 | |
| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Thatto Heath Crusaders ARLFC |
| Colours | Black, red and white |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Website | www.thattoheathcrusaders.org |
| Current details | |
| Ground(s) |
|
| Coach | Mike Woods |
| Captain | Jamie Tracey David Pike Adam Saunders |
| Competition | National Conference League |
Thatto Heath Crusaders is an amateur rugby league club situated in Thatto Heath, St Helens, Merseyside. The club currently competes in the National Conference League Premier Division
Thatto Heath RLFC began life in 1981, originally formed by ex-St Helens R.F.C. player Frankie Barrow. The team began competing in the North West Counties 4th Division, and the ‘A’ Team entered Division 5.
The team progressed through the divisions rapidly and finished the 1986−87 season by lifting the North West Counties Premier Division Championship Trophy, the St Helens Cup and they took out the BARLA National Cup Final with a 15–8 victory over the National Conference League Champions Heworth. Captain John McCabe entered the record books as the only player to appear on the winning side in five National Cup Finals.
Over the next 20 years, Thatto Heath enjoyed enormous success, including the National Cup Trophy, a record five County Cups, two Champions Challenge successes, a record seven North West Counties Premier Division titles, two North West Counties Challenge Cups, three North West Counties Premier Challenge Cups and eight St Helens Cups. It was during this period the club recorded their most famous win, against Chorley Chieftains 27−12 in the Silk Cut Challenge Cup third round in January 1996.
Over the years, the club has produced numerous players who have moved on to join the professional ranks including Andy Brown, Gary Forber, Scott Ranson, Stuart Wakefield, Barry Ashall (Swinton), Darren Harris, Paul Bishop, Darren Abram, Gary Sanderson (Warrington), Derrick Seabrook, Steve Dudley (St Helens), Neil Slater (Trafford Borough), Chris Honey (Barrow), Arthur Bradshaw (Salford) and in more recent times Ray Waring, Ste Gee, Mark Gleave and Lydon Smith (Chorley Chieftains). Alex Murphy was also a graduate from the club.
During 1999, the club found themselves without a ground so a merger was proposed with another local rugby league club, St Helens Crusaders. With the approval of the SIDAC social club, the club then became Thatto Heath Crusaders – St. Helens.
The club was eventually elected to the National Conference League in 2000–01. Thatto Heath took out the National Conference Division 2 Championship title that same year.
In 2007, Thatto Heath went up rapidly through the leagues to the championship.
Thatto Heath won the Division One title in 2010 and promotion to the Premiership and in 2011 Thatto Heath went on to win the Conference League Premiership title defeating Siddal in the final. Captained by Mark Beech, Crusaders then went on to become European champions the same year.
In 2015, Thatto Heath were relegated from the Premier Division after finishing 11 from 12 teams, ending their five-year stay in the top flight. Thatto Heath appeared in the playoffs in each of the seasons in the Premier Division (except for 2015), including finishing top of the table in 2011 and 2013.
| First team squad | Coaching staff | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Head coach Assistant coaches
Updated: 1 Jan 2024 | ||||||
| Player | Club | Date |
|---|---|---|
 Andrew Lea | Rochdale Hornets | January 2024 |
 Ellis Keppel | Pilkington Recs | January 2024 |
| Sam Haynes | Swinton Lions | February 2024 |
| Player | Club | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan Taylor | Crosfields ARLFC | January 2024 |
| Adam Carr | North Wales Crusaders | January 2024 |
| Greg Wilde | Culcheth Eagles ARLFC | January 2024 |
| Jamie Morris | Garswood Stags ARLFC | January 2024 |
Thatto Heath run a junior team in the Gillette National Youth League.
In 2013, the Thatto Heath Crusaders women's side competed in the Women's Rugby League Conference where they finished top of the Premier League [2] and defeated Bradford Thunderbirds 32–6 to win the Grand Final. [3] Following becoming league champions in 2014, 2015 and 2016 the team became founding members of the RFL Women's Super League in 2017. The club also won the Women's Challenge Cup four years in a row from 2013 to 2016. Ahead of the 2018 season, the side were bought out by St Helens R.F.C. [4]
While this meant that they no longer played in the top tier of Women's competition, they continued to field teams in lower leagues under the Thatto Heath Crusaders name. In the 2022 season, the club played in League 2 [5] and in the 2024 season they competed in League 1. [6]
The National Conference League comprises the five levels of the British rugby league system and is at the top end of the amateur pyramid and sits below the professional League One. It comes under the jurisdiction of the Rugby Football League. The National Conference League has promotion and relegation between the Premier Division and Division Three although there is no promotion or relegation between the Conference League South, Regional Leagues or promotion to League One without an application to the RFL.
