Sad tour for Kiwis

Sat 15 Dec 2007

Most tours to this country from ‘down under’ have involved the odd bout of fisticuffs on the field of play. However, the 1926-27 New Zealand tour of Britain involved several skirmishes within the Kiwi party, and not all of them were of the verbal kind.

Problems began on the boat journey over, with disputes developing about various aspects of the trip, such as who paid laundry bills and the dress code for evening meals. A big rift developed between tour manager and coach, Mr Mair, an Australian from Queensland, and seven players, all forwards.
The differences surrounded Mr Mair’s strict disciplinary code and his choice of tactics, which were unfamiliar to the New Zealand based players. The seven tourists who clashed with Mr Mair were Alphonsus Carroll (Wellington), Bill Devine (Canterbury), Frank Henry (Canterbury), Neil Mouat (West Coast), Lou Petersen (Canterbury), Arthur Singe (Auckland) and John Wright (West Coast). On more than one occasion these so called rebels threatened to return home and, with only twelve forwards in the party, this would have almost certainly caused the tour to be abandoned.
The disputes continued once the party arrived in Britain, with one of the rebels being involved in a street fight with another member of the tour party after the opening match. Although the Kiwis attempted to keep these disputes away from inquisitive press and public, they inevitably became common knowledge and affected performances and attendances.
In mid-November, following further disturbances, which almost led to the tour party being evicted from their Harrogate hotel, it was decided that coach Mair would withdraw from team selection and match tactics for a period of four weeks. Once this four-week suspension was over, during which time the Kiwis won only two of eight matches, Mair selected all five available rebels for the match against Yorkshire, which was staged at Fartown, Huddersfield on Wednesday 15 December 1926. Neil Mouat and John Wright were injured and therefore unavailable but the other five rebels refused to play under coach Mair.
The New Zealand team which eventually took the field included Jim Parkes in the pack, despite the fact that he had begun the tour as a winger. Only 3,000 spectators attended the match, the third worst attendance of the tour. Yorkshire led 15-3 at half-time, with the back three of their pack, Bill Horton (Wakefield Trinity), Hector Crowther (Hunslet) and Frank Gallagher (Batley), each scoring a try. Full-back Laurie Osborne (Hull Kingston Rovers) eventually landed four goals as Yorkshire fought off a determined New Zealand rally in the second half to win 17-16.
The Kiwis scored four tries, through winger Lou Brown, centre Ben Davidson, second-rower Len Mason and loose-forward and skipper Bert Avery, but full-back Craddock Dufty could land only two goals.
The tour, and the costly disputes, continued, with the rebels eventually setting sail for home a week earlier than their colleagues.
Three months later all seven players were banned for life by the New Zealand authorities. It made little difference to Frank Henry for, with no International Board in existence at that time, he returned to England and played out his career with York, from where he had emigrated two years previously.
It was many years before the New Zealand authorities recovered from the financial losses and deep embarrassment of the tour. They did not visit Europe again until 1939, when even greater financial losses were incurred, although on that occasion it was Hitler rather than internal squabbles that ruined the tour.
In September 1962 the life ban on the seven players was lifted, but by then only three of the rebels were still alive, a sad chapter indeed in the history of New Zealand Rugby League.

Saints snap up Holding
It was on this day in 1977, Thursday 15 December, that St Helens signed talented local half-back Neil Holding.
It took a couple of seasons before Holding forced himself into first-team contention but, once he established himself, he was a first-team regular for the best part of ten years. During that time he made 342 first team appearances and scored 145 tries, 84 goals and 44 dropped goals.
Holding played in eight major finals for St Helens. Unfortunately five were lost, including both visits to Wembley, but he was a member of the Saints team which won the Lancashire Cup with a memorable 26-18 win at Wigan in 1984; an equally memorable 36-16 Premiership victory over Champions Hull Kingston Rovers in 1985; and Saints’ victory over Leeds in the 1988 John Player Trophy Final, when he dropped the crucial goal in a 15-14 victory.
Holding’s representative career covered two matches for Lancashire, an appearance for England and four matches for Great Britain at under-24 level. He also toured Australasia with the 1984 British Lions.
It was during that trip that Holding made his four Test appearances, three against Australia and one against New Zealand.
In September 1990 Holding moved on to Rochdale where, briefly, he coached Hornets. He later took up coaching appointments with Oldham and Bradford Northern.

