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Halifax RLFC

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Halifax

Full name	Halifax Rugby League Club
Emblem	Crest
Colours	Blue and White
Founded	1873
Sport	Rugby league
League	National League One
Ground	Shay Stadium
Official website	www.halifaxrlfc.co.uk

Halifax RLFC is one of the most historic rugby league clubs in the game, formed over a century ago, in 1873 in the Yorkshire town of Halifax. Known as 'Fax', the official club colours are blue and white hoops, hence the former nickname: The Blue Sox. They share The Shay stadium with football club Halifax Town.

History

Early years

The club was founded as Halifax in 1873. After becoming the first ever winners of the Yorkshire Cup in 1878, the club went on to win it on another four occasions. Several players were supplied to the Yorkshire County side in these years, and five were picked for the full England rugby union team. The Halifax club were founder members of the breakaway Northern Rugby Union in 1895. In 1886, the club moved to their traditional home of Thrum Hall, this would be their home ground for the next 112 years. The first game was played on September 18, 1886 and drew 8,000 spectators. In 1896, Halifax lost out on winning the first ever rugby league championship by a single point with Manningham being the champions. On field success continued producing one of their best ever teams in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1902-03 they achieved the 'double' by winning the Challenge Cup and finishing top of Division One. They won the cup again the following season, and were the first ever Championship Play-off winners in season 1906-07. Halifax enjoyed their first Wembley Challenge Cup final victory over York in 1931. They also won in 1939.

Post war

The 1949 Challenge Cup final was sold out for first time as 95,050 spectators saw Bradford beat Halifax. During the fifties they were Championship runners-up three times, Yorkshire Cup winners twice, and Yorkshire League winners four times. They played in two Wembley finals in 1954 and 1956, featuring in the first ever drawn final against Warrington in 1954, losing in the replay at Odsal Stadium in front of what was then a world record Rugby League crowd of 102,569. In 1959 Halifax hosted Wigan before a club record 29,153 people in the third round of the Challenge Cup. Chris Anderson was captain-coach of Halifax between 1985-88 where he enjoyed great success including the 1986-87 Challenge Cup victory against St Helens. Halifax their last appearance in a Challenge Cup final in 1988 when they lost to Wigan. The club's record victory was set in October 1990 with an 82-8 win over Runcorn Highfield at Thrum Hall.

Summer rugby era

Halifax joined the Super League in 1996 and became known as Halifax Blue Sox. However, this proved to be unpopular with most supporters who continued to refer to them as 'Fax'. Halifax finished third in Super League in 1998 under John Pendlebury. Halifax sold Thrum Hall for £1.5 million to the American company Wal-Mart for a supermarket development in 1998, and moved across town to their present home, the Shay Stadium, which they share with Halifax Town AFC. The proceeds from the sale were supposed to enable Halifax to complete a redevelopment of The Shay stadium, but the money was swallowed by debts. Halifax went to Jacksonville University, Florida, to help develop American rugby league, along with the Salford City Reds, in 2000. Steve Linnane joined the club as assistant coach from Rochdale Hornets and took full charge after Gary Mercer's resignation. With the club threatened by financial problems and the danger of relegation. Halifax sacked coach, Steve Linnane, in August 2002, a month after giving him a new contract. Replacement Tony Anderson signed a deal that covered the four remaining matches of this season. The club returned to the traditional Halifax R.L.F.C. at the start of 2003. At the end of the 2003 season they were relegated from Super League to National League one. Halifax's financial troubles meant they were unable to retain a full-time team and they struggled in the new league. They narrowly avoided a second relegation to National League 2 in 2004, with a last-gasp victory over local rivals York. Anthony Farrell was asked to become temporary coach until the end of the year following the sacking of Tony Anderson. After saving the club from relegation the following season and taking the club within a whisker of a place in the grand final where they lost out to Castleford Tigers. The year after was less successful and after a poor series of results including a club record loss to Hull KR, "Faz" eventually lost his job. Martin Hall took over the role of head coach from sacked coach Anthony Farrell in June 2006. In August 2006 Halifax RLFC was on the verge of going bust. The club announced that it needed to raise £90,000 otherwise it would go into liquidation. Rugby league fans nationwide rallied behind 'Fax', and through visits to the ground, during home fixtures, and other fund-raising events, were able to raise £55,000. Former Chairman Howard Posner then came forward and announced that he would loan the club the remaining £35,000 in order to keep Halifax RLFC alive. This ensured that Halifax RLFC would be playing in National League One during 2007.[1]

Fixtures

Friday 22nd February 20.00 Home - Melbourne Storm

Backroom Staff

Name	Position
Rob Hayes	Chief Executive
Ian Griffiths	Director
Mike Riley	Director
Michael Steele	Director

Coaching Team

Nationality	Name	Position
	Martin Hall	Director Of Football
	Matt Calland	Head Coach
	Karl Fairbank	Academy Head Coach
	Martin Gonzalez	Assistant Coach
	Damian Ball	Assistant Coach
	Damian Gibson	Conditioner/Backs Coach

