1.
Rugby Football Union
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The Rugby Football Union is the governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby in 1886. It promotes and runs the sport, organises international matches for the England national team and it is based at Twickenham Stadium, London. In September 2010 the equivalent womens rugby body, the Rugby Football Union for Women, was able to nominate a member to the RFU Council to represent women, the RFUW was integrated into the RFU in July 2012. On 26 January 1871 a meeting attended by representatives from 21 clubs was held in London at the Pall Mall Restaurant on Regent Street. C, kings College Hospital, St Pauls, Queen’s House, Lausanne, Addison, Mohicans, and Belsize Park. The one notable omission was the Wasps, as a result of this meeting the Rugby Football Union was founded. Algernon Rutter was elected as the first president of the RFU, three lawyers who were Rugby School alumni drew up the first laws of the game, which were approved in June 1871. The RFU took strong action against the involved in the formation of the NRFU, all of whom were deemed to have forfeited their amateur status. A similar interpretation was applied to all players who played either for or against such clubs and these players were barred indefinitely from any involvement in organised rugby union. The RFU long resisted competitions and leagues fearing that they would encourage foul play, the first club competition, then known as the R. F. U. Club Competition, took place in 1972, following a sponsorship agreement it became known as the John Player Cup in 1976. The RFU agreed to the formation of a pyramid in 1987. In 2005 the RFU began talks about a merger with the body for womens rugby union the RFUW. In September 2010 the RFUW was able to nominate a member to the RFU Council to represent women, the RFUW was integrated into the RFU in July 2012. Andrew also had the task of building bridges with the premiership clubs, on 6 January 2011 his role of Director of Elite Rugby was scrapped in an overhaul of the organisations structure. Official website Official RFU Clubs Website Army Rugby Union
2.
Rugby League International Federation
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The Rugby League International Federation is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. There are two regional associations affiliated to the RLIF, the Rugby League European Federation and the Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation, the Imperial Rugby League Board was formed in 1927. The Rugby Football Leagues authority in the sport was supported by having a majority of the representatives on the Board, the RFL had three representatives while Australia and New Zealand each had one. According to Collins, the voting rights were a result of the RFL being the representative for the mother country. In 1935 the French Rugby League proposed the constitution of a board for rugby league but the Australians weren’t favourable. The Board was formed on 25 January 1948 in Bordeaux, France at the impetus of the French, at the meeting, it was decided that initially the RFL would oversee the sports rules while the IRLB developed. The Australian Rugby League joined the IRLB some months later, over the next few years the IRLB held meetings with the outcomes forming the Rugby League World Cup which made its début in 1954. In the view of Harry Edgar, from the Boards establishment until his death in 1986, always a keen student of the rules of the game, like Australias Tom Bellew in more recent times, strove to establish uniformity in the rules between all nations. The Kiwis would vote against the Aussies, and France would vote with Great Britain, oxley reveals, a lot of the really positive things were initiated by the British - certainly on rule changes, and the move to actually expand the role of the Board. Oxley states, it was a British idea to introduce the levy on all Test match receipts to go into a development fund. Oxley says that Kevin Humphries may have dominated for the Australians for a time, at that time the Boards role was mostly restricted to discussion of rule changes. In 1954, the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule ending unlimited tackles and this was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover. The Australians had always been strong in supporting expansion of the game including places such as South Africa, America, after the Australian Rugby League introduced the World Sevens in 1988, the International Board took a much more active part in worldwide developments. Some nations were introduced to rugby league through the British Amateur Rugby League Association. The RFL would often feel embarrassment at meetings when they could claim to have done so little while BARLA was praised by other attendees, maurice Lindsay has been credited with ensuring the 10-team 1995 World Cup was accompanied by an Emerging Nations tournament of seven teams, supporting international growth. The 1995 World Cup was the swansong of the original Board, the agreements removed international playing opposition for the Australian Rugby Leagues representative sides. The Pacific island nations were only members of the IRLB with only the full members Australia, Great Britain, France, New Zealand
3.
Rugby League European Federation
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The Rugby League European Federation is the umbrella body for nations playing the sport of rugby league football across Europe and the Northern Hemisphere. It supports the Rugby League International Federation, the RLEF oversees and co-ordinates the development of the sport in all its member countries and those neighbouring organisations that choose to link to the RLEF. The RLEF operates several competitions, most notably the European Cup, the federation was founded January 2003 following an initiative between Richard Lewis, Executive Chairman of Britains Rugby Football League and his French counterpart Jean Paul Ferre. The RLEFs first constitution was approved in January 2004 and the federations first Board of Directors was elected and this first Board of Directors consisted of Jean Paul Ferre as President/Chairman and Richard Lewis as Deputy Chairman with Nigel Wood and Nicolas Larrat being the other Board members. Representatives for Morocco, Italy, Serbia, Russia, Lebanon, Ireland, Scotland, Russia became a full member of the RLEF, joining Britain and France, and the RLIF soon after. At the time of its foundation, the RLEF placed an emphasis on generating development funding within each country. Historically, much of the development work conducted in Europe had been funded by the RFL, following the profitable 2008 World Cup, the RFL and RLEF prepared to bid for funds to enhance their activities. In December 2009, Kevin Rudd, a former Scotland rugby league international, RLEF Chairman Richard Lewis stated that Rudd has done an outstanding job and created a platform, structure and competitions framework that can take us into the future. Rudd was succeeded by Danny Kazandjian, currently eleven nations are full members of the federation, there are also nine associate members and thirteen official observers. Full members are entitled to a proportion of voting rights. Production of a financial report. Running a league competition with at least four teams, implementation of a junior development programme. The production of a Business Development Plan outlining an organisations future aims, an administrators, match officials and coach education strategy. The RLEF stipulates that continued associate and full membership of the federation is subject to a check every two years to ensure that the criteria are still being met
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Leeds
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Leeds /liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshires West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to an area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a centre for the production. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a mill town, wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The city has the third largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is also ranked as a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and has the fourth largest urban economy. After London, Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UKs third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, the largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Outside of London, Leeds has the third busiest railway station, Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries. The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning people of the fast-flowing river and this name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin, the term Leodensian is also used, from the citys Latin name. Leeds developed as a town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution it became a centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Leeds handled one sixth of Englands export trade in 1770, growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Super League
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Super League is the top-level professional rugby league club competition in Europe. The league has twelve teams, eleven from England and one from France, canadian and Welsh clubs that also compete in the Rugby Football League can also qualify. Commonally known in the UK as the Super League it is referred to internationally as the European Super League, the current champions are Wigan Warriors. Super League began in 1996, replacing the RFL Championship and switching from a winter to a summer season, each team plays 23 games between February and July,11 home games,11 away games and a Magic Weekend game at a neutral venue. After 23 games, teams enter a Super 8 stage, the top eight play each other once more, the top four then enter the play-off series leading to the Grand Final which determines the champions. The bottom four teams go on to play the top four Championship teams in The Qualifiers to determine who will play in Super League the following season, Leeds Rhinos are the most successful club in the Super League era, having won 7 titles. However, Wigan Warriors are the most successful overall, having won 21 British Championships. The Super League champions play the National Rugby League champions from Australasia in the World Club Challenge at the start of the season, murdoch also approached the British clubs to form Super League. A large sum of money aided the decision, and the competition got under way in 1996, part of the deal saw rugby league switch from a winter to a summer season. The 12 founding teams of Super League were, Bradford Bulls Castleford Tigers Halifax Leeds Rhinos London Broncos Oldham Roughyeds Paris Saint-Germain Sheffield Eagles St. C, however this proved so unpopular that only existing clubs were selected for the competition. London Broncos, who had come fourth in the Second Division, were fast-tracked in on commercial grounds, a new team, Paris Saint-Germain, was created to give a French dimension. Between 1998 and 2000 there was no relegation from Super League, after two years Paris were dropped from the competition. In 2006, French side Catalans Dragons from Perpignan joined the league, Super League licences were announced in May 2005 by the RFL as the new determinant of the Super League competitions participants from 2009 in place of promotion and relegation. The licences were awarded after consideration of more factors than just the performance of a club. After 2007 automatic promotion and relegation was suspended for Super League with new teams to be admitted on a basis with the term of the licence to start in 2009. The RFL stated that applying to compete in Super League would be assessed by criteria in four areas with the final evaluations and decisions being taken by the RFL board of directors. Points attained by each application are translated into licence grades A, B or C. First licensing period In June 2008, the RFL confirmed that Super League would be expanded from 12 teams to 14 in 2009, the teams announced were the 12 existing Super League teams along with National League 1 teams, Celtic Crusaders and Salford
8.
League 1 (rugby league)
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League 1, formerly Championship 1 and currently known as Kingstone Press League 1 for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition based in England. The competition also features clubs from Canada and Wales and it is the RFLs third-tier competition, below the Championship, with which it has promotion and relegation. The league was inaugurated in 2003 when the Northern Ford Premiership was divided two separate leagues, initially named National League One and National League Two. In 2009, the names were changed to the Championship and Championship 1 respectively. Third-division rugby league competitions in the United Kingdom have existed periodically since 1991, the current incarnation was created in 2003 when the second-division competition below Super League, the Northern Ford Premiership, was split into National Leagues One and Two. At the end of the 2005 Super League season, a team was relegated to National League One in order to accommodate French side Catalans Dragons entry to the competition. In order to even up the numbers, the Welsh team Celtic Crusaders were admitted to the competition in 2005, first playing in the 2006 season, in 2009 Super League was expanded to 14 teams, with two additional teams being promoted from National League One. In turn, two teams were promoted from National League Two to National League One at the end of the 2008 season. National Leagues One and Two were then rebranded as Championship and Championship 1 respectively, south Wales Scorpions were admitted to Championship 1 for the 2010 season, increasing the number of teams in the league to 11. Blackpool Panthers left the league in 2011, once again reducing the number of teams to 10, in 2013, three new teams were admitted to the league, Hemel Stags, Gloucestershire All Golds and Oxford Rugby League. In 2014 expansion and restructure took place with 5 teams relegated from the Championship and Coventry Bears added to expand the league to 14 teams, a new playoff structure was also introduced with two teams being promoted to the Championship. In 2015 the League 1 Cup was introduced as a competition for League 1 clubs. In 2016 Toulouse Olympique joined the league, bringing the number of teams to 15. Toronto Wolfpack will join the league from 2017, taking the number of teams to 16. In 2016, the Super 8s format that had used in the Super League. Under the amended structure, the 16 League 1 clubs play a season of 15 rounds. They play each other once to determine which five clubs will compete in the playoffs, the remaining League 1 clubs compete for the League 1 Shield. The team finishing bottom collects the wooden spoon, *capacity for Rugby League games may differ from official stadium capacity
9.
