STANLEY MOORHOUSE
Sincere thanks to David Gronow for permission to publish the following article and photographs.
Stanley Moorhouse was a product of local schools football and played in the Hillhouse Council School team at the age of nine years later graduating through Hillhouse Congregational Intermediates and afterwards in to the Huddersfield ‘A’ team before making his first team debut at Dewsbury on 18 December 1909 playing at stand-off, moving quickly to the centres before settling on the left wing.
Moorhouse, partnered by the great Harold Wagstaff, soon became one of the most feared wingmen in the game - between them the two local men were the foundation on which Huddersfield’s run of success was founded.
They proved to be a deadly combination throughout their careers, scoring tries as freely as Gleeson and Rosenfeld on the other wing - during season 1911/12 the Wagstaff-Moorhouse wing pairing accumulated 212 points between them.
Moorhouse had to wait until 25 November, 1911, for his first Fartown cup final when he appeared in the Yorkshire Cup team which defeated Hull KR at Wakefield, scoring one of the tries in a 22-10 win.
Hard on the heels of their cup triumph, the Fartowners received the touring Australians on 2 December 1911 in front of a crowd of 17,066.
Although the tourists were first to score, Huddersfield completely outclassed them in the second half, the final whistle sounding with the score 21-7, Huddersfield’s tries coming from Moorhouse (3), Rosenfeld and Gronow and goals from Grey (2) and Wrigley.
Moorhouse missed Huddersfield’s 1913 Yorkshire Cup Final win against Bradford Northern, however, he played the following year on 28 November 1914 as Huddersfield destroyed Hull 31-0 at Headingley, again scoring a try.
He represented England three times, and along with Jim Leytham, Peter Norburn, Keith Fielding, Stuart Wright and Martin Offiah having scored four tries, Moorhouse jointly holds the record for the most tries scored in an England match - four against Wales at South Devon Place, Plymouth on the 15th February 1913.
Moorhouse also played for Yorkshire on five occasions.
He played in two Challenge Cup Finals, on 26 April 1913 against Warrington in a 9-5 win at Headingley - becoming the second player to score a hat-trick in a Challenge Cup Final - and on 1 May 1915 at Oldham, scoring a try as Huddersfield trounced St Helens 37-3.
Moorhouse played in Huddersfield’s League Championship winning side of 1911/12, defeating Wigan 13-5 at Thrum Hall, Halifax, and again the following year, 1912-13, scoring a try as the Fartowners demolished Wigan 29-2 at Belle Vue, Wakefield, but was on the losing side in 1913-14 as Huddersfield went down 3-5 to Salford at Headingley.
Moorhouse was one of the few locals in Huddersfield’s 1914/15 ‘Team of All Talents‘, the Fartowners performing the unprecedented feat of winning ‘All Four Cups’ in a season.
Moorhouse went on the 1914 Lions Tour to Australia and New Zealand, earning his first Test cap and scoring two tries on debut as the Northern Union beat Australia 23-5 at the Royal Agricultural Ground, Sydney on 27 June.
He won his second cap on 1 August 1914 in the only Test played against New Zealand in Auckland, Moorhouse again scoring two tries from the left wing in a 16-13 win, and might have made a second trip in 1920 had he not been suffering from a broken arm at the time the team was chosen.
As hostilities came to a halt following the Great War, Moorhouse played in Huddersfield’s two Yorkshire Cup finals of 1919.
The first against Dewsbury at Headingley, Leeds, on 17 May, Huddersfield victorious by 14-8, and against Leeds at Halifax on 29 November, scoring a record four tries in a 24-5 win - the only player ever to achieve that feat in a Yorkshire Cup final.
Moorhouse shared a joint benefit with Arthur Swinden on 1 April 1922.
Only Swinden played in the match, the attendance of which was disappointing, the receipts being £322.
Placed on the transfer list at his own request, Moorhouse was transferred to Bradford Northern as player/coach on 4 December 1923, however, he never gave any indication of the form which had made him such a renowned winger for Huddersfield, making only five appearances for Northern in season 1923-24.
Subsequently, he was later appointed a referee in the Yorkshire Senior Competition, and some few years later returned to Fartown in the capacity of trainer/coach to the second team.
