Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:10 pm  

My love for Fax is a family Gene my Dad started taking my brother and me in the early 1990s I can remember bits from the 1990-91 promotion season but the 1st game that really stands out was when we thrashed Hull KR at Thrum Hall early in the 1991-92 season. I remember many great games at Thrum Hall including the time we beat Wigan 18-16 when John Bentley throwing a snow ball into the scratching shed when he scored a try in the 1994-95 season. I remember the many games when we had to defrost our feet after a game happy Days. I was also a proud member of Junior Blues when we used to meet at Mc Donalds in Halifax me and my brother where the 1st twins to join (and I believe the only twins) so we got to have our photo taken with a player of our choice which was Mark Preston. Does anybody else remember Junior Blues? Times have changed but my love for Fax has not. UP THE FAX

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:19 pm  

I have told this tale many a time but make no apologies for repeating it as I think it just shows why you should allow children in cheaply or for nothing and encourage players to sell their club.
I was brought up in Gibbet St and would watch the thousands of spectators walk down into town after a game . My dad was a soccer supporter though and never went to rugby he did take me to the Shay once but I found it boreing and refused to go again.
1953 and Johnny Freeman arrived in town and spent some time with the Thomas family who had something to do with Thrum Hall and lived around the back of us at Warwick St.He caused quite a stir amongst the hundreds of kids in the area , we were used to seeing players about they all lived around there but a non white person was unique . We were fascinated and we would all gather to watch for him coming home from work and soon we were en mass going up to Thrum Hall. None of us had any money so we would wait for the gates to open 10 min after half time and Johnny would duly oblige with a try or two.I may not have paid anything back then but I reckon Fax have had there money back and more from me.Plus from the other kids as I still see some of them now all the kids worshiped him.
I did have a break when the kids were little but started watching again when they became old enough to go because it`s a bit like Malaria once the bugs in you then only a slight exposure to it triggers you off again.

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:33 pm  

I moved to Halifax from Huddersfield, and one weekend my parents came over for a family meal one Sunday in '96. Me and my dad decided to go up to Thrum Hall to see what this new-fangled Super League was all about. It was Fax v Saints, and we lost by 2 points that day. But, I was hooked! We stood on the bottom side that day, and we couldn't believe how close to the action we were. You could hear every impact, every curse, and see the effort on the players' faces from up close. Players would even have a chat with you whilst waiting for a try to be converted, or a penalty taken. You felt a part of the game. And after that, I started standing behind the dugouts. Certainly livelier up there, especially if there was a bit of Biff. And, you would always go and stand by the Pavillion to applaud the players off the field. I bet they hated going off in that corner when they had a shocker, because we know how Fax fans like to voice their opinions! Bought a season ticket after that first game, and have had one ever since.

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:42 pm  

Rich, you could expand on these and make a book.
Great reading.

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:44 pm  

Unfortunately I never made it to a game at Thrum Hall. I began watching Fax, in the first season at The Shay. My first memory is being sat on the wall at the side of the pitch at Knowsley Road, watching Fax get hammered and not really understanding what was going on, however, it must have made some sort of impression as I’m still here 13 years later, despite being born and bred in Littleborough and having no real connection with the town of Halifax! I think my parents bought me a promotional junior season ticket for Christmas 1998 costing £5, this was great marketing from the club as I’ve had one ever since. In all honesty, I can’t remember much of my first few seasons as I was too young, which is a pity as that was the season they finished third in SL and its been downhill from there ever since.

Over the years I’d have to say my favourite moments were...

The 2004 ‘losers play-off final’ against YCK at Widnes. It doesn’t bear thinking about, what would’ve happened if we’d have lost that game.
Getting beat by Cas in Extra Time in the CC in 2008 (I think)
Beating Fev in this year’s NRC semi
On a personal note I’d have to say that my first (and now obviously last) trip over to Toulouse this year in the NRC QF, will live in the memory for a long time

I may sometimes be critical of the players and club on here, but I wouldn’t swop any of it for the world. I suppose that’s the benefit of supporting a lesser team - it makes the rare success seem even more special!

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:12 pm  

Moved to Halifax from Brighouse in 1980, used to watch for the results in the Courier but never went to any games.
Then in 89 I think it was with nothing else to do one Sunday afternoon decided to go along with a couple of mates who were big Fax fans.

We were playing Widnes that day and I seem to remember Neil James scoring a hat trick.

Widnes I am sure you will recall had a host of star names like Sorrenson, Offiah, Grima etc the atmosphere was just fantastic and I was instantly hooked and became a regular at every game home and away.

Before the season ended I managed to talk the wife into going and it was like a duck to water for her.
With both of us on board my 2 sons were soon going as well.

