Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 10:34, 15 July 2007

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats is a professional rugby league club that plays in the Super League. They achieved promotion in 1999 and have remained in the League since. They are known to their fans as 'Wakey', 'Trinity' or 'Wildcats'.

History

Early years

In 1873 a group of young men from the local Holy Trinity Church formed the Wakefield Trinity club. One of the initial forces in rugby, Trinity won the Yorkshire Cup four times in nine years. Early matches were played at Heath Common before the club moved to Belle Vue - its present home - in 1879.

They were one of the initial 22 clubs to form the Northern Union after the acrimonious split from the Rugby Football Union in 1895.

Belle Vue was purchased in 1895, in order to provide a permanent base for the Trinity. The money was provided by the Wakefield Athletic Club, and was also initially used for cycling and athletics competitions.

Trinity won the Northern Union Challenge Cup for the first time in 1909, beating Hull 17-0 at Headingley. The corresponding 1914 final saw the result reversed, with Hull winning 6-0.

Jonty Parkin signed for Wakefield Trinity as a seventeen-year-old in 1913. In a strangely barren time for Trinity, they won only one Yorkshire Cup (in 1924-5 against Batley) and lost four Yorkshire Cups.

Parkin decided he wanted to leave in 1930, at the age of thirty-four, and he was put on the transfer list at £100. For some reason, Hull Kingston Rovers couldn't or wouldn't find the money; so Parkin paid the fee himself to secure his release. The game's bylaws were adjusted shortly afterwards, so that no player could ever do that again.

Post war

If the pre-war years were austere then the post-war period was bright and bullish for the Dreadnoughts. The first Wembley final after the war produced a return to winning ways as Trinity, with names such as Billy Stott, Herbert Goodfellow and Mick Exley, pipped Wigan to the Cup 13-12.

The club was not destined to return to Wembley until 1960 and had to slake its thirst for silverware on two Yorkshire Cup and two Yorkshire League victories in the 1950s. Wakefield returned to Wembley emphatically with a record 38-5 win v Hull under the guidance of coach Ken Traill and loose forward Derek "Rocky" Turner.

Trinity featured in the first league match to be broadcast on British television, a clash with Wigan at Central Park on 12 January 1952.

Wakefield won their third Challenge Cup victory two years later in 1962, running out 12-6 winners v Huddersfield. The successful defence of the Cup the next year iced a spectacular period in the club's history with three Wembley titles in four years. Further renown was arrested due to two Championship Final defeats in 1960 and 1962 v Wigan and Huddersfield respectively.

One of Trinity's great servants, centre Neil Fox, who scored a record 6,220 points in his 23 year career (19 with Wakefield) was coming to prominence, however, in Trinity's up and coming side. The club were victorious in a dour 1962 Challenge Cup win over Huddersfield although the Fartowners went on to deny them the double a few days later in the Championship final at Odsal Stadium, Bradford.

With a victorious defence of the Cup in 1963, their fifth Challenge Cup title, Wakefield had still not been able to achieve the league championship title. The Holy Grail would be achieved in the 1966-67 season when a seasoned, Harold Poynton led a side that included Neil and Don Fox, Gary Cooper and Ray Owen, defeated Saints in a replay. They repeated the title feat the following year against Hull KR but were again denied the double when Leeds defeated them in the 1968 'water splash' final at Wembley played during a down pour that saturated the pitch. The game produced the most dramatic of finishes, when Man-of-the-Match, Don Fox had an easy conversion to win it for Wakefield, but missed it to leave Leeds 11-10 winners.

Trinity were crowned Champions for the only time in successive seasons - 1966-67 and 1967-68 - and were runners-up in 1959-60 and 1961-62.

Wakefield absorbed a number of different coaches at the helm in subsequent years but did not return to Wembley until Bill Kirkbride's talented charges fell 12-3 to Widnes in 1979 in front of nearly 100,000 fans.

The ensuing decline was temporarily halted when 'the King' Wally Lewis signed up for a brief spell with the club. But even the presence of the mercurial Kangaroo five-eighth couldn't prevent an inconsistent Wakefield from fluctuating between the two divisions.

Former player David Topliss stabilised the Dreadnoughts' ship in the late 1980s. He won immediate promotion in 1988 and consolidated the club's top tier status by acquiring the services of seasoned internationals like Steve Ella, Mark Graham, Brian Jackson as well as now former Wildcats' coach Andy Kelly and later John Harbin after flirtations with temporary coach Tony Kemp in 1999.

