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Posted

With the snowy conditions at present I saw this article about a famous Leigh match I attended at Hilton Park in December 1981..played in a blizzard in deep snow.

Snow was piled high on the terraces, and there is no way the game would be played nowadays in such conditions..health and safety of spectators etc..

The winter of 1981–1982 in the United Kingdom was a severe cold wave that was formed in early December 1981 and lasted until mid-late January in 1982, and was one of the coldest Decembers recorded in the United Kingdom.

I was looking forawrd to the game, it being a top of the table clash, but I recall looking at the weather on the Sunday morning and thinking it would be off.

Pre internet etc... the only way I could know was calling the club,  at about 2pm and they said it was on.

Leigh won quite easily in front of a severly diminished attendance.

Got home and listened to Rugby League reports on Radio Manchester at 6pm and Ron Marlor (great RL correspondent on Radio Manchester) was interviewing the Aussie referee, Hartley who was actually in a hot bath at the time.

Great memories.. 

 

From The Leigh Journal....

This weekend's snowy conditions give us another opportunity to relive  the time when an army of volunteers and some old school ingenuity helped Leigh get their 1981-82 game with Widnes played despite the near Arctic Hilton Park conditions.

It was a top of the table encounter in December 1981 in the middle of Leigh's Championship winning campaign.

The victory over the Chemics that afternoon would go a long way to securing a first ever title for the Leythers.

But how on earth did they get that game played – with snow falling and sticking, and banked up higher than the goalposts at the Railway End?

A couple of years ago we asked Leigh’s former secretary John Stringer what he remembered of that day.

And he vividly recalled: “Chairman Brian Bowman and myself spoke at length the night before the game and we arranged to meet at the ground at 8am on the Sunday morning to make a decision.

 

“We contacted Brian Kitchen, a Leigh fan who owned Clarefarm – a garden centre on Nel Pan Lane, which is no longer there.

“He had loads of machinery that would help us if we decided to move the snow to get the match on.

“The two Brians and me met as arranged on the Sunday. It had stopped snowing, apparently around 6am, but with the scale of the drift at the Railway End, it was hopeless.

“To our surprise Brian said. ‘I’ll shift it! I’ll get me lads here and we will do our best.’”

Within the hour Hilton Park was a hive of activity with men and machinery shifting the snow and dumping it over the wall at the two ends of the ground.

They were joined by a mass of volunteers, who turned up to clear the terracing on the two sides of the ground which would homes" target="_blank">house spectators.

John continued: “I had been in constant touch with Ronnie Close, the General Manager at Widnes.

 

“He said, ‘You must be barmy! You’ve no chance of getting it on’.

“Then Leigh kitman Tony O’Neill arrived, pointing out that the white ball would cause a problem in the snow.

“Tony went to a car spares shop on Railway Road and bought a few cans of orange touch up spray paint, and got on with the job of ‘painting’ the white Mitre balls in a bright orange colour.

“The referee Greg Hartley arrived just before 12 and was seeing snow for the first time.

“He was from Australia but was spending a season in the English game

“He was impressed with the effort and was happy with the pitch, providing of course, we could get the deep snow off.

“Having cleared 75 per cent of the pitch it was decided ‘Match on’, but it was still touch and go.”

Brian Kitchen’s team continued to shove the snow over the boundary wall and the army of volunteers carried on sweeping and gritting the terracing.

But then there was another twist – and at 2pm – an hour before kick off – it began to snow again.

John recalls: “The Manchester weather centre had told us it wouldn’t return until 6pm, but it came with a vengeance.

“But the referee was happy, so we opened the turnstiles at 2.15pm.

“The 80 or so volunteers got a free match ticket and Brian and his guys were entertained in the boardroom and had the best seats in the house.”

 

However, not everyone was happy – particularly as the Chemics were without a couple of their players who had not been able to make it because of the snow.

“Widnes claimed the pitch wasn’t playable, but the referee disagreed and the game went ahead,” John said.

That was not the end of the effort – with prop Derek Pyke, hooker Gary Ainsworth and the other reserve players from that day brushing the touch lines as the snow continued to fall.

It was all worth it, with Leigh winning 18-5 in front of 2,553 brave souls.

“The victory for Leigh that day certainly had a big say in the Club winning the League Championship,” concluded John.

And he is not wrong – with Alex Murphy’s team finishing the season two points clear of Hull FC and Widnes.

To make matters worse for Widnes, the team coach and a number of travelling fans struggled getting home due to the numbers of road closures caused by the wintry downfall.

