We recently celebrated the 47th anniversary of Dewsbury becoming the Champions of Rugby League.
Victories against Oldham, Featherstone Rovers and Warrington took us to that sunny day at Odsal, and a stunning final triumph against Leeds.
Go round The Tetley’s Stadium on any gameday and you will find plenty who were there watching the heroics of that sensational team – after all it was only back in the seventies!
It’s fair to say though that you will struggle to find anybody who was present on the previous occasion that the Loiners fell foul of Dewsbury in a major final.
Dewsbury beat Leeds in the 1943 Challenge Cup Final; a Wartime Final that was a two legged affair.
All four rounds of the cup were played in the months of March and April, and all rounds were two legged ties.
The first round saw Dewsbury take on Hull, with the first leg played at The Boulevard, and a 21-0 triumph saw them in a strong position for the second leg at Crown Flatt.
A tighter game ensued but Dewsbury won again, 21-12, to claim a 42-12 aggregate victory.
Neighbours Huddersfield were the second round opponents and this proved a much tougher test for our heroes; Dewsbury won 10-8 at Fartown to take a narrow lead into the second leg.
Another titanic tussle followed at Crown Flatt, but Dewsbury prevailed 15 – 10, meaning an aggregate 25-18 victory.
It was Semi-Final time and Dewsbury left nobody in any doubt that they deserved to be in the Final.
The first leg across the pennines saw Dewsbury beat Oldham 25-3 and the return at Crown Flatt was party time as Dewsbury demolished the Roughyeds 43-5. An aggregate semi final triumph of 68-8!
And so to the Challenge Cup Final, Dewsbury v Leeds, played over the April Easter weekend.
10,470 turned up at Crown Flatt on Saturday to see Dewsbury claim a 16-9 win and take a narrow advantage advantage with them to Headingley.
16,000 saw the men in Blue and Amber beat Dewsbury 6-0 on Easter Monday – not good enough to beat our boys though, as Dewsbury took the famous trophy, 16-15 on aggregate.
The Challenge Cup comes to Crown Flatt for the first time since 1912.
It would be nice to say that Leeds are Dewsburys Cup Final bunny, but they did beat us in the 1972 Yorkshire Cup Final!
