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Two decades ago on the sacred turf



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Published Date: 30 April 2008
Were you at Wembley 20 years ago today?
If so, you saw Fax make their final appearance at the old Empire Stadium.
It was April 30, 1988 and everyone has their own memories.
This writer watched the game from the behind the posts in the company of numerous men from Ovenden dressed as nuns!
Another man with special memories is bagman Phil Coventry. Happy birthday!
The team that took the field for Fax that day was a lot different from the one that won the trophy the previous year though.
Only Graham Eadie, Colin Whitfield, Neil James, Seamus McCallion, Keith Neller, Paul Dixon, John Pendlebury and Mick Scott played in both finals.
Missing from the 1987 triumph were Scott Wilson, Grant Rix, Wilf George, halfbacks Chris Anderson and Gary Stephens, Ben Beevers and Brian Juliff.
In their places, perhaps not exactly, were Bob Grogan, Steve Robinson, Martin Meredith, Tony Anderson, Ian Wilkinson, Dick Fairbank and Les Holliday.
It wasn't to be a pleasant experience for the latter, stretchered off with a bad knee injury midway through the first half, to be replaced by Scott.
Appearing was a bonus for Tony Anderson.
One of the first Aussies to arrive in the Autumn 1984 influx from Down Under, he had missed out on a cup final appearance in 1987 due to quota restrictions.
In a sense he was a major victim of the club's initiative in the first place.
But he did his best to get the team there a year later, scoring hat-tricks in the early rounds against amateurs Heworth and then Rochdale before nabbing the only try in the 4-3 win over Hull in the semi-final replay at Elland Road.
This was after the sides had slugged out a 0-0 draw in the first game at Headingley.
Prop Neller also suffered under the same rules. In his case it was the Championship side of 1985/86 who were deprived of his services.
The friendship he forged with former bank official Grogan was a lasting one though.
When "Groges" went coaching in the lower grades in Queensland in the 1990s, he signed Neller and the two became business partners in the supermarket trade.
One person definitely an interested spectator was a bloke called Ross Strudwick.
The sports shop owner from Brisbane also had the reputation of being one of the best up-and-coming coaches in Australia.
So it was he that David Brook and Stan Ackroyd turned to when Chris Anderson decided that he, Lynne and the kids were packing up at their Ainley Top home and returning to Australia.
Eadie was to join him in a newly created coaching team.
And so, as the curtain came down on the Anderson years, one of the most controversial nine or so months in the club's history was about to begin.
One final thought.
The Halifax fans were at the tunnel end at Wembley that afternoon and gave referee Fred Lindop a standing ovation as he left the pitch.
It was his final game as a senior referee.
He had local connections after working for years for Mortimers the printers on Pellon Lane but it was a nice gesture nevertheless.

The full article contains 539 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 30 April 2008 9:13 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Halifax
 
 

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