One Among Many - The story of Sunderland Rugby Football Club RFC (1873) in its historical context by Keith Gregson

Author:Keith Gregson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sunderland RFC, sport, Rugby History, Rugby Union, Rugby League, scrum, biography
ISBN: 9781907685170
Publisher: Andrews Limited UK 2011
Published: 2011-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

Fixtures

Clearly the club was booming in terms of playing members and the authors of To Ashbrooke and Beyond described the immediate post-war years as years ‘filled with vitality’ on the field of play. However this was a time when a rugby club was judged by quality rather than quantity, and club organisers regarded the strength of the fixture list as a key benchmark. Up to the introduction of leagues in the 1980s, the fixtures’ secretary was one of the most important men on the club committee, and had to get it right. Neither success against weak sides nor failure against strong sides was deemed acceptable; the most desirable situation was one where a string of consistently good results led to an improved fixture list a few seasons later.

From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Sunderland RFC seems to have regarded itself as a club just tucked in behind the ‘big boys’ of the region. When a league for top clubs in the area was proposed in the 1960s, the club committee opposed the idea. Not only were members against the league, they also felt that, were it to be formed, the club’s 1 st XV would not be invited to join it.

Sunderland’s position in the pecking order is reflected in its fixture lists; the club continued to play against all the old rivals from the region as well as a number of rising junior clubs. Games away to Richmond and home to a travelling Ebbw Vale were approached with considerable excitement. A number of sides from Yorkshire and Cumberland became regular opponents as well as teams from north of the border. The season’s opener was often against Yorkshire’s Old Leodensians and there was a special relationship with Cumberland’s Keswick. Other regulars included Ilkley, Otley, Harrogate, Bradford, Wigton and Egremont. Heaton Moor and Moortown were also old friends, as was Jedforest.

The playing season also had a recognisable structure. Annual fixtures with Durham City took place over the Christmas/New Year holiday and the club made arrangements to have special fixtures around the time of the Calcutta Cup between England and Scotland. When the international was in Scotland, an Edinburgh University side provided the opposition with Beckenham an opponent when the international took place at Twickenham. Easter tours were also popular and usually successful. Visits to West Cumberland, North Yorkshire and Lancashire all took place during this period and a trip to Sweden in the early 1950s was described as “missionary”. Occasionally touring sides dropped in too.

Towards the end of the post-war period, the club also set up an early season fixture with the Dolphins XV. This was an ad-hoc side founded by former Sunderland player and international referee Hartley Elliott and playing under his name until the middle of the 1960s. It often contained a number of Scottish internationals. Fixtures took place between Sunderland’s 1 st XV and the Dolphins in 1971 and 1972 as well as during the 1973/4 centenary season. There was also a Dolphins fixture with America’s Princeton University at Ashbrooke in March 1972.

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