The St Albans Centurions are a rugby league club based in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The club plays their home games at Toulmin Drive, St Albans and their clubhouse is in High Oaks, St Albans.
Wigan St. Patricks is an amateur rugby league football club based in the Scholes area of Wigan, Greater Manchester. The first team plays in the National Conference League Division One.
The National Conference League is the top league in the pyramid of amateur rugby leagues. It was formerly run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) in winter but now forms tier 3 of the RFL's pyramid in summer Archived 2012-01-19 at the Wayback Machine.
West Hull A.R.L.F.C. is an amateur rugby league football club from Kingston upon Hull, currently playing in the National Conference League Premier Division. The team plays their home matches at West Hull Community Park and their strip colours are green and gold.
Rugby league is played across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but its heartland in parts of Northern England is where the sport is most popular, and is where the majority of professional clubs are based. The sport was first established in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, where 22 clubs split from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union.
The North West Men's League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in North West England. The competition was formed in 2009 as the RLC North West Premier by splitting the RLC North Premier into two competitions - this and the RLC Yorkshire Premier. The league was renamed to its current name following the 2012 restructure of amateur rugby league in Great Britain.
The Bradford Bulls Women are an English professional women's rugby league team based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Formed in 1999 as an autonomous club, Dudley Hill Thunderbirds, the team was also known as Bradford Thunderbirds and Bradford Clayton Thunderbirds. As the Thunderbirds the club played in the Women's Rugby League Conference and later the Women's Rugby League. As of 2024 they compete in the Northern Women's Championship.
Leigh Miners Rangers are a community amateur rugby league football club from Leigh in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club currently competes in the National Conference League, the National Conference Premier Division. The club also operates an A team, Masters, an Under 18's team, and numerous junior teams. In 2022, Miners Rangers also fielded a Ladies side in the RFL Women's Super League Group 2.
The RFL Women's Rugby League was an amateur women's rugby league competition in the United Kingdom. The competition was a successor to the Women's Rugby League Conference, but moved the season to run between March and October. The competition was first played for in 2012 and ran for five full seasons. The 2017 season was not completed as the league was replaced in July 2017 by a new three division structure comprising the Women's Super League, the Women's Championship and the Women's Championship 1.
Heworth A.R.L.F.C. is an amateur rugby league football club based in Heworth, York. The first team plays in the NCL Division One.
Tara-Jane Stanley is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a fullback for York Valkyrie in the Women's Super League. She has played at representative level for England, and club level for Thatto Heath Crusaders and Castleford Tigers Women.
The Rugby Football League Women's Super League is the elite women's rugby league club competition in England. Originally competed between four teams in the 2017 season, the league has developed with the 2023 season being contested by 12 teams playing home and away against each other in two groups with subsequent play-offs and Grand Final. In January 2023 it was announced that the league would be reduced to eight teams in the 2024 season.
The Women's Challenge Cup is a rugby league knockout competition organised by the Rugby Football League. The competition started in 2012.
Emily Rudge is a British rugby league player who plays for St Helens Women in the Women's Super League. She plays at second-row. Born in Warrington Rudge attended Cardinal Newman High School and first played rugby league for a local Warrington club before joining Thatto Heath Crusaders. While at Warrington she was first selected for the England women's national rugby league team in 2008, aged 16. In 2011, Rudge was in the Warrington team that won the Championship Final of the Women's Rugby League Conference in August, before joining for Featherstone Rovers for the interim season before the launch of the first summer-based season.
Jodie Cunningham is an English rugby league footballer who plays as a fullback or loose forward at international level for England and domestically for St Helens in the Women's Super League.
The rugby league club St Helens R.F.C. have operated a women's team since they took some women from Thatto Heath Crusaders, and other women's sides in 2017 ahead of the 2018 season. They won four successive Challenge Cups from 2013 to 2016, and again from 2021–2024. The 2016 win formed part of their treble winning season. The side won the 2021 Women's Challenge Cup after beating York City Knights, adding to the four cup titles won as Thatto Heath. That season, they also completed the treble for the second time.
Tara Jones is an English rugby league referee and former player. She was hooker for St Helens and the England national team. In both disciplines, her career took off in 2018, when she captained St Helens in their debut women's Super League and became the first female match official for the men's Super League.
The 2019 National Conference League was the 34th season of the National Conference League, the top league for British amateur rugby league clubs.
Zack McComb is an English born Irish rugby league player, who currently plays for Halifax Panthers in the RFL Championship.
