Morecambe RFC

Morecambe was a semi-professional rugby league club. The club was based in Morecambe, a resort town now within the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England.

The club played semi-professional rugby league for a total of 8 seasons in all. They first became members of the Northern Rugby Football Union (now Rugby Football League) for three continuous seasons from 1896–97 to 1898–99.

They left the league and returned two seasons later, playing another four seasons from 1901–02 to 1905–06. At the end of season 1905–06 the club left the league, at which point Jack Bartholomew (the uncle of the comedian Eric Morecambe) left the club and joined Huddersfield, he would later play for Great Britain, and Bradford Northern.[1]

History

Early Days

Morecambe FC was formed as a rugby football club in 1876. They joined the ranks of the semi-professionals when they became members of the Northern Union in its second season 1896–97 and played for three seasons in the Lancashire Senior Competition. In each of these three seasons, the club managed only to finish with the wooden spoon, at the bottom of the league, 14th out of 14 clubs.

At the end of this third season, 1898–99, Morecambe left the ranks of the (semi) professionals and were replaced by Millom. For the next two seasons it is thought that Morecambe played in the local amateur non-leagues as at the end of the 1900–01 season Morecambe lost to Widnes in the second qualifier play-off. (Widnes had finished bottom of the Lancashire Senior Competition and lost the first play-off match to St. Helens who had finished second bottom).[2]

Morecambe returned for the start of the 1901–02 and finished in 11th place out of 13 clubs. 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.[3]

In 1902–03 Morecambe, being one of the fortunate clubs, joined the new 2nd Division, where they would stay for the next three seasons. In the first season in the new second division (1902–03) they finished 17th out of 18 clubs. Similarly, in the following two seasons the club could only manage to finish second bottom in each season.

In 1905–06 the Rugby League combined the divisions to form one united league. In this, Morecambe’s final season in the semi-professional ranks, they again finished second bottom, 30th out of 31 clubs. Morecambe dropped out of the league after the end of the season. In none of the eight league seasons did Morecambe manage to score more than 100 points.

Centenary Match

In 1904, Morecambe and Lancaster, very close neighbours, were drawn against each other in the first round of the Rugby League Challenge Cup. 100 years later the two clubs Morecambe (being represented by Heysham Atoms ARLFC[4]) and Lancaster agreed to play a centenary commemorative match, the winner would be presented with the "Morecambe Bay State of Origin Trophy".[5] And so on Tuesday 11 May 2004, at Lancaster City AFC’s Giant Axe Stadium, Morecambe (playing in the traditional black and white hoops) beat Lancaster (in Red and white hoops) 24-15.[4]

Stadium

Morecambe played at Moss Lane in North West Morecambe, quite near the seafront, and in the vicinity of the present Morrisons supermarket.[5]

Club league record

The league positions for Morecambe for the 8 years in which they played semi-professional rugby league are given in the following table:[6]

Season Competition Pos Team Name Pl W D L PW PA Diff Pts % Pts No of teams in league Notes Ref
1896–97Lancs Sen Comp14Morecambe26302352238-186614
1897–98Lancs Sen Comp14Morecambe26422074285-2111014
1898–99Lancs Sen Comp14Morecambe26212347281-234514
Morecambe resigned and were replaced by Millom.
1899–00 Morcambe not in professional leagues.
1900–01 Morcambe not in professional leagues.
Morecambe rejoined for start of season 1901–02.
1901–02Lancs Sen Comp11Morecambe1113[7]
Only limited County League information is available for this season.
1902–032nd Div17Morecambe34922388220-1322018
1903–042nd Div16Morecambe32532472287-2151317
1904–052nd Div13Morecambe26721788272-1841614
1905–06RL30Morecambe26242099282-183815.3831

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 Morecambe fixtures during the three seasons (and other times) in which they played semi-professional rugby league:[8][9][7][10][2]

