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Steve Fox

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    Widnes (on Vikings' home matchdays)

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  1. According to Nigel Williams book, Bradford Northern, The History, 1863-1989, the majority of players from 1906/07 played for the new club in 1907/08 in no small part because the NRFU placed an embargo on other clubs signing players from the old Bradford club. Clearly that wouldn't be legally enforceable now and I wonder if it was even then, but it seems to have had the desired effect as, according to the book, star player James Dechan retired rather than be forced to play for the new club and another top tryscorer, Joe Dunbavin, stayed at Park Avenue and played soccer for Bradford FC, presumably because he was unable to play rugby anywhere else. Dunbavin did return to rugby with Northern two years later.
  2. Goodson Park was used for an England-Australia international (not test match) in 1908. On the subject of Trevor Delaney's fantastic book, there's an error in the Widnes entry. The current site was opened in 1895 for the third home game of inaugural NU season. Between 1884 and then they played on a different field 150yds up Lowerhouse Lane.
  3. I'd heard the round ball game referred to as football on telly but was shocked when a lad from London started at our high school in Widnes and talked about football when everyone else, without exception, called it soccer. Having said that, only older generations used football for rugby. My mum talked about going into the football ground as a child when the gates opened at halftime and it didn't occur to me she was on about Naughton Park. Anyway, to get back to the point, Widnes played football under RU rules pre 1895 and NU rules thereafter. "Rugby" didn't magically become rugby union in 1895, though the ru term was probably more widely used than before to distinguish it from nu.
  4. A Widnes season ticket of the 1880s says "Rules: Rugby Union".
  5. That Huddersfield archive is superb. As you say, it would be wonderful of other clubs could do similar justice to their heritage. Just to add for anyone who hasn't downloaded my Widnes archive yet (link in my message a couple of posts up), it's every page of every Widnes home match programme 1945-1993 and all but a couple of annual reports for the same period. There are some pre-war progs and reports but hopefully people will come forward with missing editions to help fill the gaps for future editions of the archive.
  6. I've put together a PDF archive of some old Widnes match programmes if anyone would like to have a look. It's a rather large download (1.7 GB) so you'll need a decent download speed. Apologies for the length of this link! https://mega.nz/#!k89ShBRA!_eAnld7CmHzVl5Ns18zhzEhm2y8AGS4R8hLBAetKQ5U
  7. A few weeks ago I mentioned online player archives and, belatedly, here are some links. I know Mike Latham has done the Leigh stats but I'm not sure whether they are online anywhere. All of the below are conspicuously Lancastrian. Any links for other clubs anyone? Oldham http://www.orl-heritagetrust.org.uk/stats/to1997.shtml Warrington http://wolvesplayers.thisiswarrington.co.uk/search.asp?code=A Saints http://www.saints.org.uk/home/players.php Wigan http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=503 Widnes http://rugby.widnes.tv/playersearch.php AND http://rugby.widnes.tv/playerlist.php?mids=a
  8. Are there any Dewsbury and/or Rochdale statisticians in the house?
  9. The old style rugby balls were a lot rounder so dribbling would have been easier than now.
  10. Very much like the holder on an American football conversion or field goal. I think I'm right in saying that it was a 3 man job. One would be on the goal line at the point where the try was scored. He'd throw the ball to the holder who would place it on the ground for the kicker to attempt the goal. The defenders were allowed to charge the kick.As well as a drop goal there was also a field goal which was a rolling ball on the floor that was fly hacked through the posts and over the crossbar. I've read hundreds of match reports from pre 1895 and can't say I've seen reference to a single FG.
  11. There's some stuff on rouges in Canadian gridiron here...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_(football) And obviously the NFL's 2 point safety is a legacy of the old rugby touchdown. Posters were another minor point - I think from when a kick hit an upright.
  12. Don't you believe me? Actually it probably would have said 1873 if it hadn't used the NU cut-off because that was the received wisdom at the time (WIdnes actually celebrated their centenary two years early in season 1973/74). That 1895 thing really annoys me too - I think Rothmans also used to use that date for clubs' formation didn't they?
  13. Incidentally next week is (sort of) the 140th anniversary of the Widnes club. At least 5th November 1875 is the earliest record there is, an announcement having been made at the Farnworth & Appleton Cricket Club Annual Dinner on that date that they were forming a football section.
  14. There are individual online archives of all post-1895 players for various clubs. I'll post the links when I'm at home (out and about at present) but off the top of my head there are lists for Saints, Wigan, Warrington, Oldham and Widnes. I'm sure Yorkshire club historians must have done something similar so perhaps our Tyke contributors could chip in with any links.
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