Rugby’s debt to Mrs T

Patrick Kidd

A COMMUNITY DISMISSED BY SOME as “a set of traffic lights on the road from Wakefield to Pontefract” punched well above their weight 40 years ago last summer. On May 7 1983, Featherstone Rovers, a rugby league side from a small mining town in West Yorkshire, defied pre-tournament odds of 100-1 and the distraction of a relegation battle to reach the final of the Challenge Cup at Wembley, where they faced the mighty Hull. Rugby league and coalmining were the alpha and omega of Featherstone. A sociological study in the 1950s found that almost half the town’s population could be found at a rugby match each weekend. More than that went to Wembley: it was said that the only person who didn’t go was the signalman at the town’s level…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2024

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