Club Historian Bill Dalton looks at the club’s history of playing Christmas Day games and festive fixtures.
When our game elected to move to the summer era, there was an immediate realization that players and supporters were about to be deprived of things we had taken for granted for many years. No more Cup Finals at the end of the season, and no tours to Australia, among many other things. But, in Hull, we were also going to be deprived of the Christmas Derby!
Christmas fixtures were a feature of the game throughout Hull’s history since playing on Boxing Day against York Melbourne in 1882, when the York Melbourne team visited Holderness Road, where Hull played following the merger with Hull White Star the previous season.
Hull won by two tries and two minor points to a try and two minors. That Boxing Day was the first of 79 occasions on which Hull have played on December 26th, the last one being a pre-season friendly at Castleford in 2017.
Owing to the church having a big influence on sport, a match on Christmas Day was not a feature of football fixture lists until almost to the end of the 19th century. Although Hull had played matches regularly on Boxing Day during their Rugby Union existence, the first Christmas Day game was at Belle Vue, Wakefield in 1899.
It was not a happy Christmas, however, for Trinity triumphed by 3-13. The following day at The Boulevard, our cross-city rivals completed the first-ever derby double by a try to nil.
Hull and Hull Kingston Rovers normally played one of the derby league fixtures at Christmas, the first being on Boxing Day 1899 at the Boulevard. Contrary to popular belief, the Christmas Day Derby did not happen until 1915 in the War Emergency League and that was a convenience to suit the difficulties of wartime travel. The first ‘proper’ Derby league encounter on Christmas Day was in 1919.
From that point on, Hull featured in Christmas Day matches almost every year until the tradition died off somewhat in the early 1960’s, although the fixture was re-introduced for Christmas Day in 1967 and 1968 – the last occasion we had the much-loved Christmas morning encounter, a game in which the Australian Immortal, Arthur Beetson, sustained a broken leg, bringing an end to his spell with Rovers.
As befitted the festive season, there was always a great sense of good humour and seasonal goodwill towards each supporting band – after we had won!
Of course, depending on the calendar and where the holiday days fell, it was often the case when we would have three games on successive days at Christmas. I can remember 1958 when I was on my own personal tour of Yorkshire as we beat Rovers at home on Christmas Day, lost at Featherstone on Boxing Day, and again at Wakefield on Saturday 27th.
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