St Albans Rugby Club is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

club based in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roma ...

, South-east England. The 1st XV currently plays in London NW3 following promotion from Herts/Middlesex1 at the end of the 2019-20 season.

History

The club was formed in 1970 by their first chairman, Peter Baines. The club formed as an open rugby club with many players joining from the old Electrical Apparatus Company (EAC) rugby club which played off New Barnes Avenue. Initially the club used changing rooms at Westminster Lodge and a rented pitch situated just above the hypocaust in Verulamium Park. The North Western PH (now a block of flats) on the corner of Prospect Road and Holywell Hill provided a club room and meals on match days. In 1976 the club acquired the short term lease from St Albans School for a pitch and clubhouse off Belmont Hill. 1983 saw the club move to their current ground at Boggymead Springs, off Oaklands Lane, at Smallford, obtained on a long term lease from Hertfordshire CC. The clubhouse was officially opened by the England scrum half,

Dickie Jeeps Richard Eric Gautrey Jeeps, (25 November 1931 – 8 October 2016), known as Dickie Jeeps, was an English rugby union player who played for Northampton having started his career with Cambridge Rugby Club. He represented and captained both the E ...

, in October that year.

Other sports

St Albans RFC also hosts

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

with St Alban Ultimate and recently the

Hertfordshire Cheetahs The Hertfordshire Cheetahs (formerly the Watford Cheetahs and Chiltern Cheetahs) are an American football team based in Watford, including a senior kitted team (contact) competing in the BAFA National Leagues (BAFANL), Under 16 and under 19 kitt ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

team who play in the

BAFA National Leagues The BAFANL (BAFA National Leagues) are the primary American football domestic League competition in Great Britain. The League is run by the British American Football Association to coordinate contact football within England, Scotland and Wales ...

Division 2 East.

Playing level

The club currently plays in London North West 3. In 2012 the 1st XV won the Herts Presidents' Tankard for the 2nd time and for a 3rd time in 2019. “Saints” are again finalists in 2020. The club also fields 2nd and 3rd XV sides which compete in the local Herts/Middlesex League (HMMT) Merit Tables. St Albans RFC welcomes players of all abilities, as well as social members.

Twickenham appearance

In 1995 the club qualified from over 500 junior clubs to reach the final of the Pilkington Shield at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the borou ...

, where they played and lost to Bedford Queens 11-10 immediately prior to the

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Pilkington Cup Final. The club qualified to enter the Pilkington Cup itself a few years later, through reaching the Hertfordshire President’s Cup final.

Club honours

1st team *

Hertfordshire 1 Hertfordshire 1 was an English level 10 Rugby Union league with teams from Hertfordshire and parts of north London taking part. Promoted teams used to move up to Herts/Middlesex 1 and relegation was to Hertfordshire 2 until that division was c ...

champions: 1993–94 * London Division 3 North West champions: 2004–05 * Hertfordshire Presidents' Tankard winners (3): 2010, 2012, 2019 ''2nd XV *

Herts and Middlesex Merit Table 6 Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For g ...

champions: 2016–17 *

Herts and Middlesex Merit Table 6 Plate Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gover ...

champions: 2016–17 *

Herts and Middlesex Merit Table 4 Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For g ...

champions: 2019–20

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Albans RFC English rugby union teams Rugby clubs established in 1970 Rugby union clubs in Hertfordshire Rugby Football Club