Four players made their debuts for Cas - Michael Eagar, Darren Rogers, Andy Lynch and Aaron Raper, the brother of the head coach. After a close first half Cas led 14-12 at the interval, but ran away in the second half to win 36-22 with 2 tries each from Jason Flowers and Brad Davis, plus single tries from Richard Gay, Danny Orr and Darren Rogers with Ian Tonks kicking 4 conversions. Next up James Pickering and Dale Fritz made their debuts as Cas beat York Wasps at home in Round 5 rather easily 28-2. The first League match of 1999 came up next as Cas welcomed Wakefield before a crowd of 7,223, and in an evenly balanced contest Cas won 12-10. Next up was a Challenge Cup Quarterfinal again at home as Cas beat Salford Reds
30-10 before losing for the first time this season 14-19 at Warrington in a League match. So next on to Headingley for the Challenge Cup against London Broncos where Cas were overwhelming favourites, but seemed to be behind most of the time and eventually lost to a late try 27-33. Cas really ought to have won this match because the Broncos were not that good and were well and trill walloped by Leeds at Wembley
52-16 the highest ever score in the Cup Final. In the League Cas won their next 3 matches Halifax at home 14-10, and both Huddersfield 36-14 and Salford 29-17 away. Cas then welcomed Gateshead Thunder to the Jungle in a televised match and struggled to contain them in the first half and were 4-12 down at the interval Cas rallied in the second half but eventually lost 14-17. Cas were showing some inconsistent form at this stage of the season, as a week later they travelled to Wigan and recorded a magnificent 24-8 victory with tries from Jon Wells, Brad Davis, Lee Harland and Adrian Vowles with 3 goals from Danny Orr and one from Ian Tonks. A couple of draws followed next at home to Bradford Bulls 18-18 and away to London 12-12.
After another draw at home to Leeds 12-12, Cas’s home form really picked up with 8 successive wins, the most noteworthy being against Warrington 39-6, Wigan 33-18 and London 52-16. In fact Cas won 7 of their next 8 matches to seal a playoff place in 5th place with 41 points from their 30 matches. In the Elimination Playoff they stunned 4th placed Wigan again 14-10 with tries for Michael Eager and Adrian Vowles plus 3 Danny Orr goals. That meant a Semifinal 1 match away to 4th placed Leeds which Cas also won 23-16 with tries from Michael Eager, Dale Fritz and Adrian Vowles, with 5 Danny Orr goals and an Aaron Raper Drop Goal. So into the Preliminary Final and away to 2nd placed St Helens, but Cas were swamped 6-36.
St Helens then beat Bradford 8-6 in the Final. Top try scorers for Cas were Darren Rogers 23, Richard Gay and Michael Eager both 19, Francis Maloney 16, Brad Davis 14 and Danny Orr 12 who also scored 97 goals and 2 drop goals for a points total of 244.

[Ken Smith]

Sorry, in line 15 it should read ‘were well and truly walloped’ not ‘trill walloped’.

[Ken Smith]

