Liversedge RFC (founded 1877) were a semi-professional

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 ...

club from

Liversedge Liversedge is an industrial town in the Kirklees district, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Liversedge lies between Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. The Kirklees ward is now called Liversedge and ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. They were a founder member of the

Northern Rugby Football Union Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

, precursor to the Rugby Football League.

History

Early Days

Liversedge was founded in 1877. After the 1890-91 season, Liversedge along with other Yorkshire Senior clubs Batley, Bradford, Brighouse, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Hunslet, Leeds, Manningham and Wakefield decided that they wanted their own county league starting in 1891 along the lines of a similar competition that had been played in Lancashire. The clubs wanted full control of the league but the Yorkshire Rugby Football Union would not sanction the competition as it meant giving up control of rugby football to the senior clubs. The club played in the Yorkshire Senior competition in the early 1890s.

Northern Union

Prior to the great

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

in rugby, Liversedge, like many other clubs from Yorkshire (and Lancashire), had suffered punishment by the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

for ''" broken time"'' payments. As a result, Liversedge, represented by a Mr. J. H. Hampshire, attended a meeting at the

George Hotel, Huddersfield The George Hotel in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, is a Grade II* listed building, designed by William Wallen, with an Italianate façade. It was built in 1848–50. The hotel is famous as the birthplace of rugby league football in ...

, together with the representatives of 21 other clubs, and agreed to form a

. Liversedge thereby became one of the founder members of the new league. In the first season, 1895–96, the league consisted of 22 clubs and Liversedge finished in 15th position. In season 1896–97, the league was divided into Yorkshire and Lancashire, Liversedge playing in the former section, where they would stay for the remainder of their semi-professional existence. They did slightly better, finishing in 11th position out of 16 teams. In the following four seasons ( 1897–98, 1898–99, 1899–1900, 1900–01), still in the Yorkshire section, they finished bottom in every season except 1898–99, when they managed to finish second bottom, in each case out of the 16 clubs. In their final season, 1901–02 they yet again won the

wooden spoon A wooden spoon is a Kitchen utensil, utensil commonly used in food preparation. In addition to its culinary uses, wooden spoons also feature in folk art and culture. History The word ''spoon'' derives from an ancient word meaning a chip of woo ...

, finishing 14th out of 14 teams with only six points. They dropped out of the league after the end of the 1901–02 season..

Successor clubs

Although Liversedge RFC were founder members of the Rugby League, the town does not have the rugby league heritage of other towns in the area. Following the demise of the original club, an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club,

Liversedge F.C. Liversedge F.C. is a football club based in Cleckheaton, England, on the border with Hightown, West Yorkshire, Hightown in Liversedge. They are currently members of the . Liversedge play their home games at Clayborn, which features a clubhouse ...

, was founded in its stead in 1910, one of a number of instances of code switching around that time. Today the town is represented by Liversedge ARLFC who play at Primrose Lane (off Bradford Road) in the Third Division of the Pennine Amateur Rugby League.

Notable players

Harry Varley (25 November 1867 – 21 November 1915) played

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 ...

for England v Scotland in 1892 while with Liversedge. He went on to play under the new code for Liversedge and

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

. Robert "Bob" Wood (born 1873) played rugby union for England v Ireland in 1894 and at club level for Liversedge.

Colours

The club's colours were blue and white.

Ground

The club played at Littletown.

Statistics

Club Records

Club Trophies

Liversedge did not win any trophies, although reached the final of the Yorkshire Challenge Cup in 1888–89 during their rugby union days. They lost 18–16 to Otley (1 goal, 1 try, 4 minors to 1 goal, 0 tries, 4 minors).

League Record (incomplete)

: League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0 : Only limited County League information is available for this season

Fixtures & Results (incomplete)

The following are a selection of Liversedge's fixtures from the seven seasons in which they played semi-professional Rugby League: : Folly Fields was the stadium used by

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 ...

at the time until 1901. They then became sub-tenants of Springfield Park See below – Note 3. : Lowerhouse Lane is the original site of the current ground used by

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses, 2021 census had a population of 62,400. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, ...

. It was renamed Naughton Park in 1932 in honour of club secretary, Tom Naughton – and later renamed Halton Stadium after being completely rebuilt in 1997. :

became sub-tenants of Springfield Park, which they shared with Wigan United AFC, playing their first game there on 14 September 1901 at which a crowd of 4,000 saw them beat

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

12–0, and the last game on 28 April 1902 when

beat the Rest of Lancashire Senior Competition. A temporary ground was necessary to span the period between moving from Folly Fields and the new ground at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

being constructed. : CC Rx: Challenge Cup Round x; YC Rx: Yorkshire Cup Round x; YSC: Yorkshire Senior Competition : Only limited County League information is available for season ( 1901–02)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liversedge RFC Rugby league teams in West Yorkshire Defunct rugby league teams in England Sport in Kirklees Rugby clubs established in 1877 Rugby clubs disestablished in 1902 Founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union Rugby league teams in England 1877 establishments in England