I was fifteen when Leeds began their run to Wembley and I can vividly remember every round.
We met Wigan at Headingley first up in an historic game. The crowd was huge and before the kick-off the fencing went down at the Kirkstall Lane end. In those days they didn’t have a wall, it was merely a wooden barrier, and there was such a crush that it just gave way.
Officially there were over 38,000 in but we always reckoned that there were at least 45,000, maybe more, which would have been a ground record. We sat on the straw across on the other side by the South Stand and we were leaping about so much and playing around that I lost all my money.
Billy Boston scored two great tries for Wigan just in front of us and it was just like watching a runaway express train.
In the next round we got Warrington up here and the game was played in an absolute blizzard. The second-teamers were stationed on the pitch sweeping the snow off the lines to keep the match going because the referee could have abandoned it.
There were 22,000 sandwiched into the ground and there wasn’t a soul behind either goal except for one idiot who looked like the abominable snowman by the time it finished. Both the South and the North stands were heaving and the atmosphere was tremendous.
For the quarter-final, my father took me to Halifax and Thrum Hall was full to bursting after being made all-ticket. After about five or six minutes we were ten points down and we all thought ‘That’s it’ but Leeds fought back for a memorable win.
After the game I ran down to the changing rooms to collect autographs as usual and heard all the players singing this tune called ‘Keep Right on to the End of the Road’. I told my father and he mentioned it to someone he worked with called Snowden, who wrote for the Rugby Leaguer, who printed the details in the paper and from then on it became known as the club song.
We were huge favourites in the semi-final against Whitehaven at Odsal. None of us had ever seen them play because in those days you didn’t see a lot of teams from across the Pennines because the majority of fixtures were regionalised and there were separate Yorkshire and Lancashire league tables and championships.
The pitch was thick with mud that afternoon and for twenty minutes in the second half they just held onto the ball, taking drive after drive as it was unlimited tackles. It was so frustrating to watch and we just couldn’t see how Leeds were ever going to get possession. All of a sudden they lost the ball and Jeff Stevenson dropped a goal from a long way out and that was it, we were at Wembley.
A lot of people said that he had punted the ball, but we were too delirious to care and going mental behind the posts despite being saturated.
I couldn’t really afford to go to the final because I was still at school but my uncle who lived in South Africa sent me some money and we went on a Wallace Arnold bus, leaving at midnight. We travelled down the A1 and it took about six-and-a-half hours to get to London but then they just dropped us off outside the stadium a full eight hours before the kick-off.
We were starving and at a loss what to do so we got the tube into the centre of the city which was an experience. After the game we went to celebrate at the pub on the end of Empire Way because the coach back wasn’t leaving Kings Cross until midnight.
All the adults were getting drunk inside and we were having a marvellous time singing and dancing in the car park. Then we went into the centre of London and it was amazing because everywhere you looked you saw the blue and amber all over the place. There were even some fans dancing in the fountains at Trafalgar Square- it was marvellous.
We got back in time to greet the team outside the Town Hall on the Sunday. All the players were on the balcony singing ‘Keep right on...’ and I felt wonderful, especially because I had broken the news of it being their theme tune to the general public!
Mel Reuben
Originally published in 'Headingley Rugby Voices' Recollections of supporters, compiled by Phil Caplan.
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Memory added on January 30, 2014
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