Hemel Rugby League

Pennine Way was basically a greenfield site when the rugby league club arrived there in 1981. The existing clubhouse, changing rooms, grandstand, floodlighting, 7-a-side 4G pitch, fencing, car park and soon to be installed new pitch were put there and paid for by the RL club via a combination of brewery loans; commercial activities and, more recently, grants via the support of the RFL ( 50% of the new changing rooms cost from the World Cup Legacy Fund, and now the recent Grasspitch Multisports pitch). The local authority has provided the club with a long term lease on the land since 1984 which has given the club security of tenure to make the significant improvements to the site. The initial peppercorn rent on the lease of the land was changed to a commercial rent in 2010 when the club made £350,000 worth of improvements to the site which included paying £32,000 to the Council under a S106 planning agreement.

The first chapter in the guide would be very short but the most important one - 'Where will you Play' When Hemel started in 1981 the local Council offered them the choice of 2 pitches: One was the overflow pitch for the local ru club and offered potential access to that club's facilities and playing resources. The other was on the other side of town and was actually a 130m long hurling pitch with 'H' shaped posts on it and little else apart from some dodgy changing rooms. Hemel rugby league chose that pitch as they wanted to be as far away as possible from the local rugby union club. Today that site is known as the Pennine Way Sports Stadium and is controlled by the rugby league club.

The pitch funding project was almost three years in the making and the club held off from sorting out the grandstand issues until the ground funding was resolved. The grandstand came from the 2012 Olympics (it was used at Earls Court for the indoor volleyball) and while of the highest quality the decking is wooden and it all needs replacing at significant cost. While the original purpose of the grandstand was to accommodate League 1 etc crowds, the club recognises that having such a facility makes Pennine Way a more welcoming environment for community rugby league.

When we talk of pathways in London producing players we cannot ignore the impact of the clubs in the London Junior League who have been so successful in producing players for Broncos Scholarship & Academy teams over the past 20 or so years. An audit of the London Junior League shows that there are now just 7 clubs, not all fielding teams at all age groups, with 4 in the 'Shires' - Eastern Rhinos, Brentwood, St Albans , Hemel and 3 in London , Brixton, Bromley & Elmbridge. All 3 are South of the River Thames with not a single Junior team operating north of the Thames. What will the 5 Year plan do to ensure that these clubs don't go the same way as the lost junior clubs of Greenwich Admirals, Medway Dragons, Invicta Panthers, London Skolars, North Herts Crusaders, Richmond, Newham Dockers, etc, etc? And equally important, how will the 5 Year Plan create new clubs and sustain them,?

Everything is going quite well at Hemel at all levels. The club's senior squad is being rebuilt around the club's successful juniors programme. For the past two seasons, every single player has come through the club's well established junior programme. The average age of the players have been less than 20 years Everyone at the Stags - players, coaches, administrators, supporters - know the SCL is their destination but only when the players are ready for that standard. E

And I've eaten often at Au P'###### Kir on the Canal du Centre in Burgundy, which they rated as the best canalside restaurant on their journey South. But no pie 'n petit pois on the menu

Should Carcassonne join League 1, this might be an option: https://images.app.goo.gl/GEn45j7imET3fNnD7

Been going 44 years at the same site - Pennine Way - and next month sees the 40th anniversary of the opening of its first modest social club by Barla's Maurice Oldroyd which was the first step in building the now Pennine Way Sports Stadium.

It would have been nice if Broncos had acknowledged the London Junior League clubs that produced these players in the first place

We don't necessarily need London Broncos in the top flight in London but we do need some top flight RL in London, but not linked to the fluctuating fortunes of a solitary club. Oh, to go back to the predictable days of the 80's and 90's when we had scheduled touring teams from Oz and NZ playing memorable games at Wembley. My own club, in conjuction with our near neighbours St Albans Centurions, sold 600 tickets for the World Cup semi final at Wembley in 2013. Most of those ticket holders have lost interest in the sport due to its low profile. The recent World Cup semi-Final at Arsenal showed there is still a market for RL in London and few who were present would be reluctant to attend a similar match again.