Rugby League Conference
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The Rugby League Conference, was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The Southern Conference League was founded as a 10-team competition in 1997, the league steadily expanded over the first few seasons right up to the fringes of the heartlands, before expanding into Wales for the first time in 2001 with the addition of Cardiff Demons. The league expanded into the North East that same season, in 2003 National League Three was founded including some of the stronger Rugby League Conference clubs and some BARLA clubs. This same season saw massive expansion of the Rugby League Conference including an entire Welsh division, the league also pushed its borders further including more teams from the less rugby league playing areas of the counties considered the heartlands and went as far south west as Somerset. The league expanded further in 2004 by allowing entry to heartland clubs, for the 2005 season the competition was split into two tiers, with Premier divisions being created for above the existing regional divisions. The next major changes were in 2007 when National League Three, the Rugby League Conference celebrated passing the 100 club barrier in 2010. 2011 was the last season before the league was split up into multiple leagues, a selection is made for England Lionhearts who represent England in the Skanska Amateur Four Nations competition against national amateur sides from Wales, Scotland and Ireland. There were many changes in format of the Rugby League Conference as it expanded over time, between 2005 and 2011, it was competed for by the RLC Premier divisions. From 2012 onwards, it has been contested by the non-heartlands successor leagues
10.
Challenge Cup
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The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940. It involves amateur, semi-professional and professional clubs, the final of the Challenge Cup at Wembley Stadium, London, is one of the most prestigious matches in world rugby league and is broadcast around the world. Abide with Me, sung before the game, has become a rugby league anthem, the current holders of the Challenge Cup are Hull F. C. who defeated Warrington 12–10 on 27 August 2016 at Wembley Stadium, the very first time they have won at Wembley. Wigan are the most successful club in the history of the competition, the clubs that formed the Northern Union had long been playing in local knock-out cup competitions under the auspices of the Rugby Football Union. However, the rugby union authorities refused to sanction a nationwide tournament, after the schism of 1895, the northern clubs were free to go-ahead, and they instigated the Northern Rugby Football Union Challenge Cup. In 1896 Fattorinis of Bradford were commissioned to manufacture the Challenge Cup at a cost of just £60, Fattorinis also supplied three-guineas winners medals then valued at thirty shillings. The first competition was held during the 1896–97 season, and 56 clubs entered to compete for the trophy, the first final was held at Headingley in Leeds, on 24 April 1897. Batley defeated St. Helens 10–3 in front of a crowd of 13,492 and it is interesting to note that the St Helens side did not play in a standardised team jersey. The competition was interrupted by the Great War, although it was held in 1915. It was then suspended until the end of hostilities, the first final held at Wembley was in 1929 when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13–2 in front of a crowd of 41,500. The Challenge Cup finals, which place in the game’s Northern heartland, got big crowds as the game raised money for prisoners of war. In 1946, the Lance Todd Trophy was introduced and awarded to the man of the match, the first winner was Billy Stott of Wakefield Trinity the first winner of the trophy on the losing team was Frank Whitcombe of Bradford Northern in 1948. In itself, it is a trophy presented only at the Challenge Cup Final. The winner is selected by the members of the Rugby League Writers Association present at the game and the trophy was presented at a dinner at the Willows. 1954 saw the Challenge Cup final drawn and the set the record for a rugby league match attendance. The match was on 5 May and 102,569 was the attendance at Odsal Stadium. Wigan are well known for their successes in the Challenge Cup competition, until the 1993–94 season there were very few amateur clubs included in the cup, typically two. For part of the 1980s, and the 1992–93 season the cup was solely for professional clubs, in 1997, a Challenge Cup Plate took place for teams knocked out in the early rounds of the competition
11.
League 1 Cup
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The League 1 Cup, known as the iPro Sport Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knockout cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League for the third division of rugby league in Britain. The cup is contested by the British League 1 teams, as well as two teams from the National Conference League, the final takes place on the same weekend as The Summer Bash, and is the first game of the weekend to be played. In 2013 the Championship Cup was decommissioned after 12 seasons and the Challenge Cup became the cup competition available to the Championships. In 2015, as part of the new structure a new cup competition was to be introduced, the first final was played as the opening game of The Summer Bash at Bloomfield Road in Blackpool. The first round of the League 1 Cup is split into two pools, Northern regions and South and Midlands regions, all 14 League 1 clubs, a draw is made at the beginning of each round to determine fixtures
12.
World Club Series
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The Dacia World Club Series is an annual rugby league football competition played between the clubs from the Australasian National Rugby League and the European Super League. The competition includes the World Club Challenge, a match played between the two champions of each league. The first series was played in 2015, while the World Club Challenge was first contested in 1976, the competition began unofficially in 1976 as a match between Sydneys Eastern Suburbs and Premiership winners St. Helens. In 1987, another unofficial match took place when Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay invited Manly-Warringah to Central Park, the first official World Club Challenge was between Widnes and Canberra in 1989. Three further matches, each involving Wigan, were staged in the early 1990s with the 1994 match being staged in Australia and this would be the last time for 20 years that this would happen. After the 1994 match logistical issues meant the concept was put on hiatus until it was revived in 1997, with six rounds in two hemispheres and $1,000,000 prize money, the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage and reportedly lost over $5,000,000. This, coupled with the ratings and attendances both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for two seasons. Returning to a match between the League champions in 1998, a World Club Challenge as a show-piece fixture at Ellis Park in Johannesburg was mooted. In September 2014 it was announced that the World Club Challenge would be expanded, in 2016 a possible expansion to 8 teams was suggested. This would see two games being played in Australia and two games being played in the UK, in 2017 however, the format was reduced to 4 teams due to NRL clubs refusing to play either Warrington Wolves or Hull F. C. It was decided that the two games would be between Warrington Wolves vs Brisbane Broncos in the first game of the series, in the main game would be between the Super League Champions Wigan Warriors and Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. The series would be Super Leagues first victory since the series began, with Warrington winning 27-18 against Brisbane, qualification rules in the two league competitions mean that, in theory, teams from six different countries could compete in the competition. English, French and Welsh teams compete in the English league system, in recent years, the Scottish league champions have been invited to take part in the first round of the Challenge Cup and so are eligible to win that competition and qualify for the series. In the NRL, teams from Australia and one team from New Zealand compete, if a team completes the treble then the RFL will decide who the third team will be. During the first Series in 2015, the NRL did not specify any specific qualification to play in the World Club Series, only contains clubs who appeared in the World Club Series from 2015 onwards. *capacity for rugby league games may differ from official stadium capacity, * Bold, World Club Challenge Game Gallaway, Jack. The Brisbane Broncos, The Team To Beat
13.
World Club Challenge
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The World Club Challenge is an annually held competition between the winners of the Australian NRL and the European Super League. The first such match was played in 1976 but did not become a fixture until the late 1980s. It was also punctuated in the 1990s by the Super League war but has held every year since 2000. The Wigan Warriors are the current champions, having defeated the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks 22-6 in 2017, the World Club Challenge is now the championship match for the World Club Series which began at the beginning of 2015. The World Club Series includes two games, these games are exhibition matches before the main game, the World Club Challenge. The competition began so unofficially in 1976 as a match between Sydneys Eastern Suburbs and Premiership winners St. Helens, in 1987, another unofficial match took place when Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay invited Manly-Warringah to Central Park. The first official World Club Challenge was between Widnes and Canberra in 1989, three further matches, each involving Wigan, were staged in the early 1990s with the 1994 match being staged in Australia. This would be the last time for 20 years that this would happen, after the 1994 match logistical issues meant the concept was put on hiatus until it was revived in 1997. With six rounds in two hemispheres and $1,000,000 prize money, the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage and this, coupled with the poor ratings and attendances both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for two seasons. Returning to a match between the League champions in 1998, a World Club Challenge as a show-piece fixture at Ellis Park in Johannesburg was mooted. When it was resurrected in 2000, the World Club Challenge was once more played between the winners of the premierships in Australasia and Europe. During this period it was contested annually in the United Kingdom in late January or early February, before the commencement National Rugby League season, for these reasons, it was viewed as merely a pre-season warm up game by most Australasian teams and fans. This also led to a movement to having the tournament staged in Australia. During this period, the matches were fixtured in late February, still before the commencement of the National Rugby League season but in the early stages of the new Super League season. In February 2013, the changes to the tournament were gaining momentum with the NRL and these changes were finally confirmed in November 2013, with both parties agreeing that the 2014 World Club Challenge would be the first held in Australia since 1994. In addition, commencing in 2015, the tournament would also be expanded to six teams, the World Club Challenge return to Australia in 2014 was a success with a solid crowd numbers of over 31,000, with the Sydney Roosters defeating the Wigan Warriors 36-14. During the game, Sydneys Michael Jennings became the first player to score a hat trick of tries in a World Club Challenge. In September 2014 it was announced that the World Club Challenge name would be changed to the World Club Series with six clubs participating -3 from each league, excludes pool games in 1997 *capacity for rugby league games may differ from official stadium capacity
14.
