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Hunslet v Leeds (1901)

A less-than-serious Leeds team take a four-goals-and-two-tries battering from Hunslet.

Non-Fiction 1901 4 mins Silent

Overview

Although it's a far cry from the elaborate sports coverage we know today, this is a sophisticated and evocative record of an Edwardian Northern Union rugby derby. It's striking how quickly play resumes after the breakdown, with scrums forming almost immediately. Watch out for Hunslet's (white jerseys) star player "Arh" Albert Goldthorpe, experimentally picked at half back.

Albert Goldthorpe, one of five brothers to play for Hunslet (three of them may be in this film), would later earn fame and glory as captain of the Hunslet Rugby League side of 1907-08 - the first ever to win the four trophies, or 'All Four Cups', in the same season. Goldthorpe retired from playing in 1910, and stood down from Hunslet's administrative committees in 1931, spending the rest of his working life running a milk round in Headingley.