Batley rugby union club

2025-10-26T09:16:07+00:00

Batley rugby union club was based in a town that had a strong rugby league tradition. The Batley rugby league club was one of the founding members of the Northern Union and had won the Challenge Cup three times, 1896/97, 1897/98 and 1900/01. However, despite the competition from rugby league the Batley rugby union club was able to field two teams every week and had a fixture list that included well established and successful clubs. Huddersfield Old Boys, Cleckheaton, Ilkley and Wakefield all featured regularly in the fixture list. Batley also had its own ground on Carlinghow Lane, just a mile from the town centre.

1936/37 Fixtures

Despite, it appears, being well established and successful in the 1930s Batley rugby union club didn’t restart after World War Two. It is difficult to speculate, more than eighty years later, what it was that caused the club to fold. Perhaps Batley lost key personnel in the hostilities, as many other clubs did. Or it may have been an issue with the availability of the ground that couldn’t be resolved.

The Batley entry in the County handbooks for the immediate post War years suggests that the Yorkshire Rugby Football Union expected the club to restart, but unfortunately that never happened.

The 1947/48 Yorkshire County handbook

Batley rugby union club 1936

The Batley entry in the County handbooks for the immediate post War years suggests that the Yorkshire Rugby Football Union expected the club to restart, but unfortunately that never happened.

The 1947/48 Yorkshire County handbook