 
Leigh 18
5
Widnes
Match URL www.rugbyleagueproject.org/matches/17021
Status Completed
Date Sunday, 13th December, 1981
Referee Greg Hartley (Sydney)
Venue Hilton Park (Leigh)
Crowd 2,592
Leigh Scoresheet Widnes
Ken GREEN   T   Mick GEORGE
Tommy MARTYN        
Ray TABERN        
Alf WILKINSON        
     
John WOODS 3 G   Mick BURKE
Leigh Teams Widnes
Mick HOGAN 1 FB 1 Mick BURKE
Des DRUMMOND 2 W 2 John BASNETT
Terry BILSBURY 3 C 3 Mick GEORGE
Steve DONLAN 4 C 4 Eric HUGHES
Philip FOX 5 W 5 Keith BENTLEY
     
John WOODS 6 FE 6 Keiron O'LOUGHLIN
Ken GREEN 7 HB 7 Andy GREGORY
     
Alf WILKINSON 8 FR 8 Mike O'NEILL
Ray TABERN 9 HK 9 Keith ELWELL
Tony COOKE 10 FR 10 Steve O'NEILL
Tommy MARTYN 11 2R 11 Les GORLEY
Mick McTIGUE 12 2R 12 Eric PRESCOTT
Ian POTTER 13 L 13 Mick ADAMS
     
Steve TOMLINSON 14 B    
    B 15 Brian LOCKWOOD
     
Alex MURPHY   HC   Doug LAUGHTON
     
 

 

terry bilsbury.jpg

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Posted

the risk assessment would be 50 pages long these days - brilliant times - thanks for posting this

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see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

Posted
8 hours ago, Andy JG said:

With the snowy conditions at present I saw this article about a famous Leigh match I attended at Hilton Park in December 1981..played in a blizzard in deep snow.

Snow was piled high on the terraces, and there is no way the game would be played nowadays in such conditions..health and safety of spectators etc..

The winter of 1981–1982 in the United Kingdom was a severe cold wave that was formed in early December 1981 and lasted until mid-late January in 1982, and was one of the coldest Decembers recorded in the United Kingdom.

I was looking forawrd to the game, it being a top of the table clash, but I recall looking at the weather on the Sunday morning and thinking it would be off.

Pre internet etc... the only way I could know was calling the club,  at about 2pm and they said it was on.

Leigh won quite easily in front of a severly diminished attendance.

Got home and listened to Rugby League reports on Radio Manchester at 6pm and Ron Marlor (great RL correspondent on Radio Manchester) was interviewing the Aussie referee, Hartley who was actually in a hot bath at the time.

Great memories.. 

 

From The Leigh Journal....

This weekend's snowy conditions give us another opportunity to relive  the time when an army of volunteers and some old school ingenuity helped Leigh get their 1981-82 game with Widnes played despite the near Arctic Hilton Park conditions.

It was a top of the table encounter in December 1981 in the middle of Leigh's Championship winning campaign.

The victory over the Chemics that afternoon would go a long way to securing a first ever title for the Leythers.

But how on earth did they get that game played – with snow falling and sticking, and banked up higher than the goalposts at the Railway End?

A couple of years ago we asked Leigh’s former secretary John Stringer what he remembered of that day.

And he vividly recalled: “Chairman Brian Bowman and myself spoke at length the night before the game and we arranged to meet at the ground at 8am on the Sunday morning to make a decision.

 

“We contacted Brian Kitchen, a Leigh fan who owned Clarefarm – a garden centre on Nel Pan Lane, which is no longer there.

“He had loads of machinery that would help us if we decided to move the snow to get the match on.

“The two Brians and me met as arranged on the Sunday. It had stopped snowing, apparently around 6am, but with the scale of the drift at the Railway End, it was hopeless.

“To our surprise Brian said. ‘I’ll shift it! I’ll get me lads here and we will do our best.’”

Within the hour Hilton Park was a hive of activity with men and machinery shifting the snow and dumping it over the wall at the two ends of the ground.

They were joined by a mass of volunteers, who turned up to clear the terracing on the two sides of the ground which would homes" target="_blank">house spectators.

John continued: “I had been in constant touch with Ronnie Close, the General Manager at Widnes.

 

“He said, ‘You must be barmy! You’ve no chance of getting it on’.

“Then Leigh kitman Tony O’Neill arrived, pointing out that the white ball would cause a problem in the snow.

“Tony went to a car spares shop on Railway Road and bought a few cans of orange touch up spray paint, and got on with the job of ‘painting’ the white Mitre balls in a bright orange colour.

“The referee Greg Hartley arrived just before 12 and was seeing snow for the first time.

“He was from Australia but was spending a season in the English game

“He was impressed with the effort and was happy with the pitch, providing of course, we could get the deep snow off.

