These are strange times in rugby league’s Championship, the second highest rung in the English ladder, where the runaway leaders are Toronto Wolfpack, followed by Toulouse. Moves are afoot for further expansion, with a club from New York hoping to be admitted, whereupon they, like other well-heeled outfits, will try to reach the promised land of the Super League, the richest and most prestigious division in the northern hemisphere, currently comprised of the 11 best teams in England and one from France (Catalans Dragons).
As the sport attempts to straddle the earth, some small and storied clubs play on against the odds in the game’s traditional heartland. Two of them, Dewsbury Rams and Batley Bulldogs, met on Sunday in the world’s closest rugby league derby. The West Yorkshire clubs’ grounds are 1.3 miles apart, a jaunt along a road suitably named Challenge Way.
The fixture has been called the Heavy Woollen derby since it was first staged in the 19th century, when the region was the global hub of the textile industry. In that bygone era Batley and Dewsbury specialised in producing blankets, coats and military uniforms. Shoddy and mungo – recycled materials made from old rags – were invented here. Once the towns’ rugby teams were celebrated for innovations, too. Batley were English champions in 1924 and Dewsbury competed in the first Challenge Cup final at Wembley, losing to Wigan in 1929. “But the most glorious time was 1973 when we beat Leeds in the League Championship final – the whole town joined in the celebrations,” recalls Chris “Chilly” Hill, who has been Dewsbury’s kitman for the last 40 years, following in the footsteps of his father. “This club means the world to me,” says Hill. “And games against Batley are always great.”
Sunday’s affair took place under a blazing sun, leaving spectators wondering how the players, all part-timers now and in the bottom half of the Championship, would cope.
“I’ve been watching these games since I was 11 and they’re still special,” says 69-year-old Peter Firth, sitting in the shade under one of the two roofed stands at Dewsbury’s 5,000-capacity Tetley’s Stadium. “There used to be many more at these matches, especially when it was a winter league and we played the derby on Boxing Day and again on New Year’s Day. The atmosphere was wonderful. It can still be now even if we don’t get as many people along. It’s the Super League that started killing us. Once that was formed [in 1996] young people around here started supporting Super League sides and were no longer interested in their local team. They’d prefer to go watch Leeds Rhinos. In the early 2000s it was Bradford Bulls. They’d even send buses down to Dewsbury to pick up fans and bring them to Bradford. That’s why if you look around, you’ll see most of the fans are like me, people who’ve been watching Dews for half a century or more.”
It is true. The clubs have made efforts to recruit fans from local schools but, without full-time staff, do not have the resources to campaign as hard as they would like. So there were few teenagers among Sunday’s crowd and even fewer, if any, from the towns’ large communities of south Asian heritage. There was no shortage of enthusiasm from the people who did attend, however. A loud Batley contingent, about 200-strong, rejoiced when their team took an early lead through a smart try by Brad Day. The hosts responded within five minutes after Lucas Walshaw touched down following neat service by Paul Sykes, the home team’s captain. Sykes is a favourite of the home crowd because he used to stand among them.
Sykes always dreamt of playing for the club he watched as a boy but professionalism demanded he earn his living elsewhere, as it did for other Dewsbury natives such as the former England international Sam Burgess and his three brothers. After 15 years in the Super League with Bradford and Harlequins, among others, Sykes is fulfilling his childhood ambition at the age of 36. “I always said I would end my career at Dewsbury,” he says. “I loved watching them when I was young and it would be great if more young people came to watch now. Now that I have a young one myself, I plan to do much more to attract kids to come along and watch this. It’s only a level below the Super League. It’s good.”
Batley demonstrated that point midway through the first half with a terrific try by Alistair Leak. The move featured several slick passes, including a foxy offload by Sam Smeaton. “Forward!” protested one irate Dewsbury fan. “Two forward passes!” corrected another. “Boooooooooo!” complained the entire home crowd, with one gent suggesting the official should use the upcoming interval to “read your bloody rule book”. Sadly the referee did not make it to half-time, as minutes after Batley’s controversial try he pulled up with a calf strain. You could have heard the jeers from Toronto. And you should have seen the look on the mockers’ faces when, within minutes of taking over, the substitute referee disallowed a Dewsbury try for a forward pass.
The second period was even more lively. Leak was sent to the sin-bin for sabotaging a breakaway by the home side and, during his absence, Dewsbury ran in two tries. Sykes was involved in both. Marshalling play from the fringes of the action, he got directly involved only when he was sure his contributions would be decisive, his intelligence and execution radiating class. Even after Leak returned Dewsbury remained on top, racking up a 22-10 lead. Batley had lost eight matches in a row prior to this and extending that streak to nine would be particularly painful at the home of their neighbours. So they rallied. After Michael Knowles landed a drop goal Batley responded with an instant try. Then Alex Rowe, a human bulldozer, embarked on a ram-raid, allowing Patch Walker to score under the posts. With two minutes left the hosts were only 23-20 in front and the crowd grew jittery. “Up the jumpers time!” hollered Firth.
Dewsbury held on, bringing a huge cheer from the crowd. Then everyone – players and fans – adjourned to the bar to natter and jape. There are suggestions that, faced with mighty competition from elsewhere, clubs such as these should merge to bring back the good times. “There were rumours about that a few years ago,” says one Dewsbury fan over a brew. “But you’d lose your identity. Anyway, good times haven’t gone away even if some fans have.”
