Workington Town
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| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Workington Town Rugby League Football Club |
| Nickname(s) | Worky or Town |
| Short name | Workington |
| Website | townrlfc.com |
| Colours |
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| Founded | 1945 |
| Current details | |
| Ground(s) |
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| Coach(s) | Phil Veivers |
| Captain(s) | Graeme Mattinson |
| Competition | League 1 |
| 2016 RFL Championship | 12th (Relegated) |
| Records | |
| Premierships | 1 (1950–51) |
| Runners-up | 1 (1957/58) |
| Challenge Cups | 1 (1951–52) |
| Lancashire Cup | 1 (1977–78) |
| Second Division | 1 (1992/93) |
| Western Division Championship | 1 (1962/63) |
Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in West Cumbria. In the 2017 season they will play in League 1, having been relegated from the Kingstone Press Championship. Their stadium is called the Zebra Claims Stadium, formerly known as Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team.
They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and also won the Challenge Cup a year later in 1952. Their nickname is simply 'Town', though they are sometimes referred to as 'Worky' by fans of other teams. Their local rivals are Whitehaven, who joined the league three years after Workington Town.
History
1944-1945: Establishment
Workington Town RLFC was formed at a meeting held in the Royal Oak Hotel, Workington in December 1944. Many of Workington Town's board came from local soccer team Workington AFC's board and the team would ground share with "the Reds" at Borough Park. It was decided at the meeting that the club should be registered as a business and that an application for membership of the Rugby Football League should be submitted. From those in attendance at that meeting the first board of directors was formed and the application for membership was agreed at a meeting held on 23 January 1945 at the Grosvenor Hotel, Manchester. They were the first side from Cumberland to enter the professional rugby league.
They first played their home games, wearing green and red hoops, at Borough Park. The first match against Broughton Rangers on Saturday 25 August 1945 attracted a crowd of 4,100 to Borough Park. Workington went on to win 27–5..
In their first season, they achieved the distinction of losing to an amateur side, Sharlston Rovers in the first round of the Challenge Cup, a very rare occurrence in those days. Fortunately for Town the first round was a two leg affair, and they were able to make amends in the return leg and progress to the second round
1946-1969: Golden era
Gus Risman joined Workington Town as player-coach in August 1946 when they had been in the Northern Rugby League for only one season. In his eight years at the club, he made them into a team capable of beating Wigan or anyone else in the league. There was a club record 20,403 for the third round Cup game against St Helens. Town finished 3rd of 29 clubs but had a tough draw; the only Yorkshire teams they played were Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Keighley and York. They played these five home and away as well as all the teams from Lancashire. All the top four that season were all from the Western side of the Pennines and Workington went on to become rugby league champions in 1951 by beating Warrington in the final held at Maine Road, Manchester.
The following season they then beat Featherstone Rovers 18–10 in front of a crowd of 72,093 at Wembley Stadium to become Challenge Cup winners; this was the first final to be televised. No other club, before or after, has lifted both these trophies within such a short period of their formation. But it did not stop there, during the 1954–55 season, Workington Town made it to the Challenge Cup final but were beaten 21–12 by Barrow. Owing to tension between the football club's manager Bill Shankly and the Town manager, Gus Risman and director Tom Mitchell, Town took a 150-year lease on the land at Derwent Park and built a new stadium. They moved out of Borough Park in 1956.
Workington Town lost in the 1958 Challenge Cup final to Wigan and one week later, they lost in the Championship final at Odsal Stadium, Bradford.
In 1962, the league was split into East and West of the Pennines; Widnes and Workington Town met at Central Park, Wigan, in the first final of the Western Division Championship on Saturday 10 November 1962. With two minutes remaining, Syd Lowdon dropped a goal to earn Workington a 9–9 draw. Later in the month Workington won the replay 10–0.
The record attendance at Derwent Park was set in 1965 when 17,741 spectators turned up for a third round Challenge Cup match against Wigan.
1970-1995
The early 1970s brought demise of Town as a power in the game and the fans dropped off making it very difficult for the management to come up with the cash to bring in top class players who were being enticed out of the county to other clubs. Paul Charlton took over as player-coach in 1975 and guided them to promotion. Local players returned to the club and a team consisting mainly of home grown players started to bring back glory to the Town by appearing in a Lancashire Cup final in October 1976. And it did not stop there, for they appeared in a further three finals in consecutive season winning the trophy by defeating Wigan in the 1977 final.
The last of those four finals was staged at Salford's Willows ground on Saturday 8 December 1979, and attracted a crowd of 6,887. Widnes were firm favourites to lift the cup and held the Cumbrians at bay to register an 11–0 victory. Probably as a result of the three previous finals, several top class forwards caught the eye of the wealthy Lancashire clubs who enticed them away from Derwent Park.
Tommy Bishop was coach between 1981 and 1982. The 1980s were the lowest era in the club's history as it saw Town mainly as a yo-yo side going in and out of the first division but mostly wallowing halfway down the second. During this period, the fan base practically disappeared altogether, and as the 1990s arrived it was third division rugby which they found themselves in.
