Boothtown Terriers

Evie Godfrey

colour photo of Andrew “Charlie” Charlesworth who is looking at the camera and smiling, they have short brown hair, wearing a red regimental jacket, a white shirt and black bow tie against a white wall

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Boothtown Terriers

Military Origins

The story of the birth of another new team in Boothtown is a long and fascinating story. It begins not in Boothtown, not even in Halifax.  The story starts on a military training camp in North Yorkshire just southwest of Richmond. “C” company of the Yorkshire Volunteer Regiment were training on a live firing range.

colour photo of Andrew “Charlie” Charlesworth who is looking at the camera and smiling, they have short brown hair, wearing a red regimental jacket, a white shirt and black bow tie against a white wallAndrew “Charlie” Charlesworth – a Corporal at the time- remembers,

“ …a rugby ball appeared during a lunchbreak so we started to play a game of Rugby League”

“Charlie” had a conversation with Sargeant Graham “Jai” Taylor which led to the suggestion “why don’t we form a team?”  This they did at a time when Rugby League was not allowed nor tolerated in the armed forces. They named the team after their unit C Company 1 Yorks. They played their first games against other units such as “A” Company who were from Huddersfield. Eventually in 1986, they had played 14 games against other units and one or two pub teams. In the Yorkshire Volunteers Intercompany Challenge, “C” company came out on top against “A”, “B”, “D”, “E” and “HQ” companies winning every game. The team was captained by Colour Sargeant Don Sunderland.

The following year, 1987, the four Yorkshire Battalions played each other and “C” Company played the odd friendly with teams in the Halifax area to give a season of 18 matches. Martin Crouch of Illingworth, who became a popular local referee, spent some time helping to coach the team in their early days. Martin remembers with some humour coaching the lads down at the Drill Hall in Halifax.

“I was coaching defence. I explained how to move forwards and backwards in a straight line and to do this together avoiding creating a gap. As soldiers, all the lads were trained to do this and did the drill perfectly. I quickly moved on to the next coaching point!”

“C” Company Rugby League played against RAF Catterick, Light Infantry and the Duke of Wellington Regiment as well as games on deployment in Germany and Gibraltar. They even found time to play local sides Siddal and Greetland All Rounders.

As the club became more established more army personnel joined the team and soon they had a squad of well over 20 players.

Halifax Terriers

The team name had now changed and the Halifax Terriers ARLFC ( a nod to the Territorial Army origins of the team) club was formed. They still played from the Drill Hall and played on the Halifax Infirmary pitch.  As it was not possible to enter a formal, organised league due to job commitments, led to the club playing friendlies for three or four seasons, mainly on a Sunday against local Halifax clubs and entered the annual Halifax Workshops competition.  Throughout the period it was Charlie and Andy Kendall who kept topping the tries scored and goals kicked charts.

In 1988, the club moved to the Standard of Freedom public house which led to some players wishing to stay at the Three Pigeons setting up their own separate team which played for a season in the West Riding Sunday League.

Halifax Terriers had entered the Halifax 7’s competition for the first time in 1988 finishing as runners up in the plate competition. The Terriers entered the competition for several seasons wining the trophy in 1989 and ending up plate runners up for the next two years.

black and white photo of Boothtown Terriers team in the 1980s, two rows of players with their arms crossed, on the pitch, wearing their kitsThey also playing in the Halifax Workshops competition for the first time in 1988 finishing runners up in Workshops Division 3 and repeated that feat the following year.

The Pennine League finally became the playing home of the Halifax Terriers in 1990 when they joined Division 8. Charlie commented on their first season,

“… with most of the team still in the army, we managed to get through the season and were awarded the 8th Division Fair Play Trophy”

The Terriers finished in 8th place in the table and won 7 of their 20 games. Andy Kendall kick 45 goals and top try scorer was Dave Love, who had joined the club the year before and scored 21 tries to win the Players’ Player Award,  with  a season tally of 20.

There was an enforced change of headquarters for the 1991-92 season as the IRA campaign to bomb army recruitment centres including the Halifax office caused the Drill Hall to become off limits.  The club quickly arranged to move to the Three Pigeons public House where showers and changing rooms were set up in the cellar. Ex-Halifax professional Mal Burks joined as assistant coach with Andy Charlesworth.

With the reorganisation of the Pennine League to include Alliance Divisions for teams below clubs’ first team, the Terriers found themselves in Division 4 for the 1991-92 season where they finished bottom of the table with only a single victory from their 20 games. The club had to regroup.. It was a successful campaign under the coaching of Mal Burke who had taken over the coaching reigns.  as the following season the Terriers were in Division 3.

With Jai Taylor and Charlie now having left the Army there was only a handful of players still serving by the end of the 1993-4 campaign.

1994 was a significant year in the club’s story. Not only was the club attracting players, playing in Division 3  but also its playing strength now enabled the club to enter an “A” team in the Pennine League Alliance Division 3. Furthermore, the club moved to a new headquarters at the Clairmont Liberal Club where they would stay for two years,  having started the season at the Ring O Bells.  The club also started to play its home games at Roils Head and  on Saville Park in Halifax. Charlie recounts part of the move to their new home,

“… our rugby posts needed to be stored at the Claremont Liberal Club. We marched through Halifax up to Boothtown carrying the posts. We were quite a sight.”

Life in Division 3 obviously suited the players at the Terriers as in 1994-5 season Halifax Terriers were Division 3 Champions winning an impressive 17 of 20 league games. The “A” team made a good, if not spectacular, start to life in Alliance 3 winning 6 of their 18 games.

In the 1994-95 season, there were changes at the club with new members on the committee including Bill Kenny (ex-Oldham and Rochdale) as President.  Mal Burks departed the coaching team to return to Siddal and Mick Wolfenden became head coach with Dave Robinson and “A” team coach. Brothers Andy and Kev Charlesworth were “A” team captain. In the first team it was Dave Love who again took the Players’ Player award.

The club also ran an U15’s side which played in the West Yorkshire League. But after winning all their 8 games, they folded “due to disciplinary reasons”.

The club was now nearly 10 years old and this season was really the launch pad for the club’s success in the coming years.