The time had now come. Would Wigan make it third time lucky and win the only competition they had eluded them thus far? Oldham had beaten Huddersfield in a close encounter at Thrum Hall, Halifax, in the other Semi Final and were keen to win the Cup for only the second time. This was Oldham's fourth Final and they were keen to win it for the first time since 1899. Preparations for the Final had begun weeks before. Playing at the Athletic Grounds in Rochdale, a record crowd was expected between the League leaders and third placed Oldham. Oldham had only a few miles west to travel whilst Wigan only had to negotiate Bolton. The choice of Final was a popular one, the Athletic Grounds could hold upward of 35,000 spectators and the authorities estimated that the current record of 35,500 (occuring in the 1922 Final at Headingley) would easily be broken. So popular in fact that Rochdale Magistrates Court, on the 7th April sanctioned the opening of all public houses at Rochdale from 11am - 10pm with the idea that with the public houses being open longer, road traffic and congestion would be eased as upwards of 40,000 people were to be expected. The Oldham Rugby Club made preparations of their own. They had also gone through the town's Magistrate to ensure that their club house would be open until late if Oldham happened to win the Cup as celebrations were obviously to be expected. In Wigan however, the Borough's Chief Constable didn't see it necessary to open until 11pm and an extension of licensing for the evening of the Cup Final failed to materialise, much to the disappointment of many a Wiganer.
Wigan went into the Final as favourites, despite their poor demolition of Barrow in the Semi Final. The Central Park outfit lost their first two meetings against Oldham in the Lancashire Cup and League tie but beat the Oldham lot 20-3 at the end of January which sparked a 13 game unbeaten run. Despite Wigan being favourites, Oldham were on quite a good bit of form themselves, dislodging Huddersfield and Leigh in the League table and moved up to third, behind Batley. One thing was for sure on the morning of 12th April 1924, the towns of Oldham and Wigan had emptied. The Wigan team for the Final was Sullivan, Ring, Howley, Parker, Van Heerden, Jerram, Hurcombe, Webster, H. Banks, Van Rooyen, Brown, Roffey, Price. Oldham, for those interested in these things, was: Knapman, Rix, Hall, Woodward, Corsi, Hesketh, Bates, Collins, Baker, Tomkins, Sloman, Brough, Hilton.
top left to right, Webster, Van Heerden, Hurcombe, Brown, Roffey, Van Rooyen, Banks, Price (cpt), Sullivan, Ring, Parker, Jerram, Howley
The twenty-fourth Final was responsible for scenes without parallel in the history of the rugby code. So great was the interest manifested in the Wigan-Oldham meeting that the crowds invaded the playing pitch and the game, which more than once appeared likely to be brought to a premature conclusion, was played throughout under abnormal difficulties, so far as the players, referee, and linesmen were concerned. The Athletic Grounds at Rochdale were thankfully generous in terms of space behind the goal posts and touchlines, otherwise, the game would not have taken place due to the sheer number of people inside the stadium. As was expected by many, the gates saw a record for any game of the code played in England. The highest figures previously recorded were the 35,500 at Headingley in the Final of 1922. The Wigan-Oldham tie attracted 40,786 paying spectators with a further couple of hundred who had complimentary tickets and others who somehow entered the ground, with an estimate of 41,500 at this Final. The receipts of £3,611 were not, however, a record. They fell £280 short of the first test match between England and Australia at Leeds in 1921, but for the historic game the admission charges were a bit higher than this 1924 Final (otherwise the receipts would be a record).
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| Referee 1924 Cup Final |
You can picture the scene. The roofs of both the stands swarmed with people, but the only accident befel a Mr. Garside, of Ashton New Road, Manchester, who fell from the main stand a distance of 30 feet severly damaging his ribs and suffering shock. Many more spectators even climbed up flag poles to get a view! In the week leading up to the Final, newspapers were tipping a Wigan win. Oldhams last and only in up to that point was in 1899 - a quarter of a century earlier but Wigan's backs were in startling form. But this was a Final and anything could happen!
