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New
slet
ter
Sep
tem
ber
20
13
: V
ol
1,
no.3
The Dreadnought
The Dreadnought is the official newsletter of ‘Trinity Heritage’ …
all things Wakefield Trinity history
Introduction
Trinity’s Top 10
Since our last newsletter, we have joined forces with the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Past Players Association, and this will be
passed onto all our members.
Wakefield Trinity have a proud and illustrious past and we have endeavoured to highlight this throughout the year. One of our major projects throughout the year has been to allocate Heritage numbers to every player that has played first team for the club. We have now completed our task, which has
involved many hours in the local library and research. We are just tidying up the list,
double and triple checking it before working with the club deciding on how to launch the numbers. There have been a total of 1,330 players that have worn the first team rugby
league shirt since 1895
Trinity’s First Team squad 1975-‐76
Followers of Trinity Heritage will have kept up to date with our Facebook and Twitter sites aswell as little pieces of useless Trinity
information along the way. Here’s to the next 118 years
‘Top 10 Try Scorers’ by Trinity first team players since 1895.
1. Neil Fox (1956-‐69, 1970-‐74)
272 2. David Topliss (1968-‐81, 87-‐88)
195 3. Fred Smith (1955-‐65)
188 4. Ernest Bennett (1899-‐1914)
184 5. Dennis Boocker (1947-‐54)
127 6. Gert Coetzer (1962-‐68)
122 7. David Smith (1971-‐76)
115 8= Herbert Goodfellow (1933-‐51)
114 8= Arthur Fletcher (1943-‐57)
114 10. Ted Bateson (1925-‐33)
113
David Topliss
Only thirteen players have scored 100 or more tries for Trinity. Added to the top ten
list above are:
Tommy Poynton (1906-‐15) 111 Andy Mason (1987-‐93) 111 Ken Hirst (1955-‐68) 100
Trinity Try Facts:
Fred Smith (1959-‐60) and David Smith (1973-‐74) hold the ‘tries in a season’ record with 38
-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
Fred Smith (v Keighley, 1959) and Keith Slater (v Hunslet,
1971) hold the ‘tries in a game’ record, with 7
-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
Len Bratley is Trinity’s top try scoring forward. He scored 94 in
his career (1937-‐49) -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
Most tries in a season in the Super League era is Sid Domic
with 25 in 2004 -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
Top try scorer in the Super League era is Ben Jeffries with
77. Others with 50+ are Jamie Rooney (68) and Jason Demetriou (51)
Here and There…..
Belle Vue Attendance Records:
Record Ground Attendance: 37,906: Huddersfield v Leeds
RL Challenge Cup Semi Final, 21st March 1936
Record Ground Attendance (Trinity game): 30,676: Wakefield Trinity v Huddersfield RL Challenge Cup Rd1, 26th February 1921
Record Post-‐War Ground Attendance: 28,736: Castleford v Widnes
RL Challenge Cup Semi Final replay, 22nd April 1964
Record Post-‐War Ground Attendance (Trinity game): 28, 534: Wakefield Trinity v Wigan
RL Challenge Cup Rd3, 24th March 1962
Record Super League Attendance (1999 onwards): 11,000: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats v Castleford Tigers
16th September 2006
Yorkshire County Players Trinity have supplied 71 players for Yorkshire
County duty over the years (since 1895) The first was Bill Walton in 1895 and the most recent
was Andy Mason in 1990. Trinity’s most capped Yorkshire player is
Bill Horton (20 appearances) followed by Jonty Parkin and Neil Fox (both 17).
Overseas Players I Trinity have had a total of 158 overseas players playing for the club. These are made up of:
96 Australians, 33 New Zealanders, 9 South Africans, 6 Frenchmen, 5 Fijians, 5 Samoans, 2 from PNG, a Tongan and a Yugoslav
Kiwis The very first of the 33 Kiwis to represent Trinity was
Michael Corkery, a winger given a trial in 1976, but not retained.
