1969-1970

Measured against the yardstick of their own high standards, Leeds enjoyed a slightly less successful season. Yet success is a relative term: for the majority of clubs, and for Leeds too, in their barren years, the League Leaders? Trophy, the Yorkshire Championship Cup and the European Club Championship Trophy, together with runners-up medals in the League Championship, would have represented a bonanza beyond their wildest dreams.

Three players were transferred during the season: Mick Clark, a proud Wembley captain, who had given six years? yeoman service, joined Keighley; Mick Lamb, unable to command a regular place in a talented back division, went to Bradford Northern; and Frank Brown to Wakefield Trinity.

It was a death-or-glory start to the season, Leeds finding themselves involved in a deplorable free-for-all with Bradford Northern in the 1st Round of the Yorkshire Cup. Fortunately cool heads and skill eventually prevailed, Leeds taking control in the final stages to win by 20 points to 6. There was no time for unsavoury incidents in the 2nd Round, with Halifax chasing shadows as Leeds revelled in a display of fast, open rugby, With Alan Smith scoring three of the eight dazzling tries. Alas, the Semi-Final against Hull at Headingley was a tragedy of lost opportunities! Bravely discounting the absence of Seabourne, recovering from a shoulder operation, Risman on holiday, and Ramsey, Crosby and Albert Eyre, all injured, Leeds battled away for an hour to lead 17-11, only to let victory slip through their fingers in the last frantic twenty minutes. As strains of ?Old Faithful? swelled in a crescendo of triumph, we could only lament the two tries thrown away through mishandling. It was all so galling: Leeds had let six points go begging; Hull had collected six from drop goals alone.

Tranquillisers were in demand for a time in September, a point down against Wakefield Trinity at Headingley, Watson tipped the scales with a drop goal seven minutes from time; at York, we scored five tries yet were reduced to holding on desperately until the final whistle; at Parkside, where Harry Poole was now coach, we were tethered in bovine sterility at 5-5, until Shoebottom started a second-half stampede with a brilliant solo try. Against Huddersfield, however, with Seabourne back at the helm, we matched the glory of Headingley?s autumn sunshine with a 9-try spectacular, Cowan scoring a hat-trick, and then ended the month with five more tries at Thrum Hall, including an Atkinson 75-yard ?special?, to qualify for the 2nd Round of the Floodlit Competition.

Settling into a groove of impressive match-winning consistency, Leeds now began to hold sway with massive authority. The good, the bad and the indifferent, all suffered the same fate in the next nine matches; yet no sooner had we assumed our rightful place at the head of the table, and romped to victory against Perpignan in the European Club Champion?ship, than we suffered two defeats in three days. The first, by a single point at The Boulevard, was of little consequence; the second, in a bruising Floodlit Competition clash at Wheldon Road, was both disappointing and costly, with Watson breaking an arm in the first five minutes, and hopes of victory fading when Hynes came under the referee?s ban in the second half, immediately following the dismissal of Castleford?s Dickinson. The experience was bitter, the sequel reassuring: we won our next nine games; blooded Trevor Briggs, a three-quarter from the Intermediates; and set out on the Wembley trail in good heart.

The 1st Round, at Headingley, was grim. Suffice it to say that Leeds? fires of inspira?tion were so effectively damped down by Batley?s defensive blanket that the game died of boredom, with few mourners, Leeds winning 17-5. There was no lack of atmosphere, however, in the 2nd Round mud-bath at Wilderspool where Seabourne?s cunningly disguised pinpoint passing opened the door for first-half tries by Shoebottom and Atkinson. And how bravely Leeds clung to that 8-5 lead in the second half! Sadly short of scrum possession, and under almost constant siege, we never wilted and even found the resilience to crown a splendid victory with an injury-time try by Hynes. Now for Hull K,R. at Craven Park, where Leeds had only lost once in a R.L. Cup-tie, and that in 1905! So much for history! Missing the experience of the injured Risman, and starved of possession on another quagmire, our hopes foundered time and again on the rock-like tackling of Geoff Wriglesworth, the former Headingley favourite, who finally put us out of our misery with the only try of the match.

In similar circumstances a year earlier, Leeds had shrugged off R.L. Cup ?blues?, to end the season in triumph. We could do it again! Winning five of the seven remaining games, we finished as League Leaders and Yorkshire Champions for the fourth year in succession. Furthermore, although neither would be eligible for the Championship play-off, two signings were introduced: Peter Dunn, a hooker from Hunslet, who in a matter of days sustained a dislocated shoulder against both St. Helens and Hunslet; and Bob Haigh, Wakefield Trinity?s outstanding second-row forward. Nor were promising ?locals? overlooked, with Steve Pitchford, an 18-year-old Intermediate forward, making his debut at Featherstone.

Now for the Championship! Halifax, Whitehaven and Hull K.R., were reduced to hypnotic helplessness at Headingley, as Leeds turned on three spellbinding exhibitions of sheer rugby wizardry, to run in no less than 26 tries, but St. Helens, shrewdly prompted by Frank Myler, were made of sterner stuff in the Final at Odsal. Even so, thanks to Crosby heeling two out of every three first-half scrums, and the inspiration provided by a remarkable try from Cowan, Leeds led 8-7 at the interval, with one hand at least on the Cup. Alas it was not to be! In one crucial second-half spell, St. Helens won five scrums out of six to score 14 points to 2, and thereby clinch a Championship which this gallant Leeds team had so worthily contested: Holmes; A. Smith, Hynes, Cowan, Atkinson; Shoebottom, Seabourne; Burke, Crosby, A. Eyre, Ramsey (Hick), Eccles, Batten.

Five of those players had already been honoured with selection for the forthcoming Australasian tour: John Atkinson, Syd Hynes, Barry Seabourne, Mick Shoebottom and Alan Smith. Would that Bev Risman had been joining them, rather than contemplating retirement from a game which he had graced with sportsmanship and outstanding skill.