Club History
The club came into existence on December 8, 1955 at a meeting in the Essex Skipper pub in Harlow. Founder members included; Alexander J McCowan, Dr John Huntley, Ron Bracewell, Ron Strudwick, Ron Parkin, Derek Jennings and Eric Jones.
Harlow initially played in a white and green striped strip. The New Town Development Corporation provided grounds for the club at a token rent of £15 per annum rent. This ground wasn’t usable to begin with so the club played rugby on a local farmer's field for the interim.
The Ram Gorse Club House was opened by Sir Richard Costain in 1959. Over the years, membership grew as Harlow attracted members from all over the UK, and especially from Wales. Harlow fielded more and more teams on match days. During the 1980/81 season Harlow were able to field seven different teams on a Saturday. During these years one of Harlow’s cornerstone teams was the Saints. The Saints have had two unbeaten seasons during their time, 1975/76 (a season in which Mike Ryland played every game) and 1982/83.
The strength in depth at Harlow continued over several decades due tp some great coaching teams but also from a constant tide of juniors coming into the game. Gwynne Harris, the PE Advisor for West Essex Education Authority for a number of years, was responsible for bringing many high quality sports teachers from the Welsh colleges to the town during its boom years. The sports teachers encouraged their pupils to join the club and the club built what would be one of the highest quality junior rugby set-ups in the UK.
When leagues were formed in 1987/88, Harlow were placed in Eastern Counties Division One. They gained promotion every two 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 in 1999 a Harlow Sevens squad reached the Middlesex 7s finals and played on the hallowed turf at Twickenham Stadium beating Richmond in their last tournament as a professional club.
Read more about this topic: Harlow Rugby Club
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