A look at how an entrepreneur’s ambition, and the growth of greyhound racing, combined to create a rugby league double act down in London between the wars. 

IN rugby league, London derbies in a senior competition are a little bit like the city’s famous red buses – as the old saying goes, you wait ages for one, then two or three come along at once.

While ‘at once’ may be a slight exaggeration, the emergence and progression of a clutch of community teams in the capital – started by Hammersmith Hills Hoists, founded in 2008 – and their entry into the Challenge Cup has led to a number of neighbourly knockout showdowns down in the smoke.

This year’s London Broncos versus Wests Warriors second-round tie, won 86-0 by the Championship side, was the fifth all-capital cup contest since 2018, when London Chargers beat Hammersmith 18-0 in round one.

We’ve also had London Skolars 40 Chargers 22 (round two, 2022), Wests 18 Chargers 14 (round two, 2023) and Hammersmith 22 Wests 12 (round three, 2024).

But before then, there hadn’t been an all-London meeting in a competition involving professional clubs since between the wars (while they played in the league system between 2003 and 2023, Skolars didn’t have any competitive meetings with the Broncos, who began life as Fulham in 1980).

That the city had two teams in the mid-1930s was down to businessman and property developer Sydney Parkes and the growing popularity of greyhound racing.

From the mid-1920s, and aided by the introduction of the electric hare, the dogs evolved from a niche interest into one of the top commercial leisure activities for the working class, offering as it did an accessible, entertaining and affordable night out, not to mention the opportunity of legal betting (bookmakers’ shops weren’t allowed in the United Kingdom until May 1961).

By 1936, attendances topped 32 million a year, making it the third-largest commercial activity in the country behind only the cinema and football.

Of course greyhound racing required venues, and after the first official meeting at future rugby league ground Belle Vue in Manchester in July 1926, the number of tracks grew rapidly – especially in London.

Soon in on the act were the existing Wembley, opened in 1923, and White City, which dated back to 1908, while the vast West Ham Stadium (not to be confused with the football club), Wimbledon, which was on the site of the current Cherry Red Records Stadium that now hosts the Broncos, and Clapton came into use in 1928.

More and more followed, including in 1931, Park Royal Stadium at Twyford, two miles from Wembley in north-west London and built by Parkes.

Flush from the construction of swathes of suburban houses in various parts of the capital, he took ownership of Wandsworth Stadium, which opened in south-west London in 1933, and two years later, was behind the construction of Mitcham Stadium in the particularly populous south of the city.

While Park Royal held around 30,000, the capacity at Mitcham, which had yet to gain a greyhound racing licence, was double that, and Parkes was keen to ensure both were used as much as possible.

With the exception of one year (1932), Wembley had staged the Challenge Cup Final since 1929, and there were a number of amateur rugby league teams in the London area, including Acton Hornets, Dagenham, Harlesden All Blacks and Hendon.

While a previous attempt to operate a professional side there, White City-based London Highfield, had been abandoned after a single season (1933-34), Parkes wasn’t put off and in March 1935, successfully applied to the Rugby Football League to launch not one, but two clubs – Acton & Willesden, operating out of Park Royal, and Streatham & Mitcham – the following season.

The early signs were good, with 17,800 watching Acton & Willesden beat Batley 21-14 in the September, after 22,000 had seen Streatham & Mitcham, who had hit the headlines by signing star New Zealand rugby union fullback George Nepia, defeated 10-5 by Oldham.

While neither team was disgraced playing-wise, costs were high while gates became lower, and after the first London derby – Acton & Willesden gaining a 15-7 away win on Christmas Day 1935 – Parkes moved their matches to Mitcham.

While beaten 21-12 in the second derby on Good Friday 1936, Acton & Willesden, whose side included former Wales rugby union hooker Con Murphy, finished above Streatham & Mitcham in the 30-strong table (21st compared to 24th).

But after that campaign, they were disbanded, with a significant factor being Parkes’ failure to gain a greyhound licence for Mitcham Stadium, therefore losing out on what would have been a valuable income stream.

He persevered with Streatham & Mitcham, but they folded in the February of the following season, having fulfilled 26 of 38 scheduled league games (their remaining 12 were recorded as forfeits to the opposition, with the record books showing them as ending up 23rd out of 30, the first Newcastle club, also based at a recently-built greyhound stadium, having entered the league).

In an effort to make it profitable, Mitcham Stadium also staged athletics, baseball (Nepia was persuaded to play for the Streatham-Mitcham Giants team), non-league football, unofficial greyhound racing and Gaelic Games, while some amateur rugby league was played there before closure in 1955, bids to persuade Fulham Football Club to leave Craven Cottage, where the Broncos were to first play, and to set up base there, and to gain a licence for speedway, having fallen through.

Both stands were dismantled and sold to football clubs Bedford Town and Leyton Orient, with the latter still using theirs.

The Broncos played a one-off game against Bradford at that ground in 2012.

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 518 (March 2026)