RUGBY LEAGUE
Club history
Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, that play in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the club was known as Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.
The club has played at Belle Vue Stadium in Wakefield since 1895 and has rivalries with Castleford Tigers and Featherstone Rovers. Wakefield has won two premierships in their history when they went back to back in 1967 and 1968. As of 2019, it has been fifty-one years since Wakefield last won the league.
Wakefield Trinity originally played on Heath Common. In 1875/76 they moved to a ground near the Borough Market (near the current Trinity shopping centre.) They returned to the Belle Vue area of Wakefield and played on a ground behind the Alexandra Hotel near Elm Street. This is on the opposite side of the road from the present ground.
The ground is primarily used for rugby. It was originally a rugby union venue before the schism of 1895, although the occasional rugby union has been played on the ground after 1895. For example, in January 1899, it hosted the Yorkshire versus Australia game.
Belle Vue was the venue of the 1922-23 Challenge Cup final, in which Leeds beat Hull F.C. 28-3 in front of a crowd of 29,335, the only occasion that the ground was the venue for the final.
The 1937-38 Rugby Football League Championship Final was due to have taken place at Belle Vue, but as both finalists Hunslet and Leeds were from Leeds, the authorities switched the match to Elland Road.
On Saturday 16 September 2006, the stadium played host to the ‘Battle of Belle Vue’ when 11,000 fans from Wakefield Trinity and Castleford watched the match which would decide who was relegated from Super League. Wakefield Trinity won the match 29-17 sending their nearest rivals Castleford down to the National League.
usage it gets, are they aware of the extra costs that will be incurred to look after a hybrid pitch and the investment needed in new machinery?
“I believe it will cost around £40,000 a year to run. The club is aware of this and plans to hire the pitch out where possible to recoup some of the costs. With our current usage, and only myself looking after the pitch on a daily basis, I think we have to have a real hard look at how we would realistically manage a hybrid pitch and what actual usage we would get before losing grass cover.” When Steve isn’t working home games at the club, he enjoys going down to Wembley where he is a member of the matchday team. “I have been part of the team for the last ten years; I will do whatever events I can. I have worked the Challenge Cup Finals, NFL, FA Cup, England games, and
I’ve even been down after the Anthony Joshua fights to help pick up the covers. I really enjoy it; I get to see what many other people don’t get to see. It’s good to pick up tips, ideas and learn new skills. The experience I now have from working at Wembley will stand me in good stead if we invest in a hybrid pitch ourselves.”
What’s in the shed?
Dennis G860 with cylinder cassette Kubota B1550 tractor SISIS Multitiner Spray linemarker Transfer wheel linemarker Knapsack sprayer Rotary mower
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PC October/November 2019
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