Hemel Rugby League

Hemel Stags signed up to Bartercard many years ago. It's an interesting concept with VAT implications. After a couple of years we realised we were paying Bartercard more in their fees than we could recoup through 'bartering' so we were quite happy when we terminated the agreement.

NSW Group 6 First Grade 1965 Ourimbah 0 The Entrance 0 Played in that on a filthy wet Oz winter day as a rookie 17 year old

Hemel Stags have 11 male and female darts teams; their 7-a-side 4G pitch is used by footballers more than 30 hours a week; while Hemel Stags RUFC are affiliated to the Hertfordshire RFU

Hemel Stags are very much alive and well. Since leaving L1 in 2018 the club has had difficulties in re-establishing its adult section. However, this season the club made significant progress in the East Region competition where it finished second. Most significantly its entire squad was made up of players who had come through their junior ranks with the majority being under 20 years of age albeit there was one player in his 40's who played in Stags juniors in the 1990's. A far cry from the club's national leagues days when the majority of players were shipped in from well beyond Hemel. Hemel have remained a stronghold of junior rugby league with large numbers of players joining London Broncos Scholarship and Academy teams. Furthermore, this season saw Hemel as the dominant force in the creation of Girls RL in the region. At the same time the facilities at Pennine Way have undergone significant and continuing improvement to make the stadium the envy of most other sporting clubs in the region. In the coming weeks the Pennine Way Sports Stadium will be the centre of community rugby league in the South with the London Origin Series being staged there along the the Harry Jepson Final; the SCL Final; and representative matches involving London, the East, Midlands and the South West All of this is happening as a by-product of the Stags pulling out of League 1. The club much prefers its current situation rather than the one where it seemed to be judged on its place in the League 1 table, a competition that as long ago as 2014 was doomed. Finally, a note on Will Lovell. Will was rejected by London Broncos for a place in their Academy squad but he was able to stay in the sport and get a second chance thanks to the existence of the North London Stags - a team created by Hemel Stags in association with London Skolars to compete in the National U18 Youth League. After one season Skolars saw no future in the team and withdrew from the partnership and the Stags continued alone.

League 1 in 2013 and 2014 was hugely successful as a development semi-pro league(6 development clubs; 3 M62 clubs. Droping 6 Championship clubs, including Toulouse and Toronto, into it in 2015 made it uncompetitive on the playing field so the expansion clubs decided to leave. Never to return. A real lost opportunity for the sport⁷

It was the 8's that destroyed League 1. Oxford, Hemel, All Golds jumped ship because of them. West Wales followed shortly afterwards and the Midlands have spent the last two seasons based in Castleford. Only Skolars have attempted to stay true to their roots and they now find themselves in their current situation. How long before Cornwall (aka Hemel Stags) find themselves in the same situation

There is no funding available for grandstands as they don't do anything to encourage participation. The cost will be met 100% by the Stags.

The grandstand is temporarily closed for safety reasons. The wooden decking that came with it when it was purchased from the 2012 Olympics is rotten and needs to be replaced with either metal or plastic decking. The club is awaiting quotes for the work to be done. Cost is likely to be tens of thousands. The grandstand was last used in July for the LJL Grand Finals

Best competition Hemel Stags ever played in both on and off the field was the NCL Premier Division in 1993 - 96

A combination of purchasing power and the need to sell a keg of cask ale within 3 days of tapping it. Pints of lager, cider and Guinness are £3.90 @ Hemel Stags

St Albans is posh but Hemel is middle class. I live in St Albans but support Hemel Stags where a pint of Old Speckled Hen costs £3.40

A PNG NRL team makes a low cost option for the Australian Govt in its attempt to counter China's huge financial offers to South Pacific nations. While the whole of PNG may be committed to RL its a very different thing to get them to attend matches in Port Moresby. The NG side of PNG is where the majority of participation is but there are no land links from NG to Papua and Port Moresby ( think Kokoda Trail). Hence the only option is air travel so virtually all the spectators will have to be drawn from the Port Moresby region. The Australian Government has always made a big investment in PNG (it's how I came to be there in the late 60's and playing RL there) and the same investment needs to be made to give the NRL a very special ingredient that no other sport can offer.

Watched the video of the Match posted by Gomersall and can't see where the 547 spectators are. Looks more like 47 at a routine Midlands community RL game. Can anyone at the match offer any comments?

There're was an Open Age team at Ashford in the late 80's- based around redundant miners from Cumbria who had come South to work on the Channel Tunnel.

Ironically, it was during the years of Thatcherism that RL boomed in London. Three divisions of 27 open age team teams. The solitary Pro club had crowds of 15K at Craven Cottage. We can't blame Maggie on what followed.

The point is that Hemel always put some of their money into facilities and some into the pockets of players (in League 1 days). The other development area League 1 clubs put not a penny into facilities and are now homeless. Hemel had the foresight to get out of League 1 well before the RFL/IMG abolishes that competition. Hemel's ground that they own is now valued at just a little less than £1m - and despite having football clubs queuing up to use it, community RL remains the dominant sport. They arrived at a green field site in 1981 and slowly built the existing Pennine Way Sports Stadium with all its ancillary commercial operations under its control. Long, committed years which clubs today seem reluctant to do.

