Morecambe Rugby Football Club was a semi-professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club. The club was based in

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), ...

, a

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now within the

City of Lancaster The City of Lancaster () is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Lancaster, but covers a far larger area, which includes the ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

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. The club played semi-professional rugby league for a total of 8 seasons in all. They first became members of the Northern Rugby Football Union (now

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisa ...

) for three continuous seasons from 1896–97 to 1898–99. After finishing bottom of the Lancashire Senior Competition in 1899 and losing a promotion play off with Millom, the club spent the next two seasons in the Lancashire Second Competition. Promoted back to the Lancashire Senior Competition in 1901, playing another four seasons from 1901–02 to 1905–06. At the end of season 1905–06 the club left the league, at which point Jack Bartholomew (the uncle of the comedian

Eric Morecambe John Eric Bartholomew, (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's d ...

) left the club and joined

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district 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 confluence into t ...

, he would later play for

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, and

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is pr ...

History

Early Days

Morecambe FC was formed as a

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

club in 1876. They joined the ranks of the semi-professionals when they became members of the Northern Union in its second season 1896–97 and played for three seasons in the Lancashire Senior Competition. In each of these three seasons, the club finished at the bottom of the league, 14th out of 14 clubs. At the end of this third season, 1898–99, Morecambe were relegated from the Lancashire Senior Competition and were replaced by

Millom Millom is a town and civil parish on the north shore of the estuary of the River Duddon in southwest Cumbria, historically part of Cumberland, England. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, about north of Barrow-in-Fur ...

. The next two seasons were played in the Lancashire Second Competition although the club missed out on a return to the Senior Competition at the end of the 1900–01 season losing to

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form t ...

in the play-off. Morecambe returned for the start of the 1901–02 and finished in 11th place out of 13 clubs. At the end of the 1901–02 season, the County Leagues elected 18 teams to join the new Division 2 (7 from Lancashire and 10 from Yorkshire and new member

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the ...

) with the existing second competition scrapped. In

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Morecambe, being one of the fortunate clubs, joined the new 2nd Division, where they would stay for the next three seasons. In the first season in the new second division (

) they finished 17th out of 18 clubs. Similarly, in the following two seasons the club could only manage to finish second bottom in each season. In 1905–06 the Rugby League combined the divisions to form one united league. In this, Morecambe’s final season in the semi-professional ranks, they again finished second bottom, 30th out of 31 clubs. At the annual general meeting on 23 August 1906, the members decided to disband the club, the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

company having given the club notice to quit their Moss Lane ground.

Centenary Match

In 1904, Morecambe and

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

, very close neighbours, were drawn against each other in the first round of the Rugby League Challenge Cup. 100 years later the two clubs Morecambe (being represented by Heysham Atoms ARLFC) and Lancaster agreed to play a centenary commemorative match, the winner would be presented with the "Morecambe Bay State of Origin Trophy". And so on Tuesday 11 May 2004, at Lancaster City AFC's Giant Axe Stadium, Morecambe (playing in the traditional black and white hoops) beat

(in Red and white hoops) 24-15.

Stadium

Morecambe played at

Moss Lane Moss Lane (currently known as the J. Davidson Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a multi-purpose stadium in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It is currently used primarily for football matches and is the home ground of Altrincham. Th ...

in North West Morecambe, quite near the seafront, and in the vicinity of the present Morrisons supermarket.

Club league record

The league positions for Morecambe for the 8 years in which they played semi-professional rugby league are given in the following table:

Heading Abbreviations
RL = Single Division; Pl = Games played; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lose; PF = Points for; PA = Points against; Diff = Points difference (+ or -); Pts = League points
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

References

External links

Preview of centenary matchHeysham Atoms ARLFC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morecombe RFC Defunct rugby league teams in England Sport in the City of Lancaster Rugby clubs established in 1876 1876 establishments in England 1906 disestablishments in England English rugby league teams Morecambe Rugby league teams in Lancashire Rugby clubs disestablished in 1906