The advent of King Cross Park

Evie Godfrey

colour photo of the 2010 team in rows, wearing their kits

Clubs > King Cross Park > The advent of King Cross Park

The advent of King Cross Park

Kings Cross Park logo with two yellow animals and ornate decorations

Park Amateurs were now playing from the same headquarters, Old Crossleyans, as junior Rugby League club, King Cross. The clubs were working well together as co-tenants of the union club and it was perhaps inevitable that this cooperation would develop into a full merger of the two clubs.

In 2007 this merger came about and a new club KING CROSS PARK ARLFC was born.

The merged club started life in the Pennine League in 2007-2008 coached by Damian Ball in the first half of the season and by Lee Brook and Danny Fearon in the second half.

colour photo of the 2010 team in rows, wearing their kits

The team shown above was from 2010 and included several players, Adam Barrett, Stef Bradwell, Jack White and Aiden Dewhirst, who arrived after the Calder Valley Club folded in 2008.

The club moved to their new headquarters and future ground at Kingston. King Cross Park played some games on College pitch just down the road from Kingston.

By 2014 the first team were playing in the Championship Division of the Pennine League.

The change to summer Rugby League brought King Cross Park into the Yorkshire Mens League (YML). By 2017 they were in Division 2 and finished in 4th place.

The following season in 2018 was a very successful one for the club as they won the Yorkshire Mens League Division 2 title and were promoted to Division 1 where they held their own in 2019 winning 8 of their 14 games to finish 4th in a Division which included local team Brighouse Rangers.

With the covid pandemic causing disruption to all aspects of daily life and the YML did not take place in 2020. The YML resumed in 2021 and the King Cross Park first team featured in Division again in Division 1 finishing 3rd. (7/11).

Further progress was made in 2022 as a successful year in which they scored on average over 30 points per game King Cross Park finished  runners up in YML Division 1. This meant they were promoted to the YML Premier Division.

King Cross Park show that  they could handle the YML Premier Division and consolidated their place by finishing in 5th place in 2023 and in 3rd place in 2024. In both seasons, the team scored plenty of points, averaging over 25 per game.