Last One Out: When Hull Invaded Wembley

Hull in 1980. The fishing industry is in terminal decline, the Humber Bridge still unfinished. A depraved killer is on the loose and Hull City FC look doomed to another relegation. But, on a long Bank Holiday weekend in May, all thoughts turn to Wembley...and the chance for ultimate bragging rights. Against a backdrop of a dramatically changing city, Last One Out...traces the story of how Hull's two rugby league teams emerged from mid-seventies gloom to take their place at the very top of the game - exerting a dominance over the sport that others would follow. Featuring first-hand interviews with players, officials and supporters, this is the definitive history of the ultimate rugby league derby; the early rounds and the draw that kept them apart,the clamour for tickets, the divided families and that famous sign on the road heading south. It tells of Roger's joy, Sammy's despair and the story behind 'that try'. Later, there was the pride and emotion of the homecoming. Later still, the game enteredhistory, spelling joy for one side, despair for the other and encapsulated in a song the losers were taunted with until another dramatic Wembley victory more than three decades on. More than just a derby, more than just a cup final, this is the story of an the day Hull invaded Wembley. Perfectly timed for the city being UK capital of culture in 2017.

VINCE GROAK began writing about sport in the late 1990s with ground-breaking Hull FC fanzine In Any Kind of Weather. His first published work as a ghost-writer followed a chance encounter with Lee Crooks, whose autobiography From Hull to Hell and Back came out in 2011. As well as a devoted black and white, Vince is a school teacher at Hessle High School in East Yorkshire. He lives in Willerby with wife, Claire, and children, Dylan and Ebony.