Cooke Rugby Football Club, which was founded in 1910, is the oldest junior rugby club in Belfast,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. They currently field 3 Senior Men's teams, the 1st XV playing in Qualifying 1, and a successful Women's team, which competes in the Women's All-Ireland League.

History

It owes its origins to the members of a Bible class in the Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church in the Ballynafeigh area. It was originally based at Upper Galwally until 1991 and the first clubhouse was a small black wooden hut. The club then moved to its present modern clubhouse and grounds of at Shaws Bridge, Belfast. Cooke had a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

club which merged with elements within the cricket section of

Belfast Harlequins Belfast Harlequins is a multi-sports club located off the Malone Road in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club name provides the overall umbrella for rugby union, men's and ladies' field hockey, hockey, and Squash (sport), squash. The club i ...

associated with the former Collegians Cricket Club in 1998 and plays as

Cooke Collegians Cooke is a surname of English and Irish origin derived from the occupation of cook and anglicisation of various Gaelic names. Variants include Cook and McCook. Irish surname origin Cooke (rather than Cook) is the usual spelling of the sur ...

. They are also affiliated with the Cooke Ladies Hockey Club and their club colours are black and white.

Honours

Rugby

Ulster Junior Cup The Ulster Junior Cup is a rugby union competition for clubs in the Irish province of Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties ...

: 2 ** 1986-87, 2006–07

References

External reference

Sources:

Belfast Newsletter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in September 1737. The ...

The Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its ed ...

.
Cooke Rugby Club
Sports clubs and teams in Belfast Field hockey clubs in Northern Ireland Rugby union clubs in Northern Ireland Rugby union teams in Ireland 1910 establishments in Ireland Rugby union clubs in County Antrim {{NorthernIreland-sport-stub