A good friend of mine was clearing out the bookshelves in his home and found a match programme from the Challenge Cup 1st Round match between Pilkington Recs & Castleford on 12th Feb, 1978. He kindly passed it onto me as he thought it might be more of interest to me.

He's a Featherstone fan, and he remembers travelling up from Oxford to see this game and obviously was shouting for Pilks.

He doesn't remember much from the game, only that it was very close (I believe Malcolm Reilly's Cas won by a single point).

Can anyone tell me anymore about this game?

Here were the squads for each team...

Pilks: Peter Glover, Andy Casey, Rufus Hill, Alan Shea, Joe Hull, John McCabe, Bill Simmons, John Forster, Ken Cross, Geoff Gormley, Steve Smith, Brian Highcock, Dennis Colbon, Sid Wright, Steve Fuller, John Finney, Bob Williams, Jimmy Sheffield.

Cas: Geoff Wraith, Terry Richardson, George Claughton, John Joyner, John Cain, Philip Johnson, Steve Fenton, Geoff Morris, Bruce Burton, Gary Stephens, Clive Pickerill, Jamie Walsh, David Briggs, David Sampson, Robert Spurr, Alan Hardy, Derek Woodall, Malcolm Reilly, Sammy Lloyd, Paul Orr, Jimmy Crampton, Peter Crookland.

Dennis Colbon is Liam Colbons dad. Liam played for Wigan, London and I think both Hull clubs. He was at school with and a good friend of my sons.
I think Dennis also dis a lot of coaching at Pilks.

If memory serves me right it was the year after Pilks ran Wigan close at Knowsley Road, 10 -4. Pilks put up a similar good effort but Cas won comfortably in the end. The centre Alan Shea lived down our street, Chamberlain St

Wow. To only lose to Wigan 10-4 and Cas by a point is remarkable. They must have been a belting amateur team.

Thank you both for replying.

No Wigan were c**p...........

Seriously both were great games in front of big and vocal crowds. Wigan were losing for much of the game but got a dodgy penalty and a try in the last 20 minutes.

The popular side amused themselves by singing "what a load of rubbish" at the pies.

Nothing changed there then