It was Cas's almost total monopoly of the competition which scared you off getting floodlights.

I do remember Cas doing rather well in it. Think it might have worries over the leccy bill which actually stopped Northern from investing in lights earlier, well that and probably not having anything to invest, of course.

In truth, it would actually have been down to the council, who were then responsible for ground matters, of course.

In fact Northern [idid[/i have lights, though. Odsal was one of, if not [ithe[/i, first rugby ground to get floodlights many years before, and despite lack of maintenance, they were still usable as training lights, though IIRC they didn't cover the whole field by the time they were replaced.

Maybe somebody has already written this- as I don't read all the posts on here- and without referring to my Northern/Bulls books- which aren't to hand, I seem to remember this game was live on BBC Grandstand, with, presumably, Uncle Eddie on mic. Seem to also recall it being the first match of a new season, with a host of new signings, being soundly thrashed. I think Les Thomas scored the solitary try, and maybe Stuart Gallacher made his debut- very good player during his time with us- was Stuart.

It pains me to say it but Saints have a very informative heritage site. There are some details of the match here:

[urlhttp://www.saints.org.uk/saints.org.uk/home/viewpage.php?page_id=7&seq=3331[/url

My first game was at Odsal 1977 against Featherstone lost 33-14 went with my uncle, but couldn`t tell you who scored or what the date was.