Can't disagree with this. It's just that the various RU clubs having a go at semi-pro rugby have something to fall back on when it doesn't work out and are content to revert to community clubs - if the players haven't busted them. The semi-pro RL clubs have nothing and the history of the past 40 years of the Kent Invictas, Scarborough Pirates, Cardiff Blue Dragons, Bramley .... West Wales Raiders etc, etc is proof of this.

This is not a reflection on NWC' s player recruitment policies or on their players' commitment to their club - some of which we have been only too familiar to at Hemel. The point that is trying to be made is to put some of your money into building your own home where you can be the landlord rather than always the impoverished tenant. And if you want a clue as to where to do this, go to where there is currently next to nothing and build on this - literally. No easy task, but it was done at Hemel. Finally, it's not about how much revenue you can make from your ground on matchdays - which when given player, medical and other costs is probably a loss-making venture,- , but the revenue you generate from your ground on the other 350+ days of the years. If the Hurricanes are controling the entire Alexander Stadium 365 days a year they should do well. Otherwise, it's community RL for them.

Can't see why Midlands/NWC et al after all these years in their existence don't have their own facilities rather than having to to be a lodger in other facilities. Perhaps if they hadn't spent their years stuffing all their income into players pockets - here today gone tomorrow- and nothing into facilities they might now be in a more stable position. The 170 spectators reported at the Midlands v Doncaster game suggests that the RFL/IMG are preparing these clubs for community RL where their current facilities will be quite adequate

Archbishop Lanfranc School in South London got a 4G pitch free from the RFL and not a game of RL was played on it and it is now used for RU. An indication that in the time as there were 27 full time RL development officers in London and no shortage of money to promote RL in London but there was simply absolutely not the slightest idea of how to spend it wisely. As for the 'SKOL'ars in London Skolars, the local Carlsberg-Tetley rep can tell an unflattering story about that...

There are many issues relating to RL in 'London' I was at Craven Cottage in 1980 for that iconic first match and have been involved in the sport ever since in the South I'm only too aware of the history of London's only pro club and its various owners The single biggest issue in London, though, has been the management of the 27 full-time RL community development officers in London between 2008-2012 ( employed by funding from Sport England which was administered by the RFL) who delivered absolutely zero legacy. If IMG were to throw another 27 RL development officers into London would anything change?

Although Hemel Stags are well pleased to be out of the meaningless League 1 which was destroyed by the "3 Eights" in 2015 we can recall dual reg agreements we had which were documented to RFL standards and clearly stated our financial obligations to the club who was providing the player to us. We only signed those agreements if we were happy with the terms. Since continuing as a community club we have not necessarily been all that happy that players we have developed through our junior ranks have been signed by both Broncos and Skolars with derisory compensation (I.e. £100 "compensation '. We welcome that the players we produce have a RL pathway to follow although the scores being registered in Scholarship, Academy, Reserves and League 1 matches in London this season suggest they might have been better off staying at Pennine Way The RL player pool and resources in London are so tiny that there is a need for all clubs - both community, semi-pro and pro - to come together for the overall development of the sport.

Maurice was a magnificent servant to BARLA and the community game and he saw the sport flourish under his stewardship. He was also a great supporter of Hemel Stags opening our first clubhouse in 1985 RIP, Maurice

Even though RU players were threatened by a RFU ban if they participated in RL at any level, this did not stop RU community players participating in RL. During the 1980's community RL boomed in London, the South West and Wales on the back of RU players who played union on Saturdays and League on Sundays There were three Divisons of open age RL in London and MASWALA were outstanding for participation in their area. Over the decades there has been little difficulty in the South in getting people to play RL. The big difficulty has been in getting them to buy into RL as their first choice sport and to step up to ensure the continuation of clubs for future generations

When I arrived in London from Oz in 1980 I picked up a copy of the Australasian Express to discover there was a RL club called London Colonials nearby. A phone call was answered by an Englishman, Gordon Anderton, who was Chair of the London Amateur Rugby League( just 5 clubs) but was also doing all the admin for the transient Colonials One thing led to another and Hemel joined the London League that grew to three divisions of 27 teams under Gordon's management (such was the influence of the newly arrived Fulham RLFC). Over the years I admired Gordon's commitment to the sport in London at all levels but it was at grassroots level where he was at his best. I always thought that every grassroots club needed at least one Gordon Anderton My final meeting with Gordon was in London Colonial's clubhouse (the basement of a pub overlooking the Thames) after Hemel's Southern Counties Cup victory over London Colonials in 1997 at the Hurlingham Stadium( more used to international quoquet matches than RL) when we shared thoughts on life etc. We both had identical heart problems - mine had been operated on a couple years previously to allow me to write this today but Gordon - who was significantly older- was denied the operation and was dead within a year. After Gordon's death the Gordon Anderton Memorial Trophy appeared but quickly disappeared. It would be nice if it was resurrected to permanently acknowledge the founder of RL in London