At the back of my mind I seem to recall Reg Gasnier scored a hat trick against us on probably the 1963 but could have been the 1959 tour. Can anyone confirm whether I am correct.?
I guess it must have been the 1959 tour when we were beaten 45-15 by the touring team.
Just looking at some of the crowds at the club games on that tour:
Rochdale Hornets 10155
Widnes 9381
Oldham 17630
St Helens 29156
Wigan 24466
Hunslet 8061
Wakefield 17615
Barrow 8488
Whitehaven/Workington 7463
Warrington 17112
These would have been mid-week games. How times have changed for some of these clubs
The economic climate in many of the old mining/mill areas must have changed dramatically since then, as has ours tbh. No major employers these days of course, in that era ICI owned Halton north and south for instance.
I was quite surprised at Beaumont's average crowd figures in his long pleading letter, Leigh 3000, Widnes 3900.
I think his first ever game in the green and gold jumper was against Widnes.....so on 1959 tour.
Don`t know about the hat trick
Widnes remain, and probs will forever, as the last club team to beat the Aussies thanks to a certain Mr Moore I think it was who duly awarded the pen to give us the 11-10 win, they had lost to Wire earlier and so lost twice in Cheshire.Went home happy that night.
There was a certain majic to night games at naughton park....probs as you could not see what a dump the place was in the dark.
Wasn't Tony Myler at loose forward that night?
I certainly remember the 1964 test at Wembley! My OH was heavily pregnant and the product was named after Langlands (with his white boots)! Happy days!!!
I think his first ever game in the green and gold jumper was against Widnes…..so on 1959 tour. Don`t know about the hat trick Widnes remain, and probs will forever, as the last club team to beat the Aussies thanks to a certain Mr Moore I think it was who duly awarded the pen to give us the 11-10 win, they had lost to Wire earlier and so lost twice in Cheshire.Went home happy that night. There was a certain majic to night games at naughton park….probs as you could not see what a dump the place was in the dark.
…. but still better than the present Wakefield ground!!
Wasn’t Tony Myler at loose forward that night? I certainly remember the 1964 test at Wembley! My OH was heavily pregnant and the product was named after Langlands (with his white boots)! Happy days!!!
Doug Laughton was loose forward when we beat Australia in 1978, Great memories of that night. What a night and what a team.
Fullback 1. David ECKERSLEY
Wing 2. Stuart WRIGHT
Centre 3. Mal ASPEY
Centre 4. Mick GEORGE
Wing 5. Mick BURKE
Stand-off 6. Eric HUGHES
Scrum Half 7. Reg BOWDEN
Front Row 8. Brian HOGAN
Hooker 9. Keith ELWELL
Front Row 10. Jim MILLS
Second Row 11. Mick ADAMS
Second Row 12. David HULL
Loose Forward 13. Doug LAUGHTON
Chris Anderson, who played a few games for Widnes in 1974/75 - most notably being brought over especially to play in the 1975 CC final win over Warrington - played on the wing for Australia that night.
Wasn’t Tony Myler at loose forward that night? I certainly remember the 1964 test at Wembley! My OH was heavily pregnant and the product was named after Langlands (with his white boots)! Happy days!!!
No Myler was not first team as he was only 17/ 18 not sure if he had signed from union at that time. He did however play at loose when we played them at Naughton park in 1982.
It was the Naughton Park game that I was referring to!
I guess it must have been the 1959 tour when we were beaten 45-15 by the touring team. Just looking at some of the crowds at the club games on that tour: Rochdale Hornets 10155 Widnes 9381 Oldham 17630 St Helens 29156 Wigan 24466 Hunslet 8061 Wakefield 17615 Barrow 8488 Whitehaven/Workington 7463 Warrington 17112 These would have been mid-week games. How times have changed for some of these clubs
I don’t think this gets nearly enough attention, the demise of Rugby League, if you look at the 50s and early 60s, virtually every top division club would see 10,000 plus gates for certain games but then the late 60s and early 70s attendances plummeted inexplicably. In 1978 we had the second highest attendance with 7,700 fans.
I think the cup competitions didn’t help, in the 80s I always believed there was too many fans picking and choosing their games they’d attended resulting in fluctuating attendances.
89, we were getting 13,000 one week but then 5,000 the next, it was utterly unfathomable.
I've read somewhere gasnier did score a hat trick in the first half . H-T 30-2
Thanks to everyone for their replies. It must have been the 1959 tour. It was nagging me the memory of the hat trick was at the back of my mind but I could not recall if in the 50s or 60s. I do remember he made a great impression on me at the time for his skill & speed & overall contribution to the game that day. I was aged 9 at the time.