1961-1962

The scalpel was poised! Seeking to arrest the cancer of ever-dwindling ?gates? the clubs had finally opted for exploratory surgery through the introduction of a two-divisional competition in 1962-63 on a three-year experimental basis. For many clubs therefore the current ?pre-med? season was shadowed by apprehension as they strove desperately to qualify for First Division salvation and thus avoid the dreaded descent into the Second Division limbo of uncertainty

Four major news items emerged from Headingley during the close season: Lewis Jones, whose 9-year contract was due to expire in November, had agreed to a two-year extension; Tony Skelton had emigrated to Australia; the management had signed Geoffrey Wriglesworth. an 18-year-old winger from Heworth; and Garry Hemingway was back in training, after an absence of almost two years.

Past achievements in sport provide no automatic passports to future successand all that Leeds could set alongside the glories of the previous season was a consolation prize as runners-up in the Yorkshire Cup Competition. It was almost one-way traffic in the 1st Round at Headingley with the lights rarely at red and no danger of a breathalyser test as we ran in ten intoxicating tries against befuddled and depleted Hull K.R. and though hard-tackling Castleford sobered us up in the 2nd Round, Ratcliffe ruled out any possibility of defeat with the first hat-trick of his career. Lucky Leeds! Drawn at home yet again for the Semi-Final and including John Sykes, a local product, in the pack to entertain Featherstone Rovers, we barely managed to survive on goal-kicks in an extremely dour game. With Hallas, Hattee, Rosenberg and Wriglesworth all unavailable, and Goodwin at centre for the Final against Wakefield Trinity at Odsal, Leeds made a promising start, with Hemingway capitalising on an error by full-back Round, to cross within the first five minutes and an interval score of 5-5 was a fair reflection of play. It was a different story in the second half! Within ten minutes Fox had kicked two superb penalty goals out of the touchline mud; and when Skene scored a disputed try, Thornett claiming that he had made the ball dead, there was Fox, to virtually put the game beyond redemption with a magnificent conversion from the other touchline. There could be no argument: bravely as Leeds had challenged, Trinity fully deserved to retain the Cup. The Leeds team was: Thornett; Hemingway, Pickup, Goodwin, Ratcliffe; Jones, Evans; Robinson, Simms. T. Whitehead, Fairbank, Sykes, Tomlinson.

Meanwhile, after making an encouraging start to the League programme we had only seven wins to show from the first twelve matches, in which there had been several notable features: a disgracefully violent confrontation at Parkside, with Simms and Prior sent off, Moyser stretchered off, and Rosenberg sustaining a fractured jaw; the debut of Louis Neumann, a non-European South African loose-forward against Dewsbury at Headingley; and the success of Wriglesworth as an emergency centre, with three second-half tries against Keighley following an injury to Hattee.

Following the Yorkshire Cup Final, recruitment seemed to be the order of the day, with the management signing Derek Davies, the Bradford Northern stand-off, and Abe Terry, the St. Helens prop forward so there was considerable consternation when the shock transfer of Wilf Rosenberg to Hull, at his own request, was followed by the departures of Dennis Goodwin to York and Trevor Whitehead, also to Hull. Nevertheless, by the time the R.L. Cup Competition came round, Leeds had climbed to 6th place in the table after winning nine of their last eleven matches, including three especially fine per?formances against St. Helens, Hull and Swinton, with Thornett thundering up-field from full-back to play a storming game on each occasion.

Cup magic attracted a Headingley crowd of 19,000 for the 1st Round visit of Bramley, and they certainly had their money?s-worth, the Villagers showing enterprise in attack and solidarity in defence, until they lost the injured Chamberlain; whereupon, Leeds waxed affluent to win 34-6, Wriglesworth finishing with four tries. The 2nd Round visit to Leigh was a daunting proposition, but our forwards drove themselves to the limits of flesh and blood to establish a two-point lead, Shaw?s strength and determination creating the opportunity for Wriglesworth to squeeze in for the vital try, only for the hard-won advantage to be imperilled by two trivial play-the-ball offences: from the first, Botha levelled the scores; from the second, his kick went mercifully wide. The replay was a gladiatorial battle with 24,000 spectators in a ferment as the second half built up into a thrilling climax. Down 7-12 at the interval we resumed in tremendous style. Simms winning five scrums in a row, and Ratcliffe crossing twice to make it 13-12 to Leeds, with Leigh apparently tottering. Alas, with just eleven minutes to go the ball bounced away cruelly from Thornett and Owen dived over for a disputed try, there being a suspicion that Brooks had initially knocked on. Be that as it may, the conversion gave Leigh a four-point lead but Leeds rallied yet again, Jones putting Wriglesworth over in the corner. Everything now depended on the touchline conversion! Our hopes soared with the ball, only to sink in despair as it dropped under the bar. Leeds fielded an un?changed team for both matches: Thornett; Ratcliffe. Hattee. Hallas, Wriglesworth; Jones, Evans; Terry. Simms. Robinson. Fairbank. Tomlinson, Shaw.

There was still the championship! Winning six consecutive matches in April, Leeds made a strong bid for a place in the play-off, but failed to qualify by two points after losing at home to Wakefield Trinity and Feathersone Rovers in successive matches.

As the curtain came down on a frustrating season, there was rich consolation in Wriglesworth?s splendid tally of 34 tries, and in the exceptional promise revealed by several of the young players who had been introduced: Gilbert Ashton, forward, and Robin Dewhurst, centre, from the ?nursery?; George Simpson, full-back; Graham Charlesworth, hooker; Brian Sadler and David Walker, forwards; and 17-year-old Mick Shoebottom, scrum-half from Bison Sports, who was destined to meet those two impostors, Triumph and Disaster.

For Del Hodgkinson, plagued by a shoulder injury which was to terminate his career, there were commiserations. Even so, he had experienced his hour of matchless glory!