1917-1918

12th May, 2017 By Phil Daly

Owing to the unavailability of so many players because of Service duties teams were reduced to 12-a-side for the Emergency League.

The season opened in a blaze of glory once again, with eight victories off the reel, and some were particularly convincing, though it must be borne in mind that the selection of ?scratch? teams often resulted in high scoring matches: Hull went down at Headingley by 44 points to nil, Halifax fared even worse with a defeat by 52 points to 3, and Hull K.R. were defeated at Craven Street by 32 points to 7. One feature of this opening victory sequence was that Hull held no terrors for Leeds on this occasion although similar spells of success in the two previous seasons had been broken at The Boulevard.

Everything augured well for another good season but November brought a transformation. Hunslet scored the first success of the season against Leeds with a victory at Parkside by 7 points to 5. The next four matches, against Bradford Northern, Batley, Hull and, Halifax, resulted in two draws and two losses. From that time the team revealed ?in and out form? for the remainder of the season and never seriously challenged for the leadership. But few supporters were really concerned with achievement of ?honours?, as the long drawn out hostilities had naturally caused a lack of interest in sport. There were far more serious things to bother about.

The Royal Naval Depot team visited Headingley on Christmas Eve for a match played under Rugby Union Rules, and gained a victory by 9 points to 3. Navy-T. Campbell (Devon and Cornwall); H. Buck (Yorkshire and Hunslet), A. Hudson (England and Gloucestershire), A. W. Ackroyd (Halifax). J. W. Todd (Wakefield Trinity); J. Brittain, (Leeds), S. J. Budd (Bristol); D. Holland (England and Oldham), J. Edwards (Plymouth), L. Wallen (Newton Abbott), G. Reynolds (Stroud), A. Cutler (R.N. Depot), D. Milton (Devon port Albion), W. J. Snell (Seaton), Lt. T. J. Murphy (Ireland). Leeds-R. Hughes (Bramley); W. H. Davies, Campbell, W. Batten (Hull), Lynch; Habron and Ward (Bramley); Webster, Harkness, Godward, Carter, Marshall, Blakey, Chilcott, Crosland (Dewsbury).

Many imagined that the Naval men had an advantage through playing to the Rugby Union Rules but a few days later they proved themselves quite as adaptable at the 13-a-side game when they beat a Leeds team by 24 points to 3. On this occasion the teams were as follows: Navy-T. Campbell (Devon and Cornwall); H. Buck (Yorkshire and Hunslet), J. Parkin (Wakefield Trinity), A. W. Ackroyd (Halifax), J. W. Todd (Wakefield Trinity); J. Brittain (Leeds), S. J. Budd (Bristol); D. Holland (England and Oldham), J. Edwards (Plymouth), G. Reynolds (Stroud), A. Cutler (R. N. Depot), W. J. Snell (Seaton), S. Cranch (United Services). Leeds-Duckworth (Hunslet); Carter, Lynch, Beames (Halifax), Jones (Hunslet); Ward (Bramley), Habron; Pearson (Huns/et), Fisher (Hunslet), Anderson. Crosland (Wakefield Trinity), Harkness, Sykes.

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