Chapter 16. New Clubs

Locally, the optimism led to the formation of a host of new clubs in the early years of the Pennine League.

Mixenden were the first. The earlier team, once on a field up on the tops above the Stone Chair out towards Mount Tabor, had folded, but a resurrected side started in 1973. With no available ground in Mixenden itself, they found a home alternating with St Mary’s at Wellesley Park, Dave Hooson, Alan Greenwood, Gary Beverley and Arnie Thorpe among their star players. Their second team was revived, operating on The Moor, while youth teams used a pitch at the side of Mixenden community centre, too small for open-age. Having won the Halifax Championship in 1976 and 1979 and the Cup in 1981, they folded in 1984, but rose from the dead briefly before bowing out in 1986 citing a lack of administrators, and staged another short revival in 1992.

The new incarnation of Todmorden were formed in early 1974, joining Pennine League division 3 for 1974-5. They played up in the hills at the Highfield ground at Cross Stone, changing in the Bay Horse car park using two tin baths, but grew into two open-age teams with two junior sides, training at Dobroyd Castle gym and Centre Vale Park, where they later had a pitch. They were to win Rochdale Charity Cup and reached the Halifax Cup Final in 1999. They developed some decent players in their time, including Johnny Hammond (Oldham and Rochdale), Barry Connor (Oldham) and Neil Cowie (Rochdale Hornets and Wigan). The name continued for many years until just after the turn of the century, matches being played in Lancashire as well as Yorkshire.

The present-day Brighouse Rangers team emerged in March 1977, reformed once more after a meeting in the Rydings Hall. They started in Pennine League Division 5 later that year, drawing 1-1 with Todmorden in their first match. One of the founders was John Chase, a former Bradford Northern forward, who made early appearances in his fifties before the team progressed through the leagues, notable later products being Nigel Marshall and Scott Wilson, who both signed for Halifax. They played at Wellholme Park, changing beside the neighbouring well-known Brighouse cricket field, but when that was sold to a supermarket, moved in at the even-better new joint cricket and rugby league venue a mile or so along Bradford Road at Russell Way in 2004. They were Pennine League Division One champions in 2005 and figured in four consecutive Halifax Fee Cup Finals between 2012 and 2015, winning the trophy twice.

St Mary’s, having gained fresh impetus when re-named Park Amateurs in 1976, took over the former Lord Raglan pub in Hanson Lane as a headquarters when Webster’s Brewery handed them a 6-year lease, later switching to Halifax Cricket Club when the Raglan was sold. They became strong enough on the field to reach the Yorkshire Cup Final in 1991, and were one of the few clubs with enough players to form a “B” team in the lower divisions. They were later to merge with King Cross Juniors to become King Cross Park, and after a stint playing at the former Princess Mary Grammar School, now part of Calderdale College, acquired the ex King Cross cricket field ground in Hopwood Lane, where they now boast a spectacular new clubhouse and several teams.

Elland, despite an illustrious past, were without a team at the birth of the Pennine league, but in 1978 a group of Rugby League enthusiasts employed at Portland Engineering entered a team in the local workshops competition under the name of parent-firm Ogden Engineering, who sponsored them. They changed names to Elland when joining the league and rapidly made their way to the Premier Division, playing on a field belonging to Brooksbank School to start with, then at Hammerstones Lane before settling on Goldfields at Greetland Community Centre. With the Fairbank brothers and other star players they obviously threatened success and were another to field a “B” team, using Elland Rec as a second field and sometimes Stainland for youth matches. Many honours followed; in 1986-7 they were to win the BARLA Yorkshire Cup, then in 1987-8 followed up by almost winning the National Cup but missing out in the Final to Wigan St Patricks. The loss of players to the professional ranks stalled progress, but they are still going.