Super League era

When a Rupert Murdoch-funded Super League competition was proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Wakefield were down to merge with Castleford and Featherstone Rovers to form a new club Calder which would compete in the newly formed Super League. This was resisted; Wakefield finished below the cut-off point of 10th in the existing top flight and were excluded from the new Super League.

Wakefield earned their place in the top flight on the back of their controversial victory over Featherstone Rovers in the inaugural Division One Grand Final in 1998. Wakefield adopted the "Wildcats" nickname in 1998, the year they entered Super League having won promotion from the first division.

Peter Roe was appointed Head Coach in October 2001.

After years of struggling to keep up with the SL pace which saw the Wildcats finish next to bottom on most of their attempts they finally got around to making headway up the league. With the appointment of Shane McNally as head coach in 2002 and Tony Smith as his assistant the pair guided the Wildcats to their 1st ever SL play off position finishing in 6th place. In 2004 after a slow start to the season the Wildcats finished stronger than any other team in the competition giving their fans some hope of a little glory at the club which had been missing for too long.

Away at the KC Stadium in Hull the Wildcats produced a remarkable performance and managed to beat Hull despite having 2 men sin binned. No Wakefield fan will ever forget Michael Korkidas's run at the start of the 2nd half, a highlight of a magnificent performance which saw the Wildcats run out eventual winners in a close hard fought game.

The semis saw a visit to Wigan and there was real hope in the camp that Wakefield would make the elimination final play off and all looked to be going that way when the Wildcats led 14-0 but some strange decisions went the way of the Wiganers so it wasn't yet to be but Wakefield fans will look back on these 2 games with fondness for many years, The away support was outstanding for both efforts.

Shane McNally was sacked in June 2005 after a disappointing start to the season.

Tony Smith took over from Shane McNally and led Trinity to survival in 2005 but following four straight defeats which saw Wakefield drop into the relegation zone Smith was sacked on Monday, 17 July 2006. Smith's last game in charge was a 26-20 defeat against Huddersfield, a match in which his side squandered a 20-point lead - one of several occasions this season the Wildcats have collapsed in the second half.

On the 24 July 2006, Wakefield announced former Hull FC coach John Kear as Head Coach until the end of the season.

The Wildcats defeated their arch-rivals Castleford by 29-17 at Belle Vue on Saturday 16 September 2006 to preserve their Super League status in an epic match which saw both teams leading for spells of the game, had Wakefield not won the match they would have been relegated. Instead, their win, dubbed as "The Battle of Belle Vue" sent Castleford Tigers down to the National League One. The match was attended by a sell out crowd of 11,000.

In November 2006 the Wakefield City Council set out plans for a new sporting village to be built at Thornes Park which would incorporate a new stadium to be used by the Wildcats, along with gymnastics and boxing facilities and swimming pools. The council are now awaiting results of a feasibility study into the project which could cost as much as £25,000,000.

2007 Squad

Number		Player	Position	Previous Club
1		Mark Field	Full Back	Wakefield Academy
2		Waine Pryce	Winger	Castleford Tigers
3		Jason Demetriou	Centre	Widnes Vikings
4		Ryan Atkins	Centre	Bradford Bulls
5		Semi Tadulala	Winger	Gloucester RFC
6		Jamie Rooney	Stand Off	Featherstone Rovers
7		Ben Jeffries	Scrum Half	Wests Tigers
8		Adam Watene	Prop	Bradford Bulls
9		Sam Obst	Hooker	Whitehaven RLFC
10		Danny Sculthorpe	Prop	Wigan Warriors
11		Ned Catic	Second Rower	Sydney Roosters
12		Duncan MacGillivray	Second Rower	South Sydney
13		Brett Ferres	Loose Forward	Bradford Bulls
14		Paul March	Scrum Half	Huddersfield Giants
15		David March	Hooker	Thornhill Trojans
16		Ricky Bibey	Prop	Leigh Centurions
17		Kevin Henderson	Centre	Leigh Centurions
18		Olivier Elima	Second Rower	Castleford Tigers
19		Danny Lima	Prop	Warrington Wolves
20		Tevita Latu	Hooker	Cronulla Sharks
21		Matt Blaymire	Full Back	York City Knights
22		Peter Fox	Winger	Leeds Rhinos
23		Jason Golden	Second Rower	Leeds Rhinos
24		Dale Ferguson	Second Rower	Wakefield Academy
25		Richard Moore	Prop	Leigh Centurions
26		Luke George	Winger	Huddersfield Giants
28		Paul White	Winger	Huddersfield Giants
29		Mark Applegarth	Second Rower	Wakefield Academy
30		Steve Lewis	Second Rower	Wakefield Academy
31		Aaron Murphy	Centre	Wakefield Academy
32		Kyle Wood	Scrum Half	Wakefield Academy
33		Sean Gleeson	Centre	Wigan Warriors
35		Joe Hirst	Second Rower	Wakefield Academy

