Selby rugby union club had been in existence for less than seven years when World War Two began, but remarkably was able to continue to play regular fixtures during the darkest days of the conflict.
The fact that Selby managed to play right through the war was mainly because of the enthusiasm and commitment of two club officials. The brothers Don and Walter Jackson kept Selby going, arranging a full fixture list every season. Selby was situated close to a number of Services units and, by organising fixtures with these units and also encouraging Servicemen to play for the club; the Jacksons ensured that Selby was playing regularly. In the first two years of war-time rugby Selby was playing both against locally based Services teams, but also against clubs like York, York Railway Institute, Roundhay and Morley. Selby’s opportunity to play against clubs in Leeds must have decreased as the war-time travel restrictions began to have an impact, although Leeds Medics and Leeds University did continue to feature on the fixture list. The good rail links between York and Selby meant that they played against each other a number of times each season. Towards the end of the war, York was the only club team to appear regularly in Selby’s fixture list. The reports on Selby’s war-time activities gradually disappear from the local newspapers from 1943 onwards, but fortunately, as you can see from the fixture list below, Don and Walter Jackson kept records of the club’s wartime fixtures. These records indicate that Selby was very competitive during the war and when a game was lost it was often only by a few points.
Selby was one of a number of Yorkshire rugby union clubs that managed to play regularly during World War Two. To read about the other Yorkshire clubs that continued to operate and how rugby in Yorkshire was impacted by the war check out 'Let Them Play By All Means' The story of Yorkshire rugby union in World War Two. Available from YorkBookShop.com. Follow the link here