The Kiwi to play most Trinity games was Tevita Leo-‐Latu who played 81 between 2007 & 2010
Super League Era Since Trinity entered the Super League in 1999, the player to make most SL appearances for the club is
Jamie Field with 212
Heritage Numbers Months of research have seen us complete our task of finding every player that has played first team rugby league for Trinity. There have been a total of 1,363, but this has included 33 triallists (AN Other) who have not been counted in the final listings; hence our numbers start with No.1, Herbert
Kershaw (full back in our very first game) in 1895 to Bobbie Goulding (1,330) our most recent debutant
in August 2013. Loan signings have been included, as well as the many guest players during the Second World War. Watch this space for the full announcement but as a
taster; Jonathan Parkin is number 207, Neil Fox is 629 and David Topliss is 746
Overseas Players II Of the 158 overseas players to wear a first team shirt, 11 have played over 100 games. A full list will appear in a later issue but the top three are:
1: Dennis Boocker (Aus), 221 appearances 1947-‐54 2: Gert Coetzer (SA), 191 apps 1962-‐68
3: Jason Demetriou (Aus) 187 apps 2004-‐10
Team Points Scoring:
Record Victory: Wakefield Trinity 90 Highfield 12
Regal Trophy Prelim Round, 27th October 1992
Record League Victory: Wakefield Trinity 78 Batley 9
26th August 1967
Record Super League Victory: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 68 Halifax 6
14th September 2003
Oldest Surviving Player Jack Perry is our oldest surviving first team player.
In May he celebrated his 89th birthday. He debuted in 1943 and played 134 times before
being transferred to Batley in 1948. He is well and active and living in Blackpool
This newsletter is dedicted to the memory of John Lindley (1932-2012) a great fan of all things Trinity history, records and statistics
A Programme from the Past A Trinity Legend from Yesteryear…. Ian Brooke
In the 1960s and 1970s, Trinity’s
official programme was one of the best in the league. In the
1980s it was probably one of the worst with an A4 sheet being folded into three for the 1985-‐86 season
After promotion back to the ‘Big Time’ in 1988, the club improved dramatically in all off-‐field departments, led by General Manager, Australian, Neil Cadigan. The
above programme from the 1989-‐90 season featured a new television company (BSB) and this Wigan game was the very first live broadcast by this
fledging TV company, with its new commentator Eddie Hemmings. I wonder if it succeeded?
The programme was packed with statistics and history on Trinity and Wigan, a coaches column by David Topliss, interviews with Andy Wilson and Paul
Taylor; a look back at the 1953-‐54 season and numerous photos by club photographer,
Brian Robinson.
The club sponsors were British Coal and adverts appeared throughout for national companies Stones Bitter (league sponsors), Bukta (kit suppliers) and
Toyota (car sponsors) aswell as local companies, TSA Car Radios, Woodcock Travel, MB Plant Sales, John
Jackson Insurances and Millfield Transport (Horbury). There were also local public houses,
British Oak (Stanley), Graziers (next to the ground), The Star Inn (Sandal), Waterloo (Westgate), Sandal
Court and Parklands Hotel (Horbury). There was also congratulations to Cornelius Finn in the ‘Club News’ section, who was celebrating 50
years of Ordination of Priesthood, a keen Trinity fan and former Hospital radio commentator.
Finally, you could buy a replica shirt for £25 in the club shop, Trinity toothbrushes for £1, a bag of nuts
for £2.90 and club engraved whisky glasses for £11.00… Happy days!
The youngest Trinity try scorer in a Challenge Cup Final
1963 marked the 50th anniversary of Trinity’s last RL Challenge Cup win, when they defeated Wigan 25-‐10 at Wembley. It was thus, the same anniversary of one of Trinity’s favourite son’s try at Wembley that sealed victory.
