The Four Pointer: Forgotten Battlefields

Hello and welcome back to The BIG League, your home of 1990s Rugby League nostalgia. 

As time progressed over the decade, many clubs found themselves moving to new homes as their traditional grounds became tired and outdated. What became of some of our favourite cathedrals of the game that closed their doors for the final time during the 90s? What about the historic events that took place at some grounds during their busiest periods? Read on and find out. 

Huddersfield: Fartown (1878-1992) 

You're probably aware that in August 1895 that representatives of 22 clubs from the north of England convened at  the George Hotel in Huddersfield to form the Northern Union, so it's kind of fitting that Fartown should feature in this article.

The ground played host to Huddersfield for just short of 120 years between 1878 and 1992 with the club taking on Manchester Rangers in the inaugural match played at the venue. During it's time in use, Huddersfield won the Championship seven times and the Challenge Cup on six occasions with the much-revered 'team of all talents' winning all four trophies available to them during the 1914-15 season.

Originally a cricket ground, Fartown hosted the Challenge Cup final in both 1908 and 1910 as well as test matches against Australia and New Zealand. The ground also hosted sports as diverse as baseball and lacrosse whilst a new-fangled organisation called The Football Association staged a semi-final of the FA Cup at Fartown between Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers in 1882.

By the time of Huddersfield's short lived re-branding as 'Huddersfield Barracudas' and the ground adopting the 'Arena 84' moniker, Fartown had fallen into a state of disrepair and the club eventually left the ground in 1992 with the final game coming in the shape of a 36-12 victory over York in the Yorkshire Cup.

The Rugby League club moved into Leeds Road in a groundshare with Huddersfield Town FC before joining the footballers in the brand new McAlpine Stadium (now John Smiths Stadium) in 1994. Fartown remained connected to the club as a training base but is now only used occasionally to host amateur games but the old ground's name lives on in the cries of Giants fans of a certain age on match days.

Huddersfield Giants have shared The Kirklees Stadium (known as The John Smith's Stadium for sponsorship purposes) with Huddersfield Town FC since 1994. 

Oldham: Watersheddings (1889-1996)

Here's a fun fact for you to wow your friends with. While it was a functioning Rugby League ground, Oldham's Watersheddings home was the sport's highest above sea level.

For just under 110 years, Watersheddings played host to many names who have gone down in Oldham folklore including members of the club's Hall of Fame such as Fred Ashworth, Alex Givvons and 'The Maestro' Bernard Ganley as well as modern legends in the latter years of the 20th century such as Barrie McDermott, Tommy Martyn and Chris Joynt.

Greater Manchester rivals Swinton were the first visitors to Watersheddings on September 28th 1889 and the ground was scheduled to host the first ever international Rugby League match on New Years Day 1904. The match between England and the Other Nationalities was postponed owing to a frozen pitch and later played at Wigan's Central Park.

During their time at the ground, Oldham won four Championships and three Challenge Cups along with a host of Lancashire League and Cup triumphs. By the 1990s, the Oldham club were struggling financially and eventually the land on which Watersheddings sat was sold in 1994 with Oldham Athletic FC's Boundary Park becoming the club's new home at the end of the 1996 season. The final game at Watersheddings took place on August 25th 1996 when Scott Ranson's hat-trick helped Andy Goodway's side to a 34-25 win over Sheffield.

Nowadays, Oldham play their home games at Bower Fold (home of Stalybridge Celtic FC) while the land on which Watersheddings used to sit is now a housing estate although many of the residential areas are named after legendary former players.

Oldham now play their home games at Stalybridge Celtic's Bower Fold. 

Halifax: Thrum Hall (1886-1998) 

One of the more intimidating venues for visiting players, Thrum Hall was Halifax's home for just over 110 years.

