Ardrossan Academicals RFC

Ardrossan Academicals

Full name	Ardrossan Academicals Rugby Football Club
Union	Scottish Rugby Union
Founded	1921;104 years ago (1921)
Location	Ardrossan, Scotland
Ground(s)	Memorial Field
League(s)	Men:  West Division One  Women:  Scottish Womens West One
2020–21	Men:  Scottish National League Division Three, 10th of 10  Women:  Scottish Womens West One
Team kit

Ardrossan Academicals is a rugby union team from Ardrossan, North Ayrshire. The men's side play in the West Division One; the women's side play in the Scottish Womens West One. The team's home ground is Memorial Field, across the road from Ardrossan Academy.

History

Two previous rugby union sides started in Ardrossan in 1870. The Ardrossan Castle Foot-Ball Club began playing at the practice ground at Clutha Park before moving to the Castle grounds. ^[1] Its local rival was the Ardrossan Football Club that played on the Clutha Park practice ground. ^[2] The Ardrossan Football Club was rugby union until it made the switch to association football in 1874; but only lasted another two years as an association side. The Ardrossan Castle Foot-Ball Club remained rugby union until around 1880. It switched to association football, dropping the hyphen in its name on making the switch.

The present club was founded in 1921.

In 2005, they won the BT Bowl by beating Greenock.

Ardrossan Sevens

The club run the Ardossan Sevens tournament. ^[3] The men's competition began in 1954 and sides play for the Past Players Trophy. A woman's competition was started in 2016.

Honours

• Ardrossan Sevens ^[3]
  • Champions: 1954, 1955, 1960, 1961, 1976
• Cambuslang Sevens ^[4]
  • Champions: 1979
• Wigtownshire Sevens ^[5]
  • Champions: 1975
• Stirling Sevens
  • Champions: 1972 ^[6]

Notable former players

Glasgow District

The following former Ardrossan Academicals players have represented Glasgow District at provincial level.

W. Fraser [7]

References

1. "Ardrossan Castle Foot-Ball Club". 14 June 2020.
2. "Ardrossan Football Club". 17 June 2020.
3. "Ardrossan Sevens". 11 June 2019.
4. "Cambuslang Sevens". 10 June 2019.
5. "Wigtownshire Sevens". 7 June 2019.
6. "Stirling Sevens". 7 June 2019.
7. "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.

• Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN   0-904919-84-6)