The Origins of the New Calder Valley

Evie Godfrey

colour photo of Paul Shaw and Billy White who are both bald and smiling for the camera, wearing light-coloured shirts

Clubs > Calder Valley > The Origins of the New Calder Valley

The Origins of the New Calder Valley

Move the calendar forward to the 1980’s and Rugby League is big news in Halifax and the Calder Valley. The after years in the doldrums, the professional side was now doing well. They had been promoted to the First Division,  won the Rugby League First Championship and were destined to win the RFL Challenge Cup and appear in a second final. The team under Chris Anderson was the talk of the town.

At the time there was no amateur Rugby League team between Park Amateurs in Halifax and Todmorden and there was certainly the potential for a new club along the Calder Valley.

The founders of Calder Valley, Paul Shaw and Billy White, realised this and decided to try to form their own club. Both hadcolour photo of Paul Shaw and Billy White who are both bald and smiling for the camera, wearing light-coloured shirts been travelling across to play at Elland, along with fellow players, Wally Wade and ex-Brighouse man, Gary Lund, from the village of Luddenden. A club closer to home would reduce travelling time for games and training.

Paul quipped “I got sick of clipping the kerb on the way back from training!.”

Having taken the decision to form a team, the detailed hard work to establish the team and get it up and running. They spoke to friends and family and to work colleagues to find committee members, sponsors and of course players. Paul’s then wife, Janet, who worked at the Halifax Courier, was a real driving force behind the venture.

Paul explained that he spoke with

“all my colleagues at Bibby’s. The staff at Bibby’s were very instrumental – Trevor Glover, Norman Richardson, Dave Crossley, Brian Atkinson, Roger Jackson. Norman, the boss, gave us permission to fabricate anything we needed.”

This was very useful in the coming years as many items were fabricated for the club including floodlight stands.

colour photo of Grove Inn at Brierley which is a set of terraced buildings that have a light-coloured exterior, with a few cars parked outsideThe other key elements to setting up the club were a pitch and a headquarters. Billy’s sister Sue and husband, Dave Coop were running the Grove Inn at Brierley. They agreed to the Grove becoming the club’s base. Calder High and it’s playing fields became the club’s home ground.

Paul and Billy advertised a Sunday morning meeting at the Grove Inn in the Halifax Courier. They turned up with some anticipation. Only 4 potential players turned up! But Paul and Billy  were not disillusioned and kept talking about their new team to as many people as possible and arranged a second meeting when over 20 attended.

They also had medical cover in the form of Dave Stafford, who explains.

“I was hounded by John Charley, (committee member and father of player Shaun) to help out as I was first aid trained.”

Dave stayed with the club as did his elder son, Jamie, who was club mascot, until 1992 when Jamie started to play Rugby League for King Cross Juniors and Dave joined their committee where he served for 14 years.

Calder Valley had a squad of players, they had a headquarters, they had a ground and they had a shirt sponsor in local company, Lamric Engineering.

Calder Valley ARLFC was on its way!

colour photo of team in two rows wearing yellow and black kits

The team came together under the coaching of Barry Gravenor(front row right above) and he moulded a disparate group of players into a team. There were experienced players from a number of local clubs including Ovenden and Elland but also lads who had never played before including bike riders and footballers. During the first season, the club played a series of friendlies with many games being against a Park Amateurs “C” team which were always willing to turn out thanks to the help of Park’s Graham Hellowell. Many of the games were refereed by local referee, Allan Reid.