05 Sep THIRD PLACE FINISH FOR HUDDERSFIELD

Huddersfield clinched a hard-earned third place finish on the final day of the 2026 season. It’s fair to say that both the home and away teams have had a mixed season with only a few successes along the way but the last match victory against a strong Bradford side is a real moral booster.

For many years pre-covid Huddersfield dominated the competition but our last title was in 2021 with a reduced league. Since then West Riding and Leeds have dominated not withstanding that Leeds had never won the competition before re-entering the league in 2023 and winning the Grouse Trophy at the first time of asking and again in 2025.

Huddersfield came into this seasons competition after a fifth place finish in 2024 and a fourth place in 2025. The Home team had successful campaigns topping the Home table in 2025 but the Away team had struggled facing many ‘unplayable’ greens. Graham Sigsworth took over the captaincy of the Home squad in 2026 meanwhile Malcolm Gilbert had many years of captaincy with the Away squad. Graham brought in a couple of new players in Martyn Skuse and Pete Fuller and both have acquitted themselves well. Malcolm brought in Steve Haigh, Andy Lumb, Stuart Greaves and Ian Ross and whilst Steve, Stuart and  Andy quickly established themselves at this level it took the ‘seasoned winner’ Rossy until the last match to get off the ground with a 21-8 win.

The last day of the season started with the days opponents, Bradford in command of third place in the league with a huge lead over Huddersfield of 22 points and Huddersfield needing to win 39-17 to overcome the deficit. The Away team were playing at The Harold club and although the first four seemed to be in command but went into the break with only Ian Ross’ 21-8 to their credit and Steve Haigh suffering a painful all-but defeat. However, the second four rallied with 3 winners to their credit and only an Andy Lumb defeat to 19 to gain a Huddersfield a 16-12 victory.

The away team were well on their way home when news came through from Lowerhouses, the home team venue, of 7 winners and an aggregate win of 54 giving them a 24-4 victory over Bradfords much vaunted away team. Overall the 40-16 gave Huddersfield a season total of 233 points against Bradfords 231.

The last minute win should give everyone hope that with more strengthening of the squad in readiness for 2027 that we can take it to the big two.