Rugby League Pioneers

2025-10-30T17:53:37+00:00

In the mid-1960s participation in amateur rugby league was declining. Young players moving from youth rugby into the adult (open age) game often found the transition very difficult. Open age games on Saturday afternoons were very tough and often violent. Many of the amateur clubs that played in the Saturday leagues didn’t think that it was necessary to provide a welcoming environment for young players. It appeared that the view held by many amateur club officials was that if you wanted to play open age rugby league you needed to be tough, aggressive and able to cope with the violence on the field. If you hadn't got those qualities then, perhaps, you should find another sport.

In the 1960s the Rugby Football League gave the impression through its words and actions that its priority was the professional game and that open age amateur rugby league was tolerated, but not really supported.

In 1966 the Leeds and District Amateur League decided something needed to be done in order to boost participation in the open age game. The League officials thought that a Sunday morning competition could be the way to encourage the formation of new clubs and increase participation. Aubrey Casewell, the Leeds League secretary, asked the Rugby Football League (RFL) for permission to set up the new Sunday League, but the request was turned down. Aubrey was told by Bill Fallowfield, the secretary of the RFL, that the bye laws didn’t permit rugby league to be played on a Sunday. Despite the Governing Body’s refusal to approve the league, Aubrey Casewell and the Leeds League committee was determined to press ahead with their plan and in an attempt to get round the bye laws they decided that games should be played eleven a side so that they were not, strictly speaking, rugby league games. After the RFL found out that the Sunday League was going ahead they presumably decided that there was nothing to be gained by pursuing the matter any further. The RFL possibly thought that a few clubs playing in a local eleven a side competition on a Sunday morning wasn’t an issue that they needed to concern themselves with. However, for the clubs planning to play in the Leeds Sunday League reducing the number of players on each team was seen as a positive outcome. The fact that new clubs only needed to recruit eleven players to make up their team would make it easier for them to find enough players willing to play regular fixtures. Despite the RFL’s refusal to sanction the competition the plan to set up the Sunday League seemed to be working. New clubs were being formed based at pubs and clubs and, in some cases, local companies. A lot of the players recruited by these newly formed clubs were young and new to open age rugby league. The clubs played friendly fixtures during the 1966/67 season in preparation for the launch of an eleven club Sunday League in September 1967.

The General Accident amateur rugby league club was one of the founder members of the Leeds Sunday League and had begun playing friendlies in 1966.

Initially, the majority of General Accident’s players worked in the insurance company’s office in Leeds, but once the league began a lot of new players were recruited. The club retained the name General Accident, but by 1968 very few of the players worked for the insurance company.

Despite being a fairly insignificant Sunday morning amateur rugby league club General Accident was asked to play a small, but important part in helping to establish the sport in the Higher Education sector. ‘GA’ as the club was known, beat Leeds University by 30 points to 15 in the first ever rugby league match involving a university team. This friendly match took place on Sunday the 12th of March 1967 on General Accident’s home pitch on Soldiers Field in Leeds. The result of the match wasn’t important, but what happened after that first match was. In the weeks that followed, Leeds University rugby league club received recognition and support from the University Students Union and, as result, was able to organise further friendlies before joining the Leeds Sunday League in 1967. Leeds, because it was the only university with a rugby league club, had to play against local amateur clubs to begin with, but it wasn’t long before other Northern universities formed rugby league clubs and Leeds had university teams to play against. These inter university fixtures led to the formation of the student rugby league competition.

General Accident v Leeds University January 1968

General Accident’s first season in the Leeds Sunday League was a struggle. In order to ensure that it was able to field a full team the club often had to rely on persuading players from clubs playing in the Saturday League to turn out again on a Sunday morning. Usually under assumed names!

General Accident never won any trophies, but did get to the semi-final of the Leeds Sunday Cup in 1969. This game was played on Hunslet’s Parkside ground against Junction, a rugby club based at a pub in Hunslet. GA lost the game by 16 points to 11 and Junction went to win the Sunday Cup that year.

Most of the clubs in the Sunday League played on park pitches and at that time most of those pitches were very poorly maintained and had very basic changing facilities, sometimes a long way from the pitch. GA was more fortunate as their Council owned changing rooms on Soldiers Field had only just been built and were probably some of the best in the League.

At the end of the 1968/69 season the Leeds League decided that, because of the growing interest in Sunday morning rugby league, the competition needed to be split into two divisions. During its second league season General Accident had managed to recruit some experienced players and finished in ninth place. As a result of its ninth place finish GA was put in the ‘A’ division for the 1969/70 season.

Unfortunately, the club wasn’t strong enough to compete in the top division. Over the next two seasons GA struggled to raise a team and won very few games. The players became disillusioned by the lack of success, a number left the club and the General Accident amateur rugby league club finally folded at the end of the 1970/71 season.

A sports club that was in existence for less than five years is unlikely to be remembered other than by the people who played for it. General Accident amateur rugby league club is different. GA's existence is recorded in rugby league history because of the friendly match on the 12th of March 1967. A match that began a journey that led to rugby league being played in Universities and Colleges across the country.

Andrew Cudbertson, played a pivotal role in the formation of the Leeds University rugby league club and ultimately student rugby league. I would like to thank Andrew for providing the photographs and contributing to this blog.