Season Date Competition Opponent Venue H/A Result Score Att Notes Ref
1896–97Sat 05–09-1896Lancs Sen CompWiganMoss LnHLost3-61,5[7]
1896–9712–09-1896Lancs Sen CompWidnesMoss LnHWon5–02[2]
1896–9703-10-1896Lancs Sen CompWarringtonWilderspool StadiumALost0-3[9]
1896–97Sat 10-10-1896Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensMoss LnHLost5-8[10]
1896–9714-11-1896Lancs Sen CompWidnesLowerhouse LaneALost0-4[2]
1896–97Sat 09–01-1897Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensKnowsley RoadALost0-3[10]
1896–97Sat 02–02-1897Lancs Sen CompWiganFolly FieldsALost0-6[7]
1896–9706–02-1897Lancs Sen CompWarringtonMoss LnHLost7-14[9]
1897–98Sat 25–09-1897Lancs Sen CompWiganMoss LnHWon8-21[7]
1897–9816-10-1897Lancs Sen CompWarringtonMoss LnHLost0-13[9]
1897–9823-10-1897Lancs Sen CompWidnesLowerhouse LaneALost3-30[2]
1897–98Sat 27-11-1897Lancs Sen CompWiganFolly FieldsALost3-13[7]
1897–98Sat 18-12-1897Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensMoss LnHLost2-3[10]
1897–9808–01-1898Lancs Sen CompWarringtonWilderspool StadiumALost2-10[9]
1897–9826–02-1898CC R1HullThe BoulevardALost0-8[8]
1897–9811–04-1898Lancs Sen CompWidnesMoss LnHLost3-52[2]
1897–98Sat 16–04-1898Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensKnowsley RoadADraw5-5[10]
1898–9917–09-1898Lancs Sen CompWidnesMoss LnHLost0-82[2]
1898–99Sat 24–09-1898Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensMoss LnHLost0-8[10]
1898–99Sat 01-10-1898Lancs Sen CompWiganMoss LnHLost0-101[7]
1898–9908-10-1898Lancs Sen CompWarringtonWilderspool StadiumALost0-12[9]
1898–9926-11-1898Lancs Sen CompWarringtonMoss LnHLost2-7[9]
1898–9917-12-1898Lancs Sen CompWidnesLowerhouse LaneALost2-10[2]
1898–99Sat 18–02-1899Lancs Sen CompWiganFolly FieldsALost0-3[7]
1898–99Sat 25–03-1899CC R2St. HelensKnowsley RoadADraw0–0[10]
1898–99Wed 29–03-1899CC R2 ReplaySt. HelensMoss LnHDraw5-5[10]
1898–99Fri 31–03-1899CC R2 2nd ReplaySt. HelensKnowsley RoadALost5-17[10]
1898–998 –04-1899Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensKnowsley RoadALost2-7[10]
1900–0120–04-1901League Play-Off Q2WidnesNeutralLost0-7[2]
1901–02Sat 14–09-1901Lancs Sen CompWiganSpringfield ParkALost0-124000[7]
1901–0205-10-1901Lancs Sen CompWidnesMoss LnHLost0-72[2]
1901–02Sat 09-11-1901Lancs Sen CompWiganMoss LnHLost0-173[7]
1902–03Sat 01–03-1902Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensKnowsley RoadALost2-3[10]
1901–0217–04-1902Lancs Sen CompWidnesLowerhouse LaneALost0-15[2]
1902–03Wed 23–04-1902Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensMoss LnHLost9-10[10]
1903–04-2–01-1903Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensMoss Ln]HDraw2-2[10]
1903–04Sat 20–02-1904Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensKnowsley RoadALost0-8[10]
1903–04Sat 12–03-1904CC R1LancasterQuay MeadowsADraw0–04.[5]
1903–04Wed 16–03-1904CC R1 ReplayLancasterMoss LnHLost4-134.[5]
1904–0504–03-1905CC R1WarringtonWilderspool StadiumALost0-30[9]
1904–05Sat 09–09-1905Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensKnowsley RoadALost6-26[10]
1905–0614-10-1905LC R1WidnesMoss LnHLost0-52[2]
1904–05Sat 30-12-1905Lancs Sen CompSt. HelensMoss LnHLost3-10[10]
1905–0603–02-1906RLWidnesMoss LnHLost5-162[2]
1905–0621–04-1906RLWidnesLowerhouse LaneALost0-8[2]

Notes and Comments
  • 1 - Folly Fields is the stadium used by Wigan at the time until 1901. They then became sub-tenants of Springfield Park See below - Note 3.
  • 2 - Lowerhouse Lane is the original site of the current ground used by Widnes. 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.
  • 3 - Wigan became sub-tenants of Springfield Park, which they shared with Wigan United AFC, 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 Wigan 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 being constructed.
  • 4 - The original "Origin" game took place during the 1903/4 Rugby League Challenge Cup competition, where the two local teams played out an unusual 0–0 draw at Quay Meadow, only to be followed in the replay by a Lancaster win of 13 points to 4 at Moss Lane in Morecambe, approximately where Morrisons supermarket now stands. Lancaster progressed to the second round of the Cup, where they were defeated 8 points to nil by Keighley at Quay Meadow.
  • 5 - A comment sent in by a follow contributor stated that news reports at the time told that after the 1896 game against Wigan a number of the Wigan team were arrested (and jailed) for assaulting a stationmaster at Morecambe station when they got drunk and missed their train home. There appears to be no Corroboration of this story)

See also

References
  1. "Jack Bartholomew at huddersfieldrlheritage.co.uk". huddersfieldrlheritage.co.uk. 31 December 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  2. "Widnes Seasons in Review".
  3. J C Lindley with personal recollections by D W Armitage (1973). 100 Years of Rugby - The History of Wakefield Trinity Football Club. The Wakefield Trinity Centenary Committee. pp. 37 and 38.
  4. "Heysham Atoms ARLFC".
  5. "Preview of centenary match". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
  6. Jack Winstanley & Malcolm Ryding (1975). John Player Rugby League Yearbook 1975-76. Queen Anne Press.
  7. 324 "Cherry and White" Check |url= value (help).
  8. "Hull&Proud Fixtures & Results". Archived from the original on 2 March 2012.
  9. "Warrington Wolves results and archives". Archived from the original on 21 December 2011.
  10. "Saints Heritage Society".
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