After they had won the Yorkshire Cup in 1878, the Halifax club paid £3,000 for the patch of land adjacent to their Hanson Lane home with a view to developing a multi sport venue capable of hosting rugby, cricket and bowls. 'Fax' moved into their new ground when it was officially opened in 1886 with the only try of Ernest Williamson's Halifax career helped his side to a victory over Hull.

Thrum Hall went on to host the Challenge Cup final in 1914 as well as the deciding play-off matches for the Championship in 1912, 1929 and 1930. During their time at the ground, Halifax won four Championships (most recently in 1986) and five Challenge Cups with their 1987 triumph over St. Helens being the club's most recent major honour.

Following the Taylor Report, the capacity of Thrum Hall diminished from it's 1959 record attendance of 29,153 to just under 10,000 and in 1998 the club sold the land to supermarket chain Asda and moved across town to share The Shay with Halifax Town FC (now known as FC Halifax Town) which remains their home to this day. The final game to be played at Thrum Hall took place on February 15th 1998 when John Pendlebury's side defeated West Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield 28-8 in a Challenge Cup tie.

Halifax RLFC have shared The Shay with both incarnations of the town's soccer clubs since 1998. 

Wigan: Central Park (1902-1999) 

As one of Rugby League's perennial superpowers, Wigan's famous old Central Park ground became known as the spiritual home of the game for just short of 97 years.

After spending the early years of their existence playing at grounds such as Folly Field and Prescott Street as well as sharing Springfield Park with Wigan United FC (a precursor to Wigan Athletic), the Rugby League club moved into Central Park in 1902, playing their first game at the new ground on September 6th which they won 14-8 over Batley.

Given Wigan's standing in the game of Rugby League, Central Park played host to many of the game's greats over the years including star imports such as Brett Kenny, John Ferguson, Inga Tuigimala as well as Shaun Edwards, Martin Offiah and Ellery Hanley. Arguably Central Park's greatest ever night came in 1987 when Wigan defeated Australian giants Manly 8-2 in an unofficial World Club Challenge match.

In 1997, Wigan's shareholders approved a deal to sell the ground to Dave Whelan who intended to redevelop the stadium into a venue fit to host both Rugby League and Wigan Athletic FC. This deal was eventually kiboshed and the land was sold to Tesco who built a supermarket upon it.

Wigan eventually left Central Park in 1999 with the final game coming 96 years and 364 days after the ground hosted it's first match. Wigan gave the old ground a winning send-off, defeating arch rivals St. Helens 28-20 on September 8th, although Saints legend Tommy Martyn has the distinction of scoring the final try at the ground.

As previously mentioned, a Tesco supermarket sits upon the old Central Park land and Wigan now play their home games at the DW Stadium.

The DW Stadium (originally JJB Stadium) regularly hosted Super League rugby and Premier League football until Wigan Athletic's relegation from soccer's top flight in 2013. 

That brings our look back at some of Rugby League's former battlegrounds to an end. I hope we've brought back some special memories of attending matches at the famous grounds. If you have any particular recollections then why not get in touch on Twitter and share them. Our editor Dan can be found @BarkerGray2. 

We'll be back at the weekend with our chat with former Sheffield and England winger Nick Pinkney. 

Until then, take care. 

The BIG Interview: John Devereux

Hello and welcome back to The BIG League, your regular look back at Rugby League during the 1990s.

John Devereux joined Widnes in 1989 during the exodus of Welsh Rugby Union players 'moving north' as the professional 13-man code provided better financial opportunities for players as opposed to it's amateur counterpart. During his time at Naughton Park, the winger helped his side win the Lancashire Cup in 1990 and the Regal Trophy in 1992 as well as being selected for the Great Britain squad that toured the Southern Hemisphere in 1992 and the GB team that came so close to winning the World Cup in the same year. In 1993, Devereux also made the trip down under for a short stint with Manly Sea Eagles in the NSWRL competition.

