St Albans Rugby Club is a
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 ...
club based in
St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...
, South-east England. The 1st XV currently plays in London NW3 following promotion from
Herts/Middlesex1 at the end of the 2019-20 season.
History
The club was formed in 1970 by their first chairman, Peter Baines. The club formed as an open rugby club with many players joining from the old Electrical Apparatus Company (EAC) rugby club which played off New Barnes Avenue.
Initially the club used changing rooms at Westminster Lodge and a rented pitch situated just above the hypocaust in Verulamium Park. The North Western PH (now a block of flats) on the corner of Prospect Road and Holywell Hill provided a club room and meals on match days. In 1976 the club acquired the short term lease from St Albans School for a pitch and clubhouse off Belmont Hill.
1983 saw the club move to their current ground at Boggymead Springs, off Oaklands Lane, at Smallford, obtained on a long term lease from
Hertfordshire CC. The clubhouse was officially opened by the England scrum half,
Dickie Jeeps, in October that year.
Other sports
St Albans RFC also hosts
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee Flying disc sports, flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditiona ...
with St Alban Ultimate and recently the
Hertfordshire Cheetahs American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
team who play in the
BAFA National Leagues
The BAFANL (BAFA National Leagues) are the primary American football domestic League competition in Great Britain. The League is run by the British American Football Association to coordinate contact football within England, Scotland and Wales. ...
Division 2 East.
Playing level
The club currently plays in
London North West 3. In 2012 the 1st XV won the Herts Presidents' Tankard for the 2nd time and for a 3rd time in 2019. “Saints” are again finalists in 2020. The club also fields 2nd and 3rd XV sides which compete in the local Herts/Middlesex League (HMMT) Merit Tables.
St Albans RFC welcomes players of all abilities, as well as social members.
Twickenham appearance
In 1995 the club qualified from over 500 junior clubs to reach the final of the Pilkington Shield at
Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boro ...
, where they played and lost to Bedford Queens 11-10 immediately prior to the
Wasps
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...
v
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
Pilkington Cup Final. The club qualified to enter the Pilkington Cup itself a few years later, through reaching the Hertfordshire President’s Cup final.
Club honours
1st team
*
Hertfordshire 1 champions: 1993–94
*
London Division 3 North West champions: 2004–05
*
Hertfordshire Presidents' Tankard winners (3): 2010, 2012, 2019
''2nd XV
*
Herts and Middlesex Merit Table 6 champions: 2016–17
*
Herts and Middlesex Merit Table 6 Plate champions: 2016–17
*
Herts and Middlesex Merit Table 4 champions: 2019–20
References
External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Albans RFC
English rugby union teams
Rugby clubs established in 1970
Rugby union clubs in Hertfordshire
Rugby Football Club