Scarborough Pirates ARLFC was the name of an amateur

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 ...

team which competed in the

Rugby League Conference Yorkshire Premier The Yorkshire Men's League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in Yorkshire. The competition was formed in 2009 as the RLC Yorkshire Premier by splitting the RLC North Premier into two competitions - this and the RLC North ...

and

British Amateur Rugby League Association The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created on 3 March 1973 at t ...

winter leagues. The club was based in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

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 ...

. In a joint initiative with Breakaway Sports Tours, the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

and Scarborough Borough Council, the club established a

rugby league nines Rugby league nines (or simply nines) is a version of rugby league football played with nine players on each side. The game is substantially the same as full rugby league, with some differences in rules and shorter games. Nines is usually played i ...

tournament known as the Scarborough Rugby League Festival.

History

The Scarborough and District Primary Schools under-11s rugby league team, along with Glasgow Schools, was selected to play the curtain-raiser to the 2000 Challenge Cup Final at

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium is a rugby union stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The stadium is owned by the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) who has its headquarters based at the stadium, and is the national stadium of the Scotla ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 29 April 2000. For several years, under-11s teams from non-traditional rugby league areas were selected by the RFL with the purpose of supporting the promotion of the sport. Enthused parents of the team decided to form the ''Scarborough Pirates'' junior rugby league club soon afterwards, becoming the town's second junior rugby league club following Scarborough Sovereigns. Originally based at Pindar School the club formed a link with the Aberdeen Pub with Landlord Nick Smart, a former professional

footballer. The first season concluded with the team playing at under-12s, finishing fifth in the Hull & District League. In 2002/2003, the club moved from its base at the Sunrise on Dean Road, Scarborough onto Scarborough F.C.’s McCain Lounge and the Mere Club, Seamer Road, before eventually returning to the Aberdeen, under new landlord Andy Dolan. At the beginning of 2005 the club introduced an open-age team, which joined the North East Division of the

Rugby League Conference The Rugby League Conference, also known as the Co-operative Rugby League Conference as a result of sponsorship from The Co-operative Group), was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England, Sco ...

. The side incorporated some remnants of the stand-alone Yorkshire Coast Tigers open-age team that had competed in the RLC previously and extended Scarborough's representation in that competition. Professional player Kriss Brining, (

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC, based in York, England. The club play their home games at York Community Stadium and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of Briti ...

and Salford City Reds), started his career as a junior at the club. In January 2019, the club folded and withdrew from the league. the Men's team had withdrawn from the competition in August 2018, with three matches yet to play, citing lack of interest and dwindling numbers. The Junior team folded in 2019.

References

{{reflist

External links

Pitchero page
Rugby League Conference teams BARLA teams Sport in Scarborough, North Yorkshire Rugby clubs established in 2000 Rugby league teams in North Yorkshire