Rugby league in England
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Rugby league is played across England but is most popular in Northern England, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire where the game originated. These areas are the heartland of rugby league and in many northern English towns the code is as, if not more, the sport is also popular in Cumbria where the amateur game is particularly powerful. See also, History of rugby league Rugby has long been popular in the North of England, the game was popular amongst working class people, unlike the clubs in Southern England whose players belonged to the middle or upper class. The principle of amateurism, and issues of class ensured that the Rugby Football Union would not countenance professional rugby, in August 1895, representatives of the northern clubs met at the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union. The NRFU was initially vehemently anti-professional, allowing payments for time missed from other employment. A thriving amateur scene also developed, as local amateur clubs wished to maintain links with their Northern Union neighbours. The Northern Union made reforms to the laws in 1897 and again in 1906 in an effort make the more exciting. This resulted in Northern Union football becoming a sport in its own rather than a form of rugby union. The sport spread outside England and soon international matches began to be played, the first international match was played in 1904 as England was beaten 9-3 at Central Park, Wigan by Other Nationalities. This was followed by a tour of Britain by New Zealand in 1907, New Zealand met Great Britain in Great Britains first ever Test match at Headingley, Leeds on 18 January 1908. The same year the first Australian Kangaroos tourists visited Britain, in 1910 the first British tour to Australia and New Zealand took place. The Challenge Cup began in 1897 with Batley beating St Helens to win the first title, the final was first broadcast by BBC radio in 1927. The Wembley tradition was started in 1929 when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13-2 at the first Rugby League Challenge Cup to be held at Wembley, the NRFU became the Rugby Football League in 1922. The 1930s saw a series of failed attempts to introduce rugby league football to London, in 1948 the first televised rugby league match was played when Wigans 8–3 Challenge Cup Final victory over Bradford Northern was broadcast to the Midlands. In another first this was the first rugby match to be attended by the reigning monarch, King George VI. Nonetheless the game survived, and continued to maintain popularity in its home regions, the introduction of regular internationals as other countries took up the sport provided a fillip. Rugby league experienced a surge in interest following the end of the Second World War, large crowds came to be the norm for a period of around 20 years. The total crowds for the British season hit a record in 1949–50, the boom had begun to subside by the early 1960s, rugby league now had to compete against television and other new forms of entertainment and attendances began to fall
15.
England national rugby league team
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The England national rugby league team represent England in international rugby league football tournaments. The team has now seen a revival, having formed from the Great Britain team. The team is run under the auspices of the Rugby Football League, as of 2008, the team now participates in all World Cups, Four Nations and test matches. The team dates back to 1904 when they played against a mixture of Welsh and Scottish players in Wigan, since then, and until the 1950s, they regularly toured Australia and New Zealand and played both home and away matches against neighbours Wales and France. But when it was decided that Great Britain would tour the Southern Hemisphere instead of England, France, even then though, there are some long periods where England barely played any matches. Their first appearance in the Rugby League World Cup was in 1975, and since then they have become runners-up in 1975 and 1995, in 2008, they competed in the 2008 World Cup in Australia. For many years England also competed in the European Nations Cup and in 2006, in the past Englands main rivals have been Wales and France, with the rivalry stretching back to 1908 and 1934 respectively. However, Englands main rivals would now be Australia, New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, traditionally a predominantly white kit is worn including white shorts and socks. However the jersey usually features some form of red, like red stripes, crosses or chevrons and these colours are similar to other English sporting teams and are the colours used on the national flag. In 2008 a new kit was introduced featuring a red cross on the front and red strips down the sides of the jersey, shorts and socks were white too with red strips. Also in 2008, the Rugby Football League chose to abandon the traditional English lion on the badge in favour of a simpler shield. Currently the team is ranked third in the world, behind Australia, wayne Bennett is the head coach and Sam Burgess is the current captain. In 1895 twenty-one clubs split with the Rugby Football Union, citing that they wanted to play professionally, the twenty-one clubs were all from Northern England and the players were largely working class. However it was not just English players who made the switch, Scottish and Welsh players also switched allegiance to the new code, switching heightened in the early 20th century with more Scottish and Welsh players leaving the RFU than ever before. At the start of 1903 season the Northern Union thought about international matches, on that day though, the ground was frosty and the match was cancelled and it was rescheduled for April. On 5 April 1904 England competed against a team called Other Nationalities and it was a period of experimentation for the Northern Union and each team had twelve players, not thirteen. At Central Park, Wigan the ground was muddy and in poor condition, England steamed into a 3–0 lead, from a try by Warringtons Jackie Fish. This is despite Salfords James Lomas arriving late and causing England to start the match with eleven players, Fish missed the conversion and so the Other Nationalities were able to level the scores a little later, Welshman Thomas crashing over for a try
16.
British Amateur Rugby League Association
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The British Amateur Rugby League Association is an association for social and recreational rugby league in the United Kingdom. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League by means of the RFL Community Board, BARLA was created in 1973 in Huddersfield at the George Hotel by a group of enthusiasts concerned about the dramatic disappearance of many amateur leagues and clubs. Fewer than 150 amateur teams remained with a mere thirty youth rugby league teams, the breakaway from the RFL was acrimonious and was strongly contested with a vote 29–1 against recognising BARLA. Thanks to Tom Mitchell, this changed to a vote of approval for BARLA within twelve months. For geographical reasons the Hull & District League and the Southern League were left unmerged and this allowed clubs to play at more appropriate standards as there were more divisions, and this factor along with the improved governance of BARLA saw the standard and numbers of clubs rise quickly. The Yorkshire County Cup and Lancashire County Cup knock-out competitions were started in 1973 as well as the BARLA National Cup, in 1977 BARLA toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time. In that year the BARLA Young Lions made their first inaugural tour setting a trend by giving future stars of the game such as David Hobbs their first taste of international rugby league. A Cumbria County Cup was started in 1982, the best amateur clubs were still divided between six leagues and thus the desire for an amateur National League arose. The BARLA National League first took place in the 1986/1987 season with 10 teams, the association has always been a champion of the amateur ethos and in 1987 BARLA played a major role in the establishment of the free gangway between the two codes at amateur level. The agreement allowed players to inter-change between rugby league and rugby union without fear of discrimination, the BARLA National League soon proved popular and the 1989/90 season also saw the addition of a second division. On 30 November 1990, BARLAs new headquarters at West Yorkshire House, in 1993, BARLA provided the first Great Britain team to tour South Africa. The BARLA National League was rebranded the National Conference League and expanded to three divisions in 1993, by 1999, there were more than 1,400 teams and 900 youth and junior teams. On an average weekend in the season, almost 23,000 players will be in action, BARLA won the Emerging Nations World Championship beating Italy 20–14 in the final. BARLA runs many leagues, mainly based in the areas of the sport. Its top knock-out competition is the BARLA National Cup and there are county cups for Yorkshire, Lancashire, there is an InterTown Series played over the summer between sides representing different districts. It also runs youth leagues such as the Yorkshire Combination Youth League and Hull Youth, there are county cups at age group level, known as the Yorkshire Youth Cup, Lancashire Youth Cup and the Cumbria Youth Cup. BARLA selects a team consisting of community players, the BARLA Lions. This team tours many parts of the league world, and have competed in the Rugby League Emerging Nations Tournament
17.
George Hotel, Huddersfield
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The George Hotel in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, is a Grade II listed building famous as the birthplace of rugby league football in 1895. The 60 bed hotel was built in 1851 and closed in January 2013, the three-star rated George Hotel, which has an Italianate façade, was designed by William Walker. The Victorian era hotel was built around 1851, in 1922 this became the Rugby Football League. Stockport was also accepted into the league via telephone to the hotel, memorabilia recalling the meeting can be found throughout the hotel as well as in the Heritage Centre. The British Amateur Rugby League Association was also founded at the George Hotel in 1973, the Rugby League Heritage Centre was located in the basement of the George. It was the UK’s only rugby league heritage museum and it was the brainchild of sports presenter Mike Stephenson. The Rugby League Heritage centre was opened on 30 August 2005 by former players Billy Boston, Neil Fox, within the centre were displays of memorabilia, including rare jerseys, medals, caps, programmes and photographs. There was also played on several plasma screens. The British Rugby League Hall of Fame is now located in the Heritage Centre, Official George Hotel site Official Rugby League Heritage Centre site 360° view of the Founders Room, George Hotel, Huddersfield
18.
Huddersfield
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Huddersfield is a large market town in West Yorkshire, England. It is the 11th largest town in the United Kingdom, with a population of 162,949 at the 2011 census, halfway between Leeds and Manchester, it lies 190 miles north of London, and 10.3 miles south of Bradford. Huddersfield is near the confluence of the River Colne and the River Holme, within the historic county boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is the largest urban area in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees and the administrative centre of the borough. The town is known for its role in the Industrial Revolution, and for being the birthplaces of rugby league, Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and the film star James Mason. Huddersfield is home to rugby league team Huddersfield Giants, founded in 1895, who play in the European Super League, and Championship football team Huddersfield Town F. C. founded in 1908. The town is home to the University of Huddersfield and the sixth form colleges Greenhead College, Kirklees College, Huddersfield railway station is a Grade I listed building described by John Betjeman as the most splendid station façade in England, second only to St Pancras, London. The station in St Georges Square was renovated at a cost of £4 million, there has been a settlement in the area for over 4,000 years. The remains of a Roman fort were unearthed in the mid 18th century at Slack near Outlane, Castle Hill, a major landmark, was the site of an Iron Age hill fort. Huddersfield was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Oderesfelt, Huddersfield has been a market town since Anglo-Saxon times. The market cross is on Market Place, the manor of Huddersfield was owned by the de Lacy family until 1322, at which it reverted to royal ownership. In 1599, William Ramsden bought the manor, and the Ramsden family continued to own the manor, Huddersfield was a centre of civil unrest during the Industrial Revolution. Luddites began destroying mills and machinery in response, one of the most notorious attacks was on Cartwright — a Huddersfield mill-owner, the government campaign that crushed the movement was provoked by a murder that took place in Huddersfield. William Horsfall, a mill-owner and a prosecutor of Luddites, was killed in 1812. Although the movement faded out, Parliament began to increase welfare provision for those out of work, Two Prime Ministers have spent part of their childhood in Huddersfield, Harold Wilson and Herbert Asquith. Wilson is commemorated by a statue in front of the railway station, Kirklees Council was the first in the UK to have a Green Party councillor, Nicholas Harvey who was instrumental in protesting against the intended closure of the Settle and Carlisle Railway line. The town has substantial Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats and UKIP presences, centre-right and rightist groups are also active. Huddersfield was incorporated as a borough in the ancient West Riding of Yorkshire in 1868. The borough comprised the parishes of Almondbury, Dalton, Huddersfield, Lindley-cum-Quarmby, when the West Riding County Council was formed in 1889, Huddersfield became a county borough, exempt from county council control
19.
