Liversedge RFC

Early Days

There is little evidence about the early Liversedge club other than it was founded in 1877. The club could be found playing in the Yorkshire Rugby Union League in the early 1890s.

Northern Union

Prior to the great schism in rugby, Liversedge, like many other clubs from Yorkshire (and Lancashire), had suffered punishment by the Rugby Football Union for "broken time" payments. As a result, Liversedge, represented by a Mr. J. H. Hampshire, attended a meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, together with the representatives of 21 other clubs, and agreed to form a Northern Rugby Football Union.

Liversedge thereby became one of the founder members of the new league. In the first season, 1895–96, the league consisted of 22 clubs and Liversedge finished in 15th position. In season 1896–97, the league was divided into Yorkshire and Lancashire, Liversedge playing in the former section, where they would stay for the remainder of their semi-professional existence. They did slightly better, finishing in 11th position out of 16 teams. In the following four seasons (1897–98, 1898–99, 1899–1900, 1900–01), still in the Yorkshire section, they finished bottom in every season except 1898–99, when they managed to finish second bottom, in each case out of the 16 clubs.

In their final season, 1901–02 they yet again won the wooden spoon, finishing 14th out of 14 teams with only six points. They dropped out of the league after the end of season 1901–02.

Successor clubs

Although Liversedge RFC were founder members of the Rugby League, the town does not have the Rugby League heritage of other towns in the area. Following the demise of the original club, an Association Football club, Liversedge F.C., was founded in its stead in 1910, one of a number of instances of code switching around that time. If this statement is true, it could be assumed that after losing the position in the Yorkshire Senior Competition, the club played for several years in a lower league.

Today the town is represented by Liversedge ARLFC who play at Primrose Lane (off Bradford Road) in the Third Division of the Pennine Amateur Rugby League.

Notable players

Harry Varley (25 November 1867 - 21 November 1915) played rugby union for England v Scotland in 1892 while with Liversedge. He went on to play under the new code for Liversedge and Oldham.

Robert "Bob" Wood (born 1873) played rugby union for England v Ireland in 1894 and at club level for Liversedge.

Club Trophies

Liversedge did not win any trophies, although reached the final of the Yorkshire Challenge Cup in 1888-89 during their rugby union days. They lost 18-16 to Otley (1 goal, 1 try, 4 minors to 1 goal, 0 tries, 4 minors).

League Record (incomplete)

^A League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0 ^B Only limited County League information is available for this season

Fixtures & Results (incomplete)

The following are a selection of Liversedge's fixtures from the seven seasons in which they played semi-professional Rugby League:

^A Folly Fields was the stadium used by Wigan at the time until 1901. They then became sub-tenants of Springfield Park See below - Note 3. ^B Lowerhouse Lane is the original site of the current ground used by Widnes. It was renamed Naughton Park in 1932 in honour of club secretary, Tom Naughton - and later renamed Halton Stadium after being completely rebuilt in 1997. ^C Wigan became sub-tenants of Springfield Park, which they shared with Wigan United AFC, playing their first game there on 14 September 1901 at which a crowd of 4,000 saw them beat Morecambe 12–0, and the last game on 28 April 1902 when Wigan beat the Rest of Lancashire Senior Competition. A temporary ground was necessary to span the period between moving from Folly Fields and the new ground at Central Park being constructed. ^D CC Rx: Challenge Cup Round x; YC Rx: Yorkshire Cup Round x; YSC: Yorkshire Senior Competition ^E Only limited County League information is available for season (1901–02)