Roger 'The Dodger' Millward had enjoyed a stellar rugby league career. Winning with Great Britain in Australia in 1970; captaining his country in two World Cups; skipper of Hull Kingston Rovers as the club won their first Championship for 54 years. But there was one thing missing off the CV of the 32-year-old.
Millward had never appeared in a Challenge Cup final. "It was the match that I'd waited sixteen years to play in," Millward revealed in his autobiography, in one of the three chapters dedicated to the 1980 Challenge Cup final. "It didn't arrive until my very last season - and my last ever game as a first team player."
Ordinarily this would have been a significant match for Millward and Rovers, as both player and club searched for their first Challenge Cup. But to add an extra incentive the final would be contested against their rivals from the west side of the city. "I think there was probably more pressure on the two teams not to lose that day than there had been in any previous final," Millward noted.
The city needed a boost. With the fishing industry declining and Hull suffering with unemployment like the rest of the country, the escapism provided by the final proved priceless, as thousands headed to the capital. A message written on some cardboard attached to a lamppost near to the unfinished Humber Bridge pointed the way: 'Last One Out Turn The Lights Off'.
Millward's season had been disrupted by injuries. After breaking his jaw in September he returned to action as Rovers defeated Wigan 18-13 away in the Challenge Cup first round in February 1980, a match that saw Len Casey earn the man of the match award after his record £38,000 return to the club. But another broken jaw in the next league match against Widnes threatened to ruin Millward's season.
In his absence, Rovers continued their march to Wembley. After beating Castleford 28-3, winger Steve Hubbard scored two tries and slotted over five goals in the 23-11 win over Warrington in the quarter final. Millward returned for the 20-7 win over Halifax in the semi-final at Headingley, winger Clive Sullivan scoring two tries in the first half.
For Sullivan, reaching the Wembley final was just as sweet a feeling as that felt by captain and player-coach Millward. "The first person I ran over to after we'd beaten Halifax was Clive," Millward recalled. "I used to say every year - this is the year we're going to Wembley." Finally the duo had made it.
The 37-year-old Sullivan scored a try in the 1972 World Cup final, achieved over 400 tries in his career, including over 100 tries for both Hull clubs. Yet the only Rovers player to have appeared in a final was prop Brian Lockwood. Four Hull players had played at in a Challenge Cup final - John Newlove, Charlie Stone, Graham Bray, and Vince Farrar - with captain Steve Norton on the substitutes bench for Castleford in the 1970 final.
Hull could point to some previous success in the competition, even if that triumph was back in 1914. After comfortable wins over Millom and York, a narrow 3-0 win at Bradford Northern saw the club reach their first Challenge Cup semi final since 1961. Coming back from 5-0 down at the break, the dramatic 10-5 win over Widnes at Swinton ended Hull's 20 year Wembley wait.
The Challenge Cup was once a notable date on the sporting calendar. Grandstand was anchored by Frank Bough from Wembley, with Tony Gubba presenting a feature on the city of Hull, as well as visiting both dressing rooms beforehand. As the kick off neared, It Ain't Half Hot Mum stars Windsor Davies and Melvyn Hayes entertained the estimated crowd of 95,000.
The teams emerged from the tunnel to earsplitting noise. "I don't mind telling you that I was very nervous," Millward admitted, a fact that commentator Eddie Waring picked up on as the teams crossed the Wembley turf. After the national anthem, the teams were introduced to the Queen Mother before the ultimate derby match kicked off at 3pm.
In truth the final failed to live up to the hype and anticipation for the neutral. The stakes were simply too high. But for those of red and white or black and white persuasion every tackle, pass and kick was lived through, the nerves and tension growing as the match progressed.
Rovers would strike first with a try from Hubbard after eight minutes. The move involving Lockwood and a dummy run from Casey saw the former delay his pass inside to Hubbard who surged through the flatfooted Hull defence. Both Millward and Hubbard revealed that it had been a drill worked on unsuccessfully in training at Windsor in the lead-up to the final. The first time it worked was at Wembley.
Hubbard missed the conversion, yet referee Fred Lindop spotted that Hull's Paul Woods had kicked the try scorer after he had crossed the line. It would prove a costly infringement, as Hubbard was then given a simple penalty in front of the posts to extend Rovers' lead to 5-0 (three points for a try).