Australian Rugby League
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The Australian Rugby Football League, more commonly known as the Australian Rugby League, was the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in Australia. The ARL, as an entity, was handed over to the new Australian Rugby League Commission. At 9, 30am on 9 February 2012, since its inception the ARL administered the Australian national team and represented Australia in international rugby league matters. During the mid-1990s Super League war the ARL administered the countrys first-grade premiership until the National Rugby League was formed, the legal hand-over from ARL to ARL Commission ensured that the game has effectively had the same governing body across Australia, since 1924. George Ball was the first secretary of the Board and John La Maro the first chairman, prior to this time, international rugby league was organised by both the NSWRL and the QRL. It was only after this time that the Australian team began to wear the now familiar sporting colours of Green, in 1984 the ARL was duly incorporated, as a separate entity, and Ken Arthurson was the first executive chairman of the new body. With national expansion of the competition implemented for the 1995 season the NSWRL passed control of the Winfield Cup competition to the ARL, Super League successfully attracted eight of the ARL clubs. In the 1995 State of Origin series, the ARL forbade the players of those eight clubs participating in the interstate competition. However, those clubs were allowed to participate in the seasons of 1995 and 1996. However, Super League conducted a competition in 1997. Both the ARL and Super League competitions ran parallel to other that year. As a consequence of the negotiations that followed, the National Rugby League was formed before the 1998 season from the ARL, between 1998 season and the first few months of the 2012 season the ARL had six out of twelve seats on the NRL Partnership board. In 2012 News Limited exited the game and the ARL was fully incorporated into the new, during the Super League war of the mid-1990s the ARL also administered Australias club premiership. ARL Development is a company that was formed by the ARL to develop the sport from an introductory level to the age of 18 years. In achieving this, ARL Development has developed new modified codes that gradually introduce children to rugby league and this is done by restricting the rules and then gradually releasing these restrictions. The two introductory modified codes currently in use are mini footy and mod league, on completion of mod league, players make a move to full international rugby league laws. Ownership of ARL Development was transferred to the Australian Rugby League Commission in 2012, the ARL constitution ARL One Community Australian Rugby League official website
20.
New Zealand Rugby League
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The New Zealand Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year, the NZRL administers the New Zealand Kiwis, the New Zealand national team. Currently they manage the National Secondary Schools Tournament, the National Womens Tournament and the National Youth Tournament, the premier competition is known as the National Premiership and in 2016 a new National Championship will be launched. They are also responsible for elite pathway programmes including the NZ 16s and NZ 18s teams, the NZ Taurahere and they have previously managed the now defunct Lion Red Cup and Bartercard Cup competitions. The NZRL is a society under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908. The current patron of the NZRL is Sir Peter Leitch, who replaced Helen Clark in the role in 2011, throughout New Zealand, the sport is administered by seven Zones and has fifteen districts and seven Affiliates. 47 players have been inducted since the Legends of League was introduced in 1995, Rugby League in New Zealand New Zealand Kiwis Bartercard Cup Official site Independent Review Committee. Rugby League - Contributing to New Zealands Future, archived from the original on 2010-10-01
21.
History of rugby league
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Similar schisms occurred later in Australia and New Zealand in 1907. Gradually the rugby played in these breakaway competitions evolved into a separate sport that took its name from the professional leagues that administered it. Rugby league in England went on to set attendance and player payment records, the game also developed a significant place in the culture of France, New Zealand and several other Pacific Island nations, such as Papua New Guinea, where it has become the national sport. Although many forms of football had been played across the world, in 1871, English clubs playing the version of football played at Rugby School which involved much more handling of the ball than in association football, met to form the Rugby Football Union. Many new rugby clubs were formed, and it was in the Northern English counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire that the game really took hold, here rugby was largely a working class game, whilst the south eastern clubs were largely middle class. Rugby spread to Australasia, especially the cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch, here too there was a clear divide between the working and more affluent upper class players. England teams of the era were dominated by Lancashire and Yorkshire players, however these players were forbidden to earn any of the spoils of this newly-rich game. Predominantly working class found it difficult to play to their full potential because in many cases their time to play. A further limit on the ability of working class teams was that working class players had to be careful how hard they played. If injured, they had to pay their own bills and possibly take time off work. In 1892, charges of professionalism were laid against rugby football clubs in Bradford and Leeds, by implication they were arguing that this affected the RFUs decisions on the issue of broken time payments to the detriment of northern clubs, who made up the majority of English rugby clubs. Payment for broken time was a proposal put forward by Yorkshire clubs that would allow players to receive up to six shillings when they missed work because of match commitments, the idea was voted down by the RFU, and widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players began. Two days later, on 29 August 1895, representatives of clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union. Twenty clubs agreed to resign from the Rugby Union, but Dewsbury felt unable to comply with the decision. The Cheshire club, Stockport, had telegraphed the meeting requesting admission to the new organisation and was accepted with a second Cheshire club, Runcorn. The rugby union authorities took action, issuing sanctions against clubs, players. This extended even to amateurs who played with or against Northern Union sides, consequently, northern clubs that existed purely for social and recreational rugby began to affiliate to the Northern Union, whilst retaining amateur status. By 1904 the new body had more affiliated to it than the RFU
22.
Manchester
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Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry
23.
Cheshire
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Cheshire is a county in North West England, bordering Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south and Wales to the west. Cheshires county town is Chester, the largest town is Warrington, other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield, Northwich, Runcorn, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford. The county covers 905 square miles and has a population of around 1 million and it is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages supporting the agricultural and other industries which produce Cheshire cheese, salt, chemicals and silk. Cheshires name was derived from an early name for Chester. Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920, in the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name Cestrescir, derived from the name for Chester at the time. A series of changes occurred as English itself changed, together with some simplifications and elision, resulted in the name Cheshire. Because of the close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west. The Domesday Book records Cheshire as having two complete Hundreds that later became the part of Flintshire. Additionally, another portion of the Duddestan Hundred later became known as Maelor Saesneg when it was transferred to North Wales. For this and other reasons, the Welsh name for Cheshire is sometimes used within Wales, after the Norman conquest of 1066 by William I, dissent and resistance continued for many years after the invasion. In 1069 local resistance in Cheshire was finally put down using draconian measures as part of the Harrying of the North, the ferocity of the campaign against the English populace was enough to end all future resistance. Examples were made of major landowners such as Earl Edwin of Mercia, William I made Cheshire a county palatine and gave Gerbod the Fleming the new title of Earl of Chester. When Gerbod returned to Normandy in about 1070, the king used his absence to declare the earldom forfeit, due to Cheshires strategic location on Welsh Marches, the Earl had complete autonomous powers to rule on behalf of the king in the county palatine. Cheshire in the Domesday Book is recorded as a larger county than it is today. It included two hundreds, Atiscross and Exestan, that became part of North Wales. At the time of the Domesday Book, it included as part of Duddestan Hundred the area of land later known as English Maelor in Wales. The area between the Mersey and Ribble formed part of the returns for Cheshire, an example is the barony of Halton. One of Hugh dAvranches barons has been identified as Robert Nicholls, Baron of Halton, in 1182 the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire, thus resolving any uncertainty about the county in which the land Inter Ripam et Mersam was
24.
Batley Bulldogs
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Batley Bulldogs R. L. F. C. are an English professional rugby league club in Batley, West Yorkshire who play in the Kingstone Press Championship. Batley were one of the original twenty-two rugby football clubs formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. They were League Champions in 1924 and have won three Challenge Cups, Batley Cricket Club decided to have a rugby football side merge with them at their ground under the name Batley Cricket Athletic and Football Club. Both sides claimed victory but the club chose Batley Athletic to join them. The new clubs first game was at home against Bradford Zingari which they won by 2 goals,3 touchdowns,2 dead balls, jacob Parker scored the first touchdown. The first season finished with Batley having won 15 games and drawn 5 out of 26 matches played, Batley were one of the original twenty-two clubs that met at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 and formed the Northern Rugby Football Union. Batley’s first match under the new union was on 7 September 1895 against Hull F. C. at Mount Pleasant with Batley winning 7 –3, sixth in the Yorkshire Senior Competition of 1896/97, they battled their way to third spot come the end of the next season. Where knock-out competitions was concerned, they were peerless, in 1897, the Gallant Youths became the first winners of the Challenge Cup beating St. Helens 10-3, in front of a crowd of 13,492 at Headingley. Batley retained the trophy by beating Bradford Northern on the weekend the following year at Headingley in front of 27,941 spectators. The club were Yorkshire League winners in 1898/99 and in 1900/01 won the Challenge Cup for the third and last time to date, wharton Wattie Davies set club records for most appearance, goals and points between 1896-1912. Batleys next cup triumph came on 23 November 1912 when Hull were defeated 17–3 at Headingley in Batley’s one, the Gallant Youths reached the semi-final of the Yorkshire Cup and led the league in November 1923. Batley were crowned champions on Saturday 3 May 1924, lifting the Rugby League Championship Trophy for the time in the club’s history. The club were also Yorkshire League winners that season, the record attendance was set at 23,989 for the visit of Leeds for a third round Challenge Cup match on 14 March 1925. 1952 saw a Yorkshire Cup final appearance against Huddersfield on 15 November, the clubs name was changed from Batley Cricket, Athletic & Football Club Ltd to its present official name of Batley Football Club Ltd in June 1979. The club celebrated its centenary in 1981 with a win over the leagues new London team, Fulham, in the 1960s the league was restructured into two divisions for two seasons before the single-division format was finally ditched in 1973. Batley are one of only a few teams never to make it into the top flight, the local council suggested that Dewsbury and Batley ground share at Crown Flatt after refusing a grant towards safety repairs to Mount Pleasant in February 1987. Batley looked set to join the elite in 1995 when they held off Huddersfield to finish in second place, the club succeeded in winning the Second Division Championship in the 1994–95 season. However, when the Super League was created for the following year, the club estimated that the decision cost them around £500,000
25.
