RL, quality wise, was pretty sh[ii[/ite through most of the 80s as well, until the rise of Wigan. Still enjoyable though.

my 1st game i can just about remember,was a televised cup match against warrington on a sunday around 1977 possible 1978,i used to watch city but started work in 1976 so couldn't go to matches on a saturday,and was hooked from that day forth

Could it have been a game other than a Cup game? We didn't play Warrington in the Challenge Cup at home in that period. Cup games were generally televised on a Saturday on Grandstand.

I can remember playing Warrington in the cup around that time because I watched it in my bedroom on my new black & white portable!! Would have been a Saturday on Grandstand though.

We played Warrington in the Premiership play off semi final in 1978, but that was away.

could have been a saturday,might have been on holiday from work,but was defo televised,remember wires fan singing "can you here us on the telly over there"

I'm 99% sure that grandstand also used to feature league games at that time; there was also the floodlit trophy that was shown on weekday evenings.

There was the floodlit trophy but I don't think we ever played in it, due to not having lights back then. My actual recollection is that we got the new floodlights just as the beeb abandoned the competition, though I can't remember the dates.

Northern switched on their new floodlights on the 27th November 1979 when we beat St Helens 13-9. The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy ran from the 1964-65 season until the 1979-80 season. Hull beat Hull KR 13-3 in the last final, at the Boulevard on the 18th December 1979 in front of 18,500.

It was Cas's almost total monopoly of the competition which scared you off getting floodlights.

I do remember Cas doing rather well in it. Think it might have worries over the leccy bill which actually stopped Northern from investing in lights earlier, well that and probably not having anything to invest, of course.

In truth, it would actually have been down to the council, who were then responsible for ground matters, of course.



In fact Northern [idid[/i have lights, though. Odsal was one of, if not [ithe[/i, first rugby ground to get floodlights many years before, and despite lack of maintenance, they were still usable as training lights, though IIRC they didn't cover the whole field by the time they were replaced.

Maybe somebody has already written this- as I don't read all the posts on here- and without referring to my Northern/Bulls books- which aren't to hand, I seem to remember this game was live on BBC Grandstand, with, presumably, Uncle Eddie on mic. Seem to also recall it being the first match of a new season, with a host of new signings, being soundly thrashed. I think Les Thomas scored the solitary try, and maybe Stuart Gallacher made his debut- very good player during his time with us- was Stuart.