After the resurrection of the Welsh national RL team in 1991, Devereux went on to become a pivotal part of the team that won the European Championship in 1995 as well as reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, losing to England at Old Trafford. In the year 2000, whilst still contracted to Bridgend Rugby Union club, Devereux made a short term return to the 13-a-side game as part of the Wales team that came incredibly close to pulling off a shock win over Australia in the 2000 World Cup semi-final at Huddersfield.

Recently, The BIG League was lucky enough to speak to John and discuss his Rugby League career.

TBL: How did the move from Rugby Union to Rugby League come about? 

JD: 'I had just come from the British Lions tour of Australia in 1989 and I had a phone call from Jiffy (Jonathan Davies) and Paul Moriarty who were pre-season training with Widnes in North Wales. Doug Laughton had been talking about strengthening the squad and my name came up in conversation after Moz and Jiff had mentioned me. I took a call from the duo who told me that Widnes were coming in for me although I did say I wasn't interested as I believed I still had unfinished business in Rugby Union.'

John Devereux in action for Wales during the early part of his Rugby Union career.

'Bradford chairman Chris Caisley had chased me all over Australia during the Lions tour and I had told him I wasn't interested. I agreed to listen to Dougie Laughton out of courtesy, this developed into a meeting with Dougie and my dad at a Bridgend hotel. Dougie could charm the birds from the trees and I ended up agreeing terms. He sold the complete Widnes package to me and told me I could be a legend in the game. A week later he came to my home and I signed a five-year deal with Widnes.' 

Devereux played for Widnes between 1989 and 1997, scoring 104 tries during his time at Naughton Park

TBL: What would you say was the highlight of your Rugby League career? 

JD: 'Playing Rugby League for Wales for the first time as well as playing three times at Wembley for Great Britain and my time at Manly in 1993.' 

TBL: How did the spell at Manly come about? 

JD: 'I was invited to take up a contract with Manly through a link between Eddie MacDonald at Widnes and Graham Lowe who was Manly's coach at the time. I left for Australia the day after the 1993 Challenge Cup final and played 16 times for Manly before losing to Brisbane Broncos in the Premiership play-offs. I left at the end of the Australian season and started again for Widnes upon my return home. When I got to Australia, Graham Lowe had been taken ill so I had to win Bobby Fulton over who was the Australia team coach but had taken over from Graham.' 

John Devereux (right) played 16 times for Manly during the 1993 NSWRL season.

TBL: Who was the toughest player you came up against during your RL career? 

JD: 'Gary Connolly and Paul Newlove in the UK and then Laurie Daley and Steve Renouf in Australia.' 

TBL: How did it feel to play for Wales in prestigious tournaments including running England close in the World Cup semi-final in 1995? 

JD: 'For us Welshmen going into Rugby League from Union it was fabulous when the side re-emerged in 1991 by beating Papua New Guinea 68-0. There were then plenty of highlights including beating England in Cardiff, winning the European Championship against France in 1995 and then the World Cup with the famous win over Samoa in Swansea and then playing England four days later and only losing to two dodgy tries from Martin Offiah.' 

The Wales Rugby League team, captained by fellow dual-code international Jonathan Davies, won the 1995 European Championship and ran England close in the semi-final of the World Cup in the same year. 

'Finally after myself and Paul Moriarty had gone back home to Wales to play Union again, Clive Griffiths asked us to join the Wales squad at the 2000 World Cup due to injuries. We were famously beating the Aussies in Huddersfield after 58 minutes with Lee Briers putting in a man of the match performance although we ended up losing in the end. It was always a great time for the Welsh boys whenever we experienced playing for our country.' 

TBL: You mentioned earlier that you had 'unfinished business' in Rugby Union, was this a major factor in your decision to rejoin the 15-man game? 

JD: 'No, not really at the time I had some ambitions left which I wanted to fulfil in Union such as winning the league and playing in a Welsh Cup final as well as gain more Lions and Wales caps but when I signed for Widnes that was the end of that. I did feel that I could still do some damage in Union when I signed for Sale Sharks in 1997 but I broke my ankle which put me out of Wales and Lions contention for over a year. 

