Maurice also went on to be Great Britain Coach. The guy was fantastic for Fax, i remember him coming off the field at headingley after the cup semi defeat by HullKR crying his eyes out. Happy Days.

I hope that 33 years isn't too significant as it's actually only 32.

I too was at the game - and I took a friend with me for his one and only visit to Thrum Hall.

DEBACLE ????
All clubs make mistakes, he was just a very expensive one !
Against the very strong advice of a well known local referee who had played for Greetland earlier in his life, I was in on one of the discussions while we were without a coach, and the said bloke told everyone "you'll make a big mistake bringing him in, he'll cause nowt but trouble" how right he was

The likes of Dave Beaumont & Dave Rawnsley who were legends at Greetland did a great job of holding the club together in it's spell after coming out of the conference.

I was at the Cawoods game as a teenager as per normal for me in those days, and it wasn't that big a surprise, 'cos the team were awful in those days. I remember being up in the cricket club tea room after the game and a middle aged bloke told me to hang onto my match programme " it'll be worth summat in a few years young 'un "

A crowd figure of less than 900 sticks in the memory, but that wasn't un-usual....

I was almost a year old so I hadn't made it to TH by then, first game was about 10 years later against Keighley and I went knowing absolutely nothing about RL, didn't even know Fax existed and assumed Thrum Hall must have been something like the LA Coliseum cos I'd just seen it in a film on telly. Have no idea about the result of the game as I was too busy trying to stay warm. Great days.

Legends for me although I was not at the game. My first game was the Semi Final versus Hull KR a couple of years later. Remember my dad telling me about Alan Maskill (Think his younger brother was Colin who was at Leeds and Cas later) being killed whilst crossing the road or something from his car.


Do not forget yourself as well as Gary Ellis, Kempy and your Dad etc. In fact all of you old heads played a big role in shaping me and showing me what the game meant so that Rugby League is now played in Germany. We took some beatings but we also eventually handed a few out up at Greetland. As said it was my days up at Greetland that has been my inspiration to get League in to Germany as I look back at how tough things were but the encouragement and passion made a lasting impression.

Nice post mate, thanks.
Colin Maskill started out at Wakey, I distinctly remember hooking against him up at Illingworth in a colts game and he leathered me 7-4 in the scrum count, which was a rarity ( ! ), but Paul Bardgett ( Joe's brother ) took care of him and caught him accidently with the boot and he had to have seven stitches in a muddy scalp wound. Happy days, scrum counts, who remembers those ?


R.I.P Alan Maskill, he was brilliant.

I started watching Fax the year after Cawoods, so thankfully wasnt one of the 70,000 who did. My first game was the Yorkshire Cup match against Cas under Bamford and I doubt few who were there would forget that game.

On Alan Maskill I remember coming back from holiday and reading about his death. Truely shocking and even though I was still relatively young there was a sense of loss. He was a gifted playmaker. Fax played Workington a few days later and they were a very strong team, probably a shade better than Fax yet we still beat them (7-4 ?) and dedicated the win to Alan.

Yes thats right, its all coming back into focus now. 30+ Years ago how time flys !

Cawoods was 5 years before I was born, but I was there along with the other 90,000 die hard fans.

i admit that was not there as was working, luckily.