Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

Infobox rugby league team
clubname = Wakefield Trinity Wildcats


fullname = Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Rugby League Club
nickname = Wakey, Trinity, Wildcats, Dreadnaughts
location = Wakefield
founded = 1873
ground = Belle Vue
capacity = 11,000
chairman = flagicon|England Ted Richardson
coach = flagicon|England John Kear
captain = flagicon|Greece Jason Demetriou
league = Super League
lastyear = 2007
lastposition = 8th
leaguewins = 2
challengecups = 5
clubchampions =
website = http://www.wildcatsrl.com
pattern_la1=_shouldersonwhite|pattern_b1=_thinredsides|pattern_ra1=_shouldersonwhite
leftarm1=FF0000|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FF0000|shorts1=0000FF|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=_red_hoops|pattern_b2=_redhoops|pattern_ra2=_red_hoops
leftarm2=0000FF|body2=0000FF|rightarm2=0000FF|shorts2=0000FF|socks2=0000FF

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats are a professional rugby league club that plays in the National Leagues. They achieved promotion in 1999 and have remained in the League since. They are known to their fans as 'Wakey', 'Trinity' or 'Wildcats'.Wakefield Trinity is also one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, making them one of the world's first rugby league teams.

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 fourtimes in nine years. In the 1870s and 1880s there were several very strong teams in Wakefield, including Wakefield Thornes and Alverthorpe, but Trinity's rise to pre-eminence eventually ensured that the others would fall by the wayside. Early matches were played at Heath Common (1873), Manor Field (1875-6) and Elm Street (1877) before the club moved to Belle Vue 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.

On Saturday 27th October 1934, Leeds and Wakefield Trinity met in the final of the Yorkshire Cup at Crown Flatt, Dewsbury. The match ended in a 5-5 draw. Four days later the two clubs drew again, with Leeds eventually lifting the trophy after a second replay, the only occasion it took three attempts to settle a Yorkshire Cup Final. A total of 52,402 spectators watched the three games.

Post war

If the pre-war years were austere then the post-war period was bright and bullish for the Dreadnoughts. On Saturday 3rd November 1945, Bradford Northern met Wakefield Trinity in the final of the Yorkshire Cup held at Thrum Hall, Halifax. Wakefield began the match as favourites, they had lost only one of thirteen matches thus far in the season. However, Bradford won 5-2 and lifted the Yorkshire Cup for the fourth time in six seasons. 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.

On Saturday 27 October 1951 25,495 were at Fartown, Huddersfield to see Wakefield Trinity defeat Keighley 17-3 in the Yorkshire Cup Final.

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.

Trinity were runners-up in the league championship in 1959-60, losing in the Championship Final against Wigan.

Wakefield won their third Challenge Cup victory in 1962, running out 12-6 winners against Huddersfield. Many of the scenes from This Sporting Life were filmed at the Belle Vue Stadium during Wakefield's third round Challenge Cup match against Wigan. 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.

Wakefield Trinity was invited to visit South Africa during June and July 1962. Five members of Trinity’s squad were unable to accompany the team on the six-match tour, as they were in Australia with the British Lions. Trinity, therefore, added four South African players who were playing for British clubs at that time to their squad. They were comfortable winners of all six matches.

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 Fox, 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.

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 1987. He won immediate promotion in 1988 back to the First Division, retiring as a player after the final match of the campaign. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/david-topliss-sparkling-rugby-international-849946.html] He remained at Wakefield purely as a coach 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.

Topliss stepped down as coach to concentrate on his business. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/david-topliss-sparkling-rugby-international-849946.html] David Hobbs joined Wakefield Trinity as coach in May 1994. He then went to Halifax as Director of Football in January 1995.

uper 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. Although Wakefield voted to merge, the other clubs refused to do so; 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.

John Harbin was the coach of Wakefield between October 2000 and October 2001, Wakefield's final game of the 2001 season was a relegation battle with Salford City Reds with Wakefield condemning the Huddersfield Giants to relegation. He decided to leave the club at the end of 2001.

Peter Roe was appointed Head Coach in October 2001. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/1633169.stm] After years of struggling to keep up with the Super League pace which saw the Wildcats finish next to bottom on most of their attempts they finally got around to making headway up the league. Peter Roe was sacked in July 2002 and was replaced by his assistant Shane McNally. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/2131126.stm] With Adrian Vowles as his co-coach the pair guided the Wildcats to their first-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.

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 as caretaker coach 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 Tigers 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 Metropolitan District 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 recentlywhen published results of a feasibility study into the project and this has shown that it is not feasable for a new stadium at Thornes Park.

This now leaves Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in a precarious position - Belle Vue is not suitable for the long-term future, and a new stadium is crucial to their Super League survival. Thornes Park was never a good option, and the club had plenty of notice about the poor state of their ground, as the state of Belle Vue was a stumbling block to Wakefield's initial promotion to Super League 10 years ago.

It appears that the club have sat back and done little except for choose a poor proposed location for a new ground, only to have their plans thrown out. If they had spent time 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago then much more suitable locations could have been found, and a new ground built which would help secure Super League rugby league for Wakefield; but now the future after 2012 looks as though Super League and Wakefield Trinity will part company.

On 22 July 2008 the Wildcats were awarded a Super League licence for the 3 seasons from 2009 to 2012 by the Rugby Football League. They had been widely tipped as one of the existing Super League clubs (along with Castleford Tigers) who were most at risk of missing out on one of the new licences.

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 One¹: 1998

Footnote

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

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

2008 Signings/Transfers

Gains

*Round 13 played at Millennium Stadium,Cardiff.

***engage Super League Grand Final to be played at Old Trafford, Manchester.

ources

* [http://www.yorkshirerugbyleague.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=2314&ArticleID=1102131 Wildcats: history and facts]

External links

* [http://www.wakefieldwildcats.co.uk Official Website]
* [http://forums.rlfans.com/viewforum.php?f=33 Wakefield RLFans Forum]