Seasons To Remember 1934/35

1934 – 1935

by Darrell Platt

Salford began the season in knowledge that they would be undertaking a short tour of France in October and November as part of the inauguration of the French league in 1934, but before that the Reds has some important domestic matches to attend to. Jenkins and Risman both scored hat tricks of tries against Hull K.R and Hunslet respectively and a couple more victories including a 34-0 Lancashire cup 1st Round success over Leigh produced a notable start to the new campaign despite a setback at Halifax (12-13).The Reds then embarked on a terrific run of consecutive victories which saw them not only head of the league table but also reach the Lancashire Cup Final courtesy of victories over Warrington (23-5) and Swinton, in the semi – final by 12 points to 5. Opponents in the final were Wigan at Station Road, Swinton and on October 20th the Reds won a thrilling match by 21 points to 12 in front of a crowd exceeding 33,500.

Immediately after the game the players had to rush for the train to London to begin what was to become a landmark in the Club’s history. A quick change of trains in the capital  took the party to Folkestone where they crossed the channel to Dunkirk. Now on French soil, the players headed for Paris by train to undertake their opening game of the six match tour. Incredibly only 24 hours after the winning the Lancashire Cup, Salford beat a Paris select side by 51 points to 36 and the crowd marvelled at the open rugby on display. The team were treated like film stars and were dubbed “Les Diables Rouges” – The Red Devils, a title that became synonymous with the club.

Gus Risman

Throughout the remainder of that ground breaking tour Salford, who were to remain unbeaten, became magnificent Ambassadors for the R.L and generous applause greeted every try they scored. For the record the rest of the were:- Lyon  Villeurbanne  17 Salford 41 Beziers 8 Salford 41 Alba 5 Salford 44 X111 Catalon 16 Salford 41 Villeurbanne 10 Salford 34. The players who made that historic tour were: Risman, Hudson, Watkinns, Williams, Casewell, Feetham, Jenkins, Bradbury, Bradbury, Osbaldestin, Brown, Evans,Day, Dalton, Harris, Middleton, Miller and Pearson.

On their return to this country, Salford continued where they left off with victories at Rochdale Hornets (14-3) and home to Swinton (19-7) but we came a cropper at Leeds (3-12), the Yorkshire side later becoming the only club to complete a double over us, with 10 points to 5 successes at the Willows.  In the New Year, Barney Hudson notched 4 tries in our 29 points to 7 home victory against Leigh and a four match winning run later on included a challenge Cup 1st Round victory  over Halifax (16-11).

The second round paired us with Hunslet and a confident Salford side travelled over the Pennines only to suffer a surprise 22 points to 2 defeat. At the end of May, the Reds failed to score a point in successive defeats at Broughton Rangers (0-11) and Dewsbury (0-9). The team rallied to remain undefeated in the last seven matches of the season to ensure fourth spot in the league but in the Championship play offs we lost to table-toppers Swinton in the semi-finals by 21 points to 2.

1934-35 STATS

TOP TRY SCORERS
28 Barney Hudson
19 Bob Brown
13 Jack Fleetham
13 Emlyn Jenkins

TOP SCORER
208 Gus Risman

REPRESENTATIVE HONOURS
England: Hudson, Dalton
Wales:  Risman, Day, Jenkins, Watkins
Lancashire:  Osbladestin, Brown
Yorkshire: Dalton
Cumberland:  Miller, Dalton