'After that, things didn't go too well at Sale and I had an option to go back to Wales and where it all started for me at my old club Bridgend. They were rebuilding and it was great to go back otherwise I would still be living in Widnes.' 

TBL: Finally, of all the matches you played in during your Rugby League career, do any stand out as a particular favourite? 

JD: 'There were many great games for Widnes, Great Britain and Wales as well  as some sad ones like the 1992 World Cup final and Challenge Cup final at Wembley in 1993. The Regal Trophy win in 1991 and the semi-final win over Leeds in 1993 were special as were the games I played for Wales. 

'I feel the 1993 series between Great Britain and New Zealand defined me and I felt like I had finally arrived on the international stage in Rugby League, especially after going on two tours with Great Britain and not making a single test match appearance. Sometimes things don't always work out well and you must take the highs with the lows. Even though I liked Malcolm Reilly and Phil Larder as coaches, I didn't like all of their methods and I felt too much pressure, especially during the 1992 tour.' 

Devereux scored a try for Great Britain at Wembley in the first test against New Zealand in 1993 before following the feat with a brace of tries in the second test at Wigan's Central Park. 

'Phil then came to Widnes in 1993 and helped us get to Wembley but a lot of that was down to the players pulling together and fighting for our futures as Widnes were in administration during '93 and we all had mortgages to pay. All our contracts had been frozen so we were playing for win pay only.' 

That brings our chat with John to a close, I must once again thank him for taking the time to speak to us here at BIG League HQ, hopefully we'll have a few more interviews coming up in the near future.

I hope you have enjoyed the interview, for more from The BIG League then why not follow our editor Dan on Twitter, he can be found @BarkerGray2.

We'll be back in midweek paying tribute to some of the homes of Rugby League that closed their doors for the final time during the 1990s.

Until then, take care.

Taking On The Union

Hello and welcome to The BIG League, a semi-regular look at Rugby League during everyone's favourite decade, the 1990s. 

Over time, we'll look at the key moments, players and people who shaped the sport during the decade in which the game changed forever. 

The 1990s were times of great change on both sides of the Rugby divide. As T-shirts and shorts replaced woolly hats and scarves as terrace attire when League became a summer sport, Rugby Union made it's biggest change in over 100 years and became a professional sport for the first time in 1995. This now promoted a freedom of movement as players were now allowed to transfer between the codes without recrimination. This allowed doors to be opened and for the first time ever, the two codes were able to sort out their battle for supremacy out on the field. 

Captains Andrew Farrell and Philip de Glanville lead out their respective Wigan and Bath teams ahead of the second Clash Of The Codes fixture at Twickenham in 1996. 

The two-match 'Clash Of The Codes' series was announced in January 1996 with dates set of May 8th for the fixture played under League rules and the two teams clashing in the 15-man code on May 25th. Both matches were televised live by Sky, the league game was played at Manchester City FC's then home, Maine Road while English Rugby's headquarters of Twickenham hosted the match played under Union rules. 

The two teams who did battle in the series were Wigan and Bath. 

Wigan were British RL's perennial champion side, they had systematically laid waste to the best that the other clubs had to offer by winning the Challenge Cup every year between 1988 and 1995 as well as adding the Championship title to their Wembley triumphs every year since 1990. The Central Park outfit were well on the way to winning the final Championship of RL's winter era and were also the reigning champions of the world having upset the odds to defeat the mighty Brisbane Broncos in their own ANZ Stadium backyard in 1994. 

Since the establishment of Rugby Union's league competition in 1987, Bath had topped the table on six occasions including an impressive spell of four titles in a row between 1991 and 1994. The Bath club, based at The Rec, had also won the Pilkington Cup (Union's equivalent of the Challenge Cup) on ten occasions, including the 1996 final which was played just four days before the first fixture against Wigan. 

