Clubs > Brighouse Rangers > Successor Clubs

Successor Clubs

After the club’s demise in 1906, there were attempts to revive the club and Brighouse Rangers were reformed several times, notably during the First World War and played in the Emergency War League in season 1915–16, 1916–17, 1917–18 and the 1918–19 (Jan) wartime league but not in the shortened 1919 (Feb – May) Victory League. There were also attempts made in the nineteen thirties and forties but to no avail.

Another Brighouse club was formed and their open age team played the 1958-9 and 1959-60 seasons. Around the same time, Brighouse fielded an U17 team from 1956 to 1959 and an U19 team in the 1956-57 and 1957-58 seasons. The club was run by Roy Sheperd who was a teacher at Ovenden School. The club continued only for a short period as Roy moved to Southport to take up a new teaching position and the club folded.

Gerry Slattery, who played both U17 and open age for the club and later was a regular and captain at Illingworth ARLFC, remembers

“..half the lads were local to Brighouse but quite a few of us came from the Ovenden area. We trained on Sundays and played on Saturdays. For training, we changed under the trees in Wellholme Park and washed in the stream! Travelling back on bus to Ovenden we were smelling of cow muck.”

The match day changing facilities were originally behind a local café but moved into the changing rooms at Blakeboroughs foundry.