Bangor RFC is a
Northern Irish
The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...
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 ...
club from
Bangor, County Down
Bangor ( ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to whic ...
, playing in the Ulster domestic Championship 1 league.
History
The club was founded in
1885 and enjoyed senior status between 1924 and the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The club returned to junior rugby after the war. Historically having played at
Ward Park, leased from Bangor Borough Council, in 1968 the club purchased eleven acres of land on the southern outskirts of Bangor and opened a new ground named Upritchard Park (after chairman Joe Upritchard) in September 1969, coinciding with the regaining of senior status. Over the next 20 years, Bangor became one of the top senior clubs in Ulster, culminating in the 1981-82 season, when it won the treble of
Ulster Senior League,
Ulster Senior Cup and its own floodlit competition, the Boston Cup. Bangor were inaugural members of the
All-Ireland League in 1990, but the club went into decline and were relegated back into junior rugby in 2002.
The club did regain senior status in 2016 with promotion back to the All-Ireland League, but were relegated at the end of the 2023/2024 season. Since 1972, the club has shared Upritchard Park with
Bangor Cricket Club forming Bangor Rugby Football and Cricket Club.
Notable players
;
British and Irish Lions
The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...
*
Richard Milliken
;
Three Bangor players –
Roger Clegg,
Billy McCombe and
Richard Milliken – represented Ireland in the
1975 Five Nations Championship.
;
*
Joeli Veitayaki
Honours
*
Ulster Senior Cup: 3
** 1979-80, 1981–82, 1985–86
*
Ulster Senior League: 7
** 1929-30, 1974–75, 1976–77, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1987–88
*
Ulster Towns Cup
The Ulster Towns Cup is a rugby union competition organized by the Ulster Rugby, Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union.
It is confined to teams outside of Belfast. Since the resumption of play after World War II, where a town is represen ...
: 13
** 1903-04, 1905–06, 1908–09, 1919–20, 1922–23, 1929–30, 1945–46, 1955–56, 1967–68, 1968–69, †1971-72, †1974-75, 2015–16
*
Ulster Junior Cup: 1
** 2015-16
† Won by 2nd XV
References
External links
Club web site
Rugby union clubs in County Down
All-Ireland League rugby union clubs
Ulster Senior League (rugby union) teams
Sport in Bangor, County Down
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