The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

. It works jointly with the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

through the RFL Community Board.

History

BARLA was created on 3 March 1973 at the George Hotel in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

by a group of clubs believing that the

were not doing enough to support the amateur game. The RFL voted 29–1 against the recognition of BARLA, with Tom Mitchell being the only one to vote in favour. A subsequent vote twelve months later following a change in the RFL board, resulted in a unanimous vote of approval for BARLA. One of BARLA's first acts was to merge the vast majority of the district leagues into five regional leagues: the Yorkshire League (initially still called the Leeds & District League), the short-lived Cumbria League, the West Yorkshire Sunday League, the Pennine League, and the North Western Counties League. For geographical reasons, the Hull & District League (renamed Humberside League) and the Southern League were left unmerged. This allowed clubs to play at more appropriate standards as there were more divisions, and this factor along with the improved governance of BARLA saw the standard and numbers of clubs rise quickly. The Yorkshire County Cup and

Lancashire County Cup The BARLA Lancashire Cup was a knock-out rugby league competition for amateur teams in the historic county of Lancashire. It was administered by the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA). As of 2017, the competition hasn't been held sin ...

knock-out competitions were started in 1973 as well as the BARLA National Cup. In 1977 BARLA toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time. In that year the BARLA Young Lions made their first inaugural tour setting a lasting trend by giving future stars of the game such as David Hobbs their first taste of international rugby league. A Cumbria County Cup was started in 1982. The BARLA National League was introduced for the 1986–87 season. The inaugural season featured 10 teams. The association has always been a champion of the amateur ethos and in 1987 BARLA played a major role in the establishment of the 'free gangway' between the two codes at an amateur level. The agreement allowed players to inter-change between

and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

without fear of discrimination. The BARLA National League soon proved popular and the 1989–90 season also saw the addition of a second division. On 30 November 1990, BARLA's new headquarters at West Yorkshire House, Huddersfield was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1993, BARLA provided the first Great Britain team to tour South Africa. The BARLA National League was rebranded as the

National Conference League The National Conference League (NCL) comprises the five levels of the British rugby league system at the top end of the amateur pyramid below the professional RFL League 1, League One. It comes under the jurisdiction of the Rugby Football League ...

and expanded to three divisions (now named premier, first, and second) in 1993. By 1999, there were more than 1,400 teams and 900 youth and junior teams. On an average weekend in the season, almost 23,000 players will be in action. BARLA's work in the international expansion of the game was recognised by their inclusion as affiliate members of the International Federation (equivalent to the International Board at the time) in 1999 and by BARLA's inclusion in the Emerging Nations World Championship in 2000. BARLA won the Emerging Nations World Championship beating Italy 20–14 in the final. In 2004, BARLA realigned itself with the RFL following pressure from

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

regarding funding.

Competitions

Leagues

BARLA has run amateur leagues in the heartlands since its foundation in 1973. The non-heartlands amateur competition was set up by the

Rugby League Conference The Rugby League Conference, 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, Sco ...

in 1997. BARLA competitions are as follows: *

**Premier Division **Division One **Division Two **Division Three *Barrow & District A.R.L. *Bradford & District A.R.L. *Carlisle & District A.R.L. *City & County of Kingston Upon Hull & District A.R.L. *Cumberland A.R.L. *Halifax A.R.L. *Heavy Woolen A.R.L. *Huddersfield & District A.R.L. *Keighley A.R.L. *Oldham A.R.L. *Pennine A.R.L. *Rochdale A.R.L. *Wakefield & District A.R.L. *Warrington ARL *Widnes & District A.R.L. *Wigan A.R.L. *York & District A.R.L. Follow BARLA's alignment with the RFL in 2004 and the 2012 restructure of amateur rugby league in Great Britain, a number of BARLA league have formed part of the

British rugby league system The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League. Professional clubs The following is a list of professional and semi-professional clubs in the British rugby league system: *''*capaci ...

. These are: *Tier 4:

*Tier 5: Cumberland A.R.L (as Cumbria Rugby League), and City & County of Kingston Upon Hull & District A.R.L. (as City of Hull and District League) Merging of certain BARLA and RLC league created the other Tier 5 heartlands league -

North West Men's League The North West Men's League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in North West England. The competition was formed in 2009 as the RLC North West Premier by splitting the RLC North Premier into two competitions - this and the R ...

Yorkshire Men's League The Yorkshire Men's League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in Yorkshire. The competition was formed in 2009 as the RLC Yorkshire Premier by splitting the RLC North Premier into two competitions - this and the RLC North ...

, and

North East Rugby League The North East Rugby League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in North East England. The competition was formed in 2001 as the RLC North East Regional. Following the 2012 restructure of amateur rugby league in Great Britain ...

Cups

* BARLA National Cup (est. 1973) * BARLA Lancashire Cup (est. 1973) * BARLA Yorkshire Cup (est. 1973) * BARLA Cumbria Cup (est. 1982)

Representative sides

BARLA selects an international team consisting of community players, the BARLA Lions. This team tours many parts of the rugby league world and has competed in the

Rugby League Emerging Nations Tournament In 1995 and 2000, the Rugby League International Federation held an Emerging Nations Tournament alongside the Rugby League World Cup. The competition was designed to allow teams who have failed to qualify for the World Cup proper a chance to play o ...

. The association has made 31 tours to and from the Southern Hemisphere. These include pioneer visits with matches against

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

, the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

, games have been played against

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and the US.

BARLA National

A Great Britain Amateur representative side, with players selected from BARLA clubs, competed in the 2000 Emerging Nations Tournament. BARLA finished top of Group A beating

60–2 and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

54–0 to qualify for the Final in which they beat

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

20–14.

BARLA Lancashire

An amateur Lancashire team won a friendly against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

62–0 in 2010.

Notes

References

External links

BARLA official website

Lancashire Service Area

Hull & District Youth & Junior

Yorkshire Combination Youth League
{{Authority control Amateur rugby league Rugby Organisations based in Huddersfield Sports organizations established in 1973 Rugby league governing bodies in Europe Rugby league in the United Kingdom Sport in Huddersfield Rugby 1973 establishments in the United Kingdom