Harlow Rugby Club came into existence on December 8^th 1955 at a meeting in the Essex Skipper pub. Founder members included: Ron Bracewell, Ron Strudwick, Ron Parkin, Derek Jennings & Eric Jones – he’s the one that bought the first red shirts! Harlow Rugby Club quickly became a pinnacle of camaraderie for ‘The Long, The Short & The Tall’ within Harlow and surrounding community, bringing together all of those decent, yet ever so slightly temperamental & clumsy ‘sportsmen’!

Rugby established its home in Harlow fairly rapidly – initially playing in white & green stripes. The New Town Development Corporation enthusiastically provided grounds for this new venture @ £15 per annum rent, however, this area wasn’t playable to begin with so the club played rugby on Farmer Carter’s fields for the interim. This proved good for the boot leather but not the rucking game!

The Official opening of the Ram Gorse Club House by Sir Richard Costain in 1959 gave Harlow Rugby Club a real independence & freedom – the local pubs couldn’t handle the pace or the mayhem – not much has changed then!

Over the years membership grew with Harlow attracting members form all over the UK – not least the Principality – Ar un amser yr oedd pob un or ‘tri chwarter’ yn gallu siarad Cymraeg. Membership really swelled over the years with Harlow fielding more and more teams on match days. During the 1980/81 season Harlow were fielding 7 teams on a Saturday. During these years one of Harlow’s corner stone teams was the Saints. The Saints have had 2 unbeaten seasons during their time, 1975/76 (a season in which Mike Ryland played every game) & 1982/83.

The strength in depth at Harlow continued over several decades benefiting from some great coaching (Colin Jenkins, John Hurley, Ray Harris, Marcus Russell, Don Harrigan, Paul Clegg, Graham Richards to name a few…) but also from an incredible and constant tide of juniors coming into the game. One theory makes Gwynne Harris partly responsible for this. Being the PE Advisor for West Essex Education Authority for a number of years, Gwynne was responsible for bringing so many high quality rugby-mad PE teachers from the Welsh colleges to the town during its boom years. Encouraging their boys to ‘get down the club’ was pretty much a genetic thing – and the boys went down the club for years building what would be one of the highest quality junior rugby set-ups in the UK!

Winning 100 matches in a row from 1979 to 1981 was a magnificent achievement for Harlow Colts – and having a reputation like this meant getting bigger fixtures. Wasps, Saracens, Leicester, and Bristol were just a few of the mighty teams Harlow Colts played and expected to beat! We even had a few of our boys playing first class rugby over the years – Dave Hurley, Jonathon Locke & Wayne Kearns – 2 of whom achieved junior international honours. Steven Pope when to to play for Wasps, Blackheath, London Welsh and Swansea, and then playing for  England divisions against South Africa.

Having a fantastic junior rugby section hopefully meant that this talent would ultimately feed into the senior teams – and it did! Having been placed – unjustifiably – in Eastern Counties Division One when the leagues were formed in 1987/88, Harlow gained promotion every 2 years until finally reaching London Division One in 1993. Harlow have never won the Essex Cup, however, Harlow has won the Eastern Counties Cup twice; firstly in 1995 and secondly in 1997, and who can forget our great day in 1999 when our Seven’s squad reached the Middlesex Seven’s Finals and played on the hallowed turf at Twickenham.

Times change - At the end of the 2003/04 season Harlow were relegated from London Division I. So far this season our first XV – led by Manager Steve Foreman & Player Coach Alan Yates – are fighting still. Developments can be seen as the season moves on and we hope to consolidate our position in the division by the end of the season. Off the pitch life’s no easier. Chris Locke & his Executive Committee are all working extremely hard to create a financially secure & comfortable environment for us all to enjoy but this is sure to become more difficult unless we can increase membership and participation.

It’s fair to say that society isn’t in our favour. Children are participating less & less in sports at school. Distractions out of school are forever growing. People in the UK have the longest working hours of any European nation. It’s not all doom and gloom though.

We are currently fielding 3 senior teams, plus a very vibrant & successful Ladies team. There are over 150 juniors & minis on our books – so life’s not so bad. It could be much better though!

Or course we’d like to field 7 senior teams on a Saturday again. We want our Colts to break more posts in 100 win celebrations. In order to move in the right direction the club needs your commitment as members firstly and secondly as volunteers. Details on membership can be found here – if you’re not a member why not become one today? If you’ve got some time to give or a specific skill the club could benefit from let us know. Your club and your friends need you now more than ever. Make this day the start of a new era for the club!

New players are always welcome for more information visit The Rugby Pages If you enjoy rugby but playing it is not for you then you can become part of Harlow Rugby Club community by becoming a social member. Visit the Social Pages for more details.   

Thanks to: Ron Bracewell, Mike Ryland, Dyfrig Powell, Richard Allmark, Mark Guthrie and Don Smale for their input! If we have inadvertently omitted any details or names you deem critical to the clubs history, or offended any individual’s – you should have been down the bloody club when we were writing this. Alternatively mail paul.eynon@harlow-rugby.co.uk with your version

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