1907-1908

The playing fortunes of the club reached a disastrously low ebb during this campaign. There was no silver lining, and no rays of hope in either the league or the cup competitions.

There was a profit of ?295 on the season?s work, but the average attendance at Headingley of 5,476 was ridiculously low for the finest ground in the North of England. Perhaps the performances of the team merited nothing better.

There were tremendous changes in the playing personnel, and many players were transferred, including: T. Llewellyn, to Oldham; G. Hewlett, to Bramley; F. Wormald, to Rochdale Hornets; E. Watts, to Huddersfield; and A. Brayshaw, to Dewsbury; whilst W. Evans, J. A. Naylor, M. Lavelle and G. W. Andrew were not on the retained list at the commencement of the season.

Although departures from Headingley were on quite a big scale, they were almost as nothing compared to the numerous signings !! No fewer than twenty-nine players made their first appearance in Leeds colours. Need one look further for the root cause ofthe disappointing playing record.

These new players are best classified:

Full ? Back-A. Stones.

Wingers ? J. Batten, younger brother of the famous Hunslet player; W. E. Collingwood, who came from Bramley in exchange for G. Hewlett; R. B. Hargrave; E. Oliver; T. Seamans; T. Swindells, from the Cadishead club; F. E. Upton, from Rochdale Hornets; J. Wood, who continued his trials having made one appearance at the end ofthe previous season; J. Townend.

Centres ? A. l. Howell; W. G. Noyes, Army Reservist from Grangetown in Wales; S. Reed; T. Smith, from the West Riding club; H. Wade, from Fartown.

Half ? Backs-A. Burgess, from leigh; E. Chapman, from Ackworth; G. Desborough; J. Fawcett; P. Greaney; T. W. Wilson, from the leicester R.U. club; J. Wheatley.

Forwards ? W. Biggs, who came from Briton Ferry; H. Brown, the young Sharlston scrummager, who had the doubtful distinction of being dismissed from the field twice within seven days-at Greenfield, against Bradford on Christmas Day, and at Headingley, against Oldham, on New Year?s Day; F. Carter; H. W. Ibbitson, from the Castleford R.U. club; H. Pattison; S. Whitaker and J. T. Wray.

The management evidently adopted a? trial and error? method of team building, and, as was to be expected, few of the above players really made the grade. Indeed, three years later only the following were members of the first team: J. Biggs, who had been transferred to the Kingston Rovers shortly after signing for Leeds owing to difficulty in obtaining employment, but was re-transferred at the commencement of the 1909-10 season and gave yeoman service; J. Fawcett, who was discovered whilst playing for the Clarence Iron and Steel Works in a Workshops? Competition and became an invaluable utility back until his retirement in 1919; E. Oliver, who joined Leeds from the Northampton R.U. club; and Sam Whitaker, who came from the Castleford Half Acre team with whom he had played following a dispute with Wakefield Trinity.

The playing record speaks for itself: 20th in the league Competition, eliminated from the Yorkshire Cup in the 2nd Round, and from the Northern Union Cup in the 1st Round. It is worthy of note that we suffered four defeats at the hands of Hunslet, as they completed a league? double? and also brought about our dismissal from each Cup Competition. But, of course, this was Hunslet?s gloriously successful year in which they won the four cups.

The match against the New Zealand tourists was very keenly contested as our players rose to the occasion in grand style but finally had to admit defeat by eight points to two. The All Black team was as follows: Turtill; Messenger, Smith, Wrigley; W. Wynyard, Todd (five-eighths); R. Wynyard (half-back); Wright, Gilchrist, Trevarthen, Cross, Byrne, Johnston.