The 1970’s
The 1970’s began with Siddal playing in the local league in the years before the advent of BARLA. They won the Halifax Championship again in 1970-71 at Thrum Hall defeating Ovenden who would defeat Siddal the following year in the same final. Alan Kellet was the coach this season and Siddal also reached the semi- final of the Yorkshire Cup losing to NDLB (Hull) having beaten the favoured Bisons (Leeds) in the quarter final.
The Halifax Cup was to be the club’s next trophy success as they triumphed again at Thrum Hall in 1972-73.
The Siddal committee made a decision of some significance in that season which was to ask Eddie Golding-Smith to join the committee. This turned out to be probably their best ever decision as 23-year-old Eddie would be pivotal to the clubs off field development for the next 50 years.
Amateur Rugby League was to have a seismic event in 1973 with the establishment of the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) which by the next year had organised regional leagues which gave the opportunity for clubs to play teams of a similar standard in a defined geographical area. Siddal began life in the new Pennine League in 1974-5. Siddal were in the top division, Division 1. They faired well winning 11 of their 21 games.
1975 was the year Dennis Bradley’s son, Graham, moved from playing U 17’s and U 19’s to play his first open age game in a playing career of around 17 seasons. Things obviously were going well for young Graham as he was voted Player of the Year in 1976.
In that 1975-76 season things didn’t go to plan as Siddal won just three of their 18 games to finish in 8th place. They were relegated to Division 2 for the next season but it became obvious Siddal’s stay in this division was going to be a short one! They won 18 of their 22 games to finish runners up in Division 2 and won promotion.
Disappointingly, the 1977-78 was not a great one for the club. Now back in Division 1 they finished the season bottom of the division with only 2 wins from 18 games and were duly relegated again to Division 2 where they finished the 1978-79 season in mid table with 9 wins from 18 games.
With the introduction by the Pennine League of a Premier Division for the 1979-08 season, , Siddal found themselves in Division 1 alongside other Halifax clubs, Illingworth, Mixenden and Park Amateurs. The league season would be a good but not outstanding one. Siddal finished 5th behind all the other Halifax teams. However, they fared better In the cup competitions reaching two finals.
Siddal progress to their first Yorkshire Cup Final. It was a great final for Siddal to be in as it was played at Thrum Hall. Milford
(Leeds) were their opponents. The result was not what Siddal wanted but they put up a good show going down by 21-11.
The season ended with an appearance in the Halifax Cup Final again at Thrum Hall where they were beaten by a strong Worth Village team.
Mick Scott prior to signing for Halifax enjoyed his time playing for the Siddal first team. He recalled the great times they had off the pitch,
“we were always in the clubhouse during the week. On match days, the whole team would get on the bus to town. We changed from jeans to trousers to get into the places in town!”