Stainland Stags. There had been several teams in Stainland before, but Stags date from 1980, taking their name from the deer farm a mile down the road in Holywell Brook owned by then Halifax Town AFC president Sam Rourke. Founder member Mick Agus, previously with Greetland and Elland, set the ball rolling with a notice in the village which was well-received, headquarters set up at The Bull and Dog public house in the village, and a pitch on the local recreation ground secured. They changed at the Mechanics Institute until dressing rooms were created attached to the hostelry. Playing in a close-knit village helped create a spirit that saw them progress through the lower divisions of the Pennine League.

Sowerby Spartans, formed following a meeting at the Church Stile Inn in Sowerby, chose their name after hearing that Romans, Saracens and Spartans once roamed the village. They started off in Division 7 in 1982, coached by founder-member Roger Schofield, a former Siddal and Keighley prop forward. They trained and played at Ryburn Secondary School, but after more than two decades bit the dust in 2004. A breakaway group had joined Sowerby Bridge Robins and they ran out of numbers.

Calder Valley were resurrected as a club in 1985-6, the brainchild of a couple of Elland players who lived in Mytholmroyd. Their headquarters were the Grove Inn, under which name they entered the 1987 workshops competition for practice ahead of joining the league in season 1987-8. Outdoor training was at Midgley Rec, indoors at Calder High School, whose grounds they used for their first pitch. Afterwards they used Brearley Fields between the river and canal, moving their headquarters to The Old Brandy Wine in Luddenden Foot, where there were showers and changing rooms, and training on Holmes Park across the road. They continued through to 2008.

Boothtown, sometimes known as Boothtown Rangers, brought rugby league back to the area after a long break in 1984. Fans of the sport Michael Donnachie and Colin Hardcastle bought potential club premises – the Serbian Orthodox Club – in the village and after considering reviving the Mixenden club there, opted instead to relaunch a Boothtown team, being presented with the kit used by a previous incarnation. A pitch opposite the club in Grantham would have been ideal, but they had to settle on Savile Park. Rosy prospects came to nothing when they folded three years later.

Amateur Rugby League under BARLA was going from strength to strength, and not just in Halifax. Within a couple of years of its formation there were 300 member clubs, which had risen to 400 for the first time ever by 1985, to 500 by 1990 and to a height of 543 in season 1994-5. The Pennine League at its peak in 1986-7 boasted 87 teams in nine divisions.

Lots of new clubs were still being formed in the Calderdale area, where interest in Rugby League was at its height in the late 1980s following the Halifax team’s Championship win and two Wembley appearances. Australians attracted much of the national media attention for that, but local products Scott Wilson (Brighouse Rangers), Ben Beevers (Ovenden) and Mick Scott (Siddal) were just as influential.

Among these new clubs were several who first started off in the annual summer workshops competitions which had revived a few years before. Now usually staged at the grounds of Illingworth, Ovenden and Siddal rather than Thrum Hall as they were long ago, adverts would be placed in the Courier for teams to enter, usually with a good response. There could be as many as 20 teams some years, now often more commonly pub sides rather than works sides, who would play in groups followed by play-offs. As well as providing rugby for countless new players (eligibility rules changed over the years but generally restricted established lads) the competition also proved lucrative for the Halifax League organisers, through entry fees and match-night collections from spectators. Their bank account flourished around this time.

Several of the workshops teams who enjoyed the experience took the plunge to ambitiously join the Pennine League, and some of them prospered for a time. Now that this league had expanded, inexperienced teams could join the bottom division confident in knowing they would meet opposition more comparable to themselves than in earlier single-league systems.

The most successful were Boothtown Terriers, not connected to the previous Boothtown set up and not even as Boothtown to start with. They began life in 1986 as a Territorial Army rugby team founded by Corporal Andrew Charlesworth, Sergeant Graham Taylor and Colour Sergeant Don Sunderland. Most of the others were Army lads too, with training at the Drill Hall, and a pitch located that had formerly been used by Heath Grammar School at Conways in Free School Lane below the Infirmary, playing on Sundays. They entered the Workshops as Halifax Terriers before taking the step up to the Pennine League in 1990. The bombing of the Army Careers Centre, and consequent threat to the Drill Hall brought a move to the Three Pigeons pub, with changing rooms in the cellar. With Ian Lloyd and Malcolm Burks among the early coaching staff, a second team was formed, then an Under 15s in the West Yorkshire League. Whilst neither of these lasted long, and the first team are also now gone, they do now have many junior teams in the Yorkshire Junior League.

