Queens Road
Little is known about this short-lived amateur Rugby League club which started life in 1959 and survived three seasons finally disappearing at the end of the 1961-62 season.
The team came into being in 1959 playing their home games up at Roils Head- often described as the coldest Rugby League venue in Halifax!
Just one photograph of the Queens Road has been uncovered thanks to Joe Dunne’s Rugby League collection. This is the Queens Road U 19’s in their first season. Joe is front and centre on the photograph taken in 1959.
Back (L to R) Alan Bradshaw, Jim Lloyd, Peter Booth, Robert Fields, Rod Bowling, Ralph Prince, Barry Carl, Harold Knight.
Front: (L to R) unknown, Raymond Sutcliffe, Joe Dunne, unknown, Peter Richardson
The team was formed by Mr. Smith and started life at Ling Bob Youth club.
It has been said that in their third season, Queens Road played in the Open Age section of the Halifax Amateur Rugby League. However, the League registrations from the time show Queens Road registered as U 19 for the three seasons, 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1961-62. There was also an U 17 side in 1960-61 including a David Topliss.. no not that David Topliss.
And as a fun fact, well-known Rugby League senior referee, Billy Thompson, refereed his first ever game of Rugby League when he handled the Queens Road v Rastrick in 1962.
There were good numbers of lads registered to Queens Road. They started life with 30 signed on players at U 19 level in 1959-60 although that had dropped in 1960-61 to 22 players on their U 19 squad, However, Queens Road also had 18 players on their U 17 squad. In the following season, 1961-62 they had 17 players in their U19 playing rota.
Queens Road played against other long-lost clubs such as St Malachy’s U 17, Sowerby Bridge YMCA U 17 and Asquith’s U 17 and U 19’s, Exley Youth Club U 17, Mixenden Youth Club U 19, and Luddenden U 19 as well as well recognised clubs such as Siddal, Illingworth, Greetland and Ovenden.
Perhaps the highlight of Queens Road’s short stay in the Halifax League was in their first season when strangely they were inserted into the Open Age Halifax Cup Final. It is a complex story which starts earlier in 1960 when there was a proposal to play Halifax Cup games on Sundays if 8 clubs entered the competition. It seems there were not and although the competition went ahead, Siddal could not raise a team for their semi-final with Ovenden. In the other semi, Underbank had defeated Hebden Bridge 31-2.
The subsequent decision of the Halifax and District Management Committee , endorsed by the General meeting in April 1960, was to invite both losing semi-finalists from the Under 19 competition to play for the Halifax Cup.
This pitted Queens Road, who had beaten 59-2 by St Malachy’s in the U19 semi, against Mixenden, who themselves had lost 17-7 against Keighley Albion. The Halifax Cup Final was duly arranged at the Hebden Bridge ground for Sunday 8th May 1960. There is sadly no record of the score.
After the 1960-61 season, Queens Road did not register again.