2008 Squad

No	Player	Position	Previous Club
1	Shad Royston	AUS	Doncaster Lakers
2	Lee Greenwood	W	Leigh Centurions
3	Jon Goddard	C	Hull K.R
4	Richard Varkulis	C	Rochdale Hornets
5	Andy Smith	W	Harlequins RL
6	Graham Holroyd	SO	Doncaster Lakers
7	Mick Govin	HB	Leigh Centurions
8	Paul Southern	P	Swinton Lions
9	Sean Penkywicz	H	Huddersfield Giants
10	Dana Wilson	P	Leigh Centurions
11	Dave Larder	SR	Leigh Centurions
12	Paul Smith	SR	Huddersfield Giants
13	Damian Ball (Captain)	L	Hull Kingston Rovers
15	Lee Patterson	W	Rochdale Hornets
17	Frank Watene	P	Dewsbury Rams
19	James Haley	C	Halifax RLFC Academy
22	Damian Gibson	FB	Castleford Tigers
23	Andrew Gorski	P	Rochdale Hornets
24	David Wrench	P	Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
25	Miles Greenwood	FB	Leigh Centurions
27	Danny Heaton	P	Widnes Vikings
28	Scott Law	P	Halifax RLFC Academy
29	Luke Simeunovich	SR	Halifax RLFC Academy

Youth And Community Development

Activities: Blue Base Study Support Centre is a community sporting initiative sponsored by Halifax RLFC, and part of the national Playing For Success educational scheme launched for school pupils to interact with professional sports teams, to help provide motivation to young people. Locally, Blue Base is working with an initiative established by the DfES, in partnership with Calderdale Children and Young People's Services and Halifax RLFC. The centre exists to support Calderdale schools in their drive to raise attainment levels with their pupils. This is achieved by developing young peoples levels of motivation, self esteem and helping them to have a more positive attitude towards learning by concentrating particularly upon literacy, numeracy and the use of ICT.

Mascots

Original Mascot: (100 years ago) Smut The Cat [2] Recent Mascots: Billy & Bluey, Fat Cat, Bruno The Bear. Present Mascots: Halicat.

Major Honours

Championship: 1907, 1965, 1903, 1986 (4 times)
Championship Finalists:1953, 1954, 1956, 1966 (4 times)
Challenge Cup: 1903, 1904, 1931, 1939, 1987 (5 times)
War Emergence League Finalists: 1943, 1945
Challenge Cup Finalists: 1921, 1941, 1942, 1949, 1954, 1956, 1988 (7 times)
Yorkshire Cup: 1909, 1945, 1955, 1956, 1964 (5 times)
Yorkshire Cup Finalists: 1906, 1908, 1942, 1980 (4 times)
Charity Shield Winners: Charity Shield Winners: 1986
Charity Shield Finalists: 1987
John Player Special/Regal Trophy Winners: 1972
John Player Special/Regal Trophy Finalists: 1990
Rugby League Premiership Trophy Finalists: 1986
Second Division Premiership Finalists: 1991

All-Time Statistics

Match

Goals: 14 Bruce Burton at Hunslet 27/8/72

Tries: 8 Keith Williams v Dewsbury 9/11/57

Points: 32 John Schuster at Doncaster 9/10/94

Season

Goals: 147 Tysul Griffiths 1955-56

Tries: 48 Johnny Freeman 1956-57

Points: 362 John Schuster 1994-95

Career

Goals: 1,028 Ronnie James 1960-72

Tries: 290 Johnny Freeman 1954-67

Points: 2,191 Ronnie James 1960-72

Halifax Appearances

Career: Stan Kielty 482 (1946-58)

Season: John Thorley 48 (1956-57)

Consecutive: Dick Davies 108 (1925-28)

Representative Appearances

Great Britain: Karl Harrison 11

England: Alvin Ackerley 6

Wales: Arthur Daniels 13

Yorkshire: Archie Rigg 14

Lancashire: Ken Roberts 4

Cumberland: Alvin Ackerley 13

Highest Score

86 - 12 V Eccles & Salford Juniors 11/3/07

Biggest Loss

6-88 v Hull KR (Northern Rail Cup) 23/4/06

Record Crowd

29,153 v Wigan (Challenge Cup) at Thrum Hall 21/3/59

All club statistics are courtesy of Andrew Hardcastle (Official Club Historian)

Halifax RLFC Hall Of Fame

Former Super League Players

Joe Riley 1901-15;

Billy Little 1901-10;

Asa Robinson 1904-23;

Jack Beames 1913-22;

Cyril Stacey 1915-29;

Frank Todd 1916-28;

Dai Rees 1921-32;

Hudson Irving 1933-47;

Hubert Lockwood 1934-46;

Charlie Smith 1936-48;

Harry Beverley 1937-41;

Arthur Bassett 1939-48;

Arthur Daniels 1945-57;

Stan Kielty 1946-58;

Ken Dean 1948-60;

Jack Wilkinson 1948-59;

Alvin Ackerley 1948-58;

Albert Fearnley 1950-56;

Tommy Lynch 1951-56;

John Thorley 1952-60;

John Burnett 1953-67;

Johnny Freeman 1954-67;

Garfield Owen 1956-61;

Charlie Renilson 1957-69;

Jack Scroby 1959-70;

Terry Fogerty 1961-73;

Ronnie James 1961-72;

Colin Dixon 1961-68;

Ken Roberts 1963-67;

External links

This box: • • edit Rugby League National Leagues - National League One
Batley Bulldogs \| Celtic Crusaders \| Dewsbury Rams \| Featherstone Rovers \| Halifax RLFC \| Leigh Centurions \| Salford City Reds \| Sheffield Eagles \| Whitehaven RLFC \| Widnes Vikings
See also: Rugby League Championship Second Division

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Federations	RFL · BARLA · Rugby League Ireland · Wales Rugby League · Scotland Rugby League
Former competitions	Championship · Premiership · Lancs/Yorks Cups · Lancs/Yorks League Regal Trophy · Charity Shield · BBC2 Floodlit Trophy