On this day in 1968, Clive Sullivan scored a club record seven tries against Doncaster – Bill Dalton recalls the history-making afternoon for the Hall of Fame member.
The Easter weekend had already been a successful one for the Hull FC team, having established bragging rights over Hull Kingston Rovers at Craven Park on Good Friday by 19-5 and Bramley on The Boulevard by 28-14 the following day. As was the custom in those days, a third game in four days beckoned on Easter Monday.
Tatters Field at Doncaster was the venue for what would be Hull’s final regular season fixture. I was just one of a reported 1,000 spectators present. Doncaster were about to conclude their 17th season in the Rugby League. They had started well in 1951-52, but their existence since had been a long downward slide into sub-mediocrity. Supporters of all clubs wished them well, but looked forward to the easy two points when their own team played them. They had won only four and drawn two of their previous 33 fixtures and were about to finish 29th of the 30 teams in the league at that time.
On this Easter Monday afternoon. Hull supporters among those 1,000 supporters gathered for the kick-off were about to see their club’s history book re-written. Throughout the 73 years of the Northern Union/Rugby League, only six players had ever scored six tries in a match – Jack Harrison managed it twice. The last six-timer had been that of Tom Collins on 4th April 1925.
Hull played towards the Bentley Road end of the ground in the first half and by halftime, Clive Sullivan had contributed a brace of tries towards the 23-3 lead. In the second half, the floodgates opened for Hull and by the end of the game, he had broken the club record for tries in a match by having scored seven. In all, the team scored 13 in the 57-6 win and only Tony Duke of the rest managed a double. John Maloney also kicked nine goals, which was also his best tally among his eventual 674 successful goal-kicks for Hull.
Clive Sullivan was destined to establish new records in the Black and White hoops of Hull from the day he made his hat-trick scoring debut against Bramley on 9th December 1961, and he finished his career at Hull in 1985 having created a club record of 250 tries from his 352 appearances.
Clive was proud of his Welsh heritage and apart from his 17 appearances for Great Britain, including the captaincy of the 1972 World Cup-winning squad, he represented Wales on a further 15 occasions. The Club certainly struck lucky with Welsh signings over the years as three of the to four try scorers were born in Wales!
Thanks for the memories Clive.
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