Bridlington Grammar School, Rugby 1st XV, 1941-1942
Our great uncle, Richard “Dick” Hudson, was born and raised in Bridlington, a coastal town in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Attending Bridlington Grammar School from 1938-1944, Dick excelled at Latin and rugby.
By the time we visited the Hudson family, they had settled in Newton Ferrers, Devon, where Dick was ‘retired’ from his construction business. In the early 1990’s I would spend the Easter school holidays in Newton Ferrers and I was delighted to help with the latest building project while my uncle Dick would share stories from his life.
Whilst shoveling sharp sand and laying the crazy paving path down the side of their garden, I was regaled with the tale of his time playing rugby for Bridlington School 1st XV against an Army XV team.
It was a crisp winter day in January 1944. Dick was only 16 years old, playing his third season with the 1st XV, in the final game of the season for Bridlington School’s rugby union team. A gentle breeze blew across the pitch and the team needed to avoid a loss to ensure they would finish their season undefeated. Their opponents were a British Army select team, comprised rugby league players because some of the union boys had been called up to war.
Midway through the second half, the army team were penalized deep in Bridlington territory and a penalty was awarded. Ernie Cooper, a 17-year-old winger for Bridlington, placed the ball just outside his own 25-meter line, and pointed to the posts. The distance was a staggering 74 meters (81 yards). Dick and his other 13 teammates formed a line behind Ernie in expectation of chasing a short kick. There was no need for doubt and the match ended in a draw.
“What does that silly bugger think he’s going to do from there?” the opposing captain was heard to quip as his players went and stood under the cross bar, anticipating the ball would drop short.
“I was delighted to have knocked it over, but the most important thing that day was that we drew the game and managed to finish the season unbeaten,” recalls Cooper, who scored a try and a conversion as well that day.
Sporting Bygones, Yorkshire Post, 27th Jan 2014
At the time, neither Dick and his team, nor the opposition, realized the enormity of the achievement. In fact, it would be nearly three decades before the true value of that monster kick would be learned, when it was put into the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest kick in the history of rugby union.
It is a record that still stands today!
In the match Bridlington School 1st XV. versus an Army XV. at Bridlington, E. Yorks on 29 Jan 1944, Ernie Cooper (b. 21 May 1926), captaining the school, landed a penalty from a measured 74m (81yd) from the post with a kick which carried over the dead ball line.
Postscript
In 1944, Bridlington School 1st XV went undefeated and Dick would go on to play through the 1944-45 season before graduating. The captain, Ernie Cooper, went on to play for Bridlington, Scarborough, Headingley and Roundhay when he lived in Leeds, Hull and East Riding, and York Unicorns, before retiring in 1990.
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