On this Good Friday, Club Historian Bill Dalton looks back on some of the Black & Whites’ most memorable Good Friday performances.
I have no doubt that our supporters, like myself, will feel the disappointment of Good Friday passing by without a match to go and see. It was always a ‘looked-forward-to’ event and there have certainly been a fair number of memorable contests on that introduction to the Easter weekend.
The first Good Friday match that Hull FC played in was at Holderness Road on 27th March 1891, against Liversedge, winning 11-5. Prior to that, it seems that religious considerations dissuaded sportsmen from partaking on that day.
By the time, the Northern Union was founded, Good Friday had become part of the calendar for rugby and Hull met the Bradford club on 3rd April 1895 at Boulevard.
To supporters of my generation, Good Friday has always been synonymous with a Hull Derby fixture. The first encounter with Rovers on that day was on 21st April 1905 at Craven Street, the Airlie Birds taking the points with a 11-6 win.
It might be remembered that during Rover’s ‘hard times’ in the 1950’s, their home derby encounter was played at Boothferry Park. The first of those seven fixtures was on Good Friday, 3rd April 1953 and Hull were again successful, by 13-2.
Indeed, Hull won six of the seven, although only three of the Boothferry Park encounters were on Good Friday, the last being on 27th March 1959 when Hull romped home by 24-12, only six days after beating the Robins at Boulevard in the quarter-final of the Challenge Cup.
The Good Friday derby encounters continued on for pretty much all the rest of my lifetime supporting Hull FC, except of course when the two clubs found themselves in different levels of the League Championship.
Many people in the game nowadays condemn the practice of playing twice over the Easter weekend. But consider this: The Hull Derby at Craven Park on Good Friday (March 27th 1969) resulted in a 10-10 draw – Hull were robbed by the referee being the only person in the whole ground not sighting a knock-on from which Rovers scored an equalising try! On the next day, Hull’s visit to Dewsbury brought a 10-5 victory, followed by another 16-9 win over Doncaster at the Boulevard on Easter Monday.
In those days, Easter Tuesday was recognised as a holiday in the West Riding and Castleford, needing to complete their programme – disrupted by their Challenge Cup run to Wembley, arranged their outstanding fixture against Hull for 31st March – Hull’s 4th match in five days! What would today’s coaches think about that schedule!
One of the darkest days in Good Friday history came about on 17th April 1981, when a packed crowd at the Boulevard witnessed a disgraceful brick-throwing demonstration at the Gordon Street end which brought about national condemnation in the Saturday Press. Always around for the bad things, aren’t they?
In the Super League era, there have been seven Hull Derby meetings on the actual Good Friday (two others were on Thursday evenings). Hull have won four to Rovers three.
Like everyone else, I have my favourite Good Friday memories and I will name three of them:-
20th April 1984 : Rovers 16-36 Hull
A real fiery derby in which Len Casey was sent off after a tussle with Fred Ah Kuoi, and Hull set a new Record Away score for Derby matches, since surpassed.
25th March 2016: Rovers 20-22 Hull
The greatest derby comeback ever after being 20-0 down with 21 minutes left, to re-launch a memorable season for both clubs – Hull won the Cup and Rovers were relegated!
19th April 2019: Hull 56 -12 Rovers
Hull raised the bar of the highest derby score with this emphatic win. After this game, the Rovers went to Warrington on the Easter Monday and lost 4-54. It could truly be said that they were crucified on Good Friday, but did not rise on Easter Monday!
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