Club History

Far from being a new club, our junior teams have been playing for many years.  Here's a brief insight into the highs and lows of the club's history...

(Formally know as Sowerby Bridge Rangers, Sowerby Bridge Robins and Halifax Vandals)

The club was started by 4 interested parents in 1990. They started with 2 teams in 1990/91 and they trained and played from Sowerby Bridge High School. At first, the club struggled for players and a name needed to be chosen. The name was picked by the kids themselves and their first kit, which they designed, was purple and orange. One of the parents did some digging and found that there was once a team called by the same name that played from the Recreation Ground and almost in the same colours!  He also found a player from that team, who was now into his 80s!  Unfortunately, illness prevented him from coming along to see the new teams in action.

As the club grew it moved to the Waiters Arms pub, who became the club’s main sponsor. At this time the club played from Cemetery Fields up in Sowerby with no facilities at all.  The parents would turn up on a match day with loaves of bread and flasks of hot water so the players could have something hot after the game. Even though these were hard times, the club did gain some success with the under 8s winning the Supplementary Cup!  They  beat Keighley Cougars at Cougar Park, which was a massive achievement for every one connected to the club and made it all worth while.

The club continued to grow, which made it difficult to use the Waiters Arms as a base.  Then the club heard of an open age side that was moving to the Snooker Club at the top of Tuel Lane.  After long talks with the owner of the club and the open age team, Sowerby Bridge Rangers decided to join the open age side and change its name to Sowerby Bridge Robins.

This period of the club’s life was also successful, not for winning any trophies, but by growing to 5 teams, who all had very good seasons during this period. As the oldest of these teams moved to Under 15s, the relationship with the snooker club collapsed and the club found itself without a home once more.  After years of hard work, the future of junior rugby looked bleak!

Some of the parents of the younger age groups didn’t want to fold the club however, so they decided to carry on, go back to the Rangers name, and once again went back to play from the Waiters Arms Pub. Later we moved up to play at Halifax Vandals Rugby Union in Warley.  For the first time this gave the Rangers a clubhouse and pitches all on one sight!

The club again started to go from strength to strength and grew to our most ever teams. Also, once again to improve the clubs profile, we joined forces with the Halifax Vandals R.U.F.C and decided to become associate members of this club by changing our name and also adopting the Vandals colours as our own. By joining the Halifax Vandals we hoped that we had secured the future of junior rugby league in this area.  Relationships with the open age rugby union club were always delicate and the junior committee became more and more aware that the long term goal as far as the senior team was concerned, was to develop junior rugby union.

The close of the '06 -'07 season saw our junior club take yet another big decision.  After discussions with Halifax Irish A.R.L.F.C. an increasingly successful open age club, the decision was made to join forces with them.  This was a step backwards as regards the facilities available, but a very positive step forward as regards the club as a whole.  We are now moving into this next phase in the club's evolution.  The early signs are very encouraging, so watch this space.

Everyone involved in the club through all or part of this history have had one interest at heart; providing the opportunity for youngsters to enjoy rugby league!