We had the RL in its coffin from about 2008 to 2010, and then the Allams came in and instead of nailing it firmly shut and burying it in an unmarked grave at Skirlaugh, they left the lid open and the vampire zombie has slowly been brought back to life and has been encouraged to do so by the hate-filled owners. Is AP a genius or have the Allams gifted him thousands of new fans on a plate? If you dislike Hull City and live locally, you must think it's Christmas every day with Assem Allam and Ehaw.
A multiplicity of reasons: low intelligence, low self-esteem, attention-span deficit, shallowness of character, poor judgment, general ****ishness, shrivelled and deformed genitals...how many more do you need?
Never come across anyone from other areas hating their local team. Some are indifferent as not everyone is a football fan but wanting your local team to fail and revelling in their bad times seems a uniquely Hull thing.
Actually, I see and hear people in this area laughing when Posh lose, and revel in them being ****. While being born and bred here, for generations, yet supporting Arsenal, Chelsea etc. Sorry, but it's not unique at all.
The football v rugby league rivalry is though and it has been manipulated by the local media for a long time. Remember the 'Hull is a rugby town' line that was trotted out at every opportunity during the brief time both our RL clubs ruled the roost in their sport ? Instead of embracing the strength of sport and the following/ passion for it in this relatively small city the local media, more so the HDM, pinned their colours to the RL mast to appear popular, the council certainly did, and we had the shock jocks on the radio, one in particular who always preached there is no such thing as potential when ever any one spoke up for City. The 'Hull is a divided City' myth was and still is flogged to death and the importance of the game is pumped up way above its standing nationally, which apart from in Hull and Wigan is that of a minority sport. Beside Hull only Wigan experiences anything like this animosity between two sports and books have been written about it. The feeling there is that football has always been held back to favour RL. The reason is and the same in Hull is that a successful football club is not good news for RL, and the same applies if the situation is reversed. Add to this the two generations of support City lost during the Chris Needler, Dolan and Fish years. Support lost to RL were appearing at Wembley and winning silverware was almost as easy as City fielding our first X1 in the East Riding Cup every year, and the tin pot glory that brings plus the ease that anyone can latch onto the coat tails of any one of the big six in football without doing the hard miles of actually supporting your local team especially if they happen to a unfashionable under achieving one like Hull City were ( and still are) And you have a sizable amount of people of a certain age in the city who wish nothing but failure on City because it justifies the sport of their choice and massages their superior complex over '****ty City' Does anyone actually know of a City fan who actually supports a rugby league club not from Hull and wishes nothing but failure of the two Hull clubs because of it ?
I know a Leeds United fan who supports Hull FC in a reversal of the norm. He moved here from Leeds because of work years ago. Someone took him to an FC game aboutv20 years ago and he was impressed by the attitude of rugby players compared to football ones. As time has progressed his visits back to Leeds decreased and the ones to FC increased and he is now a pass holder.
When I worked, my work car was full of St Helens memorabilia - stickers, nodding dog, air freshener, key-ring, the irony of a City fan ''supporting'' a non-Hull RL team was lost on my egg chasing brothers and sisters.
St Helens was my choice of RL team to irritate eggchasers of my acquaintance in Hull. Some people have no sense of irony. One of my local pubs isn't a hotbed for rugby league but shows games. Once when FC were playing Leeds I cheered when Leeds scored. I was met with remarks about me being a Hull City fan so how can you support another team playing a Hull one. This from people born in the East Riding who are "fans" of Leeds United, Man Utd and Liverpool.
I had a conversation with a mate who I've known since I was a kid, in the pub a few weeks back. He's a black n white. I just said I'm not interested in rl. His reply I went to city once it was ****. It's the most boring game in the world. I left before half time. It was like he was brainwashed to say it. Obviously this got my back up so I went on about how great RU is and how popular. He nearly burst a blood vessel. Complete hatred of ru wouldn't acknowledge it's mire popular or more widely played. Had no answer to how popular football is either. He just became more and more stubborn. Pitiful to see.
I can assure you that growing up down Hawthorn Ave, practically on BP's doorstep, and not far away from the Boulevard, I was in the minority and felt the hatred of the egg chaser towards the Black & Amber clan. But I have my revenge aplenty around 1959/60 when Hull were hammered in consecutive years at Wembly by Wakefield and Wigan, and at the time by record scores as well. But City had plenty of down times as well so piss taking was equally shared, the Hull team of the day, when rugby was played on a Saturday, used to roll out of Hawthorn Ave hotel not long before a match was being played and it was pointed out to me that a certain Sam Evans was just about upright when appearing at the pub front door. But the venum continued for many years and it was just as fierce between the Black & Whites and the Red & Whites, but don't remember them every uniting to have a go at City. I can even go as far to say that when the scores were displayed at half time around the BP perimeter on those little boards, and you needed a programme to find out which games they alluded too, when Hull RLFC's score came up, and they were losing, there was a heck of a cheer around Bunkers/South Stand.
The lead letter in todays HDM from a Arthur Keegan from Hull puts the record straight. He askes the question 'if football damages the pitch so much why are Citys training pitches like billiard tables and Boothferry Park was considered as one of the best playing surfaces in the country whilst at the same time the boulevard with only rl played on it resembled a cow field ?' Well said that man.
Good to see Arthur is still interested in RL, I remember his name from the days when Hull played Huyton and Keighley in front of 1500 crowds, who of course made a noise you might expect from 15,000 fanatics. All this while urinating at the back of the Frepneys so it dripped on people walking beneath the stand. Good old Boxall.
I donated one of my memories to some journal about the boulevard. It was the game v Huyton which attracted 800 fans followed by the game with the world famous Batley or was it Bramley ( small village in South Yorkshire) when the game was abandoned at half time with fc ( they were called hull rlfc in those days) losing because they threw all their kit in the washing machine at half time and suddenly realised they didn't have another kit. I kid you not.
