Within only six years of the union code being properly established in England, the Tamworth Grammar School issued a challenge to the Armidale Grammar School in 1877 for a 12-a-side match. The Tamworth Grammar School renamed Tamworth College, continued to be a strong nursery of rugby union well into the 1900s.
Two years later, this had motivated the formation of the senior Arlington Club and Tamworth Club, with goalposts erected on The Oval (now Bicentennial Park). Two years later, this had motivated the formation of the senior Arlington Club and Tamworth Club, with goalposts erected on The Oval (now Bicentennial Park).[1]
In 1880, a rugby game was played against the Maitland Albions.[2]
The Tamworth Rugby Club appeared in the list of clubs that formed the New England Branch of the New South Wales Rugby Union. On 12 May 1880, the ArmidaleFootball Club was formed to play games rugby rules.[3] In 1882, Tamworth was listed as one of the 35 clubs subscribed to the Southern Rugby Union at their annual general meeting.[4]
In 1891, the Newcastle Football Club played Tamworth with a scratch team, winning 10 points to 3,[5] and a combined Armidale team won against a local Tamworth team by three points.[6]
By 1893 there were club competitions involving Tamworth, Gunnedah, Quirindi, Werris Creek, Boggabri and Narrabri.[1] The Tamworth-Acme Club lost 0–6 against a team from the newly-formed New England Rugby Union.[7]
In 1892, NERU was formed,[8][9] with a subsequent formation meeting in 1893.[10] The Tamworth-based teams were Acme, Tamworth and Royal Standard. Rugby continued to be played around Tamworth and Armidale, with teams leaving and joining the competition.[11]
In 1900, Tamworth passed a resolution at its annual meeting to leave NERU. The issue was that the local clubs had supported NERU for several years, but NERU had never scheduled a final match in Tamworth.
In 1901, West Tamworth won the NERU championship, defeating the Albions (Armidale) 8–0.[12] In 1903, Central North (Tamworth) was formed. It applied to affiliate with the NSW Rugby Union.[13]
Central North Cup 1903 – thanks to Laura Jones
North Tamworth won the Central Northern Rugby Union Cup in 1903, 1904 (Murrurundi 11–0[14]) and 1905 (Murrurundi 16–0[15]).
In 1911, the East Tamworth Club wrote to Central North Rugby Football, stating it strongly resented the move of some players to the new code.[16]
In 1912, East Tamworth won the premiership over Walcha in the last game of the season with a one-point victory.[17] The West Tamworth Rugby Union team played Walcha for the Danahey Cup. In outlying villages Dungowan, Nemingha and Woolomin were union rivals, before changing to rugby league. The East Tamworth Rugby Union Football Club was very successful in the local Tamworth "Observer Cup" competition, winning the cup in 1909, 1910 and 1912.[1]
1912 East Tamworth Source: Tamworth RUSC
The split and World War I
Many rugby union competitions dissolved for patriotic reasons and lack of numbers during World War I. An Inverell Times report on 24 April 1915 stated that the North West Rugby Football Union decided that anyone who was able to train for football should enlist and resolved to abandon all competition games. Numbers were lost to the war effort or to the rival league code. A meeting of rugby enthusiasts at Nail's Criterion Hotel on 16 June 1916 resurrected the CNRU.[18] The Manly Rugby Club visited Tamworth later that month and played games against the Tamworth Union 15.[19] In July, Tamworth and Manilla played a match with funds raised devoted to a local patriotic fund.[20]
The league movement affected rugby with the annual general meeting notice for the New England Football Union of 1919, where consideration was made as to whether the union should cease its activities in favour of the league game.[21]
The revival
An advertisement was placed in the Northern Daily Leader calling a meeting to gauge interest in forming a new club. About a dozen people attended. All were fellows who had played rugby in other places, one of whom was former Gordon player Stan Blake.[22] The 1951 meeting resolved to form the Tamworth Rugby Union Club.[23]
Doug Campbell - Club President 1956, Club Secretary 1954–55. Tamworth City Council Mayor 1957-59Source: Tamworth Regional Council
An application was made to enter a team in the 1952 New England competition with the inaugural game against the Armidale City Rugby Club on 5 April 1952.[24]
The first group of players was made up of former rugby players and players who had never played the game before. Many were employees of the NSW Department of Main Roads and the Bank of Australasia. Because most of the players had to work Saturday mornings, which would prevent them from travelling to away games, Jeff Jefferies, manager of the bank and the first president of the reformed club, gave Saturday mornings off to any man who played rugby. Ted Wood from the NSW Department of Main Roads did the same.[22]
The club's first try was not scored until the 1953 season by Doug Schultz.[22]
By 1954, player numbers had increased such that a second grade side was playing and in 1955 with Ian Sinclair as coach the first grade side won the New England competition at Armidale against Glen Innes. Sinclair had to play as two forwards were injured.[22]
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Tamworth Rugby hosted games at Tamworth's No. 1 oval. Touring teams included the Fijians in 1954, who won against New England 37–14.[25] The British Lions beat Combined Country 27–14 in 1959.[26]
The revived Central North zone evolved from the old Southern Zone in 1958 under the approval of the NSWRU. A meeting had been held in Tamworth in November 1955 to discuss the formation of a new Southern Zone competition in New England.[27] A further meeting was called by the Tamworth club in November 1956 to discuss football arrangements for 1957. Many clubs were upset by the stop-start nature of the NERFU competition when University and Armidale Teachers College holiday breaks meant players were not available to field teams.