When the Huddersfield team took everything before them during the five years from 1911 to 1915, the Wagstaff-Moorhouse wing was the most dreaded in the game.
Wagstaff paid the following tribute to Moorhouse in The Sports Post, March 1935:
"Moorhouse would have been a great wing-man in any team……..he had a big match temperament and I could always depend on him.
"More than that I could tell to a few inches whether he would score, and it was very seldom indeed that he let me down when I gave him a pass.
"He had a kick-through of his own that was just as effective as that developed by Rosenfeld , though it was an entirely different kind.
"Moorhouse going at top speed could kick in his stride - the ball just left his hands for his feet and shot away in front: but there was no slackening of Stanley’s speed.
"He could kick-through on the ground for himself or he could kick across for his forwards, and when he kicked across for his forwards it was rare indeed that he did not find them there waiting for the move."
Moorhouse’s occupation was that of foreman-electrician at the Great Northern Street Works of the Passenger Transport Department, Huddersfield, where he had worked since 1906, except for a break of a few years in the twenties.
He also played cricket with the Primrose Hill and Huddersfield clubs.
Moorhouse died suddenly at his home in Almondbury, Huddersfield, on Monday 23 April 1951, aged 59 years.
HUDDERSFIELD
Debut: 18 December 1909 v Dewsbury (a)
Season |
Played |
Tries |
Goals |
Points |
1909-10 |
15 | 6 | - | 18 |
1910-11 |
21 | 11 | - | 33 |
1911-12 |
37 | 47 | - | 141 |
1912-13 |
27 | 35 | - | 105 |
1913-14 |
26 | 29 | 1 | 89 |
1914-15 |
35 | 48 | - | 144 |
19 |
4 | 1 | - | 3 |
1910-20 |
25 | 39 | - | 117 |
1920-21 |
32 | 16 | - | 48 |
1921-22 |
13 | 5 | - | 15 |
1922-23 |
20 | 3 | - | 9 |
Last Game: 21 April 1923 v Swinton (h) play off
BRADFORD NORTHERN
Season |
Played |
Tries |
Goals |
Points |
1923-24 |
5 | - | - | - |
TESTS (2)
| Northern Union | 1023 | Australia | 5 | 1914 | Sydney (2 tries) |
| Northern Union | 16 | New Zealand | 13 | 1914 | Auckland (2 tries) |
Note:
Test match rugby league kicked off on Saturday 25 January 1908 when The Northern Union defeated
New Zealand 14-6 at Headingley.
Since then the British National XIII has gone under the guise of The Northern Union (1908-1922),
England (1924-46) and Great Britain (1947-2007)
ENGLAND (3)
| England | 31 | Wales | 5 | 1912 | Oldham (2 tries) |
| England | 40 | Wales | 16 | 1913 | Plymouth (4 tries) |
| England | 16 | Wales | 12 | 1914 | St Helens (try) |
YORKSHIRE (5)
| Yorkshire | 12 | Lancashire | 13 | 1912 | Halifax (3 tries) |
| Yorkshire | 19 | Cumberland | 5 | 1912 | Hull KR (3 tries) |
| Yorkshire | 20 | Lancashire | 8 | 1912 | Oldham (try) |
| Yorkshire | 3 | Cumberland | 8 | 1913 | Workington (try) |
| Yorkshire | 18 | Lancashire | 3 | 1920 | Hull |
REPRESENTATIVE (1)
Northern Rugby League 12 Australia 20 1912 Wigan (2 tries)
CAREER RECORD
Team |
Played |
Tries |
Goals |
Points |
| Huddersfield | 255 | 240 | 1 | 722 |
| Bradford Northern | 5 | - | - | - |
| Tests | 2 | 4 | - | 12 |
| England | 3 | 7 | - | 21 |
| Yorkshire | 5 | 8 | - | 24 |
| Representative | 1 | 2 | - | 6 |
| 1914 Tour * | 8 | 15 | - | 45 |
| TOTALS | 279 | 276 | 1 | 830 |
* Excluding Tests
Note: Thanks are expressed to Robert Gate for assistance in compiling the above records
