Columnist

There has been plenty of media focus on the 1968 ‘Watersplash cup final’.

Halifax staged their own version on Friday, April 6 2001 when Wigan were the visitors to the Shay in front of the Sky cameras.

The fact that the TV people were covering the game is significant because many people believe that if they hadn’t the game would never have started or would have been abandoned at some stage so bad were the conditions.

It started to rain heavily in mid-afternoon and quite simply didn’t stop.

The Halifax board may have been reflecting that ‘it never rains but it pours’ all week though.

After a reasonable 2000 season - given the fact that plenty of Academy players had been blooded and that coach Gary Mercer had operated with probably the lowest budget in Super League - 2001 started indifferently.

Fax leaked 68 points at home to Bradford in in the cup at the Shay but recovered to win the first two league games versus Huddersfield and London.

Then came a trip to Wakefield which saw defeat and the hospitalisation of Andrew Dunemann with a broken jaw and a fractured cheekbone.

Worse came the following Monday when Mercer resigned although wanting to continue as a player.

The board declined that proposal and he signed for Warrington.

Assistant Steve Linnane was appointed as caretaker and his first match was the one against Wigan.

Linnane’s team was Daryl Cardiss, Danny Halliwell, Jamie Bloem, Damian Gibson, Oli Marns, Marty Moana, Gavin Clinch, Andy Hobson, Johnny Lawless, Brett Goldspink, Jim Gannon, Paul Davidson and Shayne McMenemy.

Substitutes were Danny Tickle, Jamie Thackray, Sean Penkywicz and the unused Stuart Donlan.

Fax lost 20-10 in atrocious conditions but Linnane was given the job permanently the following Monday.