It seemed like a dramatic build up, and it was up until kick off finally came. The start of the game itself was a brisk affair as one might expect, each team trying to get the upper hand early on. It was Wigan who gained an advantage when the game was forced into a kicking duel between Jim Sullivan and his opposite number, Knapman, of Oldham. Knapman's third effort in returning Sullivan's kicks ended up into touch. It was nip and tuck early on, each side playing safe until Wigan gave away a try after Danny Hurcombe made an error which meant Sullivan had to kick the ball to safety. The ball however was charged down and Oldham may have scored if it hadn't been for Van Rooyen being in the right place at the right time to make the ball safe. Wigan's first chance to score points fell to Jim Sullivan who had an attempt at goal after Wigan's skipper Price was obstructed. The wind took care of the ball and Sullivan missed. The game up until now had little by way of handling, and this showed when a freekick by Sullivan earned Wigan a strong chance of opening the scoring. The usual fluency of the Wigan backs wasn't on show as of yet and the oldham defence held firm, tackling anything that came their way.
Oldham had their turn to press at the Wigan line. A faulty pass by Van Rooyen put Sullivan in a rather tricky situation, but the daring young fullback, with help from Hurcombe, prevented Oldham's Brough and Hilton from scoring. Oldham took the lead after a penalty was given during a scrum, and Knapman easily kicked the goal to send Oldham into the lead after the quarter-hour mark. Oldham fans were happy - for less than half a minute! Fred Roffey's kick out was knocked on by Oldham's Corai and before an Oldham hand could get to the ball, Fred Brown, the Wigan forward, passed it back to Roffey who then ran through to score in at the corner. The score stayed at 3-2 as Sullivan missed the awkward conversion attempt. Johnny Ring then officially got into the game on defensive duties when Rix and Hall of Oldham made a break down his flank, but the Welsh wingman was too clever and made a great tackle, which was heavily applauded by the supporters. Both teams gave away good opportunities to score as the game was starting to become neutralised. Nobody told Attie Van Heerden this though. The Wigan scoring machine scored after the half hour mark when Parker's kick was watched by Knapman and Corai going into touch. Van Heerden instead ran and collected the ball unopposed and ran in under the posts. The never say die attitude of Van Heerden earned Wigan 5 points as Sullivan couldn't miss. Van Heerden had now scored in every round of the Cup, this being his seventh try of the tournament. The memorable thing about this try was that Van Heerden actually scored behind a police horse which was on the pitch trying to keep the crowd at bay.
The game had to be stopped due to crowd encroachment on the playing field, but once under way again, Van Heerden was unlucky not to score another try when his fine run was terminated by Hilton, who bundled the South African into touch. Wigan went in at half time 8-4 to the good after Brough earned Oldham 2 extra points from a penalty. Oldham had thought that their spirited tackling had kept Wigan within arms reach. The second half was a reality too far for Oldham. Despite starting the first half well, the Oldham forwards were gradually worn down by Wigan. The Wigan backs of Ring, Howley, Parker and Van Heerden started to work their magic. Tommy Parker edged Wigan further ahead on the 47th minute of proceedings but due to the wind and angle, Sullivan again missed at the conversion to make it 11-4. Wigan's superiority in the forwards was now showing when Skipper and loose forward Jack price got on the scoresheet to all but end Oldham's hopes of a win in the 55th minute. A final try from Johnny Ring with 10 minutes remaining put the icing on the cake for Wigan and earn the Cherry and White's their first ever triumph in the Challenge Cup.
Wigan had finally done it, it had taken three finals and many years but their name was on the famous trophy, alongside the great sides such as Huddersfield, Batley and Leeds. The Cup was presented to Jack Price by Mrs Dannatt of Hull, who was the wife of Andy Dannatt, the President of the Rugby Football League. Mr. R. Gale of Leigh, the vice-chairman, introduced Mrs Dannatt, who congratulated Wigan on their performance and success. Price, accepting the thanks, said that he thought that there could be no doubt that the better team had won and knew that Oldham would be stronger in the forwards. He also said that he hoped Oldham would win the competition again, but not when Wigan were the opponents. The town of Rochdale was abuzz with rugby fans from across the North that evening, many rival supporters drinking together, either in celebration or in mourning. 
Who knows what happened to those four Wigan men who set off at 3.30am to walk the 26 miles to Rochdale. I am sure they were part of the homecoming celebrations though! Wigan, on returning home, had a magnificent reception from a crowd of 100,000 people. Yes, an estimated 100,000 from all across the borough had descended upon Wigan to welcome home their heroes. The townships of Aspull, Standish, Pemberton, Ince and as far as Ashton united for this historic occasion. Half an hour before the Wigan players returned home on train, Wallgate and Standishgate were impassible for vehicular traffic, and the tramway service had to be suspended. All along the processional route, Wallgate, Standishgate, Greenough Street, Scholes and Rodney Street were a concrete wall of people and whilst the excitement was high, the crowd remained somehow orderly. Only two men, out of 100,000 or so were arrested for drunkeness (probably football fans) and no accidents were reported. The Chief Constable had no problems with his men and would have been quite relieved that his decision to not allow public house openings times to extend was a successful one.