With the ground lost to the building site below the Halifax Infirmary, they were lucky enough to locate the former Sunnyside school field at Ellen Royd, which they developed into a fine ground and prompted a new club name, Boothtwon Terriers. Changing was initially at North Bridge Leisure Centre, entailing an uphill walk to the field, but they later created changing rooms at the ground. Junior teams were formed again, while the Handicap Cup was won in 1999-2000 and once more in 2003-4. Founder Andy Charlesworth played over 300 games for them, while Graham Charlesworth was another star player.

The Handicap Cup was a chance for every team, not just the leading ones, to win a cup competition. It started in 1991-2 as a replacement for the end-of-season championship play-offs, which were scrapped that year. Initially Premier Division sides started on scratch, Division 1 sides with 15 points, Division2 with 30, Division 3 with 45, and Division 4 and Sunday sides with 60pts. Later changes resulted in each team getting a points start based on finishing position the previous season. When Boothtown won it in 2003-4 they actually lost the final against Calder Valley by 30-7 on the field of play, but had 25 points start.

Another relatively successful workshops team were Ram International, a kitchen company from Sowerby Bridge, who had been part of the July 1989 Workshops competition. They joined the Pennine League in 1990 as Ram Kitchens, playing at Savile Park with headquarters at The Folly public house at Upper Washer Lane(formerly The Royal and now the Wainhouse Tavern), became Spring Ram in 1991 and Cooke Street Rams in 1992. Following a new sponsorship deal from the owner of the former Friendly snooker club at the top of Tuel Lane, they became Sowerby Bridge Robins, with changing rooms in the club and playing on the field just above, and continued for several seasons until the club was lost to housing.

However, others who joined the Pennine League soon packed in. A ground of their own, a reliable headquarters, administrative support and a big enough dedicated playing roster were crucial elements that were not always in place, or not for long enough. Player supply could also become an issue with too many new teams forming, sometimes affecting teams already in place, but also posing problems for the newcomers themselves in due course.

One who gave it a go were 1986 Workshops winners Ovenden Way Hotel, who joined the league in 1986-7. Also from the 1986 competition were Oddfellows Inn, Elland (where player Mick Agus was landlord), who joined in 1988 and lasted a bit longer, using Elland Recreation Ground. Workshops stalwarts Talbot Inn followed in 1989, on a pitch at Tar Hill while training at Catholic High School and Furness Community Centre, but withdrew a couple of years later. Friendly Inn on Ovenden Road joined up, as did Furness from Illingworth in 1993, while two who joined in 1994, Dimensions Gym (playing at Brooksbank School) and the Lonsdale pub at Wheatley, were League members for the same three years. Meanwhile, John Fredericks Plastics of Elland, who had been workshops entrants in 1990, and pub sides Three Pigeons and William IV, all initially opted for a Sunday set-up in the West Yorkshire League, which was seen as less intense than the Pennine League, and kept going for a short while.

A Brighouse team starting out in 1991 named themselves Round Tavern after courting that pub for support, joining Pennine League Division 4 while playing and training at Hipperholme & Lightcliffe High School. The following year they changed their name to Brighouse Celtic, winning the 1993 Handicap Cup Final, but the success was not enough to prolong their stay beyond that year. Following in 1994 for a slightly longer period were Shelf Lions, based at the Duke William hostelry but, with no available field nearby, took over from Brighouse Celtic at Hipperholme & Lightcliffe School.