Teams in the Tamworth-based competition had played in the southern zone of the NEFRU for several years. In early 1958, the Walcha, Tamworth, Gunnedah and Quirindi clubs applied to the NSW Rugby Union for recognition as the Central Northern Union. Despite some opposition the application was granted. During this time other towns now playing in Central North formed their own clubs, as well as the establishment of the Tamworth Pirates Rugby Club, who evolved out of the Tamworth Country based at Kootingal.[22]
The 1960s and 1970s
In 1969, the Fijian national team revisited the region and played the New England team in front of 7000 people at No.1 oval winning the game 37–14.[28]
The standard of play in Central North began to improve in this period with the appearance of the first Australian Rugby Manual, and the arrival at Tamworth of some ex-Sydney Grade players in Bill Feggans (NSW Representative), Peter Horsefield and Vince Symons strengthened the ranks of players and later Coaches. However, the great Narrabri teams of the Seventies steam-rolled all before them in the competition.[29]
The 1980s and 1990s
In 2000, most of the successful players from the 1990s either retired or moved away from Tamworth and the club could only field one senior team.[29]
The 2000s and 2010s
New clubhouse under construction
The new clubhouse was built in 2010. Club member and secretary Julian Smith, an architect, prepared the design. For stage 1, funding for the change rooms came from selling the Tamworth Club. Stage 2 was funded by a $300,000 loan from the National Australia Bank and a $1,000 per year contribution from 30 donors for a 3-year period to help offset the interest.[30]
New clubhouse Steel Frame
The Tamworth club had club match days with usually two senior matches and no junior games. After merger talks between the two zones failed, and after a 59-year absence, the Tamworth club decided to rejoin the New England Rugby Union in 2018.[31]
New England is a geographical region in the north of the state of New South Wales, Australia, about 60 km inland from the Tasman Sea. The area includes the Northern Tablelands and the North West Slopes regions. As of 2021, New England had a population of 185,560, with over a quarter of the people living in the area of Tamworth Regional Council.
Walcha is a town at the south-eastern edge of the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia.
Quirindi is a small town on the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, in Liverpool Plains Shire. At the 2016 census, Quirindi had a population of 3,444. It is the nearest link to Gunnedah to the northwest and Tamworth to the north. The local economy is based on agriculture, with broadacre farming dominant on the black soil plains to the west and livestock grazing in the hilly eastern part of the district.
Tingha is a small town on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia in Inverell Shire. Formerly part of Armidale Region, on 1 July 2019, responsibility for Tingha was transferred from Armidale Regional Council to Inverell Shire Council. The town is 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Inverell and 559 kilometres (347 mi) north-north-east of Sydney. Tingha is an Aboriginal word for "flat or level".
The Shute Shield, known as the Charter Hall Shute Shield, is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end of the club rugby season.
Australian rules football in New South Wales is a team sport played and observed in the Australian state. It dates back to the colonial era in 1866, with organised competitions being continuous since the 1880s. Today, it is popular in several regions of the state, including areas near the Victorian and South Australian borders—Riverina, Broken Hill, and South Coast. These areas form part of an Australian cultural divide described as the Barassi Line. To the east of the line, it is known as "AFL", named after the elite Australian Football League competition. AFL NSW/ACT is the main development body, and includes the Australian Capital Territory.
