Rugby club chiefs urged to rise to gold medal challenge

COLLECTOR WILL SELL HISTORIC PIECE

A COLLECTOR of sports memorabilia is hoping Huddersfield Rugby League club, The Giants, will buy a rare medal minted to celebrate winning the Yorkshire Challenge Cup in 1890.

Tony Capstick, 86, from Cullingworth, near Bingley, came across the 18-carat gold medal through a friend in Sheffield.

He said: “1890 was the only year Huddersfield won this trophy and the medal was awarded to Jack Dyson. It’s genuine and I want about £1,200 for it.

“I have approached Huddersfield Rugby League Club but they seem to expect me to give it to them!

“Surely someone in Huddersfield should be interested? It seems only appropriate that it should return there.”

Jack Dyson, from Skelmanthorpe, was a talented player who played several times for England in the 1890s. He died tragically early aged 42 in 1909.

Huddersfield plays an important place in the history of Rugby League with its famous George Hotel being the venue where 21 clubs met on August 29, 1895, to agree a breakaway from the Rugby Football Union.

The aim was to enable working class players to be compensated for wages lost when playing rugby.

A National Rugby League Museum is set to be created at the George Hotel in St George’s Square, Huddersfield, after Kirklees Council bought the derelict building from a dentist-cum-entrepreneur, Altaf Hussain.

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