Included in this amazing winning run were 2 superb Challenge cup victories over the Wire at home before 10,366, 28-17 with two Bilsbury tries and 6 goals from Woody, followed by a magnificent 18-17 win at one of their main rivals for the title, Hull KR. In front of the nationwide cameras, 5 goals from Woods , 2 drops from Donlan and tries from squad players David Dunn and Clarkson saw us home.
All good things come to an end, and the following Wednesday another rearranged match due to the weather saw another visit to Humberside to meet another title contender at the Boulevard, and after all the tight wins in the previous games of the winning run, ended with a 8-4 loss to Hull (with the Fc), both of these games attracting crowds over 12,000. The next Sunday saw a brilliant 33-8 thrashing at Hilton Park, with a hat Rick from Phil Fox, and a rare double from Alf Wilkinson. These were 2 of my favourite players at the time, Fox a slight figure on the left wing, highly underrated, as was Wilkinson a brilliant ball playing mobile prop.
In my opinion the next match helped Leigh win the league more than any other. It was a 3rd round home tie against those renowned cup fighters Castleford.However wet conditions did not suit a top of the ground side like Leigh and a season beat crowd of 11,791 crowd saw a desperately disappointing 8-3 defeat. Although I know how disappointed John Woods especially was, this meant we could concentrate exclusively on the title run in.
The after affects of the cup defeat were immediately felt in the next match where the team were quite lucky in holding on to an 11-7 win over lowly Barrow, wiith the crowd down to under 5,000 (fickle fans even then!!), but then a week later one of those Woody specials, 10 goals and a hat trick of tries in a 56-6 mauling of a hapless York. I was unable to see the next game at Fulham as it seemed with 5 games left title nerves seemed to have set in with a shock 11-10 defeat.
Back came this fighting Leigh side with a magnificent 30-18 win over the Wire at Hilton Park, where amazingly both sides scored 4 tries, but Woody kicked 4 conversions and 5 penalty goals out of 9 attempts from a variety of distances and angles!! Next was a difficult away at Headingley,but a commanding first half display which most people thought was the best 40 minutes of the season. First we hah a Woods special, you know the one where he ghosts through to score with no one touching him, then a Dessie special where he suddenly explodes into life around the half way line, beats around 5 players to score under the sticks!! This was crowned by Phil Fox picking up a loose ball, passing onto Woody, then getting the return pass and then diving over for a length of the field try. This game was being covered by RL Action a programme on ITV, but they refused to show the first half because Leeds were wearing sponsotred shirts, which was not legal at the time. If only someone could enquire if YTV Still has this gem in their archives? Anyway, back to the game and it was all Leeds in the second half, and we were indebted to last minute conversion miss by Kevin Dick to yet again win by 1 point.
So with the last weekend of the season approaching, and with team finishing top being crowne Champions the table stood like this:-
1. Widnes. 29-47. +252
2. Hull. 29-45. +320
3. Hull K.R. 29-45. +238
4. Leigh. 28-45. +212
By a twist of fate the games on that last Sunday were Hull v Widnes and Leigh v.Hull KR. Without 4 top players were missing and so it was a nervous 10,011 crowd that turned up on that sunny last Sunday afternoon in April. But those 4 squad players, Pyke, Clarkson, Tomlinson and Dunn ere outsatanding against a Rovers side with 8 internationals, and on £200 bonus a man, a substantial amount in those days!! Eric Chisnall the veteran brought in from Saints scored minutes from the end in one of the tenses games I can remember watching as we prevailed 18-10. To put the icing on the cake, Hull had walloped Widnes 21-3 at the Boulevard, to leave the barely scarcely believable scenario that all we had to do was win in a fixture postponed earlier, over the bottom of the table Whitehaven to win the title, desplte not being top all season. What could go wrong?
Well we all know what happens when Leigh are strong favourites don’t we? It was Wednesday 28 April 1982, when the fateful day arrived, and I had hurriedly had to get a half day afternoon off in order to drive the 3 hours upto Cumbria, where a crowd of 5,611 crammed into the Recreation ground of which there must have been 5,000 Leigh fans. Come half time and we all felt ‘here we ago again’ as we trailed 4-1, with not a hint of a try. Then came the Alex hairdryer, and a Dessie special in the corner sent us on our way, followed by David Dunn and then a typical exaggerated dive over by Mick Hogan to triumph 13-4 and pur first championship in 76 years!!
The anti climax to the season came in an 8 team playoff for a separate premiership trophy wher only 5 days later an exhausted team figured in the only game Ihave seen end in a 1-1 score line against the Wire. Now this was around the time one of the stands at Wilerspool had been mysteriously burnt down and so the replay was at Wigan where Warrington finally got their revenge for the 3 previous beatings, but even then it was only by 10-9. Even so, this had been the best season I had ever seen by a league side with 24 league wins, one draw and only 5 defeats.
To compare with the 70/1 side, I have to say this one has the edge with outstanding contributions from Woods (147 goals, 18 tries, Drummond 16 tries, Donlan 14 goals, 17 drops, 15 tries, Fox 13 tries, Bilsbury 11 tries. My composite team would be:- 1 Eckersley, 2 Drummond, 3 Bilsbury, 4 Donlan, 5 Walsh, 6 Woods, 7 Murphy, 8 D.Chisnall, 9. Ashcroft, 10. Wilkinson, 11 Potter 12 T.Martyn, 13 Smethurst.For my all time team of players have seen play for Leigh, I would slot in Mick Martyn for Ian Potter, Stan Owen for Alf Wilkinson and Chris Johnson for Dave Eckersley.
So after the best season ever, what could go possibly go wrong? Anyone heard of deja vue?............