As Hull KR’s open top bus made its way down Maybury Road, turning onto Holderness Road, the old memories came flooding back to an emotional Neil Hudgell. The sights had changed somewhat as Portobello Street and Aberdeen Street came into view. The old Craven Park no longer standing there like a cathedral to the east, welcoming all comers only to often spit out visitors with a delightful satisfaction after another victorious Rovers display.
The view was different, the sense of community less so. Much has changed since a youthful Hudgell would play on these streets, leaving his grandparents’ house for a game of rugby or to see what mischief they could perhaps get into. The boy is now a grandfather himself, but the passion for Hull Kingston Rovers has never once changed and the memories of the days as a ball boy at the old ground, and of watching his idols from the terraces has never left.
It was only as these memories came flooding back with a tidal wave of emotion that the enormity of the previous 24 hours finally began to sink in for the Hull KR owner.
Triggered by the sight of the streets he once played on as a child, the vision of an open top bus parade in 1980 came to the forefront of his mind. Where he could see children waving up at the class of 2025 from outside East Park, the reflection of himself shone through.
“I remember little Roger Millward at the top of the bus looking smaller than the trophy, you couldn’t even really see him,” explains Hudgell, with a beaming smile and a glint in his eye that reveals his emotion.
(Image: Hull KR tour the city in an open top bus after winning the 1980 Challenge Cup)
“I remember being stood on that pavement, looking up, cheering on my heroes. Now we were the ones looking down at the pavement and all those waving at the bus.
“I think the sort of enormity of the achievement really only started to sort of drop when we got back to Hull and when I got on the bus, because Wembley was a strange day. For all but three minutes you’re planning for defeat thinking, right, okay, well how do we get back up from this and go at it again? And then for it to happen it’s like, did that really happen?
“Then I get on the bus and we start to come through East Hull and I come past all the places where I played out as a kid and where the team went by me in 1980. We went past my old school, where I was first acquainted with Rugby League. We went past where I lived, past the old Craven Park and East Park, which is iconic in East Hull. I got the feelings I did back then.
“I can remember that like it was yesterday, because that was obviously my formative years. Rugby was everything to me then.”
Rugby, and in particular Hull KR, have dominated Hudgell’s life since. Whether on the terraces, then as a sponsor, and then owner and chairman of the club, one of Hull’s most prominent figures has been not just the heartbeat, but the driving force for the club. There have been more ups than downs, but it’s the downs which hit the former chairman harder than the highs lifted him.
It’s because of that this success, 40 years in the making, has been celebrated in the manner it has.
“I’m incredibly proud. I think what I would say more than anything is that it’s about the people that are out on the pitch, the players,” adds Hudgell in a usual self-deprecating fashion.
“They’re the rugby club really, they’re the heartbeat of it. What goes on when you cross that white line. What we do just facilitates that.”
(Image: Rob Stebbing)
To say Hudgell has “facilitated” Hull KR players being able to do what they do, is like calling Mikey Lewis an “okay” rugby league player.
Of course financially the legal firm owner has kept Rovers afloat and allowed them the chance to flourish, but it’s the commitment to the cause, the drive to not settle for mediocrity but to return to the summit like they were at in the 1980s which has driven the club forward.
He’s had his wobbles, like the years that followed 2016 when relegation from Super League hit so hard. But that was never about his desire, it was the lack of desire of many around him which provided the source for his frustration. The double-whammy of losing the 2015 Challenge Cup final by a record 50-0 scoreline, followed by relegation a year later was hard to take.
The good news is, 10 years on, the demons are finally gone. “I’d sort of exorcised a few demons I guess from 2015, that hit me very personally,” says Hudgell.
“Obviously we had a 50-0 record score, but I felt like I was the only one that was sort of hurting about it. I think we were too happy as a club to be at the final that year, we had too many people that weren’t too bothered, particularly about the club losing as we did.
“Going down to the changing rooms area after the game and they’ve got the music blasting out and it’s, you know, it really tore through me that. I never really came to terms with that and then obviously the year after the club went down.
“We got back up on the back of a galvanizing effort by the support base but we still couldn’t ever really get out of that sort of bottom end of the table and it takes its toll doesn’t it. It takes its toll after multiple years and I was ready for trying to find somebody that could give it lift-off. And then a few things changed.”
What changed was three key appointments. One, bringing Paul Lakin back to the club to effectively run the whole operation, followed by the arrival of Paul Sewell to take on the chairman role. While an Australian former Wigan half-back was brought in to coach the club.
“The timing was right and Paul Lakin came back,” says Hudgell. “We had a great stint first time around before he went to football. We got up and ended up in the top four. Paul left for 10 plus years, but the timing was right for him to come back.
(Image: Dave Barker)
“And then Willie came. So there was a bit of a momentum then. Once you start to climb a bit, you become more attractive to people and you get a winner’s mentality. Both those two sweat Hull KR 24-7, they care.
“So bringing good people in was key and then obviously Paul Sewell and the rest of the board that add incredible value. There are some wise people in that group that are just gold standard business folk that just bring something that we don’t already have. As a collective the chemistry is there. We’ve got what we were missing, now I feel like there’s more to come.
“What’s important now is we make sure this Wembley win is the start of something, not a one off. I really wouldn’t like this to be a one-off. It’s about building a dynasty. Hopefully winning one, this is the most difficult one, but we don’t want to see it as we’ve achieved now.
“There’s more to play for this season, there’s lots to be excited about for this season, Las Vegas next season and the direction the club is heading in.”
The excitement surrounding the possibilities of what may lie ahead is impossible for Hudgell to hide. Just like that scrappy East Hull lad watching his heroes from the pavement, he’s feels just like a kid again, doin’ what he did again, singing a song…..