Huyton RL

[Gregory]

Having just watched the fantastic 1980 Yorkshire TV documentary on Doncaster, I was just wondering whether Huyton (who feature in the programme) still have a senior team playing at any level in the sport?

[Viking Warrior]

sadly not, as many are aware huyton was just one manifestation of the club which began life as wigan highfield, and ended up as prescot panthers

[bowes]

Huyton Bulldogs played 2009 and won the North West division of the merit league. They then folded

[Futtocks]

Huyton Bulldogs played 2009 and won the North West division of the merit league

But then they relocated out of Huyton after 1 season.

[bowes]

But then they relocated out of Huyton after 1 season.

Where did they move to?

[Futtocks]

Where did they move to?

Oops, sorry! Mixing up history of the Bulldogs with Huyton RLFC, who of course went to Runcorn.

 

Huyton Bulldogs' website has not been updated since 2009 (the same year the club was founded), as far as I can tell.

[Griff9of13]

Huyton Bulldogs played 2009 and won the North West division of the merit league. They then folded

 

Yep, they folded. Thier players moved on to other Liverpool area teams as far as I'm aware, including the one that came and went in a single season based close to me, Crosby St Mary's. 

[bowes]

Yep, they folded. Thier players moved on to other Liverpool area teams as far as I'm aware, including the one that came and went in a single season based close to me, Crosby St Mary's.

Liverpool Lions basically took over Crosby St Mary's but also took players from the short lived Liverpool City. Liverpool Buccaneers were around longer but basically they had off season St Helens based players rather than locals. Liverpool Lions are different in running juniors. There's also a new Southport Storm team a bit further away

[CiderWire]

Runcorn Highfield, I recall them being around in '88 when I used to work on the Astmoor Estate. One of the girls in the factory was going out with John Cogger whom I believe was their SH. Pity, she deserved better ; )

Not sure when they folded though.

[EdinburghExile]

Runcorn Highfield, I recall them being around in '88 when I used to work on the Astmoor Estate. One of the girls in the factory was going out with John Cogger whom I believe was their SH. Pity, she deserved better ; )

Not sure when they folded though.

1997 I think was their last season. Decades of struggle, they maybe made one cup semi-final in all their history?

[Old Frightful]

Anybody know what Geoff Fletcher's up to these days?, hope he's still on the go.

[GaryO]

sadly not, as many are aware huyton was just one manifestation of the club which began life as wigan highfield, and ended up as prescot panthers

Wasn't Huyton the reincarnation of the original Liverpool City?

[bowes]

Wasn't Huyton the reincarnation of the original Liverpool City?

Wigan Highfield- London Highfield- Liverpool Stanley- Liverpool City- Huyton- Runcorn Highfield- Highfield- Prescot Panthers

Not quite though as there was a Liverpool City much earlier than that (pre WW1 if I remember correctly)

[GaryO]

Anybody know what Geoff Fletcher's up to these days?, hope he's still on the go.

Ah, Piggy Fletcher, now there was a guy who was 100% Rugby League, I I RC at one time he was the Chairman, Coach, Captain, Groundsman and General Odd Job Man of Huyton RLFC at the same time.

[GaryO]

Wigan Highfield- London Highfield- Liverpool Stanley- Liverpool City- Huyton- Runcorn Highfield- Highfield- Prescot Panthers

Not quite though as there was a Liverpool City much earlier than that (pre WW1 if I remember correctly)

Trafford Borough and Chorley also?

[JonM]

Trafford Borough and Chorley also?

 

They were re-incarnations of Blackpool Borough, although the history is more complex with them splitting into 2 clubs, then Lancashire Lynx and so on.

 

I watched quite a few Huyton games in the late 70s/early 80s and most of Runcorn's home games the season that John Cogger played, he was way too good for that level of RL. Wasn't the best at avoiding trouble in pubs though.

 

Great RL Stalwart that Geoff Fletcher was, he was effectively taking 1/30th share of the money the RFL had coming in and using it for his hobby. Huyton was (and is even more so now) the kind of place that makes other RL playing towns in the north look a bit posh.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

One thing that I remember about Huyton was that back in the mid-eighties our then owner, Roy Close, parking his Jaguar XJS on some waste ground near the club and coming back after the match to find that no-one had touched it

[Hornetto]

Went to Alt Park once with my dad when I was a nipper (1979-ish).

I remember three things:

 

The pitch was about 10 inches long and covered in dandeiions, daisies and buttercups.

Local kids were peeling the corrugated sheets off the stand roof while the game was in progress.

The club had a bloke posted on top of the clubhouse on swivel/office chair keeping an eye on the car-park.

[Stanley1]

1997 I think was their last season. Decades of struggle, they maybe made one cup semi-final in all their history?

Won the Lancashire League, as Liverpool Stanley, in 1936.