Batley
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Batley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It lies 7 miles south-east of Bradford,7 miles south-west of Leeds and 1 mile north of Dewsbury, historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 2011 its two wards had a combined population of 38,573. Other nearby towns include, Morley to the north-east, Ossett to the south-east, Batley is part of a special EU transformation zone. The name Batley is derived from Danish, meaning valley or homestead of bats, or more likely. It is recorded in the Domesday Book as Bateleia, after the Norman conquest, the manor was granted to Elbert de Lacy and in 1086 was within the wapentake of Morley. It subsequently passed into the ownership of the de Batleys, and their residence at Batley Hall was held directly from the Crown, at this time the district fell within the Duchy of Lancaster. The population at time was 30 to 40 people. By the late 14th century, the population has increased to around 100, there has been a church in Batley since the 11th century. Batley Parish Church was built in the reign of Henry VI, despite Batley being an ancient settlement, this is all that remains of any great antiquity. Howley Hall at Soothill was built during the 1580s by Sir John Savile, a member of the great Yorkshire landowners, the house was besieged during the English Civil War in 1643 before the Battle of Adwalton Moor but appears to have sustained no serious damage. It continued to be occupied during the 17th century but fell into disrepair, howley Hall was demolished in 1730. Many ruins exist including the cellars of its great hall, Batley Grammar School was founded in 1612 by the Rev. William Lee and is still in existence. Methodism came to Batley in the 1740s and took a hold in the town which continued into the 20th century. John Nelson from Birstall was a lay preacher in the early Methodist movement. Areas of the town, such as Mount Pleasant, were noted for their absence of due to the Methodist beliefs of the populations. During the late 18th century the main occupations in the town were farming and weaving, the Industrial Revolution reached Batley in 1796 with the arrival of its first water powered mills for carding and spinning. During the next century the population grew rapidly, from around 2,500 at the start of the 19th century to 9,308 at the 1851 census. The parish of Batley at this point included Morley, Churwell and Gildersome, a toll road built in 1832 between Gomersal and Dewsbury had a branch to Batley which allowed for the growing volumes of wool, cloth and coal to be transported
26.
West Yorkshire
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West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England. It is an inland and in relative terms upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in moors of the Pennines and has a population of 2.2 million, West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. West Yorkshire consists of five boroughs and shares borders with the counties of Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire. In the heart of the county is Leeds Bradford International Airport, West Yorkshire County Council was abolished in 1986 so its five districts became effectively unitary authorities. However, the county, which covers an area of 2,029 square kilometres, continues to exist in law. West Yorkshire includes the West Yorkshire Urban Area, which is the most built-up, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council inherited the use of West Riding County Hall at Wakefield, opened in 1898, from the West Riding County Council in 1974. Since 1987 it has been the headquarters of Wakefield City Council, the county initially had a two-tier structure of local government with a strategic-level county council and five districts providing most services. In 1986, throughout England the metropolitan county councils were abolished, the functions of the county council were devolved to the boroughs, joint-boards covering fire, police and public transport, and to other special joint arrangements. Organisations such as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive continue to operate on this basis, although the county council was abolished, West Yorkshire continues to form a metropolitan and ceremonial county with a Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and a High Sheriff. Wakefields Parish Church was raised to cathedral status in 1888 and after the elevation of Wakefield to diocese, Wakefield Council immediately sought city status and this was granted in July 1888. However the industrial revolution, which changed West and South Yorkshire significantly, led to the growth of Leeds and Bradford, Leeds was granted city status in 1893 and Bradford in 1897. The name of Leeds Town Hall reflects the fact that at its opening in 1858 Leeds was not yet a city, the county borders, going anticlockwise from the west, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. It lies almost entirely on rocks of carboniferous age which form the southern Pennine fringes in the west, in the extreme east of the metropolitan county there are younger deposits of magnesian limestone. The Bradford and Calderdale areas are dominated by the scenery of the slopes of the Pennines, dropping from upland in the west down to the east. There is a conjunction of large scale industry, urban areas. The dense network of roads, canals and railways and urban development, the carboniferous rocks of the Yorkshire coalfield further east have produced a rolling landscape with hills, escarpments and broad valleys. In this landscape there is evidence of both current and former industrial activity. There are numerous derelict or converted mine buildings and recently landscaped former spoil heaps, the scenery is a mixture of built up areas, industrial land with some dereliction, and farmed open country
27.
Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.
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Bradford Association Football Club is an English football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Its name derived from the old stadium on Horton Park Avenue in Bradford. However the club is known simply as Bradford, with the letters BFC adorning Leitchs grandstand. The present club is a reincarnation of the club played in the Football League from 1908 to 1970 before dropping to the Northern Premier League. The new entity, established in 1987, is part of the National League North for the 2015–16 season and plays its matches at the 3. Bradford Park Avenue is one of 35 clubs to compete in all four top tiers of English football, the new club started life at what was then the thirteenth tier, Division Three of the West Riding County Amateur League. The original club was formed in 1863 as the Bradford Football Club, playing rugby football, a member of the Rugby Football Union, Bradford FC became a founding member of the breakaway Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. Bradford were runners-up the 1898 Challenge Cup in 1897–98, won the championship in 1903–04, the faction left the original club and formed a new Northern Union club, Bradford Northern. Bradford Northern applied for membership of the Northern Union, replacing Bradford FC, on 23 August 2012, Bradford Park Avenue was one of the parties interested in purchasing the Bradford Bulls. The club shared the West Yorkshire League championship with Hunslet in 1895–96, Bradford played in the FA Amateur Cup in 1896–97, progressing to the FA Cup in 1897–98 and 1898–99. The club entered the Yorkshire League in 1897–98, finishing next to last, bradfords first football club was closed down at the end of the 1898–99 season due to mounting losses. Despite the failure of this experiment, association-football success elsewhere prompted the club to abandon rugby in 1907. They were not accepted, instead joining the Southern League and filling a gap left by Fulham and their nearest opponents were Northampton Town, whose ground was 130 miles distant. In 1908, Bradford FC was elected to the Second Division of the Football League, the club was promoted to the First Division in 1914 after finishing second, and achieved its highest-ever league position at the end of the 1914–15 season. In 1914 Donald Bell played four games, but at the outbreak of war asked to be released to serve, rising to the rank of lieutenant, in 1916 he received the VC for conspicuous bravery on the Somme before being killed later that year. After the First World War the club began a decline, relegated to the Second Division in 1921. In 1928, the club were the Division 3N champions and were promoted back to the Second Division and they were relegated again in 1950, and placed in the Fourth Division after a 1958 reorganisation. Although the club won promotion to the Third Division in 1961, after several difficult seasons, in 1970 they were replaced in the Football League by Cambridge United
28.
Bradford
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Bradford /ˈbrædfərd/ is in the Metropolitan Borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, in the foothills of the Pennines 8.6 miles west of Leeds, and 16 miles northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897. Following local government reform in 1974, city status was bestowed upon the metropolitan borough. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bradford rose to prominence during the 19th century as a centre of textile manufacture. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the earliest industrialised settlements, the textile sector in Bradford fell into decline from the mid-20th century. However, Bradford has faced challenges to the rest of the post-industrial area of Northern England, including deindustrialisation, social unrest. It was recorded as Bradeford in 1086, after an uprising in 1070, during William the Conquerors Harrying of the North, the manor of Bradford was laid waste and is described as such in the Domesday Book of 1086. It then became part of the Honour of Pontefract given to Ilbert de Lacy for service to the Conqueror, there is evidence of a castle in the time of the Lacys. The manor then passed to the Earl of Lincoln, John of Gaunt, The Crown and, ultimately, by the middle ages Bradford, had become a small town centred on Kirkgate, Westgate and Ivegate. In 1316 there is mention of a mill, a soke mill where all the manor corn was milled. During the Wars of the Roses the inhabitants sided with House of Lancaster, Edward IV granted the right to hold two annual fairs and from this time the town began to prosper. In the reign of Henry VIII Bradford exceeded Leeds as a manufacturing centre, Bradford grew slowly over the next two-hundred years as the woollen trade gained in prominence. During the Civil War the town was garrisoned for the Parliamentarians, Sir Thomas Fairfax took the command of the garrison and marched to meet the Duke of Newcastle but was defeated. The Parliamentarians retreated to Bradford and the Royalists set up headquarters at Bolling Hall from where the town was besieged leading to its surrender, the Civil War caused a decline in industry but after the accession of William and Mary in 1689 prosperity began to return. The launch of manufacturing in the early 18th century marked the start of the development while new canal. In 1801, Bradford was a market town of 6,393 people. Bradford was thus not much bigger than nearby Keighley and was smaller than Halifax. This small town acted as a hub for three nearby townships – Manningham, Bowling and Great and Little Horton, which were separated from the town by countryside
29.