Peter Walsh joined Town as Head Coach in the summer of 1992. Town were beaten finalists in the 1992–93 Divisional Premiership going down to Featherstone Rovers while in the 3rd Division. Workington won the Second Division Championship and Divisional Premiership trophy double in 1993–94, the Divisional Premiership was won over London Crusaders at Old Trafford, Manchester. That took them into the top flight of rugby league and Town finished ninth in the Stones Bitter Championship. Peter Walsh quit as the coach of Workington Town to return to Australia in July 1995.
1996-present :Summer era
When the Super League was set up, it was proposed that Workington merge with Barrow, Carlisle and Whitehaven to form a Cumbrian super club to be based at Workington. This was, however, resisted and an unmerged Workington took part in Super League but would record only two wins all season. They finished bottom of the table and were relegated to the Northern Ford Premiership with significant debts.
In 2002 Town dropped into National League Two as a result of losing to Dewsbury in what was the fore-runner of the NL2 Grand Final. Billy McGinty took over as coach on 25 May 2003.
In 2003, Ged Stokes was in charge of the New Zealand A-team on their tour of England, at the end of the tour, he was offered the vacant coaching job at Town. Workington were at a low ebb and had only seven players in their squad.
A Challenge Cup game against Leeds brought a bumper crowd that allowed the club to clear their debts.
Assistant coaches Craig Barker and Les Ashe took over and led the team to the Elimination Semi-final but they were defeated by Oldham. A few weeks after Town's 2007 season had come to a close, Town appointed Whitehaven coach Dave Rotheram as their new coach. In Rotheram's first season in charge Town finished 8th in National League Two with only six wins from their twenty two games and were eliminated in the first round of the play-offs at Keighley.
Following a poor start to the 2009 season, with Town only gaining two wins up to that point, Dave Rotherham decided to step down. He was replaced in July 2009 by joint coaches Martin Oglanby and Gary Charlton.[1]
2011 was a much better year with Town reaching the 2011 Championship 1 Grand Final by defeating Keighley 19–10 in the elimination semi-final.[2]
Stadium
1944-1956: Borough Park
Workington moved into Borough Park in 1944 and shared it with association football club Workington AFC. Owing to tension between the football club's manager Bill Shankly and the Town manager, Gus Risman and director Tom Mitchell, Town took a 150-year lease on the land at Derwent Park and moved out in 1956.
1956-present
Town built a stadium on the ground they squired after leaving Borough Park in 1956 and won the RFL Championship whilst playing there. The record attendance at Derwent Park was set in 1965 when 17,741 spectators turned up for a third round Challenge Cup match against Wigan. The football pitch at Derwent Park is surrounded by a 364 metres (398 yards) motorcycle speedway track.
2016 squad
| Workington Town 2016 Squad | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First team squad | Coaching staff | ||||||||
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Head coach Assistant coach
Updated: 16 January 2016 | |||||||
2017 transfers
Gains
| Player | Club | Contract length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
 Joe Hambley | Barrow Raiders | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Brad Fearon | Ellenborough Rangers | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Sam Dowsett | Askam ARLFC | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Perry Singleton | Barrow Island | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Conor Fitzsimmons | Castleford Tigers | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Tom Curwen | Seaton Rangers | 1 Year | October 2016 |
Losses
| Player | Club | Contract length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liam McAvoy | Newcastle Thunder | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Brett Carter | Barrow Raiders | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Tom Walker | Barrow Raiders | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Declan Hulme | Barrow Raiders | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Jarrod Stack | Barrow Raiders | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Karl Olstrum | Whitehaven RLFC | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Marc Shackley | Whitehaven RLFC | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Jack Murphy | Swinton Lions | 1 Year | October 2016 |
| Perry Whiteley | Sheffield Eagles | 1 Year | October 2016 |
 Jarrod Sammut | London Broncos | 2 Years | November 2016 |
Past coaches
- Gus Risman 1946–54
- Paul Charlton 1975–?
- Tommy Bishop 1980–81
- Paul Charlton 1982
- Billy Smith 1984–85
- Keith Davies 1986–87
- Phil Kitchin 1989
- Maurice Bamford 1988
- Ray Ashton
- Dean Williams
- Peter Walsh 1992–95
- Kurt Sorensen 1995-96
- Ross O'Reilly 1996-97
- Rob Tew 1997
- Andy Platt 1999
- Gary Murdock
- Martin Wood
- Billy McGinty 2003
- Ged Stokes 2003–07
- Craig Barker and Les Ashe 2007
- Dave Rotheram 2007–09
- Gary Charlton and Martin Oglanby 2009–2013
- Gary Charlton 2014
- Phil Veivers 2014–
Players earning international caps while at Workington Town
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Other notable players
These players have either; played in a Challenge Cup, or Rugby Football League Championship final, received a Testimonial match, are "Hall of Fame" inductees, played during Workington Town's Super League I season, or were international representatives before, or after, their time at Workington Town, or are notable outside of rugby league.
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Honours
- Rugby Football League Championship: 1
- 1950-51
- Challenge Cup: 1
- 1951-52
- Lancashire Cup: 1
- 1977-78
- Lancashire League: 1
- 1962-63
References
- ↑ "Coach Dave Rotheram leaves Workington Town". Cumbria Life. 17 July 2009. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
- ↑ "PLAYERS OUT ON THEIR FEET AFTER WORKINGTON TOWN BEAT KEIGHLEY". Cumbrian News and Star. 18 September 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
External links
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