Kendal Rugby Football Club is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

team based in Kendal,

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. The first XV currently plays in

Regional 1 North West Regional 1 North West is a level five league in the English rugby union system, with the twelve teams drawn from across North West England. The other level five leagues are Regional 1 Midlands Regional 1 Midlands (until 2022–23 known as ...

, a level five league in the English league system, following the club's promotion from

North 1 West North 1 West is a rugby union league at the sixth level within the English league system. The league is made up of teams from north west England and the Isle of Man; principally consisting of the English counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater ...

at the end of the 2021–22 season.

History

Kendal RUFC was formed in 1905. moving to their present ground at Mint Bridge in 1927. The club found success in the decades before league rugby was introduced in 1987 and the club was placed in North One. By the turn of the century they were in National Division Two, finishing in fourth place in their first season in the third tier of English rugby. In 2002–03 they were relegated for the first time in the club's history and have subsequently dropped down two further levels.

Ground

Originally based at Maude's Meadow until 1906, Kendal moved to Mint Bridge off Shap Road in 1927. The original Mint Bridge had a capacity of 3,000 (including 300 in the stand) - which was the attendance achieved in 1999 when Kendal lost 20-25 to London Scottish in the fourth round of the Tetley's Bitter Cup. They would remain at the old Mint Bridge up until the end of the 2016-17 season when they sold the land to

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for the construction of a supermarket. The money from the sale would enable Kendal to build a new ground (retaining the Mint Bridge name) just up the road. It would cost up to £11 million - a figure that included a £3.5 million club-house - and development would officially begin in July 2016, undertaken by local construction group Pinington. The ground was completed in time for the 2017-18 season, with the first game taking place against Preston Grasshoppers on 30 September 2017 - a 19-25 defeat in front of a crowd of over 1,000 supporters. The new Mint Bridge Stadium has a 4G pitch with electronic scoreboard alongside the club-house/stand, with additional facilities including a function room, kitchen, cafe, children's play area and memorial garden. Capacity at the ground allows for up to 3,000 standing pitch side, along with 258 seats in the stand and space for 200 on the club-house balcony, bringing total capacity to approximately 3,500.

Honours

1st team: * Westmorland & Furness Cup winners (10): 1974, 1985, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000 * North 1 champions (2): 1988–89, 2007–08 *

Cumbria Cup The Cumbria Cup is an annual rugby union knock-out club competition organized by the Cumbria Rugby Union. It was first introduced during the 1882-83 season, when it was known as the Cumberland Challenge Cup, and the inaugural winners were Aspat ...

winners (5): 1995, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2018 * Jewson National League 2 North champions: 1999–00 *

champions: 2015–16 2nd team: *

Cumbria Shield The Cumbria Shield is an annual rugby union knock-out club competition organized by the Cumbria Rugby Union. It was introduced during the 1888-89 season, when it was known as the Cumberland Challenge Shield, and the inaugural winners were Millom ...

winners: 1996 * Cumbria Vase winners (3): 2008, 2009, 2012

Notes

References

External links