2007 Possible Run on Team

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Possible 2007 Starting Team
8 Adam Watene 9 Sam Obst 25 Richard Moore 17 Kevin Henderson 12 Duncan MacGillivray 13Brett Ferres 7 Ben Jeffries 6 Jamie Rooney 4Ryan Atkins 3 Jason Demetriou 28 Paul White 22Peter Fox 21 Matt Blaymire

Replacements

• 10 Danny Sculthorpe
• 11 Ned Catic
• 17 Ricky Bibey
• 20 Tevita Latu

• NB: Team is subject to change at any given time, most common line-up is shown

• ? Maxime Greseque
• 1 Mark Field
• 2 Waine Pryce
• 14 Paul March
• 15 David March
• 18 Olivier Elima
• 23 Jason Golden
• 33 Sean Gleeson

Injury List

• 5 Semi Tadulala-Out for the Year

Transfers

Transfer for 2007 (In)

Transfer for 2007 (Out)

Famous Ex-Players

• Adrian Vowles
• Albert Rosenfield
• Bobby Goulding
• Brad Davis
• Colomn Halpenny
• David March
• David Solomona
• David Topliss
• Derek Turner
• Don Fox
• Don Vines
• Francis Stephenson
• Gareth Ellis
• Gerry Round
• Harold Poynton
• Henry Paul
• Jack Wilkinson
• Jason Robinson
• Jonty Parkin
• Julian O'Neill
• Keith Smith
• Mark Conway
• Martin Holland
• Michael Korkidas
• Monty Betham
• Neil Fox
• Nigel Bell
• Peter Fox
• Wally Lewis
• Willie Poching

Honours

• Championship: 1966-67, 1967-68 (twice)
• Challenge Cup: 1908-09, 1945-46, 1959-60, 1961-62, 1962-63 (5 times)
• Yorkshire Cup: 1910-11, 1924-25, 1946-47, 1947-48, 1951-52, 1956-57, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1964-65, 1992-93 (10 times)
• Yorkshire League: 1909-10, 1910-11, 1945-46, 1958-59, 1959-60, 1961-62, 1962-63 (7 times)
• Division One: 1998

Footnote

1. For the seasons 1996 onwards the term Division One in fact denoted the second rank of rugby league, coming below Super League.

Belle Vue

Situated on the A638 to the south of Wakefield city centre, Belle Vue (Wakefield), known as the Atlantic Solutions Stadium in 2005, has been the home of Wakefield Trinity for over 100 years.

The stadium certainly has seen better days but recent and on going improvements such as adding the hospitality suite (known as the benidorm holiday flats by home and away fans alike) at the south end of the ground and new players' facilities have improved the ground. To all Wakefield fans Belle Vue is a very special place.

Records

Player records

• Most Tries In A Match: 7 by F Smith vs Keighley, 1959
• Most Goals In A Match: 13 by Mark Conway vs Highfield RLFC, 1992-93
• Most Points In A Match: 36 by Jamie Rooney vs Chorley, 2004
• Most Tries In A Season: 38 by F Smith 1951-52
• Most Goals In A Season: 163 by Neil Fox, 1961-62
• Most Points In A Season: 407 by Neil Fox, 1961-62

Team records

• Highest Attendance: 28,254 vs Wigan, 1962
• Highest Super League Attendance: 11,000 vs Castleford Tigers , 2006
• Biggest Victory: 90-12 vs Highfield RLFC, 1992-93

Head Coach History

Sources

• Wildcats: history and facts

External links

• Official Website
• Wakefield RLFans Forum

• British rugby league teams
• Sports clubs established in 1873
• Sport in West Yorkshire