|
A short history of Lostock Rugby Club
A Short History of Lostock Rugby Club
Lostock Rugby Club has its origins in the social and sporting camaraderie of the post World War Two era of the late Forties, early Fifties, when workers from the then De Havilland Propellers, Lostock, played rugby on an ad-hoc basis against other factories, mainly within the De Havilland group. These games were deemed to have great prestige. Obviously, because a vast amount of the almost Four Thousand workforce came from Wigan and the surrounding areas, the teams were full of natural talent and very successful.
Building on this success in 1956 the Sports and Social Club allowed the rugby players to form a rugby section, and from then rugby took off at Lostock. Fielding three teams per week, many successful years followed, even with the name changes, firstly to Hawker Siddeley, then British Aerospace. This frequent name changing prompted the Rugby Club to adopt the location of the sports grounds at Lostock as the club name in the mid Eighties. When the name Lostock was lodged with the Rugby Football Union.
For all these years the playing members of the club had only to fund the travelling expenses and the laundry bill, with every thing else being provided by the company and the Sports and Social Club. However, in the early Nineties, with the ending of the "Cold War" and the beginning of détente, things at the Lostock factory changed dramatically. British Aerospace reduced its workforce by almost three thousand. This left the Club struggling for a player base and funding. Eventually, in 1995, British Aerospace withdrew all funding and issued a notice to quit the sports grounds, stating that they would develop the grounds for building.
Led by the Rugby Club's senior members, it was decided to fight this threat of development. From that moment on a small group, mainly rugby players, fought to keep open the Sports Ground, and in addition became responsible for its upkeep and maintenance, which had previously cost Aerospace £30,000 pounds per annum.
At present the Club is still fighting the closure of the grounds by trying to obtain tenure of the land, which would allow not only the continuation of the Rugby Club, but the expansion of the Club, by opening it up for mini rugby and youth teams.
That is, I hope, a brief history and future ambition of the Club and should you feel able to support our Club in any way, your assistance will be greatly appreciated, by all our Members and Committee.
|
RFU.com 
Clubs Near Me