Ian Brooke is one of the few Trinity players to have made the full journey from Wakefield schoolboy rugby league, through to Wembley triumph and subsequent Test arenas of Australia. Before signing for Trinity in 1962, Ian had represented Yorkshire and England under 19s whilst with the Intermediate side. He signed for the club when the half backs were Rollin, Poynton and Holliday with Fox and Skene holding the centre births so his first team chances were to be limited. His chance came when the ‘stars’ were rested before the 1962 play offs, scoring in a 17-‐9 home win over Featherstone. A year later, Skene had moved to Australia and Ian took his centre shirt, playing at Wembley in only his 18th first team appearance. His ‘dream came true’ when as a 20 year old he scored the final try of the game, lifting the Challenge Cup. A period away from Belle Vue followed when a series of injuries hampered his progress and he found himself at Odsal, playing for Bradford Northern. They were fruitful years as he won the 1965 Yorkshire Cup and gained Yorkshire and Great Britain honours, including the 1966 Tour ‘Down Under’. However, in 1967 he found himself back in the Trinity centres alongside his good friend, Neil Fox. Within four months, Ian was lifting the RL Championship Trophy after Trinity defeated St.Helens 21-‐9, after a 7-‐7 draw. More international honours followed, when he partnered Fox in the centres for the 1967 home Ashes series against the Australians. 1968 saw Trinity retain the RL Championship Trophy, defeating Hull KR in the final 17-‐10, but there was heartache at Wembley a week later against Leeds. Honours kept coming Ian’s way when he was selected for the GB World Cup squad in Australia in the summer of 1968, but GB failed at the round-‐robin stage. Ian was selected as club captain for the 1969-‐70 season, at one time scoring a brace of tries in five out of six successive matches in November and December 1969; but then injury struck in the 1970 off-‐season causing an end to his playing career. The fast, strong and straight running centre played a total of 183 games for Trinity, scoring 67 tries. He played a total of 13 test matches for GB, eight whilst at Trinity. He took up coaching after his injury, starting with the Trinity under 19s side. He moved to Bradford again in 1972 in a similar coaching capacity, finding himself at the first team helm in 1973, taking Northern to Wembley within a couple of months, but going down to Featherstone. His coaching role brought him back to Trinity in January 1978; he stayed for a year, winning 14 of his 30 games before leaving in January 1979. He was back in 1987 as part of David Topliss’s regime and coached a very successful A-‐Team for six years. A gentleman in the true sense of the word, Ian can still be seen at Belle Vue on a regular basis and anyone who was at the 1963 Challenge Cup reunion dinner, at Belle Vue, would have been fascinated with his interview and reflections of the final
Bygone Days:
-‐-‐ 1989-‐90 -‐-‐
Back Row: Tony Handforth (Asst Coach), James Leuluai, John Glancy, Tracy Lazenby, Andy Wilson, Andy Kelly, David Topliss (Coach), Phil Eden, Ian
Sheldon, Ray Price, Tony Zelei, Ian Brooke (Asst Coach) Front Row: Mark Conway, John Thompson, Billy Conway, Andy Mason, Keith Rayne,
Gary Price, Richard Slater, Phil Fox Kneeling: Jason Timmins, Chris Perry,
Brian Jackson, Nigel Bell A
A Tea
1935 Postcard of Ernest Pollard
The Road to the RL Championship Final Trinity have played in four RL Championship Finals, but also another eight semi finals. Here are the details of those twelve Play Off semi finals
1910: v Oldham (A) Lost 6-‐12
1911: v Oldham (A) Lost 12-‐15
1944: v Dewsbury (H) Lost 5-‐11
1945: v Halifax (A) Lost 11-‐17
1946: v Huddersfield (A) Lost 3-‐8
1960: v Hull (H) Won 24-‐4
1962: v Featherstone R (H) Won 13-‐8
1965: v St.Helens (A) Lost 5-‐10
1967: v Hull KR (A) Won 18-‐6
1968: v Wigan (H) Won 26-‐9
1971 v Wigan (A) Lost 15-‐49
1974: v Warrington (A) Lost 7-‐12
Record: Played 12, Wins: 4, Lost: 8 Trinity won the 1967 & 1968 Championship Trophy, being beaten finalists in 1960 & 1962
Note: The Championship Trophy changed to the Premiership Trophy in 1975. Trinity reached the 1976 Premiership semi final, losing to Salford 10-‐24 on aggregate (5-‐10, away and 5-‐14 at home)