I've wondered in the past, when looking at Hull's list of honours, about the European Club Championship. Was it a full competition or a one off match against (most obvious possibility), the Champions of France? Hull being the reigning champions on this side of the channel, of course. Who did Hull beat in the final and where was it played? Was it a biggish deal at the time, say on a par with winning the Yorkshire cup, or more of a glorified exhibition game? Did the competition/game get played for a few years, or was it one of RL's quickly abandoned experiments?



Very demanding post, I know, but I like these curios that RL seems to be especially rich in.

It was a tournament held just the once and featured Hull and Halifax as English Champions and runners up from the previous season plus Albi and Carcasonne the top two from France.



Hull won the title with five wins and a draw from the six matches (Hull and Halifax's league games doubled as European Championship games). It seemed to have been popular, one of the games against Albi at The Boulevard was played on a Monday night due to a crowded fixture list and the attendance was 10,000. It was the third home game in four days after Carcasonne on the Friday and a league game with Bradford on the Saturday.



Mick Scott scored a last minute drop in the Albi game to earn Hull a draw. A big win over Halifax a week later won us the trophy.

I've got the programme for the Albi game (somewhere).

Interesting, thanks!

all the polls are actually still open but a few pages back. i've left them open to catch any occasional posters who may come on and i'll bump them up from time to time.

so far we have

1. kemble (close along with keegan)

2. sullivan

3. schofield

4. leuluai

5. Harrison



6. topliss

7. sterling



probably not the team i would choose but there's time for it to change

I went to the Monday night game against Albi and remember it being a great game. The fixture congestion was a major reason why the idea was subsequently dropped but the series did forge a good link between Hull and Carcassonne and Hull played friendlies with them from time to time.



Cannot leave Carcassonne without a mention of Puig Albert who was one of the most remarkable players that has ever been inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame. A brilliant goal and drop kicker he played full-back and was a chain-smoking,wine-drinking character who left tackling to others! Best to look him up on Wiki to get the full story. He had left Carcassonne when the 56/57 series was played and I saw him play for France.

Here's another one for you, the Spring Bank Orphanage Charity Committee Challenge Cup, played for until about the 50s or 60s from at least before WWI

Excellent re-call.



I've also got both programmes from our two home games.



I didn't realise that it only ran for one season. That means we are still the European Champions and BBC2 Floodlit Trophy holders. Perhaps we are too harsh on ourselves at times.

Not really recall given that it was over a decade before I was born.





As you say though, we've been European Championship holders for nearly sixty years.