Rugby in Featherstone 1889 to 1902

Featherstone Trinity 1889-1902 by Ian Clayton

Nowadays all but forgotten, Featherstone Trinity were for a few years in the 1890's one of the most celebrated and feared Rugby clubs in Yorkshire. They played their first game on September 7 1889 at The New Inn Fields and easily beat Castleford Mill Lane Rovers. They went on to win most of their games in that first season and the local newspapers reported that the 'Featherstone forwards were complete masters.' In their second season, they won all but one of their games and by the 1891/92 season Featherstone Trinity reached their first final, going down narrowly to Goole in the Charlesworth Cup Final. They were also invited to take part in the Yorkshire Cup, the most celebrated of Rugby competitions and known affectionately as 'T'Owd Tin Pot.'

A run of good results and healthy crowds also enabled the club to open a grandstand. Several of the clubs players were beginning to catch the eye and a young free scoring centre three quarter called Chester was selected to represent the district. Players also became a target for bigger clubs. In October 1893, the Featherstone secretary George Stubbs complained that the Bramley club had offered improper inducements to a Featherstone player called Ernest Gill. The Yorkshire Rugby Union committee decided that Gill had accepted alcoholic beverages of his own free will and the matter was dropped. Gill later moved to Wakefield Trinity and had his 'lamp stopped' at the local pit, which meant he was unable to work. He quickly returned to Featherstone. It wasn't the last time Featherstone were embroiled in controversy over players being enticed to bigger clubs. Matters came to a head when Featherstone partisans began throwing anyone they suspected of being a scout for another club into a duck pond off Wakefield Road.

Featherstone Trinity won their first piece of silverware when they beat Kippax 19-0 in the final of the Dunhill Cup. At a tea in The Black Boy at Pontefract after the game the Kippax Captain declared that the best team won. The Pontefract and Castleford Express reported ''Ere long we shall perhaps hear of Featherstone in the Senior Competition or even carrying off the 'old pot.' They are a rapidly up and coming team”. In 1893/94 Featherstone Trinity had a remarkable run in the Yorkshire Cup. They knocked out two senior teams in Bowling and Skipton and in the third round they were drawn at home to the mighty Manningham club who were current champions. They were beaten as expected by the Manningham club but put on a brave show. The local papers reported that “Featherstone had never witnessed such a gathering and commencement of hostilities the local partisans looked on with great pride.” The cup defeat signalled the start of a run of form for Featherstone that was to see them go unbeaten at home for the next five years.

For the 1894/95 season the Featherstone club dropped 'Trinity' from their name and became simply Featherstone Rugby Club. In this season they had their first taste of competitive football, up to this point all of their games outside of knock out cup ties had been 'friendly' fixtures. They joined the West Riding League and by the end of the season were declared champions. The following year was the year of the great schism when the top northern clubs broke away from the English Rugby Union to form the Northern Union. Featherstone continued as a Rugby Union club and joined the Barnsley and District League, they duly won it. They also won the Charlesworth Cup. At a celebration held at The New Inn, club captain Joe Debney was presented with the trophy. There was a lot of rejoicing in the town and the Featherstone Brass Band led a procession to the inn playing 'Hail the conquering heroes come.' A report of the final mentioned “Amongst the motley throng were noticed many enthusiastic members of the gentle sex walking in the mud.”

Towards the end of the year the local paper mentioned that Featherstone were putting on some of the best exhibitions of modern football and that they were far too good for the district leagues. The best was yet to come. In 1896 the club knocked out Bramley and Heckmondwyke, two senior league clubs, from the Yorkshire Cup. The local supporters cry went up, “Send them along who's next?” Shipley the second league champions were dispatched 19-0 and then in the quarter final Hull KR. The reward was a semi final against the West Riding Club of Bradford in a match played at Crown Flatt, Dewsbury. A huge crowd of more than 5,000 people assembled to see Featherstone go down by the slenderest of margins 3-0.

In 1896/97 the regional Rugby Union leagues were depleted as more of the better sides moved over to the Northern Union. Featherstone were promoted into the First Division of the Yorkshire League. They had an incredible first season amongst the elite clubs and were runners up to Hull KR. They also reached the semi final of the Yorkshire Cup for the second time in two years, this time losing out by a slender margin to Shipley. Featherstone had been heavily backed as favourites to lift the cup, a remarkable progression seeing as they had been seen as giant killers only twelve months before. Also in this season Featherstone were proud to supply representative players at county level, Metcalfe and Taylor were selected for Yorkshire against both Northumberland and Lancashire, and when Yorkshire played Glamorgan, Lord became the third Featherstone player to be called up. And by the time Yorkshire played Cumberland, Taylor, Glew and Randall won their first caps.

At the turn of the year Metcalfe was selected to represent The North in an international trial against The South. The papers reported; “In James Metcalfe the Colliers possess a real gem of a full-back who is as cool and collected as any veteran. He has the ability to astonish spectators and defences alike with his kicking ability.” Sadly Featherstone could not hold on to Metcalfe and he moved on to try his luck with the 'broken-timers' at Wakefield Trinity. This was the downside to all of the success Featherstone were having. The club could hold their own with the bigger clubs on the field, but could not compete on the financial level. They started to lose their best players to the Northern Union clubs who were paying broken time money. Joe Debney, Moxon and Bath were all enticed to Huddersfield.

Featherstone again won the First Division Championship in 1897/98. They also put the cherry on the top of another incredible season when they beat a representative side made up of the cream of players from the ‘Rest of the League Clubs’ at a special match held at Keighley. There, at the Victoria Hotel after the match it was mentioned that Featherstone had won the competition with a blend of great football and a loyalty to the English Rugby Union. Dr Steven the club president agreed and said that the only way forward was as amateurs. Within weeks the club members called a meeting at The New Inn to discuss a proposal to switch to Northern Union football. Dr Steven spoke strongly against it and persuaded most of the players to stick with the amateur game, but the club membership voted by 44 to 20 in favour of moving to Northern Union rules.

Dr Steven, President of Featherstone Rugby Club.                The first Rugby League side in Featherstone.

For their first season as Northern Unionists Featherstone were placed in the East Division of the Yorkshire Second Competition, alongside former rivals in the Rugby Union like Outwood Church, Normanton, Goole and Hull KR. Featherstone finished runners up to the latter after a good campaign. The main talking point was a home defeat by Hull KR, the first defeat on home soil for five years. The following season 1899/1900 they finished third behind Normanton and York. Then in 1901/02 the club only managed to fulfil nine league fixtures. A good number of the clubs who had made the switch from Rugby Union to Northern Union found themselves struggling to come to terms with the fledgling organisation. Featherstone was one of them, in the space of a few years they went from competing against the top clubs in Yorkshire to playing against smaller clubs outside of the elite leagues in the Northern Union. In the summer of 1902 the club decided to call it a day. It was a sad end for a club who for a decade had brought great glory to the town.

Featherstone Red Star 1890-1894.

This splendidly named club also played home fixtures on the fields at the back of The New Inn. They organised friendly fixtures against some of the more junior clubs like Sharlston St Luke’s, Hopetown and Pontefract St Albans. In 1893 they found themselves drawn against the senior club Featherstone Trinity in the first round of the Dunhill Challenge Cup, they were well beaten 34-8. Red Star could boast some very capable players including the veteran Reuben Johnson, Ernest Jordan a former sprint champion, J T Mee another fast centre three quarter and the half backs Davies and Walker who went on to play for Featherstone after Red Star disbanded.