After years of not having much leisure interests in common this was it Rugby League the family favourite

Even the Friday night A team games would attract over 1000 spectators in the middle of winter sometimes with us queing to get in through the 1 top turnstile!!

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:30 pm  

I cannot honestly say what was my first game as my Dad took me and my brother up Thrum Hall from being a little kid from around the age of 5 so I guess in 1967, he even took us to Wembley in 1969 at the age of 7 as he was friends with the great Colin Dixon who had moved to Salford by then and played for them against Cas.
My Grandad was a Fax fan as well so its in my blood now 4 generations with my kids being fans, he went way back to the thirties bless him telling me tales of how he went to Wembley in 1931 and how Halifax fans thought getting to Wembley from King Cross was like walking up to Thrum Hall from town and they were going to walk there! He also had to sadly miss the 1939 Final as his Dad (my great Grandad) was very, very poorly. One loveley moment was when he met an old kid who was a York fan both in their eighties and they talked about that 1931 Final like we would talk about the 1987 Final.

Anyway I was taken to watch Fax until the mid seventies by my Dad but can't recall many games other than the 1972 JPS Cup Final win at Odsal and running on the pitch like kids used to. He refused to take me to the infamous Cawoods game as he saw that defeat coming. He had started to take me to see a very good dare I say Bradford Northern team around then but I never liked them as that was Bradford not Halifax, we did not switch alliegence it was just they had a great side and my Dad is a RL fan (or was he no longer goes after SL and summer rugby).
What hooked me for life?
Well two games really, one was the Yorkshire Cup win against Cas the year after we had finished bottom of the old 2nd Division and Cas were a 1st Division club then in 1978, what a shock I came home with a huge grin on my face.
The other was the Challenge Cup match against Wakefield when we beat a good side and there was 13,000 in Thrum Hall it was rocking, what an atmosphere and I walked all the way home to Ovenden beaming.
Like most the 1987 CC Final was great and for a good time so was the 1988 Final but the games against Wigan the year before in the league were awesome matches which we drew, theere are many other games too many to mention but the highs keep you going through the lows.

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:08 am  

It's easy to forget what impact our game has on people's lives. It's clear that it's not just something you can switch on and off on a Sunday. A win sets me up for the week, while a loss can set me back until Thursday. It seems clear from reading these posts that local kids should be the club's target market!

I wouldn't swap this bug for anything - not even when officials do their best to ruin this game and the RFL would do well to read some of these stories. Perhaps then they'll give the lower leagues and their fans a bit more time and respect.

Would love to get back to the glory days. That day in 1987 was the best of my life.

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:05 am  

My first ever game was (if i remeber correctly) in August 1987 in the good old john smith's yorkshire cup against a team called Mansfield Marksmen ) believe we won the game 56 -0, and i have been going ever since, It was a group of mates who used to go every week, sorry to say i am the only left out of the group who still go.

When i met the Wife in 1999, i told her back then if she wanted to see me on a sunday she would have to come to the games, lucky for me (well maybe not ) she got hooked, and we go most weeks.


I also used to tape Scrumdown every week, and have kept them all, currently stored in my moms loft so Greg i may still have a copy of your claim to shame

(Greg)My claim to shame when i was young was that i was once on Scrumdown stood where the players came out and a Hull player got sent off and i could be seen making rude gestures to the player. Oops

Re: What made you a diehard Fax fan? : Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:44 am  

littlerich wrote:

It's easy to forget what impact our game has on people's lives. It's clear that it's not just something you can switch on and off on a Sunday. A win sets me up for the week, while a loss can set me back until Thursday. It seems clear from reading these posts that local kids should be the club's target market!

I wouldn't swap this bug for anything - not even when officials do their best to ruin this game and the RFL would do well to read some of these stories. Perhaps then they'll give the lower leagues and their fans a bit more time and respect.

Would love to get back to the glory days. That day in 1987 was the best of my life.

The Supporters Trust have offered many times to go out and about around town with a few players and free kids tickets but it never gets taken up. We even came up with the idea of paying for Benji the Walshs open top bus and taking the players around town and up to the big supermarkets. I was looked at as if I was mad , the main thing our club needs to do is to increase our crowds .
You cannot go out once a season either and expect it to work you have to go out regular and the players are the most important commodity of selling the club.You cannot keep sitting in the Shay and expect folk to come to you , you have to go out and get them.
My favourite game was probably the infamous "what a waste of money game " at Thrum Hall our team was fantastic that day.There have been lots of highlights for me most of them at Thrum Hall I cannot muster the same feelings at the Shay it is Souless.