Despite the initial lukewarm reaction to the series' announcement from both governing bodies, the two teams began to take preparations for the clash seriously, Bath included Rugby League practice in their training sessions while Wigan even went to the extent of buying a scrum machine to aid their preparations. One prominent naysayer of the event was Bath and England centre (and second best ever presenter of Gladiators) Jeremy Guscott who described it as a 'pointless exercise' and pulled out of playing in both fixtures although he would later attend the Twickenham leg of the series as a television pundit. 

A day after Bath had beaten Leicester at Twickenham in the cup final, the worse for wear squad engaged in their only training session against a Rugby League club in a hastily arranged scrimmage with Clive Griffiths' South Wales side. By contrast, Wigan warmed up for the first leg by hammering Paris St. Germain 76-8 at Central Park. 

The scene was set, just over 20,000 people took their places at Maine Road to witness history being made and after over 100 years the age old pub question of 'League or Union?' was a step closer to being answered. 

The game started badly for Bath when Jon Callard's kick failed to clear the regulation ten metres and then proceeded to get drastically worse. It took Wigan just three minutes to break the deadlock when Martin Offiah crossed the whitewash for the first of his six tries of the evening. Bath struggled to cope with playing under League rules and took fifteen minutes to even complete a set of tackles, which allowed Wigan to amass a huge 52-0 half time lead. 

The Union side grew into the game in the second half and Callard was able to atone for his earlier error and notch Bath's solitary try which he subsequently converted. Any hopes of an unlikely comeback were dashed however as Wigan ran in a further six tries to contribute to an eventual final score of 82-6. 

Craig Murdock of Wigan notched one of Wigan's fifteen tries in their 82-6 win over Bath in the Rugby League leg of the 1996 'Clash Of The Codes'. 

In the time between the two fixtures, Wigan went on to make history by becoming the first Rugby League team to be invited to play in the traditional Middlesex Sevens competition at Twickenham four days after the first leg of the event. 

Any thoughts of Wigan simply making up the numbers at the tournament were quickly cast aside when they put the famous Richmond club to the sword, running in nine tries in a spectacular 48-5 hammering of the London side, former Rosslyn Park man Martin Offiah showed Union what they potentially had been missing by opening the scoring with a long-range try which capped Wigan's recovery after the League side struggled with contested scrums and lost possession of the football before Henry Paul recovered it to set Offiah free. 

Kiwi half-back Paul was arguably Wigan's standout player in their quarter-final clash with Harlequins as he almost single-handedly led his side's comeback after going behind to two early tries by grabbing a brace of his own to add to the customary Offish score. The only sour note came as Paul and Offiah succumbed to injuries which threatened their respective participation in Wigan's subsequent Super League fixtures. 

By the time Wigan lined up against Leicester in the semi-final, the amassed crowd at Twickenham had swelled to almost capacity as the Union supporters became captivated by the talent and ability of the League side. Andy Farrell took the mantle of playmaker in Henry Paul's absence by racking up a personal haul of 20 points including two tries to add to a brace from Rob Smyth and an Inga Tuigimala score which saw Leicester beaten 35-12. 

A final tie against Wasps was Wigan's reward (the North London side had beaten Wigan's neighbours Orrell in their respective semi-final). Offiah recovered from his earlier injury and his return gave his team the impetus to produce a splendid display as they ran in six tries to record a famous 38-15 victory and write the Wigan club's name in the history books. 

Wigan's players celebrate their Middlesex Sevens tournament win. 

Wigan returned to Twickenham on May 25th for the return leg of the Clash Of The Codes played under Union rules. By contrast to Bath's preparation for the League match, Wigan held regular training matches against Orrell to add to their Sevens experience and also hammered Halifax and Workington in the Super League for good measure. 

