York Lokomotive are a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

team based in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

. They play in the Yorkshire Premier division of the

Rugby League Conference The Rugby League Conference (RLC) (also known as the Co-operative Rugby League Conference as a result of sponsorship from The Co-operative Group), was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England ...

History

''York Lokomotive'' were founded in 2008 as a joint-venture between York Groves rugby league team and the York Railway Institute sporting club. The name of the club was taken from

being one of the biggest railway cities in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. One of the biggest steam railway depots in the UK was based in York and was known as "York Locomotive". The "C" in Locomotive was changed to a "K" to emulate the Russian rugby league club

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three oc ...

. They joined the Yorkshire division of the

, Paul McDermott was head coach. They finished in second-place in the league after losing their last game to

Scarborough Pirates Scarborough Pirates RLFC were a rugby league club based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. They played their home games at Scarborough F.C.'s McCain Stadium. History In December 1990, Scarborough announced a ...

30-26 to Bridlington Bulls who prevailed in the Yorkshire division grand final. In 2009, the club were promoted to the newly formed Yorkshire Premier division. Barry Gargan took over as head coach with Paul McDermott moving up to director of coaching. York finished fourth in the league with five wins and five defeats. During 2010 and 2011, Paul McDermott was re-appointed as head coach improving the club further and winning some impressive games; the most memorable an away win at Cutsyke. In the winter of 2011, the majority of the original committee and Paul McDermott were not able to fully commit to the club and stood down bringing into question the future of the club. A number of the players had other ideas and the club continued in the Yorkshire men's league. The Lokos had a very difficult 2012 season under the leadership of Liam Watling & Matthew Chapman with some heavy defeats, mainly due to a lack of players as all the other amateur rugby league clubs in the area were now playing summer rugby. The York Lokos did however fulfil all of their 2012 fixtures. In the off season 2012-2013 an action plan was put in place transferring Matthew Chapman and Liam Watling to the committee with Dean Winspear and Mark Musgrave guided by Simon Moat who chaired the club. This helped provided the Lokos with some superb sponsorship deals and a wealth of players. More than 40 players signed onto the club's books in 2013 with ex-player Jon Hough acting as head coach. Again competing in the Yorkshire men's league the Lokos finished 4th with the highlight being double victories over local rivals Heworth. In 2015 the club moved from New Lane, which they had shared with York RI, to the Southbank Community Centre, Bustardthorpe, with their games being played on Knavesmire. This was followed in 2017 by a move to Sim Balk Lane,

Bishopthorpe Bishopthorpe is a village and civil parish three miles south of York in the City of York unitary authority area and ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Bishopthorpe is close to the River Ouse, and has a population of 3,174, in ...

References

{{British_Rugby_League_links Rugby League Conference teams Sport in York Rugby clubs established in 2008 Rugby league teams in North Yorkshire