Our time machine sets the controls for when three clubs from two sports and one city were United on a record-breaking afternoon.
ELLAND Road might have been a controversial venue for this year’s Magic Weekend, but turn the clock back 86 years and there was no doubting the wisdom of taking the 13-a-side code to the home of football’s Leeds United.
For the first of a number of big matches to have been staged there, including World Cup ties, Ashes Tests, World Club Challenges and a Challenge Cup final replay, was in April 1938.
That it happened was down to the foresight and determination of those running neighbouring clubs Hunslet and Leeds, who clashed in that year’s Championship Final.
Play-offs in rugby league are far from new.
They were used to decide the title winners for the vast majority of the seasons in which the league was one large division, with the first series taking place in 1906-07, and won by Halifax.
Like Halifax and Leeds (as well as short-lived Holbeck, who had played at an early version of Elland Road), Hunslet were founder members of the Northern Union in 1895, and a significant power in the game up to the mid-1960s (the original club folded in 1973, with the current version emerging from the ashes).
And in 1937-38, they topped the table after 36 regular-season matches, with Leeds a place and a point behind.
Going into the play-offs, which also involved third-placed Swinton and fourth-placed Barrow, who had reached the final of both the Challenge and Lancashire Cups, excitement in the city was mounting.
And it reached fever pitch when in the semi-finals, Hunslet beat Barrow 13-7 at Parkside, the first club’s home, before two days later, Leeds defeated Swinton 5-2 at Headingley.
The much-wanted ‘All-Leeds Final’ between the teams from north and south of the River Aire was a reality.
And while the Rugby Football League had chosen Wakefield Trinity’s Belle Vue as the neutral venue (it had hosted five previous Championship Finals, more than any other of the eleven difficult grounds used), the two clubs knew far more than that ground’s 38,000 capacity wanted to watch the Saturday-afternoon showdown.
With supporters and the press joining in the clamour, Leeds chairman Sir Edwin Airey spearheaded the push for a larger venue to be found.
While Bradford Northern’s Odsal was an option, Elland Road was clearly more convenient.
And with Leeds United, who were playing away at Manchester City in a top-flight fixture, agreeable, it duly became the first football stadium to stage a Championship Final (Manchester City’s Maine Road and Huddersfield Town’s Leeds Road were later used, while Manchester United’s Old Trafford is, of-course, the established choice for the Super League Grand Final).
The pitch was remarked and Hunslet’s posts used, because Parkside was a couple of miles closer to Elland Road than Headingley while Leeds’ were the tallest and heaviest in rugby league, so transporting them through the city would have been a challenge.
All the effort was worth it, because 54,112 watched the contest, with thousands more reportedly unable to gain entrance.
The attendance set a new record for a rugby league match played in Britain, beating the 51,250 for the 1935-36 Challenge Cup final at Wembley in which Leeds beat Warrington 18-2.
It was also the highest yet for a Championship Final, bettering the 32,095 at Wakefield in 1929-30 for the 0-0 draw between Leeds and Huddersfield, who were 10-0 winners in the replay at Thrum Hall, Halifax the following Monday evening (seen by 18,563).
The gate generated then-record receipts for a Championship Final of £3,572, equivalent to around £295,200 now.
Leeds had already won the Yorkshire Cup and were seeking a first league title, but Hunslet, champions in 1907-08, when they famously won ‘All Four Cups’, and Challenge Cup winners in 1933-34, had come out on top in both regular-season meetings.
Both sides were without key forwards, Hunslet’s Henry Tiffany being laid low by a bout of bronchitis and Leeds’ Ken Jubb banned.
Leeds, playing with a strong wind behind their backs, took a ninth-minute lead through backrow Ted Tattersfield’ penalty-goal.
But even though Hunslet were temporarily down a man while prop Mark Tolson was treated for an ankle injury (there were no substitutes in those days), they were unable to add to that lead, with skipper Vic Hey, a stand-off, thwarted by a fine tackle from his counterpart Jack Walkington, playing fullback.
And having withstood Leeds’ pressure, Hunslet hit back to lead 6-2 at half-time thanks to tries (worth three points apiece) by centre Ernest Winter and Irish winger Jimmy O’Sullivan.
With Walkington’s kicking game key, Hunslet kept Leeds at bay before the captain cemented an 8-2 victory with a late field-goal (which then counted for two points).
During the 1958-59 season, Hunslet moved a home game against Leeds to Elland Road to take advantage of the floodlights there (they won 15-8).
And the current version of the club used the ground from the 1982-83 season up to 1994-95, after which they set up home at the South Leeds Stadium.
In 2018, Leeds twice played Super League games at Elland Road during redevelopment work at Headingley.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 501 (October 2024)
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