Plenty of talk in the build-up to the Union fixture surrounded the fact that many people had Wigan down as favourites to win the game given their demolition job in the first leg and their stellar performance at the Sevens event. The debate raged on in the Sky television studio as Mike Stephenson and former England international Stuart Barnes fought their respective code's corner and predicted comprehensive wins for either side. 

The game got underway with Callard again kicking off and Wigan's scrummaging inexperience led to the awarding of a penalty try to open the scoring after a collapsing scrum. The first half went on to follow the pattern of the first leg with the Union side opening up a large lead over Wigan with wingers Adedayo Adebayo (2) and Jon Sleightholme crossing to give Bath a 25-0 advantage at half-time. Just as it had taken Bath 15 minutes to complete a set of six in the League fixture, Wigan were unable to get the ball into the opposition half of the field until the midway point of the first half. 

It was rare anyone during the 1990s could match Jason Robinson for pace but in the Union leg of the Clash Of The Codes Bath winger Jon Sleightholme left 'Billy Whizz' in his wake. 

As the second half progressed, thoughts turned to how much Bath could win by as Mike Catt and newly-annointed England captain Phil de Glanville added further scores. Wigan had a secret weapon up their sleeves that aided their comeback cause, professionalism. 

It's vital to remember that Wigan had been a full-time professional outfit since the 1980s while it had only been a matter of months since Bath made the switch to full-time, this allowed Wigan's superior fitness and agility to prevail as Craig Murdock grabbed two tries in addition to a score from Inga Tuigimala. Bath scrum-half Ian Sanders scored his side's sixth try (discounting the penalty try) of the afternoon to extinguish any hopes of an unlikely Wigan victory. Despite losing the fixture, Wigan could take some solace in matching the Union side in the scoring during the second half as well as maintaining a lower margin of defeat in the second leg. 

The event went a long way to start breaking down the barriers between the two codes. At the end of the 1996 season Jason Robinson's agreement with the ARL prevented him from taking part in the infamous 'Tour From Hell' so he joined Henry Paul in signing for Bath on loan while Scott Quinnell crossed back to Rugby Union as well as Inga Tuigimala who joined Newcastle for a world record fee. Twickenham even hosted Rugby League matches in the absence of Wembley Stadium with the curtain raiser to the 2000 World Cup taking place at Union's HQ. 

Bradford Bulls went on to emulate Wigan's success by winning the Middlesex Sevens in 2002 just hours after losing to St. Helens in Super League and Saints partook in the last (to date) match between sides from either code, playing 40 minutes under each set of rules and coming up just short losing 41-39 to Sale (who by now had a full-time Union player in Jason Robinson amongst their ranks) at Knowsley Road. 

Leon Pryce and Robbie Hunter-Paul of Bradford hold aloft the trophy after they replicated Wigan's Middlesex Sevens win in 2002. 

Clash Of The Codes Match One: Wigan 82-6 Bath. May 8th 1996

Venue: Maine Road, Manchester 

Referee: Russell Smith 

Wigan tries: Martin Offiah (6), Jason Robinson (2), Terry O'Connor (2), Andy Johnson (2), Henry Paul, Mick Cassidy, Scott Quinnell, Craig Murdock. 

Wigan goals: Martin Hall (4), Andrew Farrell (5) 

Bath try: Jon Callard

Bath goal: Jon Callard (1)

Clash Of The Codes Match Two: Bath 44-19 Wigan

Venue: Twickenham, London

Referee: Brian Campsall 

Bath tries: Adedayo Adebayo (2), Jon Sleightholme, Mike Catt, Phil de Glanville, Ian Sanders, penalty. 

Bath goals: Jon Callard (3) 

Wigan tries: Craig Murdock (2), Va'iaga Tuigimala. 

Wigan goals: Andrew Farrell (2) 

That brings to a close our look back at the historic meeting between the two powerhouses of either code of Rugby. I hope you enjoyed the piece and I look forward to providing further nostalgia here on The BIG League. 

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter too @BarkerGray2. 

Until next time, take care.