Season 2000 began with some strange shenanigans. Huddersfield Giants who had once more finished bottom the season before avoided relegation once more by merging with Sheffield Eagles to be known as Huddersfield/Sheffield Giants, whilst Hull Sharks who had finished second from bottom merged with Gateshead Thunder to be known as simply Hull FC to reduce Super League V back to 12 clubs, and by adding 6 loop fixtures gave each club 28 League fixtures. Once again the season started with the Challenge Cup and Cas were drawn against the giant killers of the Third Round, the Conference League club Oldham St Anne’s who had beaten Batley Bulldogs 10-0 away. Cas fielded 4 new players in their lineup against the minnows (Dean Ellis, Logan Campbell, Andrew Purcell and Darren Shaw) but were fairly ruthless in their approach to the match scoring 12 tries in a 64-8 win, only to come a cropper in the next round 10-11 at home to Halifax Blue Sox. The first League match was at home to Wigan Warriors before a crowd of 8,812.
Cas then won 4 of their next 5 matches, home wins over London Broncos 16-10 and Hull FC 22-12 plus away wins at Salford 22-16 and Wakefield 22-12. The loss was 12-44 at Bradford, and later defeats at Wigan 16-30
and at home to St Helens 22-32 signified a moderate start. However 3 successive wins against Huddersfield
/Sheffield 26-6 and Salford Reds 30-4 both at home and Warrington 37-26 away meant that Cas had now won 8 of their first 12 League matches, but this was only a prelude to two wins and 2 defeats in the following matches. The 2 wins were at London 26-20 and at Hull 18-4, but the 2 defeats at home attracted the highest crowds of the season. Against Leeds 11,702 watched Cas relinquish an 18-6 halftime lead with tries from Brad Davis, Dean Sampson and Ian Tonks to an 18–20 defeat. Against Bradford though a crowd of 10,015 witnessed Cas being swamped 10-39. Successive home wins against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 16-12
and Halifax 26-12 were followed by defeats at St Helens and at home to Warrington. Another fine crowd of 9,819 turned up for the second home match against Leeds and this time Cas won 20-16 with 2 tries from Jon Wells and one each from Darren Rogers and Brad Davis, plus goals from Danny Orr and Barry Eaton. Despite losing at Halifax Cas ended their League matches with a flourish 30-16 at home to London, 28-14 at Fartown against Huddersfield/Sheffield and 20-8 at home to Wakefield enabling Cas to easily make the playoffs in 5th place for the second year running with 34 points from their 28 matches. Regrettably they were beaten in the Preliminary Final 14-22 at Headingley against Leeds Rhinos this time. Darren Rogers was top try scorer with 20, with Jon Wells and Michael Eager each scoring 14, Brad Davis 11 and Danny Orr scoring 10 to go with his 61 goals. Jamie Benn also kicked 22 goals in this his last season and the average attendance was 7,816 up 1,154 a 17% increase on the previous season.

[Ken Smith]

For the 2001 season Huddersfield Giants dropped their association with Sheffield, otherwise the same 12 clubs constituted Super League Vl. Again the Challenge Cup started the season and Cas entered in the 4th
Round with an 18-4 win at Dewsbury with Graham Steadman taking over as Head Coach and 4 players making their debuts, Mark Lennon, Mitch Healey, Gareth Handford and Jonathon Roper, although the first half was close with Cas’s lead being only 6-4. In the 5th Round Cas were drawn at home to Leeds, but most of the bumper crowd of 11,481 went home disappointed as Cas were humiliated 12-42. The first League match was away to Wakefield and Cas found themselves 0-9 down at the interval but second half tries from a Michael Smith brace and one each from Barrie-Jon Mather and Adrian Vowles with 3 goals from Danny Orr changed things Cas’s way with a 22-17 win. Cas then lost 8-24 at home to Wigan and drew at Hull 18-18 before beating Warrington at home 18-0, then losing at home to Salford 22-24 and 22-32 at Leeds. A 34-24 home win against Halifax followed in which Brad Hepi played in his last match. Aaron Raper played his last match for Cas as they lost at home to Champions elect Bradford 22-24 and then at St Helens 16-36 where both Andy McNally and Andy Speak made their debuts. Cas then scored 9 tries at Huddersfield where Dean Sampson scored a hat trick in a 46-26 win. Two defats followed at home to
London Broncos 12-25 and another anhialation at Wigan 12-54. Cas then showed some form with 4 wins in the next 5 matches including home wins over Wakefield 26-22, Hull FC 33-26 and Leeds before a crowd of 10,625 where Cas having established a 24-6 interval lead hung on to win 28-26. The other win in this sequence was at Salford 26-18. However Cas weren’t showing much consistency and after winning 28-26 at home to St Helens finished the season with 6 successive defeats to finish with 21 points from 28 matches and in 8th position in the League. Jason Flowers left at the end of the season having scored 47 tries in his 194 appearances, but the top try scorers in 2001 were Mlchael Smith and Danny Orr each with 10 with the latter also scoring 60 goals. Once again the average League attendance exceeded 7,500. Bradford Bulls beat Wigan Warriors in the Grand Final 37-6, still the record points win in Super League’s showpiece, whilst Huddersfield Giants were at last relegated with Widnes Vikings promoted for the ensuing season.

