1916-1917

The Emergency league Competition continued. Leeds experienced increasing difficulty in raising representative sides, and had to call on a far greater number of ? guest? players, but we had a most successful season, finishing once again as runners-up to Dewsbury.

The campaign opened in splendid fashion with six consecutive victories, the three at Headingley being of a very impressive nature: Dewsbury lost by 39 points to nil, Hunslet by 29 points to 5, and Huddersfield by 52 points to nil. As in the previous season Hull, at The Boulevard, broke the winning sequence.

Following a victory over Hunslet at Headingley, we met with a narrow defeat at Mount Pleasant, but then came sixteen successive matches without defeat, so that at the end of January we held the leading position in the league table. But Dewsbury, too, were enjoying a similar spell of success after an indifferent start and had climbed the table in a challenging manner since November. The previous season?s battle for honours was to be fought all over again and everything hinged on the Leeds v. Dewsbury clash at Headingley on Easter Tuesday.

Unfortunately we were unable to call on W. A. Davies and Joe Brittain, who had hoped to be on leave from the Royal Navy. Hunslet and Bramley players came to our assistance, but a disorganised team was no match for Dewsbury who gained a comfortable victory by 13 points to 2. Leeds fielded the following team: Haycox; Rigby (Bramley), Campbell, Todd, Marshall; Hughes (Bramley), Jones (Hunslet); Webster, Chilcott, Harkness, Carter, Pearson (Hunslet), Walker (Hunslet).

The match played under Rugby Union Rules against the Royal Naval Depot team from Plymouth was a very enjoyable innovation and roused great enthusiasm amongst the Headingley supporters. The teams were as follows: The Navy: J. Jarvis (Somerset and Bridgwater); A. Hoar (Somerset and Devon), W. A. Davies (Wales, Devon, Leeds), S. G. Tovey (Monmouthshire and Pontypool), A. W. Ackroyd (Halifax); J. Brittain (Leeds), S. J. Budd (Bristol); H. Snell (Devon), J. Atkinson, (Aberavon), T. Williams (Swansea), H. Reynolds (Stroud), E. J. Davies (Neath), J. Urquhart (United Services), D. Keift (United Services), W. Luddington (United Services). Leeds-Haycox; Buck (Hunslet), Campbell, Todd (Wakefield), Lynch; Fawcett, Thackrah; Webster, Higson (Huddersfield), Banks (Huddersfield), Blakey (Wakefield), Marshall, Barraclough, Mirfield, Pte. Godward.