On this day in 1921, Hull FC beat Hull KR 16-14 to win the Northern Union Championship Final at Headingley for the second season in a row – Club Historian Bill Dalton looks back at Hull’s success.
Throughout Hull FC’s history, they have made ‘doubling-up” almost into an art form. The initial reaching of a Challenge Cup Final in 1908, turned out to be three in succession, followed by a further pair of finals in 1922 and 1923. A trio of Yorkshire Cup Finals in 1953-55 was followed by a treble of Championship Finals in 1956-58. Hull’s first date at Wembley was followed by another visit in 1960, two more in 1982-83 and, of course, the long-awaited Wembley victory was accompanied by another in 2017.
However, the first of these multiple final appearances to harvest double success took place 99 years ago when Hull, having claimed the Championship in April 1920, again qualified for the play-off against table-topping Hull Kingston Rovers. As a spur to “have what we hold”, Hull had the incentive to avenge a Yorkshire Cup Final defeat 6 months previously when Billy Bradshaw dropped a very late goal for a 2-0 win.
The decision to hold the final at Headingley was the subject of much debate within the city and the attendance was again disappointing at 10,000, due in the main to a railway dispute which limited the number of special trains to Leeds to just one. The Hull Daily Mail reported that the Northern Union Committee had reached agreement to stage the match at Hull City’s ground, but Rovers declined the offer. The Rugby League Community in Leeds would have been grateful for common sense prevailing when, in 1938, Leeds and Hunslet played their Championship Final at Elland Road.
With the exception of the injured Alf Francis, both teams were at full strength. Both teams had won the league encounters on their opponents ground, so Rovers went into the match with the psychological advantage of the narrow Yorkshire Cup victory.
The match commenced at 3.30pm under cloudy skies and an early break to the corner by Arthur Moore was repulsed by Hull. However, Rovers took the lead with a penalty kicked by Sandy Gibson after four minutes. The rest of the half was largely in Hull’s favour and they registered three tries. The first, scored by Billy Stone on 10 minutes followed a fine break by Caswell who passed on to Tommy Milner and Billy Batten gave the final pass to Stone.
Bob Taylor scored after Laurie Osborne had lost possession near his own line and after Gibson had landed a goal from a mark, Jimmy Devereux crossed after smart work by Caswell, leaving the score 9-4 in Hull’s favour at the break.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, as heavy rain had descended and carried on pouring down for the rest of the game, Danny Wyburn – described as the ‘hero’ of the match – thwarted a forward dribble by the Rovers pack and galloped away to send Bob Taylor behind the posts, which with Jim Kennedy’s conversion put Hull 10 points clear.
At that point, heavy rain began falling which seemed to stir Rovers up and Harold Mulvey crossed in the corner off a pass from Tom McGiever. Mulvey ran round behind the posts and Gibson converted, and added a penalty some minutes later. Kennedy did likewise for Hull on 74 minutes and the match was on a knifepoint a minute later when Jim Cook, sent away by Louis Harris scored, but too far out for Gibson to convert for the draw.
Hull were champions once again, and it was fitting that they had to overcome the table toppers to retain the title, winning 16-14.
HULL: E.Rogers; J.Devereux (Try), J.Kennedy (2 Goals), W.Batten, W.Stone (Try); E.Caswell, T.Milner; J.Beasty, J.Ellis, F.Newsome, Bob Taylor (2 Tries), J.Wyburn, H.Garrett.
ROVERS: L.Osborne; L.Harris, G.Austin, J.Cook (Try), H.Mulvey (Try); T.McGiever,W.Clark; H.Wilkinson, R.Wilkinson, F.Bielby, A.Moore, R.Boagey, A.Gibson (4 Goals)
STORY SPONSOR