They all gave it their best shot, but some on the League Management Committee became concerned about the withdrawals and argued that new teams should be more thoroughly vetted in future. However it was just how local Rugby League had always been, others feeling that those who took the trouble to form and run teams were doing the game a service and increasing participation even if it might only be temporarily, and preferred to offer them praise and encouragement. The latter view prevailed.

In the 1994-5 season Park Amateurs won the Pennine League Premier Division, with Ovenden runners-up and Siddal fourth. The other Halifax teams, no matter how long they lasted, were able to find their own level in a division where they would always have a chance of winning on any particular weekend. In addition to a Presidents Cup for the top sides, the Andrew Bennett Memorial Trophy became a cup competition for middle-ranking teams, and the Supplementary Cup for lower-division teams.

Wainstalls were a new club formed in 1993, growing out of the Cat i’th’ Well pub workshops entrants, though the wheels had been set in motion at the nearby Cross Roads hostely until its landlord moved on. Instrumental were Sandra Beaumont and ex-Greetland stalwart husband Dave, having been spurred on by a group of lads wanting to play friendlies. They progressed beyond that to the Pennine League where, despite having to play their home fixtures at the exposed Roils Head, one of the last teams to suffer that fate, they persevered for longer than many others. Former Ovenden player Tony Williams became coach and they won the Division 4 Championship and Handicap Cup, steadily progressing over the following seasons, forming a second team and reaching the semi-final of the Halifax Cup in 1996-7. Training was sensibly moved away from Roils Head to a floodlit astro-turf pitch at Luddenden Foot, then to a car park in Halifax town centre, while use was also made of the former Wainstalls cricket field. They continued until 1998, those players wishing to continue mainly then joining Illingworth.

The most successful of this new batch of clubs turned out to be Irish Club, later more commonly known as Halifax Irish, who started out on Savile Park. Formed in 1995, they were to win the Halifax Fee Cup on several occasions after the turn of the century and remained a strong team for over twenty years, becoming Pennine League Premier Division champions in 2008 and aspiring for a while to move up the Conference League. They added the Pennine Presidents Cup Final to their honours board in 2012 when beating Drighlington 26-12 in the final at the Dewsbury Rams ground. John Maguire, who had played professionally for Mansfield Marksman, was a significant figure.

Separate junior teams, unaffiliated to open-age sides, had more or less become a thing of the past, but three new ones appeared in this period, though all were to later merge with senior clubs themselves. One was King Cross Juniors, who had started out around 1987 with half a dozen lads playing on Savile Park and a headquarters at Queens Road Neighbourhood Centre. The sons of Chris Anderson and Graham Eadie became involved and they began to prosper as a team, using Heath School as a base and playing across the road at Conways. They later changed to Old Crossleyans RUFC, but in 2004 agreed to move to Halifax Vandals RUFC at Warley. Vandals were keen to have juniors involved to help in a bid for grants for the creation of a new clubhouse and field towards Newlands, and the Vandals name appeared in the junior league tables for the first time. But it wasn’t Vandals having a go at League – it was still King Cross, in disguise. When the new clubhouse was finished, Vandals wanted King Cross to switch to Union, but they were Rugby League players, and instead merged with Park Amateurs to create King Cross Park. Among their best players were the Grix brothers, Steve and Simon, Liam Finn and Jaymes Chapman. And Gareth Widdop.

Another junior club was Elland Boxers. Formed in 1988 and named after sponsors Boxer Services of Elland, they were based at Elland Working Men’s Club, and later Greetland Dyers Club, home to the Elland open-age club, with whom they amalgamated. They had five players in the Halifax Schools Under 11 side that featured in the 1991 Wembley Challenge Cup Final, Ian Gilmour scoring two tries. Differing age groups played in the West Riding League and Cup competitions, as well as the Halifax Cup, with some success over several seasons to this day.

There was also a junior club at Bailiff Bridge, who eventually joined with Brighouse Rangers to form a strong youth set-up there. Bailiff Bridge Panthers were open-age members of the Pennine League from 2002 to 2004.