Saints v Leigh 1983

[banburysaint]

https://youtu.be/GtXj-pGRowM?si=syWEBsGmOHjbiQvR

This popped up in my feed. Saints v Leigh from 1983/4. Marvel at the speed of Neil Holding and the craft of Harry Pinner in these highlights . The channel has loads of 80s and 90s era NRL games so you can lose many enjoyable hours watching games from previous years.

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[saintcozy]

Rugby League before the wrestling and slowing down of the play the ball. Much more exciting to watch.

[jefmeister2004]

last time Leigh were champions too ? Bad old days for us.
Decent team - John Woods, Dessie Drummond, Ken Green, Ron Tabern..

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[Tabasco]

Rugby League before the wrestling and slowing down of the play the ball. Much more exciting to watch.

According to Saints Heritage site, only 4,410 people watched the game (and only 11,894 at the Wigan game a fortnight later) so clearly not that many regarded the rugby as particularly exciting during that era!

[saintcozy]

Most people didn’t have a pot to urinate in hence the poor crowd. If you think the wrestling that goes on today is more exiting then we must agree to disagree. Most games these days bore me to death.

[Houghwood Saint]

Back in the early 80's the two Hull clubs were top dogs with the largest crowds. Also, with the Lancs/Yorks cups, John Player Trophy, Challenge cup and Premiership trophy teams played a minimum of 34 matches per season. More successful teams probably played 40+ so many people probably picked & chose games to go to. It was only the following season, 1984-85, when Saints brought Meninga & Vievers over that things improved temporarily at Saints; 920 points scored in the Championship, an average of 30 per game! Lancashire cup win at Central Park v Wigan with 26,000 on. Premiership win at Elland rd v. Hull K.R, who were champions, with 16,000 on. Many of the cup games from that era were well attended. The 1985 cup final close to 100,000.best cup final ive seen which unfortunately had Wigan in it.! Wingers back then with genuine pace who could side-step and shimmy and werent allowed to knock the corner flag over! All the historical grounds, Derby matches on Boxing Day and News Years day! Those were the days!

[Phil B]

Back in the early 80's the two Hull clubs were top dogs with the largest crowds. Also, with the Lancs/Yorks cups, John Player Trophy, Challenge cup and Premiership trophy teams played a minimum of 34 matches per season. More successful teams probably played 40+ so many people probably picked & chose games to go to. It was only the following season, 1984-85, when Saints brought Meninga & Vievers over that things improved temporarily at Saints; 920 points scored in the Championship, an average of 30 per game! Lancashire cup win at Central Park v Wigan with 26,000 on. Premiership win at Elland rd v. Hull K.R, who were champions, with 16,000 on. Many of the cup games from that era were well attended. The 1985 cup final close to 100,000.best cup final ive seen which unfortunately had Wigan in it.! Wingers back then with genuine pace who could side-step and shimmy and werent allowed to knock the corner flag over! All the historical grounds, Derby matches on Boxing Day and News Years day! Those were the days!

Jumpers for corner flags. Ay!

[Phil B]

Thanks for posting this match on RedVee. What superb rugby by Saints. Playing that well, how come they were only 8th in the table at kick-off?? You forget just how good Pinner was, and how fast Ledger and Holding were. We could do with some of that pace today. It's a great watch.

[Dark Side Of The Moon]

Thanks for posting this match on RedVee. What superb rugby by Saints. Playing that well, how come they were only 8th in the table at kick-off?? You forget just how good Pinner was, and how fast Ledger and Holding were. We could do with some of that pace today. It's a great watch.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g57M_zZSGWw

Another cracker and well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.

Note how far Shaun Day brings the ball back for his kick conversions ! 😂

[doghead]

According to Saints Heritage site, only 4,410 people watched the game (and only 11,894 at the Wigan game a fortnight later) so clearly not that many regarded the rugby as particularly exciting during that era!

Argued this loads, apart from Wigan and cup games crowds were very poor, Volls last home game was a pathetic attendance.

[Suttoner]

Argued this loads, apart from Wigan and cup games crowds were very poor, Volls last home game was a pathetic attendance.

Unless I’ve got something wrong the Heritage Website suggests that Voll’s last home game was against Warrington with a crowd of 15,800. My albeit fading memories of the ‘60s are of big crowds. His last away game was at Hull KR with an attendance of 14,000 and even an away game at Swinton saw a crowd of 6,000.

P.S. Admittedly Warrington and Hull KR were cup games. Last home Wigan game 18,500 but previous home game against Workington only 5,500. Attendances were a bit up and down with many picking their games but I think a lot of modern clubs would be over the moon with the same figures.