Quote: The Dentist Wilf "Hers one I found the other day from 10th September 1974, in the dark dark days of when we were the team floundering in the Second Division whilst Leeds had won that same Yorkshire Cup for the past two years and were, as usual, the top club east of the Pennines and ‘dead certs’ to win it again. Their line up back then included familiar names like Langley, Holmes, Syd Hynes, Keith Hepworth (late of Castleford and soon to be of Hull FC), Mike Harrison (ex of Hull FC) and a great flying winger called John Atkinson.
........ The pundits had us down for a good hiding but we shot into a surprise 7-0 lead in the first half hour, however it was just before half time when the whole thing kicked off. Hepworth tackled our captain, the usually mild mannered Brian Hancock, and much to the delight of the fans a fist fight involving six players immediately broke out in front of the best stand centred around these two. Referee Lawrenson sent Hancock straight off the field, for what was the player’s first ever dismissal. His Hull FC team mates crowded round the official to object and Len Casey must have said a bit too much because off he went too, as the referee again pointed to the dressing rooms.
Our blind side prop forward that day ‘Big’ Jim Macklin, who never had that much patience, had by this time clearly had enough! The fiery front rower motioned to the players and pointed to the tunnel as most of them started to trudge defiantly towards the dressing rooms. Now this was a real surprise for the fans who had never ever contemplated seeing the players walking from the field in protest. It was simply unheard of and we were all stood in absolute amazement. The official, who clearly had no idea what to do next, (nothing new there then) told Leeds to ignore our players and get on with the penalty, Syd Hynes tapped the ball and set off arrogantly jogging down the pitch towards the Airlie Street end, motioning to the FC players with a wide grin on his face.
Alf Macklin, Jim’s brother who was stuck out on the wing and not part of the walk off, shouted to the lads and pointed to the Leeds player whilst mouthing ‘F*cking get Him’ a call that was taken up immediatelyby the 4000 fans spread around the terracing. Our players turned round, and in a fit of rage ran back across the field and Jim Macklin and Don Robson sunk the now fleeing Syd Hynes with one of the biggest crash tackles I have ever seen!! they all started scraping too and The referee had by now completely lost control and the game continued to the break by which time the eleven players of Hull FC, playing like men possessed, somehow managing to tough it out, and keep the marauding Leeds forwards from scoring any points.
However the excitement was not over yet because after the referee had blown the whistle for half time, a Hull fan, obviously enraged by the earlier dismissals, vaulted the hooped top fencing in front of the terracing at the Airlie Street end and ran towards the match official. Spotting this, referee Lawrenson, who obviously fancied himself a bit, set off toward the supporter fists up to confront him, head on! It was all happening, and the crowd roared their approval as two policemen rugby tackled the fan, whilst Chris Davidson, our scrum half, held back the referee and escorted him off the pitch. That was a real reversal of roles because Chris was usually the trouble maker rather than the peacemaker!!. This unique occurrence was something that was not lost on the crowd who were buzzing through the whole of the half time interval.
If the first half was pure circus, then the second half was possibly the best display of ‘backs to the wall’ rugby I have seen on any field of play anywhere in my lifetime. The crowd, who had come along to watch an anticipated drubbing, were treated to the best dogged, gutsy exhibition of Rugby League most of them had seen, and in fact would probably ever see! The “flash” Leeds team ripped into the 11 men of Hull from the kick off but the home defences somehow stayed intact and then when Davidson kicked a penalty and a drop goal to move the score line to 10-0, what we were witnessing was almost impossible to believe.
Leeds numerical superiority brought them two quick tries, as they threw the ball around and after 60 minutes they were trailing by just 2 points at 10-8. For the last 10 minutes they bombarded our line but somehow we held out! In those days of unlimited substitution our coach rang the changes so many times in the last fifteen minutes that the referee stopped the game on a couple of occasions just to count how many players we actually had on the field. I have witnessed some great gritty and passionate performances since, notably winning at Castleford again with 11 men in the early 80’s, but that one was a bit special!
How things have changed eh???'"
It was magnificent that game Wilf, unbelievably we won as well. I remember Super Alf waving them back on, like it was yesterday. Did we not get knocked out by Wakey in the next round?
As you say a similar thing happened at Cas, I was also at this game with the dismissals of Crampton or Skerret, can’t quite remember now, down to 11 we beat Cas at Wheldon road.
Two great memories which for me would be in my all time top ten.
