fevnut's musings 2023/#16: The Landmark Tries

 

Featherstone Rovers: The Landmark Tries 

Earlier his year, Sheffield Eagles announced that Cory Aston had scored their 5,000^th try. It prompted fevnut to look at one of our databases to discover how many tries had been scored by Rovers since they joined the Northern Rugby League in 1921. We discovered that we were very close to try number 12,000 and that was bound to come during the 2023 season. We kept tabs on the progression and were able to draw the attention of the club and the supporters to the impending landmark try.

Over many years now, Mark Las Palmas and fevnut have worked together on the statistical history of Featherstone Rovers and Mark asked whether we had ever looked at who scored the 1,000^th try, 2000^th try etc.. Some more joint work between us has revealed the answers and here we present our findings to you.

 

1,000th try

At the beginning of the 1933/34 season the total number of tries Fev had scored, since we joined the Northern Rugby League in 1921, stood at 954. So, by modern standards, you would have thought that they would easily reach the 1,000 mark that year. However far fewer tries were scored at this time in the history of rugby league and additionally we were in the least successful period of Fev’s history. The previous year we had finished in 26th out of 28 clubs and in the 1933/34 season we finished rock bottom.

Despite that, on April 2nd, we played Bramley at home, and although we lost 13-12, the two tries we scored took us to 999. Our next match was away, also against Bramley and was played on April 3rd (yes, the very next day!) and we won 7-0. We scored just one try which went to Jack Flaherty so he holds the distinction of scoring try 1,000

Jack Flaherty was a prop forward who was signed from Askern Miners Welfare at the beginning of the 1933/34 season and he went on to play 68 games for Fev, his last coming in October 1935. During his Fev career he scored just 3 tries, so to get the 1,000^th was quite an accolade although we suspect that he never knew what he had accomplished.

We now have photos of the vast majority of players who have appeared for the Featherstone Rovers first team but sadly Jack Flaherty is one of the ones we are missing

 

2,000th try

It took more than another 16 years to get to Fev’s 2,000^th try. Of course, that is partially accounted for by the second world war. It came during the 1950/51 season. We had an away match against Bradford Northern on October 28th and we went into the game with the try tally standing at 1,999. Despite the fact that Bradford won 28-10, we scored two tries and the first try was try number 2,000 and was scored by another Jack, Jack Ogden.

 

Jack Ogden joined Rovers in 1944 and for three seasons he played at stand-off, wing or centre. During the 1949/50 season he moved into the second row and the next year he was playing predominantly at prop. It was as a prop forward he scored that 2,000th try. He played a total of 156 games and scored 10 tries.

 

3,000th try

At the end of the 1958/59 season the try tally had reached 2,975 tries. The 3,000 mark was reached in the 6th game of the 1959/60 season which was away at Hull Kingston Rovers on September 2nd. Fev won the match 20-7 scoring 4 tries but it was the first try of the match which was number 3,000, scored by hooker, Willis Fawley.

Willis Fawley is a member of the Featherstone Rovers Hall of Fame. He made his début in 1951 at the age of 21 and he spent his whole career at Fev, finishing at the age of 37 in 1967. In the list of the most appearances by Fev players he is in 10th place with 371. He scored 59 tries and kicked 9 goals for 195 points. He was the hooker in the Rovers team that won the 1959/60 Yorkshire Cup, beating Hull 15-14 at Headingley. 

The next three landmark tries were also scored by top Fev players.

 

4,000th try

The 4,000 mark was reached during the 1967/68 season. It came on November 18th in a league match away at York. Fev won the match 21-17 and they scored three tries. It was the last of these which went to Mick Smith that got us to 4,000.

Mick Smith is also a Hall of Fame member. He made his début in 1964 at the age of only 18 and he played 374 games for Rovers, just three more than Willis Fawley. He scored 114 tries and one solitary goal. He was in Rovers Challenge Cup winning team in 1967 and again in 1973. It was a period when the vast majority of Fev players were local lads and Eddie Waring once referred to him as the ‘foreigner’ in the team – he came from Doncaster! He is the joint Fev holder for tries in a match with the 6 he scored against Doncaster later in that 1967/68 season.

