Clubs > Greetland All Rounders > The 1990’s
The 1990’s
This was to be a very busy decade for the Greetland All Rounders club.
The first team began with the 1989-90 season when they were in Pennine Division 1 and finished a very creditable 3rd with 12 victories to their name. They were coached by legend, Dylwyn Lewis, who had made his name as a key member of the Siddal side in the 1960’s and 1970’s They also reached the Halifax Cup Final to face Park Amateurs. Although defeated on the day they had become a good team with players such as ex-Siddal and Halifax forward Jimmy Bailey, captain Dave Rawnsley and Andrew Whitely in the side together with former U19 players Dom Fox, Steve Dyson, Wayne Graham and Chris Senior.
Things were changing nationally in amateur Rugby League. The National Conference League had become the top tier of the community game in the 1986-87 season with a single division. This was expanded in 1989 to two divisions and the Second Division was to be expanded again to 12 teams for the 1990-91 season. Greetland All Rounders made the ambitious step to apply for membership of the NCL Division 2 for the 1990-91 season. They were elected to membership and took their place amongst the best community teams in the country.
The All Rounders would have been the first to admit they were not the Halifax’s leading club, a fact not helped by their location on exposed ground on the edge of the moors near Norland with little in the way of an immediate catchment area. But they were well-run, had high-quality facilities, had a proven ability to attract grants, and fulfilled all the NCL’s requirements. They even got floodlights for the main pitch!
Greetland joining the NCL was big news around the town and the Evening Courier ran an article pre-season showing the squad with Dave Rawnsley as captain, the coaching staff and the “back room” team.
Prop, Jimmy Bailey, had a great season and chosen in the NCL Division 2 Dream Team for March 1991.
Barry Dyson was, of course, still key to the All Rounders in many roles. And the club had recruited well with Malcolm Kielty to assist with coaching and Ian Buckley to be their P.R.O. Ian, a former Bradford University Rugby League player, soon got deeply involved in the club affairs not only writing their match reports but also taking the role of NCL Division Representative on the NCL Management Committee. He recalled that season and writing all the match reports,
“We lost the first 6 games and then won the last 7”.
Ian’s stay at Greetland lasted only a couple of years before he was recruited firstly by the NCL to inspect new applicant clubs, such at Wath Brow, and later by BARLA to be a member of their disciplinary.
But what of the “A” Team? They started in Pennine Division 5 having been runners up the previous season in Division 6. The step up was to prove too large and they finished bottom with just a single win. However, the reorganisation of the Pennine League structure for the 1991-92 season placed them in Division 4. The strength of the All Rounders was shown this season as they able to field a “B” team in Pennine Alliance Division 3. Although they had a reasonable season winning 6 of their 21 games, the All Rounders “B” would last for just a single season.
Former Halifax star, Mick Blacker, took over the player coach role for the 1992-93 season. Greetland held their own in the NCL Division 2 and won the Halifax Cup with a tough final victory over Siddal by 6 points to 4.
Colin Smith vividly recalls Mick Blacker’s time as coach at the All Rounders.
“Training on a bad night would be a run down to the Bondina car park to train and do ball work under their floodlights”.
“Mick Blacker was the best coach at Greetland All Rounders”.
Colin didn’t play in the semi final nor in the Halifax Cup final but did play in the first round against Spring Ram under the lights at Greetland and in the second round tie against Todmorden when he came up against Andy Fairbank who was player/coach at Tod that season. Colin remembers a great performance in the Final by Greetland’s Dom Fox who was awarded the Man of the Match Trophy.
One player to feature in the final was Steve Dyson who had become a key member of the All Rounders’ pack, a strong running, strong tackling second row forward. As former school mate, Shaun Charnley, discovered as when playing for Calder Valley against Greetland!
Steve recalled the final and Greetland’s controversial winning try scored by Dale Sunderland. “it was from a play the ball close to the line. Dale at acting halfback kicked the ball forward and diving on it in the in-goal area!”
The All Rounders remained members of the NCL as it expanded to a three-division National Conference in 1993. The team was able to compete in the NCL Division 2 and hold its own in a good quality division. Greetland had recruited Andy Fairbank from Todmorden and he proved his worth even winning his place in the NCL Division 2 Dream Team for December 1993. However, there was reportedly a feeling at the club that they were struggling in a playing sense.
Club chairman, Gary Ellis, recalls he went away on holiday in 1974 with Mick Blacker and Bill Kirkbride in place as the coaching team and when he returned he was told Maurice Bamford was the new coach! Gary’s reaction was short and to the point “He’ll ruin the club”.
Colin Smith recalled that when Maurice arrived, Greetland had thirty plus players registered and training. But for the first game, away at Redhill, the team bus stopped at Tingley and two players from Dewsbury jumped on the bus and played!
Maurice brought in new players including several from overseas for the 1994-95 season. Around ten Australian and New Zealand players appeared within a few weeks. There was no restrictions on the registration of overseas players and Hemel Hempstead had used many overseas players. Dave Beaumont and Dave Rawnsley found them part-time work.
Dave Rawnsley has great memories of the lads from Down Under.
“They were fantastic lads, everyone of them. They wanted to play and they like to party! They came over for a holiday and to get a few games of Rugby League and ended up at Greetland. A couple, like Matt Lambert, went on to play professional at Hunslet and Featherstone.”
The Antipodean lads stayed in Steve Dyson’s rental house at High Royd Well. The group included Matt Lambert, who went on to play for Featherstone and Hunslet, Greg Hill, brother of Australian International, Scott Hill, Jeff Burton, a Halifax “A” teamer and Dave Monkley.
“the were all good players on the pitch and great lads off the pitch! Although they did trash the house!” Steve reminisced.
Although Greetland now became a fit, fast and skilful side there were downsides to this apparent success. Many of the existing Greetland players were unhappy that they now had to play in the “A” team as soon as these overseas players arrived. Several players left the club with some going across to play at Siddal. And on the financial side, the expenses bill became significant.
The players were undoubtedly quality players. Dave Monkley was perhaps the standout of these imported players.
However, Greetland even included some of these players in their “A” team for the local cup semi-final against Brighouse Rangers; a tie for which they were not eligible. Greetland “A” were kicked out of the competition.
There were at times up to 8 of the overseas players in the Greetland first team. Indeed, for one game the starting lineup included just Dave Beaumont and Dave Rawnsley who were English! The All Rounders were now winning matches as never before and they continued with the imported players. In November 1994 they travelled to Northampton and carried out a 10 try demolition of the home side winning by 50-4.
However, the NCL governing body were not happy with this development of so many overseas players in an NCL team. They changed the rules on the number of players mid-season to allow only 4 per team. This was the start of the decline. The overseas players started to leave and the club had to field a very inexperience team to finish the season.
Gary Ellis, as Club Chairman, was given the job of firing Maurice Bamford. This brought him some fame.
“ I had to tell Maurice, ‘Thanks but everyone wants you to leave.’ And then I had Press knocking at the door asking, ‘ Did you sack Maurice Bamford?”
The All Rounders returned to the Pennine League with just a single open age team registered for the rest of the decade although their junior sides continued. They were playing in Pennine League Division 6 . However, they managed to move up the division. In 1996-7 they were struggling along in Division 4 winning only 4 of their 18 games.
Gary Ellis took on the player/coach role and the promotion came again, this time up to Division 3.
By the end of the decade, they were consolidating their position in Division 3.