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London Skolars
London Skolars
The London Skolars are based at the New River Stadium in Wood Green in north London. The team is very new to rugby league and was only founded in 1995, and has only played professionally since 2003 in National League Two. They also have an A-team that play in the Rugby League Conference and London League. The London Skolars also host the Middlesex 9's tournament which is competed for annually. In 2006 this was turned into an internationally recognised tournament.
The North London Skolars were founded in 1995 by Mr Ian McNeil.
They initial concept behind the team was that it was created for post-university graduates in London,
with a number of ex-student international rugby league players. The
team originally played at the Hackney marshes ground. In short order the club declared itself open and began to rely on players from the student game and London-based international players as well as local players. The team saw some initial early success in the London League and became a founder member of the new Southern Conference (the forerunner of the Rugby League Conference) and they went on to take the trophy for its first year. In 1997 the London Skolars played in the National Conference League and were the only team south of Sheffield who played in the competition for four consecutive seasons. In 1998 the London Skolars hosted the Strella XIII competition, which saw the historic event of a team from Tatarstan touring the United Kingdom. In 1999 the London Skolars toured Tatarstan and Russia, and this was the first time that an amateur club had toured the former Soviet Union.
In 2002 the London Skolars applied to join the National Leagues and were accepted, the first team in 80 years that was able to make the transition from amateur to professional. The next year saw the team play their first season in National League Two where they finished bottom of the tables. In 2004 they made some progress to make up lost ground and 2005 saw the appointment of a new full time coach (Latham Tawhai).
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