 

First game I remember watching was Stanley v. Bradford Northern at Stanley Stadium circa 1948. Memory tells me that Northern won 64-5 and then went slightly better in a return fixture a week later, winning 72-3. But this is just my memory. :-(

[JonM]

One thing that I remember about Huyton was that back in the mid-eighties our then owner, Roy Close, parking his Jaguar XJS on some waste ground near the club and coming back after the match to find that no-one had touched it

 

Locals probably assumed he was a mafia don and not to be messed with :-)

[Griff9of13]

Went to Alt Park once with my dad when I was a nipper (1979-ish).

I remember three things:

 

The pitch was about 10 inches long and covered in dandeiions, daisies and buttercups.

Local kids were peeling the corrugated sheets off the stand roof while the game was in progress.

The club had a bloke posted on top of the clubhouse on swivel/office chair keeping an eye on the car-park.

 

Ah, happy days. 

 

Living where I do it was my closest "professional" RL club, so we used to visit regularly. "Crowds" were so small you virtually knew everyone by name.

[Trojan]

When I first became interested in the game in the early sixties, I recall Doncaster and Liverpool City  being perpetually bottom.  I couldn't understand how a club in city as large as Liverpool struggled for crowds and success.  Why weren't the people of Liverpool interested in RL?  Weren't Saints, Widnes, Wigan and Warrington just down the road?  It puzzled me then and it puzzles me now, why interest in pro RL just stops in various places.  It's not just Liverpool, there are three clubs in Wakey Met, but then there's only the outposts at Sheffield and Doncster, East Lancashire is another puzzling area.  Large towns like Blackburn and Burnley, and a city like Preston, no pro RL.  All adjacent to the "heartlands"  Same goes for towns south of the Humber,  Scunny and Grimsby, they must know about RL, it'll be on their local radio,  but there doesn't seem to be any interest.  I've tried and failed to think of a reason.

[Lobbygobbler]

When I first became interested in the game in the early sixties, I recall Doncaster and Liverpool City being perpetually bottom. I couldn't understand how a club in city as large as Liverpool struggled for crowds and success. Why weren't the people of Liverpool interested in RL? Weren't Saints, Widnes, Wigan and Warrington just down the road? It puzzled me then and it puzzles me now, why interest in pro RL just stops in various places. It's not just Liverpool, there are three clubs in Wakey Met, but then there's only the outposts at Sheffield and Doncster, East Lancashire is another puzzling area. Large towns like Blackburn and Burnley, and a city like Preston, no pro RL. All adjacent to the "heartlands" Same goes for towns south of the Humber, Scunny and Grimsby, they must know about RL, it'll be on their local radio, but there doesn't seem to be any interest. I've tried and failed to think of a reason.

For the big cities like Liverpool, it is critical that a a non-football team is performing at the top level for at least a generation if it is to stand a chance of making inroads. Unfortunately the other way around is easier for football to make inroads into RL areas because football is seen as cool as it is dominated at top level by cities rather than less hip/cool smaller towns like Wigan.

For the East Lancs and Lincolnshire towns, it is different - quite simply these towns have never really had even amateur RL until very recently, and neighbouring RL towns have done little in general to market beyond their boundaries. For example, my own team Leigh could and should have played occasional on-the-road games at Burnden Park or Gigg Lane many years ago.

[bowes]

When I first became interested in the game in the early sixties, I recall Doncaster and Liverpool City  being perpetually bottom.  I couldn't understand how a club in city as large as Liverpool struggled for crowds and success.  Why weren't the people of Liverpool interested in RL?  Weren't Saints, Widnes, Wigan and Warrington just down the road?  It puzzled me then and it puzzles me now, why interest in pro RL just stops in various places.  It's not just Liverpool, there are three clubs in Wakey Met, but then there's only the outposts at Sheffield and Doncster, East Lancashire is another puzzling area.  Large towns like Blackburn and Burnley, and a city like Preston, no pro RL.  All adjacent to the "heartlands"  Same goes for towns south of the Humber,  Scunny and Grimsby, they must know about RL, it'll be on their local radio,  but there doesn't seem to be any interest.  I've tried and failed to think of a reason.

Preston North End and Burnley were originally rugby clubs but switched to football in 1880 and 1882 respectively so weren't around by the split. Liverpool and Manchester started off as rugby cities and still had big rugby clubs at the time of the split but they were more upper class than the clubs in the smaller surrounding towns so stuck with rugby union. Only Blackburn, Bolton and Accrington were never rugby towns, they initially adopted the Sheffield rules of football before it merged with association football

[mmp]

Don't however mistake the professionalisation of sport (and why no pro-RL exists in certain places) with why we cannot grow amateur RL in those areas now.  Accrington has an amateur RL side and Burnley does in the summer merit competitions - there a few sides now playing in and around Liverpool and one of those is deliberately training in Birkenhead to attract Wirral people into RL (not forgetting Birkenhead had a pro side in the very early years of NU).  There will be people in these places who'd play the game at an amateur level and the way people move around these days almost guarantees some heartland fans will be living local - just needs the right cocktail to get people interested again and to get things off the ground.