John Major was the prime minister, John Smith was the Labour leader, Mal Meninga was preparing for his fourth Kangaroo tour and Oldham still played at the Watersheddings. It's been quite a while since Warrington last won at St Helens.
The date was January 14 1994, and Sky dug out the tape of their coverage of the match on Boots 'n' All this week to show the late Mike Gregory in green-and-white stripes plunging over for one of the pre-Wolves Wire's three tries in a 21-11 victory. The others came from Rob Myler - whose son, Richard, is now 17 and playing first-team rugby for Salford - and Lee Penny. Warrington fans might sniff the presence of a new Penny, Kevin, on their left wing as an omen that tonight could finally be the night when they end an embarrassingly bad sequence of derby results.
It's not just the fact that they have suffered 17 consecutive league and cup defeats at Knowsley Road - plus one at Anfield when Saints took a home derby to Liverpool in 1998. They have conceded 843 points in those 17 games at an average pushing uncomfortably close to 50, thanks to such humiliating scorelines as 56-6 in 2003, 72-2 the previous year, 70-16 in 2001, 50-20 and 58-18 in 2000, 57-20 in 1999, 60-16 in 1997, 66-14 in 1996 and most notoriously 80-0 and 54-14 in the space of four days in January 1996.
Their home record against Saints is little better, with a single home win - when Ian Millward's team had their minds on the following weekend's Challenge Cup final in 2001 - plus a couple of draws from the last 18 derbies at Wilderspool and the Halliwell Jones Stadium, in which they have conceded a further 605 points at an only slightly less embarrassing average of 33.
The overall Super League record is played 30, St Helens winning 27, Warrington winning one, with two draws. That is why the possibility of the Wire beating St Helens tonight is such a big deal. Saints come into the game on the back of a surprise defeat at Hull KR in their opening fixture, and missing four international forwards - Wilkin, Fa'asavalu, Cayless and Sculthorpe - as well as Willie Talau from the backs. That will leave Bryn Hargreaves and Mike Bennett as their only interchange prop options unless Daniel Anderson calls up the teenager Gareth Frodsham, or pulls Keiron Cunningham out of acting half. In contrast Warrington's 18-man squad includes 16 of the 17 who beat Hull in last Friday's opener, missing only the suspended Steve Pickersgill.
And yet the Guardian tipping panel is not remotely convinced. Five out of six go for Saints to win, Barrie McDermott by a comfortable 16 points, with only Dave Woods backing the Wire to lay their Knowsley Road bogey - and he's spent the week in Norway and the Czech Republic covering Uefa Cup football for Channel Five.
Wigan are aiming to improve on a notably bad Super League record of their own this weekend, in their case the slow starts they have made in recent years. Last Saturday's win at Harlequins was only their second in a round one fixture since 2001, and they have gone six seasons since opening up with consecutive victories. But the panel are unanimous that they wil beat Castleford tonight to make it two out of two at last, and equally confident that Bradford will beat Huddersfield at Odsal tomorrow.
Hull are also strongly favoured to beat Harlequins on Sunday, although Dave Lawrenson, the Observer's west London-based league correspondent, lets his heart rule his head by tipping a Quins shock. Dave also joins Dave Woods in backing Wakefield to beat Leeds tonight - Woodsy having correctly predicted Trinity's two-point win against Bradford last Sunday - while Catalans are favoured by four out of six to beat Hull KR in Perpignan.
For those who missed it on Monday, Barrie Mac has stormed to the top of the tipping table after correctly predicting Warrington's 12-point win over Hull last weekend and coming closest to Leeds and Wigan's comfortable victory margins. Rod Studd and Dave Woods are joint second, leaving only Wilson and Lawrenson pointless. Westy and Ponders each claimed a point for the bloggers. More of your contributions please - especially from Warrington and St Helens.
McDermott 3, Woods & Studd 2, Walker 1, Wilson & Lawrenson 0
Warrington v St Helens (Friday 7.30pm, Sky)
Andy Wilson (Guardian) - Saints by 12
Gareth Walker (Guardian) - Saints by 6
Dave Lawrenson (Observer) - Saints by 6
Barrie McDermott (Sky Sports) - Saints by 16
Rod Studd (Racing Post & Sky Sports) - Saints by 6
Dave Woods (BBC 5 Live & Super League Show) - Wire by 8
Wigan v Castleford (Friday 8pm)
Wilson - Wigan by 22
Walker - Wigan by 26
Lawrenson - Wigan by 20
McDermott - Wigan by 12
Studd - Wigan by 14
Woods - Wigan by 16
Wakefield v Leeds (Friday 8pm)
Wilson- Leeds by 7
Walker- Leeds by 4
Lawrenson - Wakey by 4
McDermott - Leeds by 10
Studd - Leeds by 8
Woods - Wakey by 4
Bradford v Huddersfield (Saturday 6pm, Sky)
Wilson - Bulls by 6
Walker - Bulls by 10
Lawrenson - Bulls by 12
McDermott - Bulls by 16
Studd - Bulls by 18
Woods - Bulls by 8
Catalans v Hull KR (Saturday 7.30pm, Canal +)
Wilson - Rovers by 1
Walker - Cats by 8
Lawrenson - Cats by 10
McDermott - Cats by 6
Studd - Rovers by 4
Woods - Cats by 4
Hull v Harlequins (Sunday 3.15pm)
Wilson - Draw
Walker - Hull by 14
Lawrenson - Quins by 8
McDermott - Hull by 18
Studd - Hull by 16
Woods - Hull by 6
