Brighouse Rangers was a rugby league club in

Brighouse Brighouse is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, east of Halifax. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 m ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The club was involved in the meeting at the

George Hotel, Huddersfield The George Hotel in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, is a Grade II listed building famous as the birthplace of rugby league football in 1895. The 60 bed hotel was built in 1851 and closed in January 2013, with the receivers looking for a n ...

in 1895, and after the

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

became founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union (now

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

), playing for eleven seasons from 1895–96 to 1905–06. After a break, a new club, also called Brighouse Rangers, appeared in 1915 and played in the Emergency War Leagues in 1915–16, 1916–17, 1917–18 and 1918–19.

History

Early history

Brighouse Rangers Football Club were founded in the 1870s, and joined the

RFU The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby (WR) in 1886. It pro ...

in 1879. After the 1890-91 season, Brighouse along with other Yorkshire Senior clubs Batley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Hunslet, Leeds, Liversedge, Manningham and Wakefield decided that they wanted their own county league starting in 1891 along the lines of a similar competition that had been played in Lancashire. The clubs wanted full control of the league but the Yorkshire Rugby Football Union would not sanction the competition as it meant giving up control of rugby football to the senior clubs. In 1895, on 20 April, Brighouse Rangers won "T'owd Tin Pot", beating

Morley R.F.C. Morley Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club based in Morley, West Yorkshire. England. The club are famous for playing in a maroon kit and thus are nicknamed "The Maroons". They currently play in North 1 East, a level six league in the ...

16–4 in the Yorkshire Cup Final at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

before a crowd of in the region of 20,000.

Northern Union

Brighouse Rangers, like many other clubs from Lancashire (and Yorkshire), had suffered punishment by the

for " broken time" payments. After their annual general meeting in London, the

issued a decree banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged, and so Brighouse Rangers, represented by H H Waller, attended a meeting at The

, together with the representatives of 21 other clubs, and agreed to form a

Northern Rugby Football Union Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

. After the Great Schism in 1895, Brighouse Rangers were one of the founder members of the new league and the same H H Waller of Brighouse Rangers was elected the first Northern Rugby Football Union chairman. In the first season 1895–96 the league consisted of 22 clubs and Brighouse Rangers, continuing their recent Rugby Union form, finished in 5th position. In season 1896–97 the league was divided into Yorkshire and Lancashire. Brighouse Rangers, playing in the former section, finished in 1st position out of 16 teams, 2 points ahead of second placed Manningham and a full eight points above third place Halifax. Brighouse Rangers were crowned Yorkshire

Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the Victory, victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and w ...

. In the following four seasons, still in the Yorkshire section, seasons 1897–98, 1898–99, 1899–1900 & 1900–01 the club finished in 13th, 10th and 12th before moving up to a mid-table 7th in the respective seasons, each time out of the 16 clubs. For the next season, 1901–02 the top seven clubs in each of the County Senior Leagues decided to break from the rest of the clubs and form "The Northern Rugby League". This is the first time these terms had been used. Brighouse Rangers, after finishing 7th (and beating

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

team with the same points by a better points scoring difference of 6), were included to this first division. Brighouse Rangers finishing 14th and bottom with a playing record of 5 points (4 wins and 1 draw) out of 26 matches played. The Rugby League made yet another change to the league structure for the next

1902–03 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

by renaming the top league as the 1st Division and increasing the number of clubs to 18, thus preventing any threatened relegations. Brighouse remained in the first division. In this following season, Brighouse Rangers again finished bottom out of the 18 teams, but this time only 2 points adrift of second bottom St. Helens and 8 points away from third bottom

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

. This time both Brighouse Rangers and St. Helens were relegated. For the next two seasons 1903–04 and 1904–05, Brighouse Rangers in the 2nd Division where they finished 6th out of 17 and then 11th out of 14 respectively. The following season 1905–06 the two leagues were combined into one. Also, clubs arranged all their own fixtures with the condition that any team they played they did so twice, both home and away. This meant that the league positions were decided on a % basis (i.e. the actual points gained divided by the number of points possible if the club had won every game – the answer multiplied by a hundred). In this, Brighouse Rangers' last season, they finished bottom equal with

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

, bottom with 8 points out of a possible 52 and bottom with a 15.38% winning percentage. At their annual general meeting in summer 1906 Brighouse Rangers took the decision to disband.

Successor clubs

After a break, another club with the same name Brighouse Rangers appeared during the First World War and played in the Emergency War League in season 1915–16, 1916–17, 1917–18 and the 1918–19 (Jan) wartime league but not in the shortened 1919 (Feb – May) Victory League. Brighouse Rugby League club have reformed numerous times since. The current club are amateurs Brighouse Rangers ARLFC. In the 1970s Brighouse Rangers (ARLFC) were reformed by former Luddenden and Ovenden player Jeff Greenwood and former Bradford Northern player John Chase they played at Wellholme Park, near the Brighouse Cricket Club. Towards the end of the new millennium 2000, Tesco bought the site including the Brighouse ARLFC clubhouse and with the money, the club built a new ground on Russell Way, off Bradford Road. As at 2022 they play in the Premier Div, Yorkshire League also run a ladies team and a number of age group teams .

Honours

* Yorkshire League: 1 **1896–97

Club name

According to the official Rugby League records the Club was called Brighouse Rangers Some sites and books refer to the club as Brighouse Rovers though.

Player earning international caps while at Brighouse Rangers

* William "Billy" Nicholl (b 30/10/1868 in

Rastrick Rastrick is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England, between Halifax, 5 miles (8 km) north-east and Huddersfield, 4 miles (7 km) south. The population of the Calderdale Civil Ward at the 2011 census was 11,351. It is perhaps best ...

— d 10/04/1922 in

)) played for

, in 1892 against Wales, and Scotland and for Brighouse Rangers, at both Rugby Union and Rugby League.

Ground

The club's first ground was at Fink Hill. In 1883 they moved to Waterloo Road, Lane Head (now the site of St Andrews Junior School and adjacent allotments), where they stayed until their demise in 1906.

Records

Club league performance

Club trophies

Yorkshire Cup (Rugby Union) The Yorkshire Cup is an England, English Rugby Football Union competition founded in 1878. It is organised by the Yorkshire Rugby Football Union and is open to all eligible clubs in the Yorkshire area. It was initially known as the Yorkshire Cha ...

winners: 1895 * Brighouse Rangers were the first Champions of the 1896–97 Yorkshire Senior Competition.

Club league record

Heading Abbreviations
Pl = Games played; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lose; PF = Points for; PA = Points against; Diff = Points difference (+ or -); Pts = League points
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

Several fixtures and results

The following a selection of Brighouse Rangers' fixtures in the seasons in which they played (semi) professional Rugby League:-

Heading Abbreviations
CC Rx = Challenge Cup Round x; TSC = Yorkshire Senior Competition;

References

External links

1896–97 Northern Rugby Football Union season at wigan.rlfans.com

Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results 1896/1897

Widnes Vikings – One team, one passion Season In Review – 1896–97

Saints Heritage Society

Warington History

RL All time records

Search for "Nicholl" at rugbyleagueproject.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brighouse Rangers RFC Rugby league teams in West Yorkshire Defunct rugby league teams in England Sport in Calderdale Brighouse Rugby clubs established in 1877 Rugby clubs disestablished in 1906 1906 disestablishments in England Founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union Women's rugby league teams in England 1877 establishments in England