[Ken Smith]

Once again the Challenge Cup took centre stage at the beginning of the 2002 season with Cas entering in the 4th Round with a home fixture against Salford and giving debuts to Andy Johnson, Ryan Hudson and Wayne Bartrim who took over the goalkicking duties from Danny Orr. Cas won 19-6 with Danny Orr scoring a course of tries and one from Michael Smith. Two weeks later Cas beat London Broncos away by the same score as Kyle Warren made his debut. This time Ryan Hudson scored a couple of tries with Richard Gay scoring the other and as in the previous round Wayne Bartrim converted all 3 of the tries. Super League VII started with Cas visiting Wakefield and winning again 28-10 as Andy Johnson opened his account with 2 tries, another from Richard Gay and Wayne Bartrim scoring 2 as well as kicking 4 goals. However a shock awaited in the next League match against newly promoted Widnes at home as Cas found themselves 8-30 behind at the interval. Cas rallied in the second half but too little too late as they lost 24-31. However Cas were lucky with the Cup draw and duly beat Championship side Doncaster Dragons 32-14 at home in the Quarterfinals to set up a Semifinal meeting with Wigan at Headingley. Cas put on a brave display and were only 10-14 behind at the interval but eventually succumbed to a 10-20 defeat. Wigan then beat St Helens 21-12 in the Final at Murrayfield to record their 17th Challenge Cup win. As for Cas their League form had suffered before their Cup exit with an 18-18 draw at home to London, an away defeat at Wigan and a 16-36 battering at home to Leeds before a crowd of 10,017. They made slight amends though at Salford where Olivier Elijah made his debut as they scored 13 tries in a 74-16 win. After the Cup exit though Cas lost 18-48 at Hull and then 8-32 at home to Bradford. At this stage of the season Cas had accumulated only 5 points from 8 matches and then faced the daunting task of facing the League leaders St Helens at home in their next match. At halftime Cas were only 16-18 down, but then put on a stirring second half display to win 36-22 with the 2 tries each from Barrie-Jon Mather and Darren Rogers, with further tries from Ryan Hudson, Andy Johnson and Wayne Bartrim who also kicked 4 goals. However it seemed only a false dawn as Cas won only 2 of their next 7 matches against Warrington 46-24 and Salford 24-2 to slip further down the table. Two away wins at London 24-20 and especially at Leeds 32-24 gave Cas a shot in the arm but an
18-40 reverse at Bradford was a disappointment. However Cas then won 7 of their last 8 matches including wins at Warrington 24-12, Halifax 40-16 and Salford 20-10, plus home wins against Halifax 38-14, Wakefield 44-6, Widnes 32-20 and an outstanding 44-14 win again Champions elect Bradford with tries from Wayne Pryce, Mitch Healey, AndyJohnson, Jon Wells, Barrie-Jon Mather, Lee Harland and Danny Orr who also scored 2 goals with Wayne Bartrim kicking 6, shoved Cas into 6th place with 30 points from 28 matches. In all Cas had only lost 4 times in their final 15 matches, and overall had won half of their 14 away matches. For this season there were 6 playoff places with 3rd place at home to 6th place, so Cas had to face Wigan away in an Elimination Playoff which Cas lost 14-26. St Helens won the League title and beat 2nd placed Bradford 19-18 in the Grand Final. As for Cas Richard Gay played his last game in May, whilst Barrie-Jon Mather retired at the end of the season and Jon Wells signed for Wakefield before spending his final years with London Broncos. Top try scorer for Cas was Darren Rogers with 18, followed by Wayne Pryce with 16, Michael Eager 15, and both Jon Wells and Danny Orr with 13. Wayne Bartrim kicked 115 goals and the average crowd attendance was 6,698. Salford Reds finished bottom and were relegated, whilst Huddersfield Giants replaced them by not only winning 26 and drawing one of their 27 matches, but also beating Leigh Centurions in the Championship Playoff Final.