The band of the 8th Batallion Manchester Regiment assembled at the L. and N.W. Station and led by a posse of mounted police, with the team in a gally decorated charabanc, and another motor vehicle conveying the direction, they proceeded to the Town Hall where the civic reception took place. After a while of congratulatory handshakes and speeches, the team set off again along King Street, up Wallgate and down Standishgate to the club headquarters through a dense sea of people. Scenes like this had never been seen before in Wigan. It was late into the night that the crowd started to die down and even the mounted police horses were dressed in Wigan colours of cherry and white. Everywhere you looked you could see streamers and banners congratulating Wigan from house and shop windows to flag poles and barges on the canals. That day lived long in the memories of who was there to witness it.
During the civic reception at the Town Hall, the players were greeted by the Mayor Mr. J. Cavey in the Old Council Chamber. They Mayor was supported by Mr. J. Allen Parkinson MP and Alderman James Walkden, the president of the Wigan Club. The Mayor gave a speech: "The Wigan Rugby Football Club had been in existance for a very long time, and had won every trophy that was to be won except the Northern Union Cup. They had come very near winning it on several occasions, and that day they had brought it off with honour and credit to themselves and the town. There were no two opinions about the merits of the two teams. and the Mayors of Rochdale and Oldham even acknowledged that the better team had won. The game had not been more than fifteen minutes in progress when it became the general impression that Wigan were a winning team. The question of a civic reception may cause some quibbling, but he would not make any apology." It went on...The Mayor looked upon the sport as something that was good for the people and for the betterment of people. Mr Cavey thought that it was an honour for him to be the first Mayor to welcome home a successful Wigan team. With a little bit of foresight, the Mayor had hoped that the time was not far distant when the Rugby League authorities would see to it that a bigger and better ground was secured for such an occasion as the Cup Final.
It is also good to see how the game was viewed by the critics:
"The match itself was another revelation of the all-round brilliance of the wigan team and more particularly of the real effectiveness of their forwards. It was in the pack where Oldham's hopes lay, but they were even beaten at their own game, and getting down to solid solid scrummages, the Blues (Wigan) obtained possession time after time. When the ball came loose, there was only one team in it, and that was not Oldham. With rapid movement and brisk short passing, Wigan were always forging ahead, and the men from Watersheddings spent practically the whole afternoon endeavouring to stem onslaughts on their own lines. Looking back, I cannot recall Oldham being really dangerous more than three times in the whole match" - Daily Courier.
"Wigan were full of sparkle, and were always relishing their work. The forwards have not played better this season, finishing as strong as they began. There were two outstanding men, and these were Van Rooyen and Price. The South African was brilliant, using his great weight to advantage, and always being in the thick of the fray, whilst Price was always giving out judicious passes and being altogether a successful rover. At half back, Jerram and Hurcombe were superior to Hesketh and Bates, though the Oldham pair did some clever things without materialising. There was, however, more variation aboutthe play of the Wigan pair. Jerram was always changing his tactics, while Hurcombe's defence was as strong as his attack. Parker was the pick of the wigan centres. He had a safe pair of hands, gave out some judicious passes, and was a dour defender... Ring on the left flank, was none too prominent. It was only in the closing stages he began to show his paces. Van Heerden, on the other hand, was always in the picture, his work being stamped with the hall-mark. What a dangerous tackler he is!.. Sullivan also at full back was strong. He went down in great style to forward rushes, and so far as I could see made only one mistake during the whole course of the game. He was superior to Knapman, for the Oldham full back's defence was at times shaky" The Sporting Chronicle.
Job done. Wigan were there at long last and what an occasion! For Oldham, they reached the Final in 1925, 1926 and 1927, only losing out in 1926 to Swinton. They had their days in the sun. Wigan, on the other hand, went from one historic Cup game to another. The next game in the Challenge Cup concerned a little Cumbrian amateur team named Flimby and Fothergill on Valentines Day 1925... the rest, they say, is history. Wigan failed at the second round stage for the next three seasons, losing all ties to Leeds strangely. Wigan's next Final was another historic occasion, in 1929 where the Cup Final was played at Wembley (or the Empire Stadium) for the first time... but thats for another day.
The rest... they say... is History...
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