One of the casualties of the current lockdown to both Hull and Rovers supporters is this weeks scheduled traditional Good Friday Derby. Club Historian Bill Dalton looks back at 114 years of such meetings.
Although the first senior Hull Derby clashes had taken place in September 1899, the first to be held on Good Friday was in 1905, although Hull had had fixtures on that day right back to Rugby Union days in 1891.
That first Good Friday Derby clash, which Hull won, took place at Craven Street as did the following three, including the occasion in 1909 when Hull were forced to play despite being engaged in the Challenge Cup Semi-Final next day. Fielding a complete reserve team, it was not surprising that Hull lost by 4-35. However, the ‘regulars’ triumphed in the cup tie next day!
In all, there have been 63 competition Hull Derby matches staged on Good Friday up to and including Easter 2019. Northern Union competition resumed after WW1 in January 1919 and the Boulevard staged the first post-war Hull Derby on Good Friday, April 18th. But it was to be another eight years before the tradition was resumed and then took a hold and became embedded in our fixture lists for the next 32 years, until the sequence was broken by Hull’s participation in cup semi-finals on the Easter weekend.
However, it had not been until 1933 that the Boulevard witnessed its first peace-time Easter visit from the Robins – and lost!
During the period 1953-59, Hull City had loaned Boothferry Park to Rovers for the purpose of staging their home derby each year. Good Friday saw three of those fixtures. The first had attracted an attendance of 27,670 – the biggest-ever derby attendance in the City of Hull
The 1958 game at the Boulevard saw Hull still on a long run of derby success, but at a time when Rovers were experiencing an upturn in fortunes. Hull had to win to achieve a 100% home record of success for the season, and after a tremendous battle, they did so 15-8, in front of 27,000 spectators – the 3rd highest Boulevard attendance. Controversy raged though, when it was claimed that Ivor Watts had been awarded a try when the ball had allegedly been kicked back into the in-goal for him to touch down. Years later, he told me that it was a fair try – he would, wouldn’t he!
Easter 1984 at Craven Park saw Hull run up 36 points in a bad-tempered game which saw Len Casey sent off and which cost him the Ashes tour captaincy. It was the highest score recorded on the opponents ground, but Rovers equalled the feat a year later, just two days after Hull had been engaged in another Challenge Cup semi-final replay battle – against Castleford.
In the Super League era, it would be difficult to find a better example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat when, in 2016 at Preston Road, Hull, with only 20 minutes left to play and 0-20 down, staged an amazing comeback to win 22-20 and trigger an extremely memorable season. Two years later, again at Preston Road, the Airlie Birds played for 71 minutes with 12 men before celebrating a 30-22 victory.
In finality, and to round off perfectly with the record Derby score raised beyond the half-century mark, Hull ran riot in 2019 with a 56-12 success. Marc Sneyd became the first player to kick ten goals in a Derby and also created a new points record in derbies with those 20 points.
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