Brighouse
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Brighouse is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder,4 miles east of Halifax and it is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the town centre is a basin on the Calder. The United Kingdom Census 2001 gave the Brighouse / Rastrick subdivision of the West Yorkshire Urban Area a population of 32,360, the Brighouse ward of Calderdale Council gave a population of 11,195 at the 2011 Census. The name Brighouse originates from a building on the bridge over the River Calder, in its early history, it was a hamlet of the nearby village of Rastrick. Brighouse is twinned with Lüdenscheid in Germany, the beginning with an exchange by Brighouse Childrens Theatre in 1950 followed by a civic twinning charter in 1960. There was a crossing called Snake Hill Ford across the Calder – believed to have formed part of the Roman route between Wakefield and Manchester. A wooden structure called Rastrick Bridge was recorded in 1275, the bridge was replaced by another built with timber donated by John Hanson in 1514. Hansons son funded a replacement for this bridge in 1558. The river provided power for the milling industry and the textile mills. Brighouses industry received a boost through the construction of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, the town was incorporated in 1893. Brighouse was historically part of the township of Hipperholme with Brighouse in the ancient parish of Halifax. The borough was expanded in 1915 when Rastrick was absorbed, and in 1937 when Clifton CP, Hipperholme UD, Norwood Green and Coley CP, Brighouse borough and civil parish was abolished in 1974 when it became part of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough. The mayors mace was removed in 1974 to the Town Hall, Halifax, Brighouse is situated between Halifax, Ripponden and Brighouse. The towns mills are currently undergoing a programme of renovation. Brighouse Library is a building and in addition to its normal lending library services provides facilities for language courses, internet access. Like most public buildings wheelchair access is provided, there is also a small cafe and a lift for access to all floors. The main shopping streets are Commercial Street and Bethel Street, shops include Wilkinsons, Boyes, Czerwik, Lords PhotoDigital, Harrison Lord Gallery & Studio, Dominos Pizza, Just Books, Design 55, Superdrug, Boots, Hallmarks, Thorntons, M&Co and Jack Fulton
30.
Broughton, Salford
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Broughton is a suburb of Salford, England. It lies on the east bank of the River Irwell and A56 road, Broughton consists of Broughton Park, Higher Broughton, Lower Broughton and a part of Kersal. Its immediate proximity to Manchester effectively makes it a suburb of that city, historically in Lancashire, Broughton anciently constituted a township and chapelry in the parish of Manchester and hundred of Salford. The former manor house, Broughton Hall, belonged to the Chethams, a part of Broughton was amalgamated into the then Municipal Borough of Salford in 1844, and the remaining area of the township in 1853. Since the turn of the 21st century, parts of Lower Broughton and Higher Broughton have been redeveloped with a mixture of town houses, together with neighbouring Prestwich and part of Crumpsall, Broughton is home to a large Jewish community. Some neolithic implements and other remains have been found in Broughton. The Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester passed through the area, the township of Broughton dates back to 1177 when it was known as Burton, bounded mainly by the meandering River Irwell. To the west of this township, close to a ford across the Irwell, the Manor of Broughton was formerly an ancient demesne of the honour of Lancaster, being a member of the Royal Manor of Salford. It descended through families and in 1578 was bought by Henry Stanley. This was home to the astronomer and mathematician William Crabtree. The recording of the event is now seen as the birth of modern astronomy in Britain, in June 2004 a commemorative street nameplate in memory of William Crabtree was unveiled at the junction of Lower Broughton Road and Priory Grove. This site marks the location that is thought most likely to have been the home of Crabtree, a commemorative plaque was erected in 2005 a few yards away near Ivy Cottage, which is thought to be the house from which Crabtree made his observations. In 1772 the Manor of Broughton became the property of Mary, sister of Edward Cheetham of Nuthurst, the manor then descended through the Clowes family to the Captain Henry Arthur Clowes. By 1801 the population of the township of Broughton with Kersal was 866, much of the land was owned by the Clowes family of Broughton Old Hall and the Byroms of Kersal Cell, and was either farmed, or supported cottage industries such as spinning and weaving. Broughton Park, which stretched from Singleton Road to Broom Lane with Broughton Old Hall at the centre, was the estate of the Clowes family, the highlight of the year was the Kersal Moor Races held during Whit Week when the Kersal area became a giant fairground. Archery was also a sport for which the Broughton Archers were renowned countrywide. By the mid-19th century the majority of residents who lived in the known as the Cliff were members of the professional classes. The Cliff was one of the earliest residential suburbs for commuters into Manchester, a number of the houses built for them still stand today and are protected as listed buildings
31.
Lancashire
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Lancashire is a non-metropolitan ceremonial county in north west England. The county town is Lancaster although the administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300, people from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians. The history of Lancashire begins with its founding in the 12th century, in the Domesday Book of 1086, some of its lands were treated as part of Yorkshire. The land that lay between the Ribble and Mersey, Inter Ripam et Mersam, was included in the returns for Cheshire, when its boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. Lancashire emerged as a commercial and industrial region during the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool and Manchester grew into its largest cities, dominating global trade, the county contained several mill towns and the collieries of the Lancashire Coalfield. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire, Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Colne, Darwen, Manchester, Nelson, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale and Wigan were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashires mill towns, the detached northern part of Lancashire in the Lake District, including the Furness Peninsula and Cartmel, was merged with Cumberland and Westmorland to form Cumbria. Lancashire lost 709 square miles of land to other counties, about two fifths of its area, although it did gain some land from the West Riding of Yorkshire. Today the county borders Cumbria to the north, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south and North and West Yorkshire to the east, with a coastline on the Irish Sea to the west. The county palatine boundaries remain the same with the Duke of Lancaster exercising sovereignty rights, including the appointment of lords lieutenant in Greater Manchester, the county was established in 1182, later than many other counties. During Roman times the area was part of the Brigantes tribal area in the zone of Roman Britain. The towns of Manchester, Lancaster, Ribchester, Burrow, Elslack, in the centuries after the Roman withdrawal in 410AD the northern parts of the county probably formed part of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor entity to the Brigantes tribe. During the mid-8th century, the area was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, in the Domesday Book, land between the Ribble and Mersey were known as Inter Ripam et Mersam and included in the returns for Cheshire. Although some historians consider this to mean south Lancashire was then part of Cheshire and it is also claimed that the territory to the north formed part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It bordered on Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, the county was divided into hundreds, Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby. Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, the part north of the sands of Morecambe Bay including Furness and Cartmel
32.
Halifax R.L.F.C.
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Halifax R. L. F. C. is a semi-professional rugby league club in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which formed in 1873. Halifax were one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. They have been Rugby League Champions four times and have won the Challenge Cup five times and they have rivalries with neighbours Bradford and Huddersfield and with fellow Championship side Featherstone Rovers. Known as Fax, the colours are blue and white hoops, white shorts and blue. They share the Shay stadium with the football club, Halifax Town. The club was founded as Halifax in 1873, after winning the first Yorkshire Cup in 1878, they went on to win it on another four occasions. Several players were picked for the Yorkshire County side in these years, in 1886, the club moved to Thrum Hall, which would be their home ground for the next 112 years. The first game there was played on 18 September 1886 against Hull F. C. Halifax were founding members of the breakaway Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. In 1896, Halifax lost out on winning the first ever Rugby Football League Championship by a single point, in 1902–03, they achieved the double by winning the Challenge Cup and finishing top of Division One. They won the cup again the season, and were the first ever Championship play-off winners in 1906–07. Halifax won their first Wembley Challenge Cup final in 1931, beating York 22–8, an estimated 100,000 people lined the route to a civic reception at the town hall. Towards the end of the 1937 season, Streatham and Mitcham folded after just one season in the league. The club had made a number of signings from the New Zealand All Blacks, including George Nepia and Charles Smith. In 1938, Halifax reached the semi-final of the Challenge Cup, in 1939, Halifax became the last team to win the Challenge Cup final before the war. Favourites Salford were beaten 20–3 in front of a record 55,453 spectators, in 1947 Halifaxs Hudson Irving died from a heart attack while playing at Dewsbury. In 1949, Halifaxs David Craven died after breaking his neck playing against Workington Town, the 1949 Challenge Cup final was sold out for first time as 95,050 spectators saw Bradford Northern beat Halifax. In the 1950s, Halifax were Championship runners-up three times, beat Hull F. C. in Yorkshire Cup finals in 1954 and 1955, Halifax were unbeaten at their home ground of Thrum Hall between December 1952 and November 1956. After securing a Yorkshire league and cup double in 1955–56, the club was in sight of winning All Four Cups, Wembley was reached after a 11–10 Challenge Cup semi-final victory over Wigan at Odsal and Halifax beat St. Helens 23–8 in the Championship semi-final
33.
