Manchester Village Spartans RUFC

Manchester Village Spartans RUFC

Manchester Village Spartans RUFC Logo
Union	Cheshire RFU
Founded	1998 (1998)
Location	Sale, Trafford, England
Ground(s)	Sale Sports Club
Chairman	Dean Bee
President	Jonathan Mayor
Captain(s)	Simon Gammon (1st team) Marc Heaney (2nd Team) Ben Dawson (Touch Team)
League(s)	North West Intermediate Rugby Union League IGR North Trafford Touch League
Official website
www.pitchero.com/clubs/manchestervillagespartansrufc/

The Manchester Village Spartans RUFC is Manchester's gay and inclusive rugby union football team based at Sale Sports Club, Manchester.

The club welcomes players at all skill levels who do and do not identify as LGBT, and has both Rugby Union and Touch Rugby teams

The club is a full and founding member of International Gay Rugby Association and Board (IGRAB),^[1] and in 2012 it hosted the Bingham Cup, the international gay and inclusive rugby championship.^[2]

History

The Village Spartans where founded in 1998 in Manchester, UK, becoming the second gay and inclusive team in the United Kingdom, after the Kings Cross Steelers in 1995. This was in response to the hostile environment encountered by players at the time trying to participate within non-inclusive teams, and sought to establish a gay and inclusive team to counter this.

In August 1999, the Village Spartans and Kings Cross Steelers played the first match between two gay and inclusive rugby clubs in the United Kingdom. The Steelers won 22-15. This initial match evolved into the annual Pioneers Cup, which both the Spartans and Steelers host on a rotating basis. As both clubs have expanded multiple squads from both clubs compete in matches of similar skilled sides.

In 2002 the club changed its club colours to the Rainbow Flag of the LGBT Community, colours which have been retained throughout various kit designs ever since.

In 2012 the Spartans hosted the Bingham Cup ^[3], an international tournament for gay and inclusive teams from over a dozen countries, often termed the ‘gay rugby world cup’ for its scale.

In 2017 the Spartans bid for the 2019 Union Cup, a Pan-European gay and inclusive rugby tournament, losing out to the Emerald Warriors RFC from Dublin, Ireland ^[4].

2017 marked the first time the Spartans sent three teams to an international competition, with the 3rd (3XV) team winning the bronze bowl.

In 2017 the Spartans launched a fulltime Touch Rugby programme, representing the first-time women were able to join the club as players. As of 2018 the Touch programme has 2 teams contesting in the Trafford Touch League.

At present, the club has the following teams:

• Manchester Village Spartans 1XV – North West Intermediate League Division 3 South
• Manchester Village Spartans 2XV – IGR North
• Manchester Village Spartans Touch Team

The Spartans club house is the Sale Sports Club, based in Sale, Trafford.

Name and kit

The Spartans take their name from the Spartans of Ancient Greece, whose warrior culture encouraged and celebrated male sexual and romantic love as a form of cameraderie and strength.

Since 2002 the club colours have been the rainbow flag of the LGBT community, and have been retained in various kit redesigns over the years. The Spartans are unique as the only UK gay and inclusive team to prominently feature the rainbow flag on their kit.

The logo shows a Spartan helmet with a rainbow plume, and the club has the moto Unione Fortior which means Strength in Union.

Charitable Status

The Manchester Village Spartans have community amateur sports club (CASC) status, Scheme Number CH10207,^[5] a status different from charity status but conveying some of the same benefits.^[6]

Results in Leagues and Tournaments

References

External links

• Official website