 

5,000th try

This became the second occasion when a landmark try was scored in a match we lost. We had an excellent 1975/76 season, finishing in second place in the league, just one point behind Salford. So, it is ironic that try number 5,000 came in our away game at Salford on November 28th, a match we lost 13-7. We only scored one try and that came from fullback, Harold Box.

Harold Box joined Fev from Fryston Juniors ARL and was only 17 when he made his first team début in 1970. He played a total of 283 games for Fev, scored 56 tries and kicked 477 goals. A points tally of 1,124. He is a Rovers Hall of Fame member and was the fullback in most of Fev’s 1976/77 Championship winning season. He played at representative level for Yorkshire, Wales and Other Nationalities. After 11 seasons at Fev he transferred to Wakefield Trinity where he played another 132 games.

 

 

6,000th try

This one was scored by a Fev record holder, but not for try scoring. In the 1984/85 season, we travelled down the road to Castleford on October 14th. As we took to the field the Fev try tally had reached 5,998. In a match that we lost 16-14 Bob Spurr, who had moved from Castleford to Fev the year before, got our first try and then Steve Quinn got the second to record try 6,000.

Steve Quinn joined Fev, from York, in 1976 and was Fev’s most prolific scorer during the 14 seasons he spent at Post Office Road. In 392 appearances he scored 75 tries, kicked 1,200 goals and scored 2,656 points. Those are the Fev records for both goals and points, way ahead of Stuart Dickens who lies in 2nd place with 634 goals and 1,550 points. Records that are very unlikely to be beaten even with the higher scoring in summer era rugby league. Although Liam Finn now holds the Fev records for goals and points in a season he is way short of Steve’s career records. Steve Quinn, of course, is a member of the Featherstone Rovers Hall of Fame.

 

7,000th try

Amazing that tries, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 and 6,000b all came in away matches, but, at last, the 7,000th was scored at Post Office Road.

In 1992/93, Swinton came to Fev on January 17^th. Fev gave them a real thrashing with a scoreline of 64-6 (n.b. the same score as last weekend’s 12,000th try!). Both Rovers and Swinton had been relegated to the second division at the end of the previous season. Although that was a great disappointment for Fev fans, they got treated to a glorious year in Division Two with Fev winning promotion, finishing top by eight clear points over Oldham. Fev scored 221 tries and 82 of those came from the partnership of Paul Newlove at centre (48) and Owen Simpson on the wing (34), both of them beating the previous Fev record for tries in a season. There were also significant contributions from Martin Pearson (28) and Ian Smales (22).

The surprise is that the 7,000^th try came from none of the above. It was the second try of the twelve scored that day and it went to Australian scrum-half, Brett Daunt.

It was his second trip over to play in the UK. He played for Fulham (now London Broncos) in 1988 and then returned to play for Fev for two seasons (1992/93 and 1993/94), replacing Deryck Fox who moved on to Bradford following our relegation. Brett Daunt played 61 games for Rovers and scored 18 tries.

 

 

8,000th try

For this one it was another away match. Almost exactly seven years after the 7,000th try on January 16th in the 2000 season the team took the short trip to Doncaster. At kick-off, Fev’s try tally was standing at 7,999. The first Fev try went to Ricky Helliwell who scored try 8,000. If only we had known at the time it might have given us a bit of cheer as we lost 32-14. It was a league match and the league we were in was called the Northern Ford Premiership. That league lasted for 4 years from 1999 to 2002 and included all the professional clubs who were not in super league.

Fev signed Ricky Helliwell from Salford in 2000 and he stayed with Fev for three seasons. He was a good second row but his opportunities were limited because we also had Neil Lowe and Steve Dooler. Ricky made 44 appearances (25 of them off the bench) and scored 3 tries. The 8,000^th try was his first for Rovers.

