Wakefield RFC
English rugby union football club
Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union club, founded in 1901 and folded in 2004 as a result of poor finances, with a trading loss of £105,000 for the season and unsecured creditors' loans of approximately £640,000. The club's final season was in 2003–04 when they were relegated after losing to Coventry RFC in their final match. The club was based at College Grove in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
History
Foundation
Wakefield RFC was founded in 1901, six years after the schism in rugby that saw the formation of the Northern Union and the move of Wakefield Trinity, who had been the principal rugby club in the city, to the new code. On 15 June 1901, the Wakefield Express printed a short notice: “A movement is on foot to form a new rugby football club on purely amateur lines to play under Rugby Union rules, and a meeting to promote that object has been called”. One of the club's first vice presidents was former England and British Lion international Osbert Mackie. England International JW Sagar was the club's first captain and he expressed the wish that the formation of the club would provide the opportunity for the local grammar school boys to continue in the game in the city rather than having to move elsewhere. Players to benefit included Bill Guest, a former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) pupil between 1918 and 1922, who was to become one of the leading figures at Wakefield both as a player and administrator until his death in 1991. Silcoates School produced among others, Steve Townend, the club's second-leading appearance maker and prolific point scorer, who was to join the coaching staff after finishing his playing days, eventually becoming Director of Rugby.
1920–1996
The club's first honours were in 1920, when they won the Yorkshire Cup ("T’owd tin pot") and were to win it on a further seven occasions, (1922, 1969, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994).
The public source identifies “Wakefield RFC” as english rugby union football club. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wakefield, English and rugby.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wakefield RFC” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.