LEO BOOTH, who has died aged 86, was a member of Huddersfield’s last league title-winning team who in a memorable 1961-62 season, also pulled on the claret and gold at Wembley Stadium.

For on Saturday, May 12 of that campaign, the Fartowners lost 12-6 to neighbours Wakefield in the Challenge Cup final.

But at Odsal seven days later, Huddersfield gained revenge by toppling firm favourites Trinity 14-5 in the Championship Final.

In both big matches, Booth, then 22, played in the centres in a side skippered by scrum-half Tommy Smales and coached by Huddersfield legend Dave Valentine.

Other notable players included fullback Frank ‘Spanky’ Dyson, props Ted Slevin and Ken Noble and loose-forward Peter Ramsden.

By winning the Championship Final, Booth and Co thwarted Wakefield’s bid to become the fourth team to win ‘All Four Cups’, Ken Traill’s charges having already claimed the Yorkshire Cup and Yorkshire League title.

The Odsal tie, watched by 37,451 in heavy rain (81,263 had been at Wembley) came at the end of a busy run-in to the season.

Huddersfield squeezed eleven games into 36 days, Booth figuring in seven of them, as they finished fourth in the table (they had been 14th the season before), then won 13-11 at leaders Wigan in the semi-finals of the four-team play-offs.

And even after the Championship Final, they weren’t finished, with Booth one of the squad who headed to Dublin to take part in a four-strong exhibition tournament also featuring Featherstone, Widnes (the winners) and Workington.

Booth, who was raised in Middlestown, between Huddersfield and Wakefield, and worked in engineering, joined the Fartowners from nearby amateur team Flockton during the 1960 close-season and made his debut in the third match of the season, a 29-0 league loss at Whitehaven.

He made 148 appearances, scored 25 tries and kicked one goal up to leaving the club in 1969.