Written by Mike Carter, Hull KR Shirts
People in modern-day society like to be ‘ITK’, that’s ‘in the know’ for those of us that aren’t down with the kids. Behind the scenes features can often be more popular than the main event these days, so I thought I would make some notes, almost like a digital diary entry to tell you how ‘Hull KR Shirts On Tour‘ became a ‘thing’ for the first time in 2024…
Everything for this exhibition started in the last few months. In May, I received a message from Mark Charlton, the man behind @hullfcshirts on Instagram, asking me if I would be interested in creating a joint display ahead of the third and final Hull Derby of the 2024 Betfred Super League season. Mark has been running displays at the MKM Stadium since the latter stages of the 2023 season.
Thinking about it, I was a little apprehensive. I didn’t know how well it would be received by either fan base. I hadn’t even met Mark in person before. Would it work out okay? Did supporters want to see it? Would both of our sets of shirts be ‘safe’? How would Me and Mark get on? These were just a few things going through my mind before I made my decision to commit to Mark and the collaboration.
Exhibition planning began on Friday 28th June, Myself and Mark made plans to meet up to discuss the joint exhibition. We covered various ideas, including the possibility of displaying shirts of some of the players who have played on both sides of the River Hull. After a good discussion, we set on “Memorable Derby Games” (during the Super League era), being the most effective way for us to create a joint display. Both of us would pick four fixtures each to cover, leading to a display of eight games and a total of sixteen shirts!
So, what fixtures did we pick and why..?
For Hull FC Shirts, Mark first chose the 2013 Magic Weekend fixture that saw Chris Green score a march winning try in very controversial circumstances. His next selection was the 2016 Good Friday Derby at Craven Park in a game that saw the hosts “F*** up” a 20-0 advantage, in what was arguably the catalyst for Hull FC’s successful season. Another Good Friday Derby was also picked by Mark as he chose the 2019 fixture, hosted by Hull FC, in what is still a Hull Derby record for biggest winning margin (44 points) and his fourth and final pick was the only Derby of 2021 in a game where a Marc Sneyd drop goal saw the Airlie Birds take the two competition points at the MKM Stadium.
When making my selections, I wanted to be as selective as possible. It was important to me to try and pick the most impressive derby fixtures (of a Hull KR persuasion) without clogging up a short time frame. I took Mark’s picks into account when making mine, as I wanted to cover as much of the Super League era as possible. I really wanted to include the 2022 MKM Derby, as that was an impressive victory with just 16 Robins named, however with Mark selecting 2021 and the fact I wanted to cover the 2023 MKM Derby, a game that Hull KR won 40-0, I thought it was best to leave it out. My other three selections were the 42-6 2007 KC Stadium Derby, the game which secured Hull KR’s Super League status for 2008 (and potentially beyond), the 2018 KCOM Stadium Derby when on a rain sodden night, Ben Crooks (on debut) and Craig Hall (on second debut) inspired Rovers to an unlikely win and to combat Mark’s controversial Magic Weekend fixture, I picked the 2012 “GO ON HODGSON” Derby, which had it’s own controversies after Rhys Lovegrove’s NFL throw to Michael Dobson for his try!
Our next steps were to create some social media posters that would allow us to promote the exhibition. Mark’s task was to create the below text images in both sets of club colourways to help us garner some interest in the event.
Side note: Mark used the term “shirt historians”, this is a term I told Mark about the first time we met. It came from a conversation that I had with Tony Smith (former Hull KR & Hull FC Head Coach), when I met him for the first time in an official capacity during the 2022 Hull KR Calendar photoshoot. I introduced myself to Tony and said something along the lines of “I just hoard Hull KR shirts.” He asked me a few more questions about what I do with them since I had so many. At this point I felt quite comfortable talking to him, and I went into great detail about Hull KR Shirts, my website and how I see what I do as a bit of digital museum that celebrates the uniform of Hull KR. After this exchange he said to me, “So you’re a Hull KR shirt historian. Don’t ever play that down.” Tony probably won’t even remember saying this to me, but it is something that I will never forget!
I was responsible for making the main poster that we used to promote the exhibition. I used Hull FC Shirts “6 Decades” banner and created a Hull KR Shirts mirror image to go with it. Mark’s banner was full of various shirts, and I wanted to create a jarring look for mine. I did this by only including two shirts (and half shirts at that). I wanted the two posters to merge as one, but I wanted them to be very different at the same time, too, in the same sense that Hull FC and Hull KR share a City, but between them they create a divide.
Derby Day 2024 3.0…
Myself and Mark arrived at 12:30PM and began to set up. For previous displays at the MKM Stadium, Mark has been located in varying locations in and around the Stadium, but for the first time he had access to the Club retail trailer, which was the perfect canvas for us to create our display. Sadly, the weather was a little bit against us, but the trailer allowed us some protection from the elements, for both of us and our shirts!
During the exhibition, we were joined by two members of Hull KR’s digital media team in Tom Forward and Josh Worthington. Tom uploaded some images from the display to the Official Hull KR Instagram account and Josh who took some of the amazing photos shared in this article, created a great post on the Hull KR Foundation’s social media channels that celebrated the success of the exhibition. I would like to publicly thank Tom and Josh for their support once again. It is greatly appreciated!
Myself and Mark had the opportunity to speak with many supporters from both sides of the city including the opportunity to speak with people, whom I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before. This included a young man called Tom, who brought along his own piece of Hull Derby Memorabilia to show us… A rugby ball that was signed by the 1980 Hull KR Challenge Cup winning squad! This was given to Tom by his grandfather, who had been given this by the great Roger Millward in 1980!
Ironically, as a side story, Tom and his friend had been playing darts in the pub at the same time that Mark and I met to plan this very exhibition. Tom didn’t have a clue that was what was happening. He recognised me, but he hadn’t seen Mark before. I actually recognised him and his friend from that very evening, as he was telling us how he’d seen us that night, it all came flooding back to me. I am an avid darts player myself, so when I see someone playing darts in a pub, I usually take note. Sadly, I couldn’t see if they were hitting treble 20s or treble 1s, though! Anyway, back to the shirts…
Having the opportunity to talk about Hull KR shirts is something that I will always grasp with both hands. My knowledge around other clubs shirts is obviously more patchy than my dedicated subject of Hull KR, but I can usually hold my own in these discussions, which can be quite fun.
One thing I will take away from this joint exhibition was a conversation that I had with a young supporter who had Autism. He was asking me questions about the shirts that we had on display, and during this, he referred to the shirts that we had on display as “legacy shirts.” I thought this was a wonderfully creative way to describe the every growing back catalogue of shirts that Mark and I had on display. It is a term that I will likely be using for years and years to come now. Thank you very much, young man. Cap doffed!
To close, I would like to thank Mark and Hull FC once again for the opportunity to collaborate on your patch. Not all collectors would have been as open-minded as you to welcome another collector (especially your own teams greatest rivals) to your patch to set up a joint exhibition and for that I am grateful for the opportunity and the experience it has given me. Opus bonum instructus!
Until next time, this has been ‘Hull KR Shirts on Tour‘… Coming to a display near you soon… Maybe!
Mike 🔴⚪️
Hull KR Shirts 