Halifax, West Yorkshire
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Halifax is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The town has been a centre of manufacture from the 15th century onward. Halifax is known for Mackintoshs chocolate and toffee products including Rolo, the Halifax Building Society was also founded in Halifax. Dean Clough, one of the largest textile factories in the world at more than 1⁄2 mile long, was in the north of the town, the premises have since been converted for office and retail use including a gym, theatre, Travelodge and radio station. The towns name was recorded in about 1091 as Halyfax, from the Old English halh-gefeaxe and this explanation is preferred to derivations from the Old English halig, in hālig feax or holy hair, proposed by 16th century antiquarians. The incorrect interpretation gave rise to two legends, one concerned a maiden killed by a lustful priest whose advances she spurned. Another held that the head of John the Baptist was buried here after his execution, the legend is almost certainly medieval rather than ancient, although the towns coat of arms carries an image of the saint. Another explanation is a corruption of the Old English hay and ley a clearing or meadow and this etymology is based on Haley Hill, the nearby hamlet of Healey, and the common occurrence of the surnames Hayley/Haley around Halifax. The erroneous derivation from halig has given rise to the demonym Haligonian, the Earldom of Halifax took the name of the town. Its first creation, in the Peerage of England in 1677, was for William Savile, george Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, became the President of the Board of Trade in 1748. In 1749 he helped found Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia and he fostered trade, especially with North America. The Halifax River in Central Florida, United States, was named after him. Halifax is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, and evidence of the settlement is sketchy. By the 12th century the township had become the centre of the vast parish of Halifax. Halifax Minster, parts of which date from the 12th century is dedicated to St John the Baptist, the minsters first organist, in 1766, was William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus. The coat of arms of Halifax include the chequers from the coat of arms of the Earls Warenne. Halifax was notorious for its gibbet, a form of guillotine used to execute criminals by decapitation. A replica has been erected on the site in Gibbet Street
34.
Huddersfield Giants
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Huddersfield Giants R. L. F. C. are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They have won 7 Championships and 6 Challenge Cups, but have not won a trophy since 1962. The club was known as Huddersfield Barracudas from 1984–88 and Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants for the 2000 season and they play in a distinctive strip of a claret shirt with thin gold hoops, claret shorts and claret and gold hooped socks. They have rivalries with Warrington Wolves, Leeds Rhinos, Bradford Bulls, Halifax and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. The earliest record of a match being played in the Huddersfield area is in 1848. Hepworth won a close game which exhibited the usual amount of confusions, bloody noses, etc. There appears to have no formal structure to sport in the Huddersfield area until the opening of the Apollo Gymnasium on 3 August 1850. In 1864 the Apollo Gymnasium was turned into the Gymnasium Theatre, the athletes of the gymnasium responded by forming a more organised athletics association. In an advertisement headed Huddersfield Athletic Club they invited gentlemen desirous of becoming members to a meeting at 8 oclock on the evening of 16 November 1864 at the Queen Hotel. The meeting went ahead, a hundred names were registered and a committee was formed, within a month a new gymnasium was in service in a basement on Back John William Street. On 27 January 1866 twenty members of the Huddersfield Athletic Club agreed to play a match against twenty of the Huddersfield Rifle Corps at Rifle Field in Trinity Street. Although the result was a draw, a large crowd was attracted. In light of this, the Huddersfield Athletic Club agreed to start a football section which was to start at the beginning of December 1866. Initially the Huddersfield Athletic Club made no contribution to the support of the football club, as the football club grew, it became a useful recruiting tool for the Huddersfield Athletic Club. In 1869 six matches were played and by 1870 three of the players had been selected to represent Yorkshire. By 1872 there were so many players that a team was formed. The growth in popularity of the club and the need for better facilities led to the Huddersfield Athletic Club approaching St Johns Cricket Club with a proposal to merge the two clubs, St Johns Cricket Club had been formed in 1866 at Hillhouse and had moved to Fartown ground. By 1875, when talks began, over £800 had been spent on developing the new ground
35.
Hull F.C.
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Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F. C. is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were known as Hull Sharks from 1996–99. Hull F. C. were one of the members of the Northern Rugby Football Union which was formed in 1895 in Huddersfield. Later that year moved to the Hull Athletic Clubs ground at the Boulevard, Airlie Street. Traditionally people from the west side of Hull support Hull F. C. while Hull Kingston Rovers are supported by the east half, Old Faithful is a traditional Hull F. C. terrace song. The team shares the KCOM Stadium with association football side Hull City and their mascot is the Airlie Bird. The club was formed in 1865 by a group of ex-schoolboys from York, most notably Anthony Bradley, the founders used to meet at the Young Mens Fellowship, at St. Mary’s Church in Lowgate. The vicar at that time was the Reverend Scott and his five sons made up the nucleus of the team, the club immediately took on members who were plumbers and glaziers. Soon another team, Hull White Star, was formed and the two clubs merged, Hull Football Club was one of the first clubs in the north of England to join the Rugby Football Union. Hull F. C. then nicknamed the All Blacks, were one of the initial 22 clubs to form the Northern Union after the split from the Rugby Football Union in 1895. The club moved from East Hull to the Hull Athletic Club at the Boulevard in 1895,8,000 people turned out to witness the first clubs match in which Hull F. C. beat Liversedge. Between 1908–10, Hull F. C. lost three consecutive Challenge Cup Finals, in the first, they failed to score against Hunslet who would go on to win All Four Cups whilst in the second they failed to score against Wakefield Trinity. In the third final of 1910, they held Leeds to a 7–7 draw at Fartown, a year later the Airlie Birds won their first Challenge Cup, beating Huddersfield in the semi-final and Wakefield Trinity in the final held in Halifax. Playing alongside Billy on that day was John Jack Harrison VC, Harrison scored 52 tries in the 1914–5 season, a club record that still stands. Twelve Hull F. C. players were killed during the First World War, Australian Jim Devereux became the first player to score 100 tries for Hull. In 1920, Batten was once again key in Hull F. C. s first ever Championship Final, the early-1920s were bittersweet years for the club. In 1921, Hull F. C. lost the Yorkshire County Cup but won the county championship, in the early 1930s, Hull F. C. had a full back and goal kicker called Joe Oliver. Oliver was so dependable with the boot that the crowd at one match spontaneously started singing the Gene Autry song, Hull F. C. supporters adopted the song as their battle cry from then on
36.
Kingston upon Hull
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Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber estuary,25 miles inland from the North Sea, the town of Hull was founded late in the 12th century. The monks of Meaux Abbey needed a port where the wool from their estates could be exported and they chose a place at the confluence of the rivers Hull and Humber to build a quay. The exact year the town was founded is not known but it was first mentioned in 1193, renamed Kings-town upon Hull by King Edward I in 1299, Hull has been a market town, military supply port, trading hub, fishing and whaling centre, and industrial metropolis. Hull was a theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars. Its 18th-century Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, took a prominent part in the abolition of the trade in Britain. The city is unique in the UK in having had a municipally owned telephone system from 1902, sporting cream, not red, telephone boxes. After suffering heavy damage in the Second World War, Hull weathered a period of decline, gaining unfavourable results on measures of social deprivation, education. In the early 21st-century spending boom before the late 2000s recession the city saw large amounts of new retail, commercial, housing, tourist attractions include the historic Old Town and Museum Quarter, Hull Marina and The Deep, a city landmark. The redevelopment of one of Hulls main thoroughfares, Ferensway, included the opening of St Stephens Hull, spectator sports include Premier League football and Super League Rugby. The KCOM Stadium houses Hull City football club and Hull F. C. rugby club, Hull is also home to the English Premier Ice Hockey League Hull Pirates. The University of Hull was founded in 1927 and now more than 16,000 students. It is ranked among the best in the Yorkshire and the Humber region and located in the leafy Newland suburb, in 2013, it was announced that Hull would be the 2017 UK City of Culture. In 2015 it was announced that the Ferens Art Gallery will be hosting the annual art prize, The Turner Prize. The prize is held outside London every other year, Kingston upon Hull stands on the north bank of the Humber estuary at the mouth of its tributary, the River Hull. The valley of the River Hull has been inhabited since the early Neolithic period, the area was attractive to people because it gave access to a prosperous hinterland and navigable rivers but the site was poor, being remote, low-lying and with no fresh water. It was originally a part of the hamlet of Myton. The name is thought to either from a Scandinavian word Vik meaning inlet or from the Saxon Wic meaning dwelling place or refuge
37.
East Riding of Yorkshire
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The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county of England. It is located in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber, the modern East Riding of Yorkshire, was formed in 1996 from the northern part of the non-metropolitan county of Humberside. The East Riding of Yorkshire may also refer to the riding of Yorkshire. The historic riding covered an area than the modern county, it included some areas now in North Yorkshire, but did not include the area of Goole. At the 2011 Census the Unitary Authority population was 334,179, the landscape consists of a crescent of low chalk hills, the Yorkshire Wolds, surrounded by the low-lying fertile plains of Holderness and the Vale of York. The Humber Estuary and North Sea mark its southern and eastern limits, archaeological investigations have revealed artefacts and structures from all historical periods since the last ice age. There are few settlements and no industrial centres. The area is administered from the ancient market and ecclesiastical town of Beverley, Christianity is the religion with the largest following in the area and there is a higher than average percentage of retired people in residence. The economy is based on agriculture and this, along with tourism, has contributed to the rural. These aspects are also reflected in the places of interest to visitors and major landmarks, which include buildings, nature reserves. The open and maritime aspects and lack of urban developments have also led to the county being allocated relatively high targets for the generation of energy from renewable sources. Bishop Burton is the site of a college, and Hull provides the regions only university. On the southern border, close to Hull, the Humber Bridge spans the Humber Estuary to enable the A15 to link Hessle with Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire. When the last glacial period ended, the hunter gatherers of the Palaeolithic period followed the herds across the land between continental Europe and Britain. Until about 6,000 BC, Mesolithic people appear to have exploited their environment as they found it, as communities came to rely on a smaller territorial range and as population levels increased, attempts began to be made to modify or control the natural world. In the Great Wold Valley, pollen samples of Mesolithic date indicate that the forest cover in the area was being disturbed and altered by man, the Yorkshire Wolds became a major focus for human settlement during the Neolithic period as they had a wide range of natural resources. The oldest monuments found on the Wolds are the Neolithic long barrows, two earthen long barrows in the region are found at Fordon, on Willerby Wold, and at Kilham, both of which have radiocarbon dates of around 3700 BC. From around 2000 to 800 BC, the people of the Bronze Age built the 1,400 Bronze Age round barrows that are known to exist on the Yorkshire Wolds and these are found both in isolation and grouped together to form cemeteries
38.
Hunslet R.L.F.C.