Pennine Way at Hemel Stags was an apt location for the club. When the wind and rain blows in down the Gade Valley to the club, nobody would ever call our supporters ''Southern Softies' !!

This is extremely disappointing. The Hemel Stags team - average age 19, all of whom have come through the London Junior League - although well beaten by the Vipers in the East Grand Final at their home ground 2 weeks ago would have been delighted to have taken Vipers place against Telford if sufficient notice had been given. Testing times for the sport in the South, again.

If a wake it is to be, then perhaps if some of those 4/5000 mourners stepped up to a reincarnation of the club that they were previously content to allow one man to far too generously fund its existence, and put their efforts into a better model.

Also the matter of a £70,000 bond against defaulting on fixtures

In recent weeks the London Junior League has held face-to-face and online meetings with clubs to address the issues facing the clubs. At the same time London Broncos, for the first time ever, are actively engaging with community clubs rather than just taking their players. So the sport is coming together in the Capital. Nobody who is actively involved in Rugby league in London and the SE is ablivious to the challenges the sport faces. What the sport could do with is less passive supporters and more who will become coaches, touchline managers, kit persons, first aiders, referees etc, etc to grow the sport at its base so that the top level of the sport sits on more solid foundations

Two thoughts: 1. The difference between the Twickenham and Wembley crowds is because RL has about 12 community clubs in London and the South East whereas RU has as least ten times as many. 2. Why not switch Finals venues and have the Grand Final or even the WCC in London

The support Hemel Stags received from the RFL in its path towards joining the then Championnship 1 was outstanding. Once accepted, in 2012, we received additional support to employ a full time Community/Commercial Manager, as well as other support, so much so that when we ran out on the field in 2013 for our first C1 match we had £26k on our shirts as well as another £85k guaranteed from the RFL. The other clubs - Oxford, Uni of Gloucestershire All Golds, Coventry - received similar support. And the four clubs had the additional support of a RFL Club Support Officer - Andy Lindley - who had the specific brief of supporting those 4 clubs. What happened after that is a different story, though.....

I understand Bedford Tigers have expressed an interest in joining League 1

I feel people are being unfair to the SCL. It's a quality community-based competition with an extremely high completion rate of fixtures. The dominant clubs are London-based who have shown their merit in national competitions. The SCL is the path forward for community OA RL in the South. As an aside, Hemel did reasonably well in the the SCL in the 2 seasons after their planned withdrawal from League 1. After that Covid killed off their senior squad and they now rebuild in the East Region with players who have all come through their junior ranks with the ultimate goal of returning to the SCL And there's certainly no way Hemel Stags will be 'Expressing an Interest' in re-joining League 1 as per the RFL's announcement today.

This is very much ancient history but between 2006 -2012 the RFL allocated sufficient funding from their £29m Sports England grant to employ 27 full-time development officers in London and the South East. After that, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, gifted the RFL in 2013 £250,000 to promote RL in East London over a 2 year period. No lack of money - just a lack of direction in the use of it.

It's a lot more complex than simply a lack of money Most people who come across rugby league in the South tend to like it. It's the failure to get them to act as volunteers to sustain the sport, as happens in most other sports, that ultimately leads to the demise of clubs. No easy answer.

What is missing from this debate is an input from IM2 who initiated the crowdfunding appeal and who could provide most of the answers. Whatever, the apparent demise of Skolars, along with other former L1 clubs in the South and Wales must cause great concern when viewed with the collapse of community rugby league in the South

The Hemel teams of the 90's, 00's and most of the teens were dominated by players that were imported from Oz, NZ, France, the Midlands, the North and London. Few local players could handle the standard they were playing at. Last season's OA team playing in the East Region was comprised entirely of players who had come through their well established London Junior League ranks. The same pattern is set to continue this season. Their Head Coach started as coach of the club's U7 Minis and had coached every age group up to U16's before taking over as Head Coach last season. In comparison with Skolars who had to crowdfund when they left League 1, Hemel Stags received a significant cash payment for handing over their RFL membership which they used to part fund the £180,000 of new changing rooms and gym that has greatly enhanced their stadium facilities at Pennine Way

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