Youngsters re-enact historic rugby match

Dec 20 2007 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

A HISTORIC match which launched the oldest “open” rugby club in the world 150 years ago was re-enacted yesterday by more than 50 youngsters.

The event at Moss Lane, St Helens, marked the founding of Liverpool St Helens (LSH) Football Club on December 19, 1857.

This makes it the oldest rugby club to be open to the public. Formerly, the game had only been played at public schools or in the army.

The youngsters taking part in the re-enactment were drawn from 24 local primary and secondary schools and are all members of the current LSH Junior and mini rugby development programme.

They played the game under 1857 rules, with about 30 on each side, and wore replica clothing.

LSH President Ray French said before the game– which ended in a draw – that the club had reached “a remarkable milestone.”

Junior section chairman John Foster added: “The club has worked with all the schools in the area. It is a real life history lesson, experiencing sport as it was 150 years ago.”

The referee for the game was ex-International referee David Mathews. The former Liverpool and England International Kevin Simms, who won 15 caps between 1985 and 1988, kicked off the match.

They were marking an 1857 event which arose when a group of city youngsters were at a loose end as the Christmas holidays approached.

One of them, Frank Albert Mather, a merchant’s son living at Bootle Hall, had an idea. A scholar at Rugby School, he wrote to one of his school friends, Richard Sykes, who was the school captain, and invited him to bring his friends to play against a team from Liverpool.

Sykes, who lived in Manchester, accepted and the game took place on December 19 on the Liverpool Cricket Ground, then located at Spekefields, in Wavertree. It is reported around 50 players took part in a game, which led directly to the forming of the Liverpool (Rugby) Football Club.

In 1986 the Liverpool club merged with St Helens Rugby Football Club to become LSH. It is the first club in the world to reach the 150 year landmark.

FOR video footage of this re-enactment, visit www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk

alanweston