Other Rugby clubs in Featherstone 1902 to 1921

Purston White Horse 1909-1913.

No history of the early years of rugby in Featherstone can be complete without a mention of Purston White Horse who played home games at a small stadium called Beech Grove off Little Lane, near to where an old coal mine had once stood. The club had headquarters at The Junction Hotel and according to Charles Dutton who played for White Horse, the landlord Thomas Waller had arranged a sponsorship deal with the makers of a certain brand of Scotch whisky, hence the name. The club blended experienced players like George Randall, a real veteran who had gained county honours back in the days of Featherstone Trinity and Jack Randall who returned from Hunslet with young upcoming players like Charles Dutton and Harold Lord. The Purston club played alongside Featherstone Rovers in the Dewsbury and Wakefield District league. Their finest hour came on February 26 1910 when they qualified for the first round proper of the Challenge Cup after knocking out Featherstone Rovers in the preliminary round. They hosted Halifax, one of the elite clubs of the game. There was great excitement in the village as the day of the game approached. Purston fans even wrote a song about their club which they sang at the game. The Express newspaper commented that it was the most attractive feature to be played in the vicinity since the glory days of the old Featherstone club. More than 3,000 people crowded into the little stadium and according to Harold Lord, many more climbed over a wooden fence on Pontefract Road. The Purston lads were beaten 23-10, but put on a grand show. The club lost its best players to bigger clubs. Dutton moved first to the Rovers and then to Hull KR and Lord also joined Hull KR. Jack Randall retired after an injury.

Featherstone Rugby Club (Tommy Sides’ team at Top House) 1911-1912.

Tommy Sides was a larger than life landlord of the Featherstone Hotel. He was born Thomas Jeffries Sides in Pennsylvania, USA in 1874. He came to live at Featherstone as a teenager and first worked on the screens at Featherstone Main Colliery before becoming a contractor on the Pit Top and then the second landlord at The Featherstone Hotel. He was a dog show organiser, a walking race enthusiast, a local councillor and amateur violinist. He eventually became Chairman of Carter’s Brewery of Knottingley and rode about in a chauffeur-driven company car. Whilst still landlord at The 'Top House' he bought himself a cinematograph machine and filmed then showed local rugby matches on a white sheet fastened to a wall in the pub.

In 1911 he formed his own rugby team to play home matches at The Colliery Welfare Athletic Ground. They had just one very successful season at the end which they won the Dewsbury, Wakefield and District Cup, beating Featherstone Rovers in the final at Purston's Beech Grove ground and finishing runners up, again to Rovers, in the Championship. The two clubs played each other no less than five times in that season and Featherstone beat Rovers four times including a 10-2 victory in the third qualifying round of the Challenge Cup. In 1912, Sides' rival landlord Mr Umpleby relinquished the licence at The Railway Hotel, headquarters of Featherstone Rovers. This may have affected the arrangement Rovers had with Umpleby to play on fields he had at Post Office Road. A meeting took place between Mr Johnson, chairman of the Rovers and Tommy Sides and it was agreed to merge the two teams and play home fixtures at the Featherstone Miners Welfare Athletic Ground. The club would retain the name Featherstone Rovers and the cherry and white hooped jerseys of the Featherstone club.

Intermediate Rugby Clubs.

In the years before the First World War Intermediate rugby for players under the age of 21 was very popular. The name Featherstone Trinity was revived for an intermediate side based at The Jubilee Hotel. There was also a successful North Featherstone based side who played on a field near The Sun Inn. Charlie Dutton recalled that they were coached by Jack Burns from Pontefract and their star player was none other than the legendary Wakefield Trinity scrum half Jonty Parkin. He also recalled that hundreds of pounds were bet on the outcome of a final they played in.  Purston White Horse had their own intermediate team with the picturesque name 'Purston White Foils.' A lot of the players that made Featherstone Rovers the top junior side in the country before they were admitted to the senior ranks in 1921 came from local intermediate rugby. In the 1912/13 season alone Rovers signed Seymour, Lyman, Haigh, Hughes, Mason and Blower from North Featherstone, Dutton and Bradley from Purston and Ryecroft from Featherstone Trinity.

By Ian Clayton