Musings

My apologies for returning to an old subject, but it had been irritating me since the end of last season. Following the final two poorly attended home games, a few fans were enquiring as to the clubs previous lowest attendance, as I believe the Catalans and Wakefield games drew just over 6,000. Unfortunately, there is precious little on the net with regard to Rugby League attendance records, and those who keep them on behalf of Bradford do not seem to frequent these forums, or answer related questions if they do.

However, I have recently been researching aspects of Bradford sport from the mid nineteenth century, and in doing so, unearthed a number of amazing little gems- and some attendance records. Unless I am mistaken, the Bulls previous lowest league attendance prior to the Catalans- Wakefield games was on the 22nd of January 1996, when they beat Workington 14-4 in front of 3036. This of course was the final- curtailed season prior to summer rugby.

The team that day- Cook, Cordle, Bradley, Loughlin, Christie, Summers, Paul, Ireland, Dwyer, McDermott, Donougher, Nickle, Knox. Subs Hassan, Donohue, Fairbank, Medley. The scorers were- Cook, a try and three goals, and a try from Donohue. Also of interest, on December 1st 1996, Northern beat Oldham 14-10 in front of 2787.

I find it difficult to believe it is only fourteen years since such small crowds were attending games at Odsal, and that- from someone whose first rugby league match (as an eight year old) was Bradford Northern’s (1907) last game on December 10th 1963. I was the ‘1’ in a crowd of 841, as Leigh won a second division game 33-5. Northern had led 5-3. Being one child in such a vast railway sleeper-cinder covered oval- with a few hundred other spectators was an awesome feeling, one I still remember to this day. Northern were put to sleep some days later and their season records expunged. Somehow, a solitary win that season had come when they thumped Salford at home. God knows how bad Salford must have been.

Less than ten years earlier, around 120,000 spectators had stood in the same ground. In the early seventies, I worked with several middle-aged chaps in Halifax. Most of them were at the replayed Challenge Cup game, and confirmed how many thousands scaled the fences- including them.

While I didn’t have an opportunity to watch those Northern greats of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, I’ve heard of, or read about most of them. During my research however, I was surprised to learn that ‘Matt’ was not the first ‘Orford’ to represent Bradford Northern/Bulls. Welsh international second rower- Sandy Orford joined Northern in 1935, and again in 1947. He’s one player who had slipped my attention.

Another quirky tale involves low scoring. On many Saturdays during the 60’s I had to decide between Park Avenue and Odsal, if Avenue and Northern were at home on the same day. The team on a successful run at the time would often get the nod, and unbelievably, in December 1964, Avenue were top of the league and beating everyone in sight. They also had a budding goal-scoring superstar called Kevin Hector. Looking back at the records, on the 5th of December 64, our little group went to watch Avenue beat Halifax 5-1, stopping off on the way back for a Yorkshire Sports Pink, and a tense wait for the paper which confirmed Northern’s 2-0 win over Dewsbury. Even then, I remember my surprise at such a low score line. I had however forgotten about the week before, when Northern had beaten Wakefield 3-0, while we were again watching Avenue hammer Hartlepool 4-0. Just over three years later, I remember going down Odsal to watch a Challenge Cup Semi-Final between Huddersfield and Wakefield. A crowd of just over 20,000 watched a 0-0 draw.

In the days of three point tries, five yard play-the-balls, winter pitches and part-time professionalism, scores were certainly lower than those of the summer era, and scoring just over 30 points would often suggest a thrashing of the opposing team. However, such low scores as those mentioned above were still very unusual. I suppose another 0-0 score has taken place since 1968, but I doubt we will see another.