Everybody has a cup run that is indelibly stamped on them and mine is the year Leeds won the Challenge Cup in 1957.
In the first round, against Wigan at Headingley, I still have a vivid picture of the Wigan stand-off Dave Bolton fly-kicking the ball standing opposite the middle of the South Stand and his leg went - I can still see that now.
In the semi-final against Whitehaven we were transfixed as Leeds finally got the ball and came virtually the length of the field so that Jeff Stevenson could drop the winning goal that took us to Wembley and I’m still not sure to this day if he punted it through the posts.
I tried to wear the same clothes throughout the cup run and that became something of a ritual, which we still do now and have a laugh about.
We travelled to Wembley by car, picking my brother up who was in the RAF at the time in Buckinghamshire, and went on from there.
I’ll always remember coming out after the game and seeing Jimmy Dunn, the Leeds full back who hadn’t made the side for the final, on one of the walkways crying his eyes out- he really was.
I used to teach swimming at the time at Blenheim School and, although he was just a but before me, Delmos Hodgkinson who scored at Wembley on the wing for Leeds used to be in that team so there was an added affinity.
We came straight home afterwards, like I’ve always done and I prefer. We went just to watch the rugby.
Ruth Walker
Originally published in 'Headingley Rugby Voices' Recollections of supporters, compiled by Phil Caplan.
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Memory added on March 9, 2014
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