The long and rich history of Featherstone Rovers Rugby League Football Club

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Arthur Street, Billy Street & Harry Street.

Arthur Street signed for Featherstone Rovers in 1940 from Glasshoughton, and became the first of three brothers from that village to play in the Rovers first team. Times were hard at Post Office Road with a war on, but young Arthur soon made his mark. His debut came on 9th November 1940 in a 6-0 loss at Hull, taking the loose forward shirt from established star Bill Sherwood. By the time the war ended, Arthur Street had made the number thirteen shirt his own, with rugged defence and creative handling. Soon after the war was over, Arthur Street was sold to Dewsbury, having played 106 games for Featherstone Rovers and scored a very respectable 25 tries. It was to be far from his final contact with the club. After success at Dewsbury he moved to Doncaster for their first ever season as a senior club. Later he came back to Featherstone to be Harold Moxon’s assistant coach for six seasons between 1957 and 1963. He then joined the Rovers committee and served the club there for a number of years.

With his older brother at loose forward, Billy Street made his debut on 24th October 1942 at stand-off at Hull in a game Rovers lost 8-0. It was the third successive game in which Rovers had failed to score. The following week, with Billy at centre, we lost 3-0 to York, and then we lost 8-0 the week after that. Five straight games without a single point! It was with some relief that Rovers beat Oldham on 21 November 18-10 and Billy Street scored his first try for the club. He went on a total of 18 games for Featherstone and scored three tries, without ever fully establishing himself in the first team.

Rovers missed out on signing the youngest Street brother, despite him playing for Rovers junior side at the same time as his brothers were in the senior team. Harry Street was spotted by St. Helens scouts whilst playing in the Army, and signed for them in 1947. He moved to Dewsbury and linked up with his older sibling, Harry at loose forward and Arthur in the second-row. He was selected for the GB tour of Australia in 1950 and won four GB caps down under. He then starred for Wigan and Leeds before finally arriving at Post Office Road in February 1958 on a free transfer. He played just 12 games at Featherstone before retiring at the end of the season, but was involved in a great cup run that almost took Rovers back to Wembley. We lost an epic semi-final 8-2 to Workington. Harry, like Arthur, then went into coaching, enjoying success at Castleford among other clubs.

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