Gordon Morrish, Headingley Rugby Voices: post-war away match travel

Occasionally I used to travel with my father to away matches after the war and as we had a tandem at the time we used to go on that.

We went to Bradford to see Leeds play Northern at Odsal and chained the tandem to the railings outside, watched the game and then cycled back home. We thought nothing of it, being at the match was all that mattered.

Getting to the game was all part of the adventure and when we all met up in our usual place on the terraces at Headingley the following week everyone had stories to relate about the last away trip and that was all part of the ambience of being a fan.

Travelling to Fartown to play Huddersfield was always a wonderful day, the claret and gold were a fantastic side then, whose stars we feared and admired - names like Cooper, Hunter, Banks and Valentine still bring a thrill even after all those years.

Parkside, to play Hunslet, saw some titanic battles over the years and of course the season used to start with a game against them for the Lazenby Cup, many of which were amongst the fiercest matches of them all. It was a tragedy that they couldn’t maintain that ground because it was a wonderfully intimate, intimidating venue.

By the time the 1957 Challenge Cup final came round we had a car, a second-hand Ford 10, to make the journey to Wembley- my first-ever trip to London. We went down and back in the day and it took forever but that didn’t matter because of the prospect before us. Mother packed us up with goodness knows how much, there was a huge hamper of sandwiches to keep us sustained all day. Eventually we parked up in Harrow and got the tube for the first time in to Wembley Way, which made it even more thrilling and exciting.

Gordon Morrish

Originally published in 'Headingley Rugby Voices' Recollections of supporters, compiled by Phil Caplan.

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Memory added on September 13, 2012