The game began at Huddersfield Athletic Club in 1869 with matches played at the Rifle Field in Trini...
Read more »
The game began at Huddersfield Athletic Club in 1869 with matches played at the Rifle Field in Trinity Street and then, with the amalgamation with St John's Cricket Club, at Fartown from 1879.
Huddersfield were in the top ranks of English rugby clubs when, in August 1895, the town's George Hotel hosted the historic meeting at which 20 clubs resigned from the Rugby Football Union to create professional rugby league.
As an amateur sport, rugby virtually vanished, until a new club was established in 1909 - named Huddersfield Old Boys - with its first ground at the United Cricket Club in Luck Lane with changing facilities at the Croppers Arms.
World War I blew the whistle on the sport and games were not restarted until 1919 at Salendine Nook, before the club took a lease on land at Waterloo, where it established its current colours of white, claret and gold. A stand was built with changing rooms and then the entire property purchased for £700, followed in 1935 with a £350 investment in a new pavilion and bar - with ladies welcomed to a hitherto male bastion and they themselves began the tradition of after-match tea making.
In 1946 there was a significant name change, because it was considered that the title "Old Boys" was an anachronism inferring that the club was limited to former public school pupils. So, we became Huddersfield Rugby Union Football Club.
Over the years, the club acquired more land, essentially to cater for the growing number of junior teams - making HRUFC a significant landowner and one of the few major sports organisations to own, rather than lease, its own property.
It was here in 1969 that we pioneered mini-rugby in England.
In 1996, the club sold part of its property Morrisons Supermarket for £1.4 million to help fund the purchase of the 26-acre former Bass brewery estate at Lockwood Park and create a £4 million major sports complex backed by a £1.84 million Sports Council lottery grant. Here, we have a main floodlit pitch with a capacity for 1,500 spectators, seating for 500, parking for 300 vehicles - plus further rugby pitches and an Astroturf all-weather pitch.
In 2011, HRUFC clinched the Yorkshire Cup for the second time in its history with a superb performance against the odds; defeating Hull 25-18 at York.
Despite being down to 12 men at one stage with three men in the sin-bin and a 19-9 penalty count against them, Huddersfield dug deeper than they have done all season with a tremendous display. Four penalties and a drop goal from Chris Johnson – and second-half tries from Lee Paxman and James Wood – sent the large travelling band of ‘Field supporters wild with delight. It was a fantastic achievement to beat Hull and claim the legendary ‘T’Owd Tin Pot’ for only the second time in the history of the competition – the last was back in 1890!
Our full history and that of our magnificent property is depicted in our entrance hall.
|