“Having cleared 75 per cent of the pitch it was decided ‘Match on’, but it was still touch and go.”

Brian Kitchen’s team continued to shove the snow over the boundary wall and the army of volunteers carried on sweeping and gritting the terracing.

But then there was another twist – and at 2pm – an hour before kick off – it began to snow again.

John recalls: “The Manchester weather centre had told us it wouldn’t return until 6pm, but it came with a vengeance.

“But the referee was happy, so we opened the turnstiles at 2.15pm.

“The 80 or so volunteers got a free match ticket and Brian and his guys were entertained in the boardroom and had the best seats in the house.”

 

However, not everyone was happy – particularly as the Chemics were without a couple of their players who had not been able to make it because of the snow.

“Widnes claimed the pitch wasn’t playable, but the referee disagreed and the game went ahead,” John said.

That was not the end of the effort – with prop Derek Pyke, hooker Gary Ainsworth and the other reserve players from that day brushing the touch lines as the snow continued to fall.

It was all worth it, with Leigh winning 18-5 in front of 2,553 brave souls.

“The victory for Leigh that day certainly had a big say in the Club winning the League Championship,” concluded John.

And he is not wrong – with Alex Murphy’s team finishing the season two points clear of Hull FC and Widnes.

To make matters worse for Widnes, the team coach and a number of travelling fans struggled getting home due to the numbers of road closures caused by the wintry downfall.

 
Leigh 18
5
Widnes
Match URL www.rugbyleagueproject.org/matches/17021
Status Completed
Date Sunday, 13th December, 1981
Referee Greg Hartley (Sydney)
Venue Hilton Park (Leigh)
Crowd 2,592
Leigh Scoresheet Widnes
Ken GREEN   T   Mick GEORGE
Tommy MARTYN        
Ray TABERN        
Alf WILKINSON        
     
John WOODS 3 G   Mick BURKE
Leigh Teams Widnes
Mick HOGAN 1 FB 1 Mick BURKE
Des DRUMMOND 2 W 2 John BASNETT
Terry BILSBURY 3 C 3 Mick GEORGE
Steve DONLAN 4 C 4 Eric HUGHES
Philip FOX 5 W 5 Keith BENTLEY
     
John WOODS 6 FE 6 Keiron O'LOUGHLIN
Ken GREEN 7 HB 7 Andy GREGORY
     
Alf WILKINSON 8 FR 8 Mike O'NEILL
Ray TABERN 9 HK 9 Keith ELWELL
Tony COOKE 10 FR 10 Steve O'NEILL
Tommy MARTYN 11 2R 11 Les GORLEY
Mick McTIGUE 12 2R 12 Eric PRESCOTT
Ian POTTER 13 L 13 Mick ADAMS
     
Steve TOMLINSON 14 B    
    B 15 Brian LOCKWOOD
     
Alex MURPHY   HC   Doug LAUGHTON
     
 

 

terry bilsbury.jpg

Note the crowd 2,592.

Posted
9 hours ago, The Future is League said:

Note the crowd 2,592.

First Widnes game my dad had missed in over a decade, and I suspect that's probably true for a few hundred others. First he knew that the game was on was reading the score in the paper the next morning.

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Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, The Future is League said:

Note the crowd 2,592.

Leigh were the third best supported team that season with an average of 5,939. Division 1 season average 5,268.

Edited by Padge
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Visit my photography site www.padge.smugmug.com

Radio 5 Live: Saturday 14 April 2007

Dave Whelan "In Wigan rugby will always be king"

 

This country's wealth was created by men in overalls, it was destroyed by men in suits.

Posted
2 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

Great kits btw. 
The attendance wasn't so bad considering the conditions. And friends, I remember that winter - it really was bad. 

Aye - there was a huge snow dump in early December.  Hardly any after that but the frosts were so bad that the snow didn't thaw until the end of January.

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"We'll sell you a seat .... but you'll only need the edge of it!"

Posted
1 hour ago, Griff said:

Aye - there was a huge snow dump in early December.  Hardly any after that but the frosts were so bad that the snow didn't thaw until the end of January.

That's correct. I remember walking home one night in late January after a night out and got into an altercation with a couple of lads. Unbeknown to us they had a load of mates round the corner and we were being chased by said gang, on essentially an ice rink, slipping around like the Keystone Cops. Luckily for us, they were just as bad. 

Posted
2 hours ago, EggFace said:

1981 what a year for music.

Yeah, just look at the number ones - 'There's no-one quite like grandma" - St Winifred's School Choir, Joe Dolce with 'Shaddap ya face' etc. 'The birdie song' by the Tweets only made it to number two in the charts though. And Phil Collins launched his solo career. It really was a year for music.

