All Golds v Coventry Bears KPL1S 2017 FINAL

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THE RUGBY LEAGUE ATLAS WRITTEN BY GEORGE COWBURN 6 When the Northern Union broke away from the RFU in 1895 it was, as the name implies, purely a northern organisation. All the 22 founder clubs were from Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire, seven of whom are no longer with us, namely Manningham – who were the first winners of the league and later became Bradford City association football club – Runcorn, Brighouse, Tyldesley, Liversedge, Stockport and Broughton Rangers. Quite early on, efforts were made to break out of the northern boundaries and in 1908 there were six teams from South Wales in the Northern Union, enough to form a small Welsh league within the organisation. Merthyr and Ebbw Vale were the first to join in 1907 followed by Mid Rhondda, Treherbert, Barry and Aberdare in 1908. Sadly, by the end of the 1912, season all had gone. A perceived lack of support from up north, lack of funds and the ability of the RFU to turn a blind eye to remaining Welsh clubs paying their players spelt the end of expansion in Wales at the time. It is not the first time our opponents today, Coventry Bears, have had a rugby league club in their city either. In 1910 Coventry joined the Northern Union. Based at the Old Bull Fields (locally known as ‘the Butts’) they bumped along around the bottom of the league for three seasons, giving up the ghost after the 1912 season when they finished last with no wins and just one draw in 27 matches. Their only claim to fame was the one international cap won by their player J Tomes. Starved of success and money the club collapsed after 1912 and later reformed as a RU club who now play alongside the Bears at the Butts Arena. www.allgoldsrugby.com @AllGolds facebook.com/AllGoldsRugby
Further efforts in Wales (Pontypridd in 1927 and 1928 plus Cardiff in 1951) came to nought but in the 1930s an attempt was first made to establish the game in London following the success of the Challenge Cup Final which had moved to the capital in 1929. Wigan Highfield moved to London for the 1934 season to be known as London Highfield. Despite a respectable mid table finish they only lasted one season, returning north and reforming as Liverpool Stanley. Businessman and Greyhound Stadium owner Sydney Parkes dipped his toe in the water in 1935 when the Streatham and Mitcham club was founded along with the Acton and Willesden club. Acton were “one season wonders” and Streatham barely lasted much longer, disbanding after 26 games of their second season. Despite the attraction of star players such as New Zealand All Blacks international George Nepia, London, it seemed, wasn’t ready for a rugby league club of its own. After the Second World War, the entry into the league of Workington Town in 1945 and Whitehaven in 1948 raised the profile of the game in Cumberland, as it then was, particularly after Town won the 1952 Challenge Cup final. They were followed by our friends from Doncaster in 1951 and Blackpool in 1954 (though they are sadly no longer with us) after which the league settled down to a 30 club format. The entry of Fulham in 1980, now of course London Broncos, heralded a plethora of new clubs, mostly short-lived apart from 1984 newcomers Sheffield Eagles and the Broncos themselves. Who remembers Carlisle or Cardiff Blue Dragons/ Bridgend and Kent/Southend Invicta, Mansfield Marksmen/ Nottingham City and Scarborough Pirates (though a club by that name still exists)? They were mainly isolated clubs who foundered partly because of their isolation and partly due to a lack of a coordinated effort to grow the game in those areas. Now there are people with sincerely held views (sometimes known as flatcappers) who feel the game should concentrate all its efforts, and be firmly based, in the North although there are also many people who welcome the expansion the game has seen in recent years. London now has two teams, the Broncos and the Skolars, as does Wales with the Crusaders and the Ironmen, and France is represented by Catalan Dragons and Toulouse Olympique despite the earlier failures of Paris St German and Toulouse. Newcastle Thunder are well established in the North East despite two unsuccessful seasons for a Newcastle team in the 1930s and the All Golds, Coventry Bears, Hemel Stags and Oxford continue to fly the flag in their areas. Fingers crossed the game will take root in Canada and North America spearheaded by Toronto Wolfpack and that’s just in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere the divisive Super League war of the mid-1990s saw mergers (St George and Illawarra and the disastrous North Sydney and Manly) and a reduction of clubs in the Sydney area. The Gold Coast finally has a (just about) viable club after the failure of the Seagulls while the town of Gosford is often mentioned as a base for a new club or a relocated North Sydney Bears ‘franchise’. Matches are played on the road in Perth and New Zealand as the Warriors there continue to under-achieve given the talent pool they have access to, though the lure of the Australian dollar creams of much of it. Interestingly, four states were represented in the semi finals of the NRL last season. New South Wales (by Cronulla), Victoria (Melbourne Storm), the ACT (Canberra Raiders) and Queensland (the Cowboys). To paraphrase our President Lionel Hurst - Mars versus Venus at rugby league anyone? 7 Subscribe to our website mailing list to get exclusive All Golds news first.
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