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6<br />
NO MORE BLOODY<br />
SUNDAYS<br />
WRITTEN BY GEORGE COWBURN<br />
In 1980, Yorkshire TV aired a programme<br />
called Another Bloody Sunday chronicling<br />
<strong>Doncaster</strong>’s 1979 season and their attempts<br />
over the last four matches of the season to<br />
finally win a league game.<br />
The title came from long-serving local<br />
winger Stuart Piper who said “You wake<br />
up on a Sunday morning and it’s there.<br />
Another bloody Sunday – it’s there.” Also<br />
featured heavily (literally) was Londoner<br />
Tony Banham who scored the winning<br />
try in <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s 6-3 victory over Geoff<br />
Fletcher’s Huyton team in the last game of<br />
the season at Tattersfield, the Dons home<br />
ground.<br />
The programme is still available on YouTube<br />
and makes grim watching at times - training<br />
in virtual darkness, a dilapidated stadium,<br />
tiny changing rooms with communal baths<br />
and defeat after defeat after defeat.<br />
The celebrations after the Dons finally got<br />
a win were something else, though, as was<br />
the warmth, comradeship and loyalty of the<br />
team and its faithful band of supporters.<br />
<strong>Doncaster</strong> joined the league in 1951 along<br />
with Cardiff who only lasted one season.<br />
Despite a respectable 11th place finish in<br />
the league, which consisted of all 31 clubs,<br />
life was a struggle for the Dons until the<br />
1990s.<br />
Starting off with a 10-3 win over Wakefield<br />
Trinity at the <strong>Doncaster</strong> Greyhound<br />
Stadium in front of a crowd of seven and<br />
www.allgoldsrugby.com<br />
@<strong>All</strong><strong>Golds</strong> facebook.com/<strong>All</strong><strong>Golds</strong>Rugby
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