Wembley

Wembley
I barely slept the night before the Challenge Cup Final. It wasn't just the excitement that kept me awake but the worries over all the parts of completing the journey. In 1994 and 1995 Leeds reached the Challenge Cup final but lost to Wigan on both occasions. The 94 game was respectably close but 95 a humiliation. I was at university in High Wycombe at the time and invited my brother and freinds Pig and Lucy to stay a couple of nights on my student floor. From Wycombe to Wembley is an easy swift train journey. Most travellers are approaching and departing toward London and travelling out west makes for a far less crowded journey. Those two consecutive losses to the Pie Eaters came at a time when Leeds were always second best. Back then rugby league had no salary cap and once Wigan were on their historic winning roll they were able to use each years prize money to buy and pay for the best players. Nevertheless, this was a remarkable achievement. Rugby Union at the time was way behind and still operating under the shamateurism system whereby the antiquated notion that the sport be played for fun meant players were payed by paid directorships for boardrooms on companies they were never required to attend, houses and other 'gifts' masked the truth, that union players were in reality being payed more than their openly professional league parallels. The depth of the division in quality was revealed when Union finally came clean and went professional. Bath, the top union team of the time took on Wigan in a cross code challenge. The game played to league rules saw Wigan beat Bath 82 6. Ex Wigan stars andy Farrell and Shaun Edwards moved over to coach union for England and Wales. Their combined input has revolutionised the sport. Still by far the lesser code though popular down south, union is now respectable. Still dependent on penalties rather than tries, still the ungainly line ours and huge scrims. It isn't much of a spectacle for the fans but the standards of ball handling, tackling etc have improved vastly. Though union journalists and fans deride league it is still ironic their biggest World Cup story is the fast tracking of ex league star Sam Burgess that dominates the media build up to the visually dull competition.
By 1999 I was living in Shropshire and travelled down alone to see Leeds beat London Broncos.
Returning to High Wycombe on Saturday, our plan being to get free parking here and take the short train in, was strange and nostalgic. I had been back to the town after leaving college to work as a lecturer on the same course. Travelling so far before work meant my teaching there was poor. Sometimes I would rise at five, usually after little sleep as I always found lecturing unbelievably stressful in those days. Other times I would drive down the night before and sleep in my van. I had just broken up with my partner of twelve years, lost my home and was living in a caravan. Life was a struggle for various reasons but my teaching wasn't great during that spell.
Oddly I parked up right outside the house I lived in whilst a student there. I had arranged to meet up with an old freind I was at school with who has recently rediscovered the greatest game of all and has been following Leeds throughout this mercurial season. Back in 1980 whilst still at school we had somehow found ourselves with free tickets for Reading Rock Festival. My first ever festival. It was the year when the new wave of British heavy metal was at its peak and bands like def leopard and iron maiden were playing though not yet famous alongside angel witch, preying mantis and others that never made it so big. Headlining were white snake and Gillian but it was none of these we had gone to see. As big black sabbath fans, born too young to see them at their peak we were excited to watch ozzy osbournes new band.
We hitched down getting a lift from a guy who claimed to be a professional gambler and got us very stoned. Unused to cannabis we were high as kites when dropped off. We met up with two freinds and camped up. Ozzy had to cancel last minute. The replacements were Slade. This performance appears in all Slade histories as one of their greatest moments. The band had dropped out of fashion, punk and new metal bands had rendered their brand of good time rock and roll old hat. We were in for a real treat.
The festival had failed to take off. All the bands were pompous and crap. A rainbow of bottles were being hurled across the crowd, mostly plastic and urine filled but some glass causing various casualties. The crowd were reticent about Slade. They hadn't played live for two years. As a boy of seven I had loved Slade. Each single release would be a blinder, often going straight to number one. I learned what a really great band could do that day. Despite an initially hostile crowd Slade took that festival by storm. They won over the crowd who went absolutely mental. Slade, reinvigorated went on to conquer America. Something they never achieved in the seventies. I remember this as one of the best ever gigs I have ever been to.
I hadn't been on a long distance day out with elliot since then but if our combination could muster half the glory of that Slade gig, we were in for a ride.
I walked nostalgically through wycombes grubby streets. Little has changed since I lived there in the mid nineties. Passing the college I looked through the window of what had been the fine craft workshop. Nothing. The course, once thought of as the best course in the country to do fine furniture and the only one to degree level, appears to have been abandoned. Maybe it's moved. In this era of savage cuts I imagine the course is no more.
After meeting up we ate a harty breakfast. Elliot's new record store is doing well. He has been in love with music his whole life and run a second hand record shop for most of his adult life. His knowledge of music is vast. It was good to catch up before catching the train.
We were spat out on the side of the ground allocated to Hull KR and walked through thousands of fans in red and white. Smiling faces. This was their first major final for 26 years and half of the town must have travelled down. The new bronze statue of rugby league cup final legends, billy Boston, Alex Murphy, Martin offiah and other greats stood proud. Traditionally Wembley is an important part of rugby league history. For one day a year, the northerners invasion brightens up the stadium.
Inside we joined the mass of Leeds fans to watch the game. After the opening ceremonies note able for the singing of the traditional Wembley anthem by the wife of a rugby league player who recently died, abide with me, the game got underway.
Leeds weren't at their best in the first half but led 16 nil by half time without having to get out of second gear. I had feared this. Leeds are currently in such good form the chance of winning all three trophies seems more than a dream. This golden era for Leeds, built on a backbone of home grown talent began in 2004 when a young Leeds won league leaders shield and the championship for the first time in 32 years. Since then we have won a further five championships, two challenge cups and three world club challenges making Leeds joint most successful team in the superleague era.
In the second half Leeds were flawless. I mighty defensive effort from Leeds kept Hull KR to zero points scored. Leeds scored 50 in early celebration of my upcoming 50th birthday. Tom Briscoe scored a record five tries, winning the lance Todd trophy for man of the match. This highly emotional victory marks the final season for three of the golden agers finest players. Kevin Sinfield, golden boot winner and highest ever points scorer for Leeds is taking relative retirement to play the low energy rugby union. Jamie Peacock, the greatest prop forward of the modern era is retiring from playing to go work for Hull KR in an ambassadorial role. There will be some overlap as Rob Burrow and Danny McGuire, two from the same youth academy side as Kevin Sinfield are playing on. Two Australian props, both unique off loading props and another batch from the Leeds achademy are breaking through into the first team, steve ward, singleton, sutcliffe, kheinhorst and an awesome looking bunch of replacements look set to continue the Leeds legacy that could see Leeds remain the dominant force in rugby league. Quite easily the best team in either code of rugby currently playing in these isles. Wigan seem the only team likely to match them after Saint Helens were so easily despatched in the cup semi, though if jon Wilkin returns I'm sure they'll have their part to play in the play offs.
After the emotional scenes we left the ground. Our conversation opened up to more personal issues as we strolled back to our parked vehicles to drive off our seperate ways. A day to match the Slade 1980 moment in its own quite different way.


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