Indeed Hull's indiscipline would prove costly throughout, especially in the first half. "We lost the match in the first twenty minutes when we gave away so many silly penalties," Hull coach Arthur Bunting said after the final. His players were certainly pumped up. But as Millward would find out painfully, they often overstepped the mark.
In the 13th minute Hull hooker Ron Wileman blatantly took out Millward with a high and late tackle, leaving Rovers' talisman in a heap on the floor. His jaw broken once again, Millward somehow carried on, admitting that he didn't know where he was for the next 20 minutes.
Wileman received a lecture from Lindop but even by the standards of the day he was extremely lucky to stay on the pitch, as co-commentator Alex Murphy confirmed. Just two minutes later Hubbard kicked a penalty after Stone had punched Roy Holdstock, and Hull's approach saw them trailing 7-0.
Eventually Hull settled and scored a try of their own in the 28th minute. Good work from Newlove set Tim Wilby free, but Sammy Lloyd failed to kick the conversion, struggling three times to tee up the ball before slicing wide. He had already missed a difficult penalty from just inside Rovers' half and Lloyd's fortunes did not change in the second half.
Millward had recovered sufficiently by the 40th minute, his drop goal extending Rovers' lead to 8-3 at the break, and as a tense second half developed it looked as if this point would prove crucial, keeping Hull a converted try away from levelling the scores.
News later circulated of Lloyd sneaking in his boots and a ball for some practice kicks at Wembley the day before the final, but little good it did him, as he missed another chance to narrow the gap at the start of the half. In the 55th minute he would eventually kick a penalty successfully, yet just a few minutes earlier Lloyd had possibly denied his own team a try.
Lindop again took centre stage, ruling that Lloyd was guilty of obstructing David Hall as Bray crossed the try line. Millward felt the decision was debatable, and he also felt that Lindop had got two further decisions wrong, adjudging that Millward's pass that sent Steve Hartley through was forward, and most controversially that Hubbard had made a double movement before touching down.
If Lindop experienced a tricky afternoon, then spare a thought for Lloyd. Another missed penalty in the 72nd minute was compounded as he conceded a penalty of his own when obstructing Millward off the ball. Hubbard made no mistake and with just five minutes left Rovers led 10-5.
There was still time to cram in a couple more incidents of note. Sullivan proved his worth defensively with a key tackle on Bray, and Hubbard's afternoon ended prematurely as he sprained his ankle and was forced to leave the field on a stretcher, with his fist clenched in a determined signal to his teammates. Hubbard would later hobble up the Wembley steps to collect his medal, although the inspirational Lockwood would pip him for the Lance Todd award.
And then came the sound that every Rovers fan wanted to hear. The full time hooter prompted players to jump into each others arms, supporters ecstatic as the club had won their first Challenge Cup. "I looked up at the scoreboard," Millward declared. "It read 10-5...the most famous result in Rovers' history."
"I raised the trophy above my head," he continues, after collecting the famous cup from the Queen Mother. "The roar from the Rovers' supporters was deafening. It was a moment I'd waited my whole career for and one that I'll remember for the rest of my life."
Millward later joked with Bough that he was going to get drunk, even if he had to drink through a straw, and the celebrations continued long into the night in London. An open-top bus crawled through Hull on the Sunday - awkwardly the Hull team went on their own parade - and it would take until Monday for Millward to visit hospital to finally get his jaw looked at.
It wasn't a bad way for Millward to bow out. In October his jaw was broken for the fourth time in 1980 during an 'A' team match and understandably he called it a day. Coaching Rovers until 1991, his place in Rovers' history is confirmed forevermore. Both Millward and Sullivan, sadly no longer with us, have roads in Hull named after them.
There is also a 10-5 bar at Craven Park, a permanent tribute to the players that won Rovers their first Challenge Cup back in May 1980. The wait for a second Challenge Cup goes on, but if Rovers can defeat Leigh in the 2023 final then I'm sure a few drinks will be sunk in a bar that serves as a reminder of the day that Rovers ruled Hull and Wembley.
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