fevnut's musings 2023/#07 Last Sunday, Milestones and Swinton and Fev

 

Last Sunday

Whenever we write, we try to avoid criticising the players, the coach or the club management.

Maybe we were critical of the coach last season but that was because he gave us so many reasons to do so that it became extremely difficult to avoid it!

Generally, we believe that praise, where due, is a much better motivation than criticism. It’s a way of operating we tried to maintain throughout our teaching career as well as when we were politically responsible for the cultural sector of Wakefield Council.

Some people argue that, if you pay your money, you have a right criticise, but Rovers is such an important, loved, part of our life that we really don’t want to indulge in negatives.

The fact that we have that to say tells you all you need to about what we felt about the performance against Halifax. At least the last 5 minutes were exciting as we desperately tried to take back the lead.

One thing for sure is that Halifax were so much better than when we played them last month and deserved their win.

It would appear that we certainly weren’t the only ones that noticed the very different demeanours of the two teams during the warm-ups. We particularly liked and agree with the comment below which was posted on the Fev Fans facebook page.

I don’t think Fax are getting enough credit for upping their game. I noticed during the warm-up Fax were right in front of me and seemed really switched on and intense. Looking over at our lads they just seemed a couple of notches below Fax. We do have willing runners in the forwards but I think we miss an old fashioned ball handler who can put players through half gaps rather than them running straight at the opposition. Only player to do that is Bussey as he can vary his passing game. But even he has not quite hit top form this season.

 Michael Bates

As we left Post Office Road we were feeling pretty down. But then we simply thought about the huge joy that the team have brought us in over 40 years and that proved to be an excellent antidote!

Milestones

Okay, so it was a lousy result last Sunday but there actually were two things to celebrate.

It seems that almost every time Craig Hall takes to the field, he achieves a new milestone in his career. There was yet another last Sunday when he converted Josh Hardcastle’s try in the eighth minute it took him to 2,250 points scored in his career. He could well set two more milestones against Swinton as he needs just 3 more goals to kick his 300^th for Fev and in doing that (or indeed scoring just one try) he will go past 800 points for Rovers. He has scored an average of over 12 points per game in the time he has been with us.

Let’s put that amazing record into context. Fev’s all time top points scorer is, of course, Steve Quinn who scored 2,656 points in 392 games which is an average of about 6.8 points per match and even if you work out what Steve’s average would be if his whole career had been when tries counted for 4 points it only takes his average up to 6.9.

Also achieving a milestone last Sunday was Junior Moors who played his 50^th game for us. Last season he played 31 games out of 33, jointly the most appearances together with Luke Briscoe and Craig Hall.

 

Swinton and Fev

We are looking forward to going over to Swinton this Sunday. There is a lot of similarity between our clubs. Both have a very proud history and both sets of fans long for a day when we can reclaim our places in the top tier of the rugby league.

At the moment Fev are a lot closer to realising that aim but we should never forget that Swinton, too, have a rich history.

The 1927-28 season was a special one for Fev when, in only our 7^th season in the professional game, we finished in third place in the league and did a league double over Bramley, Dewsbury, Halifax, Hull, Hull KR, Keighley and Wakefield (Leeds were the only team that year to gain a double over Fev).

The top 4 teams entered the Championship Play-Offs and in the semi-final we went away to Leeds and pulled off a stunning 15-12 win. That took us to our first ever major final which was against Swinton and played at Oldham. Unfortunately, we were unable to reproduce our form in the semi and Swinton won 11-0. It was to be another twelve years before Fev did actually win our first trophy (the Yorkshire Cup).

That defeat to Swinton was no great surprise. That season they became the first, and only, Lancashire team to accomplish the ‘All Four Cups’ feat and their trophy cabinet proudly contained the Championship Trophy, the Challenge Cup Trophy, the Lancashire League Trophy and the Lancashire Cup Trophy.

Who knows, maybe the day will come when we meet again in the Super League or whatever it is then called!