Derwent Park is a Rugby League Stadium and former

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

, England situated beside the

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

n River Derwent. It is used mostly for

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 ...

matches and is the home stadium of

Workington Town Workington Town is a semi-professional rugby league club based in Workington, West Cumbria, England. The club plays home games at Derwent Park and competes in the RFL League One, League One, the third tier of British rugby league system, Briti ...

who play in League 1 the 3rd tier of the British rugby league system. Derwent Park has a capacity of 12,000 people with 1,200 seats and the pitch is surrounded by a motorcycle speedway track.

History

The stadium was opened in 1956. The record attendance at Derwent Park was set on 13 March 1965 when 17,741 spectators turned up for a third round

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

match against

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

. Speedway began in Workington after a successful application was made by the promotion team for a licence to race at Derwent Park for the 1970 season. The promoters included former rider Ian Thomas and the rugby pitch required moving 25 yards sideways to accommodate the speedway track. Workington Comets raced at the stadium from 1970 until 1982. Speedway returned to Derwent Park for one season in 1987, when Glasgow Tigers arrived to race, while searching for a new home. However the team changed its name to Workington Tigers soon afterwards but held their last fixture against Stoke on 31 July. The team's results were expunged. It was the last season of speedway at Workington for twelve years. Floodlights were installed in 1990 and were first used on 17 October when

faced the touring

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizenship, citizens, nationality, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Aust ...

during the 1990 Kangaroo Tour in front of 6,750 fans on a cold night with Australia victorious 42–10 in a dominant display. Derwent also hosted the opening game of the 1994 Kangaroo Tour between Cumbria and Australia on a cold, wet day in front of only 4,227 fans. Australia were again dominant, winning 52–8 (''In both 1990 and 1994, the Australian team was composed mainly of the mid-week team and not those who were expected to play Test matches''). Speedway returned for a third time in 1999 and continued until 2019.

Future

In February 2019 plans for a new stadium for Workington were announced, this would in involve the demolition of Borough Park and Derwent Park. In June 2019, it was announced by the new leadership of Allerdale Borough Council that the new sports stadium would not be built.

Internationals

Workington Town v Leeds RLFC 19-Aug-1994

Cumbria home matches

Derwent Park has seen the county team Cumberland / Cumbria play host to various international touring teams.

Other internationals

On 19 May 1994 Derwent Park was the host for the rugby union warm-up game between

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 ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

before the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Italy defeated Ireland 32–26 in front of 3,000 fans. Derwent Park held its first full international match on 1 December 2000 with the Aotearoa Māori versus

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 ...

game in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. Samoa defeated Aotearoa Māori 21–16 in front of 4,107 fans. On 14 July 1990 the stadium was host to the "Cumbria Rock Festival" and bands included: Magnum, Saxon, Dogs D'Amour, Wolfsbane, the Almighty and Romeo's Daughter. On 13 July 1991, the second edition of the festival saw appearances by

Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...

, Wolfsbane (who replaced Blackfoot on the bill as special guests), the Almighty, Atom Seed, Cheap and Nasty, FM, Jagged Edge, Sweet Addiction, Loud, Lisa Dominique, Dumpy's Rusty Nuts and Rattlesnake Kiss. The stadium hosted two matches at Rugby League World Cup 2013: Scotland's ties against Tonga on Tuesday 29 October, watched in front of 7,630, and Italy Sunday 3 November, watched in front of 7,280. As part of the 2014 Rugby League European Cup, Derwent Park hosted the match between

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

on 17 October. Scotland won the game 42-18. On 5 December 2014 it was announced that

had signed a lucrative sponsorship deal that would see the stadium renamed as the Zebra Claims Stadium for the start of the 2015 season. As part of the 2016 Rugby League Four Nations, the Zebra Claims Stadium hosted the match between

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

on 11 November. The game ended in an 18-18 draw. Summary The following is a list of non-Cumbrian international matches played at Derwent Park since its opening in 1956.

References

{{Authority control Rugby league stadiums in England Defunct speedway venues in England Rugby union stadiums in England Multi-purpose stadiums in the United Kingdom Sports venues in Cumbria Sports venues completed in 1956 Workington Workington Town