Creighton RFC

History

Opened Founded 1927

The name comes from a school. Malcolm Crane's The Rugby Clubs of England says the club was formed in 1927 by former pupils of the long-gone Creighton School, and was first known as Old Creightonians RUFC, drawing its players from Creighton Grammar School in the border city. The school opened in 1918 and took its name from a prominent local family, one of whom, Dr Mandell Creighton, became Bishop of London. The book adds that the bishop founded Kilburn Grammar School in 1898 and formed an Old Creightonians rugby club in London, which died out decades ago, and that the two old boys' clubs played each other until it closed.

Creighton is the city's other rugby union club, and the younger of the two: 1927 against Carlisle RFC's 1873. Easy to mix them up; keep them apart. Neat coincidence for this site: 1927 is also the year the Apple Tree opened as Redfern's first model pub.

Old Creightonians of Carlisle were a highly successful side between the wars. W. E. Telford, R. S. Lancaster and J. Payton all represented Cumberland and Westmorland in the 1930s, and Jack Sewell played for the county and had an England trial. They reached the Cumbria Cup final in 1950 and lost to Workington, and were runners-up again in 1959 to Egremont. The club dropped the Old Boys title in 1972 as its links with the school fell away, and settled in the lower reaches of the Cumbria leagues.

The two clubs are neighbours and on occasion allies. When the 2005 flood wrecked Carlisle RFC's Warwick Road clubhouse, Creighton was one of the clubs that took in their displaced sides. In 2006 Creighton moved to the new sporting complex at Sycamore Lane, Parkland, on the former Garlands Hospital estate south of the city.

The ground carries both codes. As well as Creighton's union sides, the rugby league club East Cumbria Crusaders play their home games here. They started in 2003 as the Carlisle Centurions, and regrouped under their present name in 2010 with a young side playing out of Creighton. The clubhouse works as a functions and events venue as well as a members' bar, and is listed as a gig and club-night venue, so it hosts live music and discos alongside the rugby.