Season 1947/48

11-8 victory over Castleford in third game of season.

There were very few positives from a season which saw 47 players used, delivered only 6 wins all year and saw Rovers finish second bottom of the league with only York below them.  A disastrous run from November to March meant Rovers set an unfortunate club record of 23 successive losses.  The committee desperate to improve performances kept bringing in new players, including record signing ex-international Jim Waring from Broughton Rangers, but continual changes in the team did little to improve performances.  In early March, the committee introduced a new bonus scheme whereby the players would receive an extra half-a-crown on top of the normal match money for every point more the Rovers scored than their opponents.  This didn’t work either and only once was the additional bonus paid.

Two promising young backs Irving Barraclough and Herbert Chapman were sold early season, and another Ernest Luckman was sold to Wakefield later in March, yet it was in the backs where the perceived weakness was greatest.  One man who did stand out with consistently good displays was Walt Tennant who topped the try scoring.  Not surprisingly there was a £119 loss on the season with the overdraft now approaching £2000.