Chapter 2. The start of Rugby League

With the governance of the game though, all was not well. Rugby Union was ruled by ex Public School and Grammar School types, mostly though not completely from the south of England, who had little in common with the typically working class men who played the game in Yorkshire and Lancashire. They had little intention of conceding any of their power to such people and made sure they were outvoted in important matters, if necessary by using all the proxy votes they could muster. A major issue for the leading northern clubs was a desire to compensate players for time missed at work in order to take part, but they stood no chance of making such payments legal and risked suspension from zealots who chased them down. Compromise, such as happened in other sports like cricket and soccer, was never going to happen. So 22 of the northern clubs got together and decided to resign, and form their own League, which they chose to call The Northern Union. Nearly 30 years later they agreed to change that name to Rugby League. Two of those clubs who broke away were Halifax and Brighouse Rangers.

On the actual field of play, nothing was too much different for the breakaways, the new Northern Union using exactly the same rules at first. Changes followed later, but 15-a-side with rucks and mauls continued for another decade.

Other teams in the north remained in Rugby Union. There were just those 22 senior clubs in Northern Union, nothing else. Halifax finished as the first runners-up in 1895-6, with Brighouse Rangers also performing really well to earn fifth place. As if to confirm the strength of West Yorkshire, the first winners pipping Halifax for the title were Manningham, a club who later switched to soccer to become Bradford City. When the league expanded and split into separate Yorkshire and Lancashire sections in 1896-7, Brighouse Rangers became the first winners of what became known as the Yorkshire Senior Competition; Halifax were third.

Rugby Union continued as though nothing had happened for a time, running junior leagues in both Halifax and the Calder Valley, but over the next few years more and more northern clubs switched to the new organisation themselves as more leagues were formed. The Rugby Union imposed an immediate automatic ban on their players ever returning, hoping it would act as a deterrant, but there is no evidence it had any effect. In 1897 Todmorden joined the Yorkshire Junior Competition alongside Halifax “A” and Brighouse Rangers “A”, and in 1898 Elland and Luddenden Foot switched too. Hebden Bridge and Sowerby Bridge joined a Northern Union Yorkshire 2nd Competition, while Stainland allied with a Huddersfield & District League. Changing over was a simple matter when most of the rules were the same. Even the local cup changed codes; the original Halifax Charity Cup was used for the Northern Union competition from 1899. These clubs would have given expenses or made small payments to one or two of their best players, but they never really became professional in the modern sense.

Most of them took part in the Northern Union Challenge Cup, which started in season 1896-7, alongside senior clubs Halifax and Brighouse Rangers. In the third competition in 1898-9 Elland and Luddenden Foot were involved, Elland progressing further than Halifax who lost at Castleford in the first round. Luddenden Foot lost as well, by 63-3 at Salford, but Elland beat Workington 13-5, then Bowling 10-3, before coming down with a bump in an 86-0 thumping at Hull in the third round. The following season Elland, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge all lost in the first round away to Ossett, Brighouse Rangers and Wakefield Trinity respectively – Hebden Bridge giving up ground advantage. In 1900-1 Hebden Bridge beat Whitworth 6-0, ahead of defeat by Broughton Rangers, both at home, while Sowerby Bridge won at Todmorden only to lose at home to Brighouse. In 1901-2 Todmorden beat Featherstone 38-0 but lost 15-2 at Ossett and Hebden Bridge lost at Castleford. When Halifax won the Cup in 1902-3 they overcame a new Salterhebble team in the first round, where Sowerby Bridge had gone out at home to Batley, by 14-5, and Thrum Hall had lost 2-0 at Castleford. Hebden Bridge were involved again in 1903-4 and 1905-6.

Despite their name, Thrum Hall had no connection with the senior Halifax club, playing on a field beside the Golden Pheasant pub. Pellon New Road was later built through it, though a significant triangular patch of the field still remains as grassland to this day, while the pub was relocated across to the other side of the new road and is now Lanika’s Restaurant. It was one of the area’s better, flatter pitches, but came with a higher rental charge than most. The club held their meetings at the Horse and Jockey pub at Highroad Well.

Rugby Union was almost obliterated round here. Figures show that in 1895 there were 416 adult clubs in membership of the Rugby Football Union, of which 147 were in Yorkshire. Ten years later there were 155, with just five in Yorkshire and none in Halifax. Mytholmroyd, the one team to stay loyal, prospered for a short time, but had folded by 1905. Old Rastrickians and Halifax St Jude’s (at Sandhall Lane) gave it a go unsuccessfully, so too did one picking up the old Halifax Rangers name from 1907 to 1909 (sharing the Pheasant ground and also playing at Ovenden Cross) but other new rugby clubs starting up opted for the Northern Union version, if only because in Rugby Union there would be no local team to play against.

Rugby Union in Halifax was later to rise from the dead in some style, but not for several years.