Widden Old Boys RFC celebrates its 100th year in 2022-23.
In the early 1920s, a new form of school was created to assist young men and women who had left school at age 14 or 15 to work and assist their families but still had a desire to continue their education in the evenings. These were the start of modern night schools, named Evening Part Time Technical Schools.
In Gloucester, several of these were created including Linden Road, Central Road and Widden Street School Evening Technical Schools.
As with any school, pupils looked to engage in sports and play each other.
Several records exists of inter-school football, rugby and cricket matches in 1922 including March 18th 1922 vs Barnwood School but this was as Widden EPTS standing for Evening Part Time Scholars.
The local schools rugby cup was won by Widden EPTS in 1922 so they were pretty good.
During 1922, desire grew to play established clubs around the city as the pupils were now older and felt they could compete with adult teams.
The headmaster of Widden EPTTS was Maurice Bye (M.C.Bye) and he helped to establish Widden Old Boys EPTS as a club as its President, based out of the school. At the time of creation, this club was to cover all sporting activity including cricket, football, rugby and swimming.
The first recorded game of Widden Old Boys EPTS RFC as a senior club is 25th October 1922 vs Archdeacon. The same and new boys played in the local schools circuit and continued until 1929 as well as playing within the auspices of the Rugby Football Union.
The club developed to a primarily rugby basis with AGMs recorded and more regular fixtures occurring. Widden joined the North Gloucestershire Combination during this period and won the Senior Combination cup in 1928, 1930, 1931 and 1933.
Rugby in the city was stopped during WWII. By this point, Widden had been somewhat nomadic, playing at Oxstalls, Alney Island, Kingsholm and wherever a pitch could be found.
The club moved to Sutgrove (current Ribston Hall School fields) after the war and were based out of an old shed on the site. M.C. Bye was still President of the club at this time.
In the early 1950s, John Hudson and some likeminded people raised funding to establish a memorial ground on Tuffley avenue to ensure the survival and future of sport in the city. Its first and longest standing tenants were Widden Old Boys RFC who played the first game there on September 8th 1956 vs Spartans ending in a 3-3 draw.
Widden lost the final of the Senior combination cup in 1957-58 season to Gordon League. (pictured)
The next season, they met Gordon League in the semi final and smashed them, going on to win the Senior Combination cup vs Spartans for the 1958-9 season.
Rugby 7s was very popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s with Widden winning the Gloucester cup several times.
The clubhouse at the Memorial ground was built by the members including the Sallis Brothers (pictured at the bar who have helped relate many of the tales of the era of the club) around 1960. Upon opening, a very small bar area was formed but no license existed. Purchasing alcohol was far more difficult than today so a dodgy deal was struck with the landlord of the Eastgate Pub on Barton Street who would supply bottles and the odd cask at a small margin.
With no license to sell alcohol, the club couldn’t legally sell after matches. Raffle tickets as a lucky dip were instead sold at the price of lets say a bottle of beer. All tickets but one were winners. Losers got another go……
The club developed to putting out 4 sides every Saturday during the 1970s and 80s and one of the first junior sections of the county was established in 1972.
When the league system was introduced, Widden joined in andclimbed high, but disaster struck in 1999 when most of the then 1st team squad retired. Widden were reduced to the absolute bare bones and withdrew from the leagues.Widden were putting anyone with a pair of boots out to fulfil fixtures the following season including a 100+ nill loss to Minchinhampton.
The following season however, the fruits of the incredibly strong junior section helped save the club. This group of lads turned 17/18 and were very happy to join the leagues again starting at Gloucester 3 level. 5 promotions followed over 8 seasons with the 1st team reaching Western Counties North in 2007 as well as a Senior Combination Cup final vs Coney Hill.
The junior section of the club has constantly given a throughput of players to the senior club and has allowed the club to maintain 2 teams even after Covid, when many teams have struggled. Transition plans are always evolving with buildup to aged 18 when we introduce our players to senior rugby.
The clubhouse has been expanded several times over the years with an extension in the late 1990s to add additional changing and a larger lounge area. During t2020-21 lockdowns, the club was entirely refurbished internally by its members. We still don’t have any windows though.
Expansion has come at a cost as the original roof and its extensions are now causing major issues internally to the building. Work is underway to replace this summer.
As we look forward to the future, we have 7 junior sides, 2 senior and 1 veteran. We would dearly love to have ladies and girls sides and we hope refurbishment of the roof will enable us to expand our changing facilities to accommodate this.
Mark Elton
