Work in Progress. This page is under contruction.
In The Beginning
From 1860 a Lancashire team played Yorkshire in an annual “Roses” played under Rugby School Football rules. Yorkshire officially became a Union in 1870 and continued to play an invitational Lancashire side made up predominantly of players from the established clubs of Manchester and Liverpool.
This all changed when in the evening of the 22nd December 1881 at the Albion Hotel, Manchester, a meeting was convened of invited clubs. The clubs were invited by Manchester FC after requests to form a Union to play Rugby Football.
The first elected officers of the County were:-
James McLaren (Manchester) - President & RFU President 1882-1884
Walter Brierley (Manchester) - Vice President
E. Kewley (Liverpool) - Vice President
William Grave (Manchester) - Hon Secretary & Treasurer
Of the 16 clubs at the first meeting only three remain having played continuously since, they being Manchester, Broughton and Preston. Liverpool have also played since but amalgamated with St Helens in 1986.
TBC.....
The First XV
The first game for the Lancashire Football Club was played on the 25th March 1882 against the Midland Counties at Coventry with Lancashire winning 4 tries and 1 goal to 1 try. The team that played was:
W.W. Higgins. (Cheetham)
E. Beswick. (Swinton)
J.W. Hulse. (Free Wanderers)
F. Bagshaw. (Manchester Rangers)
J. Mills. (Swinton)
A.H. Wrigley. (Liverpool)
J.T. Hunt. (Capt.) (Manchester)
W.S. Hulse. (Free Wanderers)
C.H. Horley. (Swinton)
J.P. Pattinson. (Manchester)
J.B. Cooke. (Free Wanderers)
R. Seddon. (Swinton)
J. Kneen. (Cheetham)
W. Dickinson. (Swinton)
In this first team Edmund Beswick, Charles Horley and James Hunt were all England Internationals.
