Northern Union v New Zealand, Athletic Ground, Cheltenham 1908.

[Leyther_Matt]

42 minutes ago, Scubby said:

It was all horrible. Played at Warrington if I remember in front of about 6k. Couldn't even get a top class Aussie to be the Dally Messenger. We are so bad at this stuff and don't see any value in doing things properly.

Yes it was at Warrington, Saturday night game I think. All very strange. Still not entirely got my head around it. 

[stevecl]

Fascinating. Thank you!!!

Particularly loved the rather quaint "these are the differences page". Does the layout of the forwards - 4 and 2 - mean anything or was that just how the typesetter squeezed them in, it seems inconsistent with how the backs naames are arranged in a rough formation as we are used to seeing today.

Does anyone know if there was a reason for the venue? It does not appear an obvious one for a 'Northern Union' team??

[Eddie]

4 hours ago, stevecl said:

Fascinating. Thank you!!!

Particularly loved the rather quaint "these are the differences page". Does the layout of the forwards - 4 and 2 - mean anything or was that just how the typesetter squeezed them in, it seems inconsistent with how the backs naames are arranged in a rough formation as we are used to seeing today.

Does anyone know if there was a reason for the venue? It does not appear an obvious one for a 'Northern Union' team??

Someone must have thought they’d try to expand the game, I expect the Northern Union soon put a stop to that ridiculous idea. 

[Old Frightful]

4 hours ago, stevecl said:Does anyone know if there was a reason for the venue? It does not appear an obvious one for a 'Northern Union' team??

Some weeks back I put a thread about a mysterious cap that turned out to be a Hull FC players cap from 1897 if memory serves. When I looked into his playing career, he played in a RL international at Cheltenham and that was pre 20th century I think.

So Cheltenham appears to have been used to host RL games over a period of years around that time.

[wiganermike]

Along with Dally Messenger who has already been mentioned, L.B Todd one of the other NZ three-quarters was Lance Todd. I am surprised that only two Hunslet players are in the Northern Union team listed as they would have been on the way to winning a clean sweep of 'All Four Cups' during that season.

[gingerjon]

58 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

When I looked into his playing career, he played in a RL international at Cheltenham and that was pre 20th century I think.

If you've got any more details about this then I'd love to hear them.

[wiganermike]

2 hours ago, Old Frightful said:

Some weeks back I put a thread about a mysterious cap that turned out to be a Hull FC players cap from 1897 if memory serves. When I looked into his playing career, he played in a RL international at Cheltenham and that was pre 20th century I think.

So Cheltenham appears to have been used to host RL games over a period of years around that time.

Was that not a rugby (RU) international pre-split? I had read in RL history books that the first post split international was NU (England) v Other Nationalities in 1904 at Central Park, Wigan. Some Northern Union players had played in international games prior to the 1895 split.

[Old Frightful]

14 hours ago, gingerjon said:

If you've got any more details about this then I'd love to hear them.

 

12 hours ago, wiganermike said:

Was that not a rugby (RU) international pre-split? I had read in RL history books that the first post split international was NU (England) v Other Nationalities in 1904 at Central Park, Wigan. Some Northern Union players had played in international games prior to the 1895 split.

I've dug out the old thread and in it I posted a link to an article that is perhaps a tad misleading. (Get your excuses in early I say!)

As stated, I was trying to identify a particular cap that turned out to be Harry Taylor's representative cap he earned while playing for Hull FC. The date on the cap is "1898-9".

http://www.ajbooth.karoo.net/hullfcrecords/harrytaylor.html?fbclid=IwAR383dFKXH9rit0lHnuNWvoRvIM4tVKjDWrTFl2kS981z2TfeNQR9aN9e6o

Harry Taylor states in the above that he got his first representative cap in his second season at Hull FC and that appears to be 1897-98 so that's where my confusion came in. These caps were for representing Yorkshire but he goes on to say he captained the Northern Union International team but doesn't state that this was some years later. The article itself states that this was in 1908.

Here's the full thread :

 

 

[fieldofclothofgold]

There is a blue plaque on the wall of The Barley Mow  Bramley saying this is where the NZ " All. Golds " played their first game over here .

[Styx]

7 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

There is a blue plaque on the wall of The Barley Mow  Bramley saying this is where the NZ " All. Golds " played their first game over here .

There is also one in Cheltenham near the site of the ground where the game was played. Now under houses...

[Futtocks]

Images 2 & 3 in the OP appear to have gone missing. Can anyone else see them?

[Old Frightful]

50 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Images 2 & 3 in the OP appear to have gone missing. Can anyone else see them?

I can, I'll quote the OP and see how that goes, sorry but I'm not much cop at IT.

[Old Frightful]

On 21/07/2022 at 18:19, Old Frightful said:

Saw this programme on Facebook and thought it would be of interest :

Sorry about the size of the images, I'm fairly hopeless at IT so couldn't do much about it. If anyone has the talent to reduce them I'm happy for mine to be deleted.