 

9,000th try

With the changes to rugby league in the ‘summer era’ the gap between the landmark tries becomes much shorter. It took just 6 years to move from 8,000 to 9,000. There have been several matches between Fev and Sheffield Eagles with loads of tries being scored. One such was in the 2006 season when Fev lost an away match to them 44-28 on June 23rd. Despite losing Fev scored 5 tries and it was the last of those, scored by scrum-half, Craig Fawcett in the 79^th minute that was the 9,000th.

Local lad, Craig Fawcett, made his made his début for Fev at the beginning of 2006 but then joined Keighley in 2007. He played 26 times for Fev and scored 3 tries. The one at Sheffield was his second.

 

On facebook, a couple of days ago, Cliff Lonsdale told us that he had asked AI to work out when the 10,000th try was scored and who scored it. Never trust AI! Apparently it came up with the answer of Jamie Stokes in 2003. Wrong and Wrong!

This one is the only landmark try that didn’t come during a league game. The 2012 season began with the pool stages of what was called the Northern Rail Cup. Fev had finished top of the Championship for two years in a row and, starting the year on 9983 tries, 10,000 was going to come quite quickly. The opening match of the season was against Oldham and Rovers scored 12 tries in a 68-0 massacre so that left just 5 tries to get. The second game was against Dewsbury Rams at home on January 19th. Another win, this time 38-6 with Fev scoring 7 tries. The all-important 10,000th try was the fifth try and it was scored by Kyle Briggs who came off the bench to get tries in the 60th and 72nd minutes, the latter being the landmark one.

Kyle Briggs was a Leeds born halfback who had 4 spells at Rovers. The first was when he was signed from Doncaster in 2009. In 2011 he joined Bradford but returned to play for Fev, on loan, in 2012. He re-signed for Rovers in 2013. In July 2014 he transferred to Sheffield Eagles but returned to Fev for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Kyle made a total of 122 appearances for Featherstone, scoring 56 tries, 199 goals and 2 drop goals which added up to 624 points.

 

11,000th try

Just 5 years after the 10,000^th try Fev were closing in on the 11,000^th. In 2017 We had a home match against Batley Bulldogs on July 2nd which we won 42-14. At kick-off our try tally had risen to 10,999 so the first try was going to be the 11,000^th and it came in a very unusual fashion. It was awarded as a penalty try to our winger Scott Turner. It was an ill-disciplined match with referee, Johnathan Roberts, awarding 33 penalties. Batley took the lead with a converted try in the 5^th minute which was scored by Brad Day. Four minutes later Anthony Thackeray kicked a grubber into the in-goal area and Scott Turner looked certain to score but was impeded and Mr Roberts awarded it as a penalty try to take Fev to their 11,000th try. Four minutes later Scott scored the 11,001st try from another Thackeray grubber but this time he was able to actually touch it down.

Scott Turner started his career at Dewsbury in 2010 and then joined Sheffield Eagles in 2012.  He was at Rovers in 2016 and 2017 and he retired at the end of 2017. For Fev he made 28 appearances and scored 19 tries.

 

12,000th try

In 2023, it was the only time when the Fev fans knew that a landmark try was impending and were able to celebrate it. On June 4th Fev were at home to Barrow Raiders and put on an excellent performance to win 64-6. Fev scored ten tries and it was the second of those that was the 12,000th. It was scored by Luke Briscoe. How appropriate that it went to a Featherstone lad! We were delighted that the club arranged for Luke to present the match ball to a young supporter in the clubhouse after the game.

Although hailing from Featherstone, Luke started his career with Leeds Rhinos but he made his first grade début on loan at Hunslet in 2014. Since then, he has been back and forth between Leeds and Rovers. He has twice become a signed Featherstone player but has also played for us on loan and on dual reg from Leeds. As we write this, he has made 115 appearances for Fev (all as a starter) and scored 88 tries. On May 18th, 2018 he equalled the World Record by scoring a try in 17 successive matches. The record is shared with Eric Harris of Leeds who achieved it in 1936.