Birkenhead Park FC

Last updated

Birkenhead Park
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Full nameBirkenhead Park Rugby Club
Union Cheshire RFU
Founded1871;155 years ago (1871)
Location Birkenhead, Merseyside, England
GroundUpper Park (Capacity: 2,000)
ChairmanBarry Fitzgerald
PresidentRichard Morris
CaptainSean Mooney
League North 2 West
2023–241st (promoted to Regional 1 North West)
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Team kit
Official website
birkenheadparkrfc.rfu.club

Birkenhead Park Football Club is an English rugby union team based in Birkenhead, Wirral. The club operates five senior teams, a ladies team (Birkenhead Park Panthers) and six junior sides. The men's senior team play in Regional 1 North West, the fifth level of the English rugby union system, following promotion as champions of Regional 2 North West in 2023–24.

Contents

History

Birkenhead Park was formed in 1871, the same year as the Rugby Football Union, from the amalgamation of two smaller clubs, Claughton and Birkenhead Wanderers during the 1871–72 season. [1] After an initial period where the club failed to find any form, the season of 1877–78 saw the team losing only two matches from nineteen played. The club was central to the formation of the Cheshire County Union, and in 1887 Birkenhead Park was chosen as the venue for the Home Nations clash between Wales and Ireland; the first time a Home Nations Championship game was played on neutral soil.

The club has a rich history and have hosted the New Zealand All Blacks team on four occasions most recently in 1978 and in 1984 they hosted the North of England's match against Romania.

The club has won two promotions in the 25 years of club rugby – winning South Lancashire and Cheshire Division One and North 2 West in consecutive seasons in the early 2000s. [2]

Ground

Birkenhead Park have been based at Upper Park since 1885. Ground capacity was listed in 1990 by a club official as being 8,000 (all standing) with club house, changing rooms and flood lights for the main pitch, and old videos appear to show a large grandstand. [3] By modern safety standards this estimate seems very generous and there is no longer a grandstand, so a revised figure of 2,000 has been used.

Honours

Notable former players

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The pitches

British Lions

International players while at Birkenhead Park

Other notable players

References

  1. W. W. Wakefield, Rugger - The History, Theory and Practice of Rugby Football pp322
  2. Club website history page
  3. Tony Williams and Bill Mitchell, ed. (1990). "Birkhenhead Park FC (Ground Details)". Courage Official Rugby Union Club Directory 1990–91 (3rd ed.). Windsor: Burlington Publishing Co. Ltd. p. 217.