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Posted
1 hour ago, JonM said:

Yeah, just look at the number ones - 'There's no-one quite like grandma" - St Winifred's School Choir, Joe Dolce with 'Shaddap ya face' etc. 'The birdie song' by the Tweets only made it to number two in the charts though. And Phil Collins launched his solo career. It really was a year for music.

I suppose you never heard of The Jam, Madness, Depeche Mode, The Police, Motorhead, Haircut 100, Begger and Co, Sugar Minott, Stray Cats, Teardrop Explodes, The Clash, The Exploited, Coast to Coast etc etc etc

Posted
10 minutes ago, EggFace said:

I suppose you never heard of The Jam, Madness, Depeche Mode, The Police, Motorhead, Haircut 100, Begger and Co, Sugar Minott, Stray Cats, Teardrop Explodes, The Clash, The Exploited, Coast to Coast etc etc etc

You're not helping your case much there.  Motorhead stand out obviously, The Clash and The Jam were OK - but the rest of them ....  average at best.

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"We'll sell you a seat .... but you'll only need the edge of it!"

Posted
3 hours ago, Griff said:

You're not helping your case much there.  Motorhead stand out obviously, The Clash and The Jam were OK - but the rest of them ....  average at best.

I'm talking about variety first and you must be a wooled up Rocker/Metal head as the Clash, The Jam, The Stranglers were better then okay ...I rather go back then for music then the ###### I have had to put up for the past 25 years.

1981 for Rugby League for me that French club brawl being on the BBC news but not on YouTube

Posted
10 hours ago, Padge said:

Leigh were the third best supported team that season with an average of 5,939. Division 1 season average 5,268.

And yet, apparently, the game is dying even though we now only have 2 clubs out of 12 with crowds well below 10000.

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Posted
4 hours ago, EggFace said:

I suppose you never heard of The Jam, Madness, Depeche Mode, The Police, Motorhead, Haircut 100, Begger and Co, Sugar Minott, Stray Cats, Teardrop Explodes, The Clash, The Exploited, Coast to Coast etc etc etc

I mean, I could have continued with the album charts - "Stars on 45" number one for over a month, as was Cliff Richard, plus a couple of weeks for the BBC's album for the wedding of Charles & Diana. "Hooked on Classics" only made it to number two. It wasn't all bad though, Buck's Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest. 

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Posted

At least none of the players had to be treated for frostbite after the game as happened to our Aussie fullback George Bryant after a cup tie against Halifax at Crystal Palace in early '85 (we lost 14 - 17). His temper wasn't helped when he rang home in MacKay the next day and found that it had been so hot there that the family had retreated to the beach in an attempt to cool down!

Posted
On 11/01/2025 at 02:06, The Future is League said:

Note the crowd 2,592.

Is it me, or where Rugby League crowds in a general malaise around this time? I seem to remember Saints vs Wigan Challenge Cup from Feb '82 only attracted 7,000.
 

20 hours ago, EggFace said:

1981 what a year for music.

Rush - Moving Pictures.
King Crimson - Discipline.

There have been worse years. :kolobok_music:

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Posted
20 minutes ago, burningmuscles said:

Is it me, or where Rugby League crowds in a general malaise around this time? 

The opposite if anything, attendances in the early 80s were up quite a bit compared to the 1970s when RL was really at its lowest ebb. 

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Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, burningmuscles said:

Is it me, or where Rugby League crowds in a general malaise around this time? I seem to remember Saints vs Wigan Challenge Cup from Feb '82 only attracted 7,000.
 

Rush - Moving Pictures.
King Crimson - Discipline.

There have been worse years. :kolobok_music:

🙂

Edited by EggFace
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Posted
14 hours ago, JonM said:

I mean, I could have continued with the album charts - "Stars on 45" number one for over a month, as was Cliff Richard, plus a couple of weeks for the BBC's album for the wedding of Charles & Diana. "Hooked on Classics" only made it to number two. It wasn't all bad though, Buck's Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest. 

I could contine with Elvis Costello Almost Blue, The Clash Sandinsta, UB40 present Arms and Present Arms in Dub, Madness 7, The Meteors In Heaven, The Exploited Punks Not Dead, Siouxsie and the Banshees Juju, The Police Ghost in the Machine, Squeeze East Side Story.etc etc etc..had enough nazi, or do you want some more.

Posted

I remember when Hull KR had to play about 25 matches in 8 weeks to close out the 1985/86 season, which resulted in us finishing mid-table rather than chasing for the title (as we were before that), and losing the Challenge Cup final by 1 point to Castleford with half the team playing on one leg.

That’s the sort of thing winter rugby used to cause, and I don’t think anyone wants to go back!! 🥶 🥶 🥶 

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