Heckmondwike was a semi-professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

club based in

Heckmondwike Heckmondwike is a town in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, south west of Leeds. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is close to Cleckheaton and Liversedge. It is mostly in the Batley and Spen pa ...

in the metropolitan borough of

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also includes ...

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 played semi-professional rugby league for a total of 4 seasons and spent each of the seasons in the Yorkshire Senior Competition. They first became 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 ...

) in 1896–97 and stayed for three seasons until 1898–99. After a two-year sojourn in the Yorkshire Second Competition, they returned to the Northern Rugby Football Union's Yorkshire Senior Competition in 1901–02 for a further single season. At the end of the 1901–02 season the club left the league and changed sports to soccer.

History

Early Days

Heckmondwike FC was formed as a

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

club some time before 1895. They converted from the

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

to rugby league in the summer of 1896, in time for the 1896–97 season. During the early years the club had three prominent players who gained international caps: Dicky Lockwood,

Donald Jowett Donald Jowett (4 December 1866 – 27 August 1908) was an English rugby union footballer who played in the 1880s and 1890s. He played at representative level for England national rugby union team, England, and Yorkshire Rugby Football Union, Y ...

, and Willie Sutcliffe. They joined the ranks of the semi-professionals when they became members of the Northern Union in its second season 1896–97 and played in the Yorkshire Senior Competition. At the end of this first season, 1896–97, Heckmondwike finished in bottom place out of the 16 clubs.. In the second season, 1897–98 the club did very little better, finishing 15th out of 16 clubs, despite the signing of the former

(RU) and Bradford F.C. Half-back,

Horace Duckett Horace Duckett (11 October 1867 – 3 March 1939) was a rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1890s. He played representative level rugby union (RU) for England, and at club level for Bradford F.C., as a hal ...

. They slipped back to bottom position out of 16 in the third season, 1898–99. Heckmondwike hen spent two seasons playing in the Yorkshire Second Competition. With the formation of the Northern Rugby League in 1901 Heckmondwike returned to the Yorkshire Senior Competition for the start of the 1901–02 and finished in 11th place out of 14 clubs. A further re-organisation of the league took place in 1902 when 18 teams from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Senior Competitions were elected to a new Northern Rugby League Division 2 - the Lancashire and Yorkshire Senior Competitions being abolished. Heckmondwike were not one of the teams elected to the new Division 2. The club left the Northern Union in 1902 and converted to a soccer club.

Club league record

The league positions for Heckmondwike for the three years in which they played semi-professional rugby league are given in the following table:

Heading Abbreviations
RL = Single division; 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.

Notable players

J. Bland of Heckmondwike played in The Rest's 5-7 defeat by

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 popula ...

in the 1901–02 Yorkshire Senior Competition Champions versus The Rest match at Headingley Stadium on Saturday 19 April 1902.Dalby, Ken (1955). ''The Headingley Story - 1890-1955 - Volume One - Rugby''. The Leeds Cricket, Football & Athletic Co. Ltd ASIN: B0018JNGVM

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heckmondwike FC Rugby league teams in West Yorkshire Defunct rugby league teams in England Sport in Kirklees Rugby clubs established in 1896 English rugby league teams 1902 disestablishments in England Heckmondwike

History

Early Days

Club league record

Notable players

See also

References