The Country Rugby League of New South Wales (CRL), formed in 1934 and disbanded in 2019, was the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in areas of New South Wales outside the Sydney metropolitan area until it merged with NSW Rugby League in 2019. The CRL was superseded by 6 NSWRL Country Divisions represented by 4 members of the nine-person NSWRL board. Despite its name, the CRL also governed rugby league in the Australian Capital Territory. Apart from selecting a Country Origin side to play in the annual City vs Country Origin game, the CRL administered many senior and junior competitions across the state.
Group 4 is a rugby league competition in the New England and north west area of New South Wales, run under the auspices of the Country Rugby League.
Group 16 is a rugby league competition on the south coast of New South Wales, run under the auspices of the Country Rugby League. The Group 16 district covers the area from Batemans Bay down the Sapphire Coast to Eden, and inland across the Southern Tablelands to the Snowy Mountains towns of Cooma and Jindabyne.
The Clayton Cup is a trophy that was awarded by the Country Rugby League to the NSW country rugby league team with the best overall record for that season. To be eligible, the team must win the highest level of competition in its region. Usually the winner of the Clayton Cup goes through the season undefeated. In late 2019, the Country Rugby League was absorbed by the New South Wales Rugby League.
The Northern Daily Leader, previously published as The Tamworth Daily Observer, The Daily Observer and The Tamworth Observer and Northern Advertiser, is a daily newspaper produced in the city of Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia. The paper publishes stories related to the Tamworth, New England and North West Slopes regions. It also publishes stories about state and national events. Its online website also publishes many of the stories featured in the newspaper.
The New England Group 19 Rugby League competition is a Rugby league competition which is run under the auspices of the NSWRL, which absorbed the NSWCRL in 2019. It is based in the New England region. It was originally called the Group 5 Rugby League Premiership but that competition merged with another local competition to form New England Group 19. The competition is generally played on Sundays throughout the winter months, with strong local rivalries as well as inter – town rivalries.
The New South Wales Country Eagles is an Australian rugby union football team competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team was founded by a group of patrons associated with country rugby in New South Wales. The Eagles team plays home matches in regional centres of New South Wales including Armidale, Goulburn, Orange, and Tamworth.
The New South Wales Country Cockatoos is an amateur representative rugby union football team. Players in the team are selected by the New South Wales Country Rugby Union from regions of New South Wales excluding Sydney and Southern NSW. New South Wales Country plays regular fixtures with other representative sides including City-Country matches with New South Wales Suburban for the Maher-Ross Cup, and the "Battle of the Borders" Cup against the Queensland Country Heelers.
The New South Wales Country Rugby Union, or NSWCRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of New South Wales in Australia.
The 1883 Southern Rugby Union season was the 10th season of the Sydney Rugby Premiership. Twelve clubs competed from May till August 1883. The season culminated in the Premiership, which was won by Redfern. This was the first premiership in which the winner was awarded the Gardiner Cup. Redfern were crowned Premiers at a committee meeting of the Union.
The New England Rugby Union, or NERU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the District of New England in Australia. It is a member of the New South Wales Country Rugby Union.
↑ "SOUTHERN RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION". Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW: 1871 – 1912). 13 May 1882. p.754. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
↑ "NEWCASTLE FOOTBALL CLUB". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW: 1876 – 1954). 21 March 1891. p.7. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ "Football". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW: 1870 – 1907). 15 August 1891. p.39. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ "FOOTBALL". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW: 1876 – 1954). 22 June 1893. p.3. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ "FOOTBALL". Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW: 1856 – 1861; 1863 – 1889; 1891 – 1954). 28 June 1892. p.4. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ "NEWS OF THE DAY". Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW: 1856 – 1861; 1863 – 1889; 1891 – 1954). 26 July 1892. p.4. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ "NEWS OF THE DAY". Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW: 1856 – 1861; 1863 – 1889; 1891 – 1954). 7 March 1893. p.4. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ "RUGBY FOOTBALL". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW: 1876 – 1954). 3 August 1894. p.8. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
↑ John Evan Hughes, 1982, Formation and Early History of the New England Rugby Union, Thesis submitted to the Dept of History of the University of New England.
↑ "FOOTBALL". Referee (Sydney, NSW: 1886 – 1939). 27 May 1903. p.8. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
