Quote ="Bartholemew Smythe"I remember the game v Bratfurt and i`m pretty sure sure both the Maestro and Hanley scored braces or hat tricks and we lost in a very high entertaining game.'"
I was at the home game v Bradford in the 81 -82 season. Although I don't have a Rothmans to hand, I'm confident that we didn't lose - I remember following a particularly obnoxious Bradford fan back towards Oxford Street who wasn't happy after the game. He was a lot less happy when he found he'd got a parking ticket.
For me, the thing that separated the 71 and 82 teams was pace. The half backs and three quarters of the 82 team were dazzlingly quick. And they won the championship, which is a bigger ask than the Challenge Cup. I remember that the general feeling was that Leigh's style in 81-82 was suited best to hard ground and therefore we were more likely to win the Challenge Cup. A lot of people felt we were nailed on to win it. When we lost to Castleford, there was a massive feeling of deflation. The fact that we went on to win the championship, despite almost chucking it away at the death, makes the 82 team (which changed quite a lot between September and April) the superior one for me. However, they both punched above their weight.