Leeds win Floodlit Trophy
For fifteen seasons from the mid-sixties to 1980, a Floodlit Trophy competition, sponsored by BBC Television, was staged on Tuesday evenings.
The second half of selected matches were broadcast live on BBC2, and proved popular viewing during the late autumn months. When the competition was first mooted not many clubs were equipped with floodlights, but the tournament caused no fewer than twenty-one clubs to install them.
On Tuesday 15 December 1970 Leeds entertained St Helens in the only final contested by the Headingley club. St Helens had reached the final only 48 hours previously, their semi-final against Wigan having gone to a replay. Nevertheless, Saints began well in the final and took the lead after ten minutes when winger Les Jones scored following a superb break by prop-forward Eric Chisnall. Later Chisnall turned villain when he conceded a penalty from which Syd Hynes reduced the arrears.
Late in the half Leeds got in front when Hynes scored from a neat Bill Ramsey pass. John Holmes converted to give Leeds a 7-3 interval lead.
The second half produced some pulsating action for television viewers, but neither side was able to score a try. Holmes pushed Leeds further ahead with a penalty, before loose-forward Kel Coslett replied with a similar effort for Saints.
Leeds deserved their 9-5 victory, if only for withstanding the early Saints onslaught.
The victorious Leeds team was: John Holmes; Alan Smith, Syd Hynes, Ron Cowan, John Atkinson; Tony Wainwright, Mike Shoebottom; John Burke, Tony Fisher, Ted Barnard, Bob Haigh, Bill Ramsey, Ray Batten.

Bradford sign an Odsal stalwart
The current financial climate and onset of player contracts has caused the transfer market to virtually close down.
In past years player transfer deals were a major source of income for the less wealthy clubs, and speculation about such deals generated much media attention and publicity for the sport.
In December 1934 Bradford Northern splashed out a club record £800 fee, when they signed goalkicking full-back George Carmichael from Hull Kingston Rovers. That transfer fee may not seem much nowadays, but in 1934 it was quite a princely sum, although Bradford officials considered it money well spent.
Carmichael began repaying the fee in his first match, a home game against Hunslet which took place on Saturday 15 December 1934.
Northern won 13-7, with Carmichael, a reliable defender and accurate goalkicker, landing two goals. During the following fifteen years he went on to make 481 appearances for Bradford and scored 19 tries and 413 goals, despite the fact that he was not the regular kicker for several of those years.
Carmichael made three appearances for Yorkshire,, and also represented a Rugby League XIII against Northern Command in a wartime fund-raising encounter. He played for Bradford in twelve major finals, winning the League Championship with Northern in 1940, 1941 and 1945, the Yorkshire Cup in 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945 and 1948, and the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 1947 when Bradford defeated Leeds 8-4.

Roughyeds sign a legend
On Monday afternoon, 15 December 1913, Oldham entertained Leeds at Watersheddings in a re-arranged league match.
The Roughyeds suffered a disappointing 9-3 defeat, but their disappointment was eased with the unearthing of a gem of a forward, Herman Hilton, who made his debut in that match.
He had been signed the previous month from Healey Street Adults, a local junior team, and he went on to become one of the greatest forwards in the game during the era immediately after the First World War.
That damaging conflict restricted his number of appearances to just 253 during the next twelve years, but his reputation remains as one of the best forwards ever to wear the red and white hoops of the Roughyeds.
He was twice a Lancashire Cup winner with Oldham, and it was he who skippered Oldham to success against Hull Kingston Rovers in the 1925 Challenge Cup Final.
Hilton also played twice for Lancashire, three times for England and in seven Test matches for Great Britain, touring Australasia in 1920 with the British Lions.

On This Day is dedicated to the memory of its original author, Don Yates.