|
|
Print-friendly version
Keighley Cougars
Keighley Cougars
Keighley Cougars were formed on the 17th of October 1876 and the club was allowed to use the Holmes' field in Lawkholme Lane. The first game took place a few days later and the committee that managed the team met and decided to adopt Association and Rugby Football Laws. The first game under these rules took place at Lawkholme Lane against Crosshills. The game ended in a draw although historic records mention "the draw was in the visitors' favour". The first match that set Keighley on their road to stardom appears to have taken place on the 13th of January in 1877 against Bingley. The visitors took victory by two tries and two touchdowns to two touchdowns. Keighley also lost a further two games against Bingley. Keighley Cougars held an meeting in 1878 in their new headquarters at Dalton Lane and a second XV was formed known as Keighley Athletic. There was a rivalry amongst the two teams but in short order they learned to work together and by 1881 both teams had merged to become the Keighley unified side. Keighley had previously joined the RFU on 1879. By 1882 the team played in the Yorkshire Cup for the very first time
against Wakefield Trinity who were at the time one of the top sides in
the league. They also played against Hunslet, ending in a draw. In April 1885, the club merged with Keighley Cricket and Football Club and moved headquarters to the Black Horse Hotel. in 1886-1887 Keighley played clubs such as
Hipperholme and Lightcliffe, Bramley, Otley, York, Shipley, Ossett,
Bingley, Pudsey, Halifax Free Wanderers, Morley, Skipton and Hunslet. They had one of their best seasons in 1892-1893 when the team played in some of the cup rounds and won no less than 22 matches during the season. Keighley joined the Intermediate Competition and finished sixth in this relatively new league with eleven wins and defeats.
In 1900 Keighley applied for membership in the Northern Union. They were elected into the Yorkshire Second Competition on the 14th of July and played their first game two days later agasint Manningham at Lawkholme Lane, with the visitors taking victory 5-2. Keighly managed to finish second place in the league and were moved up to the Yorkshire Seniors Competition. The following year saw Keighley play in the Northern Union Cup (now referred to as the Challenge Cup) for the first time. The second division was formed in 1902-1903 and Keighley was one of the first teams chosen to play int his league, and they managed to take 27 wins out of 34 games. Keighley continued to see success with the semi-final of the Challenge Cup before dropping out of the competition to Salford. The early 1900's saw changing fortunes with the team leading the Challenge Cup, advancing to the third round after a stright of victories, and during the First World War the club arranged no fixtures and did not take part in the game. The post war period saw the team rebuilding and restructuring.
After World War II many players who had joined the club during the war grew into professional rugby players and Keighley finished sixth from the bottom of the league in the first game after the war. On February 14th 1948, Keighley were the victims of one of the
biggest Challenge Cup upsets when they were defeated 2-10 by Cumbrian
junior club, Risehow and Gillhead. Fortunately for Keighley they had
established an 11-0 lead in the first leg of first round at Lawkholme
Lane, though they only scraped home on aggregate by a matter of three
points. In 1951 Keighley reached the final of the Yorkshire Cup against Wakefield Trinity. Unfortunately Keighley were beaten by Trinity 17-3, this seemed to have a knock on effect on the confidence of Keighley when they only went on to win one out of twenty games in the 1951-1952 season. In 1953 a new board of directors took over, however in December of the same year the board members resigned due to a financial crisis and were all replaced. It was in this period that the team adopted their traditional colours of red, green and white.
Probably the most important changes on the administrative side came
in December 1953, when an entirely new board of directors took over. On
Wednesday, December 9th, following a major financial crisis, the
existing members of the board resigned and were replaced by an entirely
new board. Share capital was increased from £3,000 to £10,000 through
the issuing of an additional 7,000 £1 shares. The traditional playing
colours of blue and white were discarded in favour of the present
colours of red, green and white. Keighley soldiered on through the rugby slump of the 60's and 70's until a bad start to the 1980-1981 season when they took a string of defeats. Fortunately they were able to make up lost ground with eleven wins and one draw to gain some credibility. This season saw Keighley finishing 7th. Keighley continued the 1981-82 season where they had left off the
previous season by winning 10 of their first 14 league games. Terrible
winter weather with weeks of snow and frost hit and no matches were
played between the 6th of December and the 3rd of January. This break
upset Keighley’s form and they only won 8 out of the remaining 18
games. Keighley finished in 7th position once again. The team celebrated 100 years of rugby at their ground at Lawkholme Lane during the 1985-1986 season. Crushing debts saw Keighley served a winding-up order by the Inland Revenue which was narrowly avoided due to the sale of the cricket ground for £30,000 and the training pitch for £65,000. Lawkholme Lane was sold in the late 80s to the Co-op for approximately £10,000 and leased back to the club.
1993 saw Keighley win the third division but they were denied promotion due to the Rugby Football League merging the second and third divisions. The team invested in a large number of good players and saw their crowds increase from 350 to 4,000 by 1995. Keighley were gradually brought up to the standards of a Premier League standard team. The club succeeded in winning the Second Division Championship in the 1994-1995 season. The Super League was created the next year and Keighley were excluded from the new league. The team managed second place to Salford the next year in a competition for the one promotion place for the Super League. WIth a new head coach guiding the team to success in 2000 Keighley finished second in the Northern Ford Premiership. After dissolving the club into liquidation the Keighley Cougars were formed in 2001 by some former directors. Keighley Cougars won National League two in 2003 and were promoted
to National League one. However they were immediately relegated back.
|
|