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Founded in 1973 as New Hunslet, a replacement for the original Hunslet F. C. they became Hunslet in 1979 and played as Hunslet Hawks between 1995 and 2016. In July 1973, the original Hunslet club was wound up because no new location could be found that was financially viable. The £300,000 proceeds of the sale of Parkside were distributed to shareholders, the resurrected club had a new badge depicting a rising phoenix to symbolise their rebirth. The stay at the stadium was cut short when the owners closed the ground. In 1978, coach Bill Ramsey put a lot of pressure on the RFL, the club reverted to Hunslet for the 1979–80 season. After leaving Elland Road, Hunslet had a spell at Bramley. On 19 November 1995, the club, now known as Hunslet Hawks, moved to the South Leeds Stadium, on that day, Leigh were the guests at Hunslets first home game for twenty-two years. They then narrowly missed out on promotion from Division Two in 1996, coach Steve Ferres left to join Huddersfield and David Plange took over as player-coach. In 1997 the Hawks played in the first Challenge Cup Plate Final losing 60-14 to Hull Kingston Rovers and it was the Hawks first appearance at Wembley Stadium since 1965. Also in 1997, the Hawks were promoted to the First Division as champions, in 1999 as a possible merger between Hunslet and Bramley was debated. In 1999 Hunslet won the Northern Ford Premiership Grand Final against Dewsbury, 12–11, after that game the Hawks were denied entry to Super League by the Rugby Football League who cited a document called Framing the Future as justification. This caused a number of players to leave the club and for the attendance to fall by more than 1,200 to 800. A link-up with Leeds Rhinos saw Plange go to Headingley as Academy coach, Paul March was the player/coach at Hunslet, joining midway through the 2009 season following the resignation of Graeme Hallas. March guided Hunslet to a 6th-place finish and a spot in Championship 1. Hunslet travelled to Blackpool in the first week of the winning, 18–21, to set up an elimination semi-final against Oldham in which Hunslet were comfortably beaten. In 2010 Paul March led Hunslet to their first silverware for over 11 years by securing the Co-operative Championship 1 title, in 2012, Barry Eaton took over as coach. In 2014 Hunslet won the Grand Final after extra time against Oldham, Barry Eaton left in late January 2016 to join Leeds Rhinos and was replaced by his assistant coach and former Hunslet Hawks player Matt Bramald. Bramald left the club at the end of the 2016 season having completed his contract and he was replaced by former Hunslet player James Coyle
39.
Leeds Rhinos
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Leeds Rhinos R. L. F. C. is a professional rugby league club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. They play their matches at Headingley Rugby Stadium. The club was simply as Leeds until the end of the 1996 season. They are also known as the Loiners, referring to the demonym for a native of Leeds. In 1895, Leeds was one of rugby clubs which broke away from the Rugby Football Union. Leeds joined the Super League in 1996 and became Leeds Rhinos in 1997, the club is owned by the same company that owns Yorkshire Carnegie rugby union team, who also play their home matches at Headingley. Leeds have won thirteen Challenge Cups, ten League championships and three World Club Challenge titles, jenkinson placed an advert in the Leeds Mercury inviting players to meet up at Woodhouse Moor a few days a week from 7 am to 8 am. That advert attracted more than 500 members, from this interest several clubs were formed, including Leeds St Johns. Leeds St Johns was formed in 1870 and was known as the Old Blue. The club played at the Militia Barracks from 1870 to 1888 before moving to Cardigan Fields, near Headingley, membership was originally confined to the church classes but was soon expanded. By 1887 St Johns had reached its first cup final, the Yorkshire Cup losing to Wakefield Trinity, the city of Leeds had an abundance of rugby football clubs and although members of the Yorkshire RFU, it was decided to form a ‘more local’ association. It was for this reason that the Leeds & District organisation was formalised when a meeting place at the Green Dragon Hotel. The foundation clubs were Bramley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Kirkstall, Leeds Parish Church, Leeds St John’s, in 1888 the Cardigan Estate was sold at auction and Lot 17a was purchased by a group of Leeds citizens, who intended to form the citys leading sports club. Lot 17a became what is now Headingley Stadium, Leeds St Johns played its final season under that name in 1889–90, before becoming the football section of Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Co Ltd the following season. With Headingley still being completed, Leeds first game was staged at Cardigan Fields, the first game at Headingley was played on 20 September 1890, when Manningham were beaten by one try and one dropped goal to nil. In 189227,654 spectators, a record in British rugby. A special general meeting was held in 1895 which voted decisively to support the breakaway Northern Union as a founder member, Leeds début in the Northern Union was a 6–3 success at Leigh on 7 September 1895, the inaugural day of the new competition. In 1901, the Leeds Parish Church team disbanded and put all of its players at Leeds disposal and that same year saw the formation of the Northern Rugby League, with a number of leading clubs leaving the Yorkshire League and the Lancashire League and joining the new competition
40.
Leigh Centurions
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Leigh Centurions is a professional rugby league club in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Super League. The club was founded in 1878 and is one of the original clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. Leigh have been Rugby League Champions twice, in 1906 and 1982, the club was known simply as Leigh until the 1995-96 season, when it adopted the name Centurions. Leigh RFC was founded in 1878 by a surveyor named Fred Ulph, Leighs first practice match was on 5 October 1878 at Bucks Farm in Pennington and their first game was against Eccles two weeks later. In 1879, the moved to a field behind the Three Crowns in Bedford. Leigh came to the attention of the district in 1885 when they had a 23 match unbeaten run with 21 wins and 2 draws. As attendances grew, improvements were made to the ground and the slope was levelled. The club moved to Frog Hall Field, later known as Mather Lane in 1889, the pitch was drained and levelled, a 10 foot high hoarding was built around the ground and 500-seater stand was erected. The first game at Mather Lane was played on 7 September 1889 against Aspull, the 1894–95 season saw a new stand open on the south side in a momentous year for Rugby football. After years of arguments with the Rugby Football Union concerning player expenses,22 teams including Leigh decided to form a governing body – the Northern Union. The first season of the new game kicked off in September with Leigh recording a 6–3 loss against Leeds, Leigh had a great start in the new Union, they played well and the crowds increased, however they had mixed fortunes over the next few years. As the new century began, Leigh struggled and despite winning the West Lancashire and Border Towns Cup, in the 1904–05 season, there was a dispute with Wigan in the Challenge Cup game. The game was played on 4 March 1905 and Leigh won 3–0 in front of 13,000 spectators, Leigh were found guilty of fielding an ineligible player and ordered to replay without expenses and for Leigh the gate receipts to be given to the Northern Union. Wigan won the replay 5–0 and Leigh were so incensed that the club considered leaving the Northern Union, Leigh became a limited company as a result of this financial blow. In 1906, Leigh were Northern Union champions after a season with an 80% win rate, many clubs complained that Leigh had provided themselves with an easy fixture list, ducking the challenge of the stronger clubs and play-offs were brought in. In 1907–08, Leigh and Wigan were again in conflict in the Lancashire County Cup, an attendance record was set when 17,000 spectators watched Leigh and Wigan draw 3–3 at Mather Lane. Leigh lost the replay at Central Park but appealed for another replay because a Wigan player had left the field during the game without the referees permission, Leigh lost the second replay. In 1909, Mather Lane was upgraded when the embankment on the side was extended and raised giving the ground a capacity of 20,000 spectators
41.
Leigh, Greater Manchester
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Leigh is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England,7.7 miles southeast of Wigan and 9.5 miles west of Manchester city centre. Leigh is situated on low-lying land to the north west of Chat Moss, historically a part of Lancashire, Leigh was originally the centre of a large ecclesiastical parish covering six vills or townships. The town became an district in 1894 when part of Atherton was added. In 1899 Leigh became a municipal borough, the first town hall was built in King Street and replaced by the present building in 1907. Originally an agricultural area noted for farming, domestic spinning and weaving led to a considerable silk and, in the 20th century. Leigh also exploited the coal measures particularly after the town was connected to the canals. Leigh had an important engineering base, Leighs present-day economy is based largely on the retail sector. Leigh is derived from the Old English leah which meant a place at the wood or woodland clearing, other recorded spellings include Leech,1264, Leeche,1268, Leghthe,1305, Leght,1417, Lech,1451, Legh, 16th century. As its name denotes it was a district rich in meadow and pasture land, and the produce of its dairies, Westleigh, the west clearing, was Westeley in 1237, Westlegh in 1238 and Westlay in Legh in 1292. The ford of Beda, probably through the Pennington Brook gave its name to Bedford which was recorded as Beneford from 1200–21, the earliest signs of human activity in Leigh are evidenced by a Neolithic stone axe found in Pennington and a bronze spearhead from south of Gas Street. A single Roman coin was found at Butts in Bedford, after the Roman departure from Britain, and into the history of Anglo-Saxon England, nothing was written about Leigh. In the 12th century the ancient parish of Leigh was made up of six townships, including Pennington, Bedford, Westleigh, Atherton, Astley, weekly markets were held by the parish church and a cattle fair held twice-yearly. Bedford manor was mentioned in documents in 1202 when it was held by Sir Henry de Kighley whose family held it until the 16th century, the Shuttleworths, landowners from the 14th century, were another prominent Bedford family. Richard Shuttleworth married a daughter of the Urmstons from Westleigh and brought part of the Westleigh inheritance to Bedford. Another prominent Bedford family, the Sales of Hope Carr Hall, had a deal of influence in Bedford for over 400 years. The family were recusants and secretly kept the old faith when Roman Catholicism was subject to civil or criminal penalties, Hope Carr Hall was moated as was nearby Brick House. The manor house of Westleigh was at Higher Hall and existed in Richard Is time. In 1292 Sigreda, the heiress of the manor, married Richard de Urmston, and it was later abandoned because of mining subsidence and Westleigh Old Hall became the manor by repute
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