Chesterfield Spires RLFC

Rugby team
teamname = Chesterfield Spires

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fullname = "Chesterfield Spires RLFC"
founded = 2003
league = RL Merit League
ground = Chesterfield RUFC, Stonegravels
web= http://www.chesterfieldspires.com
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pattern_la2=_whiteborder|pattern_b2=_thinredsides|pattern_ra2=_whiteborder
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Chesterfield Spires RLFC was a rugby league club in Chesterfield, who played in the RL Merit League. In 2008 they merged with the North Derbyshire Chargers.

History of rugby league in Chesterfield

Rugby league in the town can be traced back to 1978 when a team bearing the Chesterfield name were involved in the West Yorkshire Sunday League. Due to shortage of players, the team ceased playing at the beginning of 1983. The last secretary of the club was Patrick (Paddy) Fagan.

Within a year, Shirebrook Rugby League Club had been formed by Paddy Fagan and Mick Meadows. Although this new club had a few players from the old Chesterfield team, the majority of the players were from the Shirebrook area.A new team was also formed at Clowne shortly afterwards. Both Clowne and Shirebrook were stalwarts of winter rugby league on the fringes of the game's heartlands in the 1980s and early 1990s. With the introduction of summer rugby in the mid 1990s, both clubs disappeared, with their players moving to the new summer clubs or to winter clubs in Yorkshire.

Foundation

Although for many years there has been a latent interest in the sport around the town, not the least due to the Sheffield Eagles using the football club's Saltergate home for games in the early 1990s, the town itself was not represented in rugby league circles until 2003, when Chesterfield Spires was formed by a group of three friends in the Welbeck Arms on Soresby Street on July 29, 2003. The first training session was held the week after on Highfield Park with only three players.

The club grew steadily in the autumn of 2003 and many players gained rugby league experience with the Worksop Sharks in the 2004 season, including one game where the club provided 6 players for a game. The club itself hit a standstill in the Autumn of 2004 and it was feared that the ambitious project was dead. However a series of meetings demonstrated that there was still energy for rugby league in the town and the club began to prepare solid foundations for the future.

Development

By the end of April 2005 the club had signed a deal to play rugby league at Gosforth Fields in Dronfield, and they made their first appearance competitively in the Sheffield 7's tag tournament on May 3, 2005 finishing 3rd in their group with two wins and being beaten 6 - 3 by York in the elimination stage of the competition.

The club played a series of friendlies in 2005, winning their first game against the Sheffield IMBRL side, later to become the Sheffield Forgers. The return fixture was won by Sheffield, and a heavy loss was sustained away at Telford Raiders, but the club was up and running.

In 2006 the club entered the Midlands Merit League, a feeder league to the Rugby League Conference. They ended the season in 7th place, winning two matches. The first competitive victory was against the Telford Trojans on July 29th.

In 2007 the club reached agreement with Chesterfield Rugby Union Club to play their games at the Stonegravels ground. The season started slowly but ended with the club in 7th out of 13 in the MML, thus qualifying for the Shield play-offs. This included a first win over the Nottingham Outlaws, arguably the club's best result thus far. In their first knock-out fixture they beat the Barton Bulldogs 40-34 but went out in the semi-final to a strong East Riding team.

Before the 2008 season started, it was decided that the club should merge with the newly formed North Derbyshire Chargers, who were based in the town of Eckington to prevent dilution of resource in the area.

External links

* [http://www.chesterfieldspires.com Official website]
* [http://uk.geocities.com/[e-mail] RL Merit League Official Site]

References