South Shields 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. The club was based in South Shields in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...

at the mouth of the River Tyne,

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 two seasons, 1902–03 and

1903–04 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 ...

, joining direct from foundation. They were voted out of the league at the end of season

History

Early Days

There had already been rugby league teams based on Tyneside just after the rugby schism that resulted in the formation of rugby league, Wallsend RFC, but they had not had great success. South Shields were founded in 1902. They had not played in any league when elected to the Rugby Football League 2nd Division for the 1902–03 season.

Northern Union

At the end of the 1901–02 season, the County Leagues elected 18 teams to join the new Division 2 (7 from Lancashire and 10 from Yorkshire and new member South Shields) with the existing second competition scrapped. In their first season of 1902–03 South Shields finished a lowly 14th out of 18 clubs. In their second and last season,

, they again had a poor season and finished 15th out of 17 clubs. Although there is virtually no evidence, it is suspected that South Shields Rugby League Club had failed to attract any reasonable attendances or generate sufficient income, due probably to apathy on behalf of the population. The same apathy had resulted in the same two problems affecting the several Association football clubs who had gone both before and after them, and all of which had gone into liquidation, administration or bankruptcy. South Shields Rugby Club were voted out of the league at the end of season

Stadium

South Shields played at

Horsley Hill Horsley Hill was a football and rugby league ground and greyhound racing track in South Shields. History South Shields RLFC were established in 1902 and played at Horsley Hill during the 1902–03 and 1903–04 seasons. They were voted ou ...

in North East South Shields, quite near the sea front. After the demise of South Shields Rugby Club, the newly formed South Shields Adelaide AFC. took over the former rugby ground, early in 1905 for an annual rental of £30. This action almost caused the demise of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

as well, as a promised loan for this purpose failed to materialise. It was left to a local solicitor, Victor Grunhut, to loan the money to the club, a simple loan of £35 on a simple IOU, payable within three months. A third South Shield FC emerged in 1936, also playing initially at Horsley Hill, which by this time had become a greyhound stadium. The stadium closed to Greyhound Racing in 1966, remaining as ‘The Dog’s Bowl’ bowling alley until it was demolished in the late 70's. A jet filling station had been built on the car park at the junction of Horsley Hill Road and Westcott Avenue. After demolition, the area was redeveloped for housing.

Club League Record

The league positions for South Shields for the 3 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
% Pts = A percentage system was used to determine league positions due to clubs playing varying number of fixtures and against different opponents
League points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.

Several fixtures & results

The following are just a few of South Shields fixtures during the two seasons in which they played (semi) professional Rugby League.

Notes and Comments

# Folly Fields is the stadium used by

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the 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 north-east and Warrington t ...

at the time until 1901. They then became sub-tenants of Springfield Park See below - Note 3. # Lowerhouse Lane is the original site of the current ground used by

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

. It was renamed Naughton Park in 1932 in honour of club secretary, Tom Naughton - and later renamed Halton Stadium after being completely rebuilt in 1997. #

became sub-tenants of Springfield Park, which they shared with

Wigan United AFC Wigan United A.F.C. was an association football club existing from around 1896 into the early 1900s, and was based in Wigan, Lancashire, England. History The 1900–01 season saw the club in the Lancashire League, and rumours circulating arou ...

, playing their first game there on 14 September 1901 at which a crowd of 4,000 saw them beat Morecambe 12–0, and the last game on 28 April 1902 when

beat the Rest of Lancashire Senior Competition. A temporary ground was necessary to span the period between moving from Folly Fields and the new ground at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

being constructed.

References

External links

North East Rugby League ClubsAloha from South Shields
{{DEFAULTSORT:South Shields RFC English rugby league teams Defunct rugby league teams in England Rugby league teams in Tyne and Wear Sport in South Shields Rugby clubs established in 1902