Wakefield RFC

Full name	Wakefield Rugby Football Club
Emblem	Fleur de lys
Colours	Black and Gold
Founded	1901
Sport	Rugby union
League	Not applicable
Ground	College Grove, Wakefield
Official website	Wakefield RFC Message Board

Image File history File links Wakefieldrfclogo. ... 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Ireland v the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby union is a team sport that was developed from the rules used to play football at Rugby School in England. ...

Wakefield RFC

Wakefield RFC was an English Rugby Union club, founded in 1901, and which dropped out of the English leagues in 2004 as a result of professionalism.

The club

Wakefield RFC was founded in 1901, six years after the schism in Rugby that saw the formation of Northern Union and the move of Wakefield Trinity, who up until this time, were the principal rugby club in the city, to the new code. The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for Rugby League in the United Kingdom. ... Wakefield Trinity are a professional rugby league club based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. ...

On 15th June 1901, the Wakefield Express printed a short notice: “A movement is on foot to form a new Rugby football club on purely amateur lines to play under Rugby Union rules, and a meeting to promote that object has been called”. Ireland v the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby union is a team sport that was developed from the rules used to play football at Rugby School in England. ...

England International JW Sagar was the clubs first captain and he expressed the wish that the formation of the club would provide the opportunity for the local grammar school boys to continue in the game in the City rather than having to move elsewhere. Players to benefit from this objective included Bill Guest, a former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) pupil between 1918 and 1922, who was to become one of the leading figures at Wakefield both as a player and administrator until his death in 1991. Silcoates School produced among others, Steve Townend, the clubs second leading appearance maker and prolific point scorer, who was to join the coaching staff after finishing his playing days, eventually becoming Director of Rugby.

The clubs first honours were in 1920, when they won the Yorkshire Cup (T’owd tin pot) and were to win it on a further seven occasions, (1922, 1969, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994)

The 1920’s saw the first international capped whilst at Wakefield, when Dr John McDougall won three caps for Scotland to add to his caps won before First World War whilst at Greenock Wanderers.

The war saw the death of Frank Alford Kingswell, a member of the club’s very first team at Mytholmroyd and from the start of the 1920/21 season, his brother, Billy Kingswell made the former Outwood Church ground (renamed in memory of his brother) available to the club.

This was the clubs home until a move to College Grove in 1935 and they remained there until their demise in 2004.

The 1930’s saw two further internationals, Reg Bolton winning one cap in 1932/33 before adding to this when he moved to Harlequins and Jack Ellis, winning a solitary cap against Scotland in 1938/39, the outbreak of the second World War cutting short his international career, although he did play in Service and Red Cross internationals. Harlequin may refer to: A figure from the commedia dellarte: see Arlecchino; The pattern common in the costume of the above figures. ...

He was to remain the last home-developed international until Bryan Barley won the first of his seven England caps in 1983/84. He was closely followed by Mike Harrison, who captained England in the first Rugby Union World Cup in 1987 and was the clubs leading International appearance maker with fifteen caps, seven of which were as England captain. Mike Harrison (born 19 April 1956 in Barnsley, South Yorkshire) is a former first-class rugby union footballer, playing on the wing for Wakefield and England. ... The Rugby Union World Cup is the premier international Rugby Union contest in the world, first held jointly in Australia and New Zealand in 1987, a full 33 years after the first Rugby League World Cup and now held every four years. ...

David Scully was to become the clubs only World Cup winner, when he starred for England in the first World Cup sevens tournament winning the ‘moment of the tournament' for a crunching tackle on Fijian Mesake Rasari.

Barley, Harrison and Scully were to encapsulate the running rugby for which Wakefield had become known since their formation and this probably was one of the reasons that the club lost a substantial number of players to Rugby League over the years. This led to the famous comment from Robin Foster, the club’s press officer in October 1967 “Wakefield Trinity will run short of cash before we run out of players”.

The running game brought the club wider recognition and in 1975/76 the club was admitted to the John Player Cup for the first time and immediately reached the semi final, with ‘giant killing’ wins over Moseley and Northampton before a narrow defeat at Rosslyn Park.

Jeff Dowson the club captain during this run, was nominated by Rugby Union Writers club as ‘Personality of the year’ and was later to play for the Barbarians. Les Cusworth, (the British club record holder of 25 drop goals in just 21 games in 1974/75), was later to play for England following a move to Leicester and Neil Bennett a county winger and prodigious try scorer, was to continue playing for the club until 1989, becoming Wakefield’s leading appearance maker playing in 505 first team games.

The rise and fall

The 1970’s were to see Wakefield designated a ‘major club’ by the RFU. On formation of the leagues in the 1980’s Wakefield were placed in Division 3 ^[1], winning the league title in 1987/88 and remaining in Division 2 for a record fifteen seasons until relegation at the end of the 2003/04 season.

Declining attendances and a struggle to cope with professionalism led to the club to seek solutions for its long-term future.

A proposed takeover by Bradford Bulls rugby league club in January 2002 amounted to nothing, although three Wakefield players (Mark Sowerby, a former England Sevens captain, John Feeley and Jon Skurr) helped Bradford Bulls win the Middlesex 7’sin 2002. Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, England. ...

The relegation at the end of the 2003/04 season and the subsequent drop in RFU subsidy was the major factor in the demise of the club. In a memo to the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport dated 11 May 1999, the club reported "Wakefield RFC has since the advent of professional rugby made cumulative operating losses of approximately £500,000".[

The shareholders of the club decided that they could not continue to provide the same level of funding the club upon relegation to Division 3. Plans to sell the clubs ‘league place’, to a consortium who wanted to move the club to Oxford were blocked by the RFU, who also blocked similar moves to ‘merge’ or ‘move’ the club with Sale FC and Halifax.

A merger with cross city rivals Sandal, formed in 1927 by former Wakefield player Claude Beaumont failed to materialise. (Wakefield Cougars, an amateur side formed during the 1990’s from the Wakefield fourth team, did move to Sandal for a season before ceasing to exist as an independent side in 2004/05).

Just three years after celebrating its centenary the club was forced to withdraw from the league during the summer of 2004, although they remain non playing members of the RFU and Yorkshire RFU.

After 2004

Wakefield’s memory is being kept alive, with four former players Dan Scarbrough, Tim Stimpson, Nick Lloyd and Dean Schofield still playing in the Premiership (the first two England Internationals, whilst Lloyd is a member of the Scottish squad). Dan Scarbrough (born 16 February 1978) is a rugby union player who plays on the wing or full back for Saracens. ... Tim Stimpson (born 10 September 1973) is a rugby union international full back who plays for Leeds Tykes, having previously played for Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers and Perpignan. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Dean Schofield (born 19th January 1979) is a professional Rugby Union player who plays for Sale Sharks. ...

References

Wakefield Rugby Football Club - 1901-2001 A Centenary History. Written and compiled by David Ingall in 2001.

External Links

Wakefield RFC Message board

Notes

1 ^  For the purpose of this article, The leagues have been counted from the top - with the (current) Premiership being counted as Division 1, National League 1 as Division 2, National League 2 as Division 3.