Welcome to the Official Website of Dewsbury Rams RLFC

History

A club called Dewsbury was formed in 1875 following a meeting at the Little Saddle Inn on 22 October 1875.

The first fixture was played near Sugar Field adjacent to the Crown Flatt ground. The team consisted of seven members of the committee. The club soon realised they needed a ground and the following year secured a sub tenancy at Crown Flatt for £20. 1881 saw the clubs first success in the Yorkshire Challenge Cup beating Huddersfield, Bradford and Halifax before an Alfred Newsome drop goal gave them victory over Wakefield in the Final.

Crown Flatt was rapidly gaining the reputation as one of the best-equipped ground in Yorkshire. This was further enhanced when the club purchased the famous "Noah's Ark" stand at a cost of £250 Two years later however the club amalgamated into the Dewsbury and Saville and Dewsbury United Clerks Cricket club. The Yorkshire Senior Competition was formed in 1892 and Dewsbury immediately became members. However, the club struggled and finished in the bottom three due to financial problems. It therefore came as a big surprise that, at the famous meeting at the George Hotel, Dewsbury were the only members of the YSC not to agree to form the Northern Union. They elected to remain in the YSC and marginally improved their position in the league to 10th. Next season however they were back at the bottom.

In 1897-98 it was no better and halfway through the season the club decided to abandon Rugby Football and withdrew from the league concentrating on soccer instead. A breakaway movement soon developed and moves were soon afoot to found the club known today as Dewsbury Rams.

On 21 April 1898 an historic meeting was held at the Black Bull public house to consider the possibility of forming a new Northern Union club. The question was discussed at some length and over £100 in donations was promised. Ironically it was local rivals Batley who helped Dewsbury gain election to the Northern Union. They were fully supportive of Dewsbury's bid and obviously looked forward to rekindling the rivalry, as well as their pockets, with the derby matches and also to thank the old Dewsbury Supporters who had switched their support to Mount Pleasant during the two or three proceeding seasons.

The club therefore kicked off it's long history in the 1898-99 season. Many people argued the validity and otherwise of the centenary celebrations held in 1975, holding that the centenary should not have been held until 1998. Whichever way you look at it, Crown Flatt was the centre of rugby in Dewsbury from 1875 until The Stadium Fire in 1989.

Dewsbury's only championship title came in the 1972/73 season when they beat Leeds in the play-off final at Bradford's Odsal Stadium 22-13. Dewsbury, captained by Nigel Stephenson finished 8th in the league but, for the final time until their reintroduction in 1998, the title was to be decided through a series of play-offs in which they also defeated Oldham, Featherstone and Warrington on their way to glory.

On 13 September 1988, at about 4pm, three youths deliberately set fire to the historic wooden stand erected in 1914. The stand was in excellent condition considering the club had just spent £25,000 bringing it up to the required safety standards. The tragedy is that the stand was not the only thing lost. The club also lost everything gathered over the past 113 years; programmes, records and memorabilia.

However, the fire enabled the club to build a new state of the art stadium in the Shaw Cross area of Dewsbury (Owl Lane) and on the 14 April 1991 Dewsbury RLFC played their last home game at the dilapidated ground against Barrow and went on to stage their home games at Mount Pleasant, home of neighbours Batley, while the new ground was being built.

The club played their first home game at the new Crown Flatt stadium (often, but erroneously, called New Crown Flatt), as the ground was originally Christened, on 6th September 1994 in front of a packed house again against Barrow, a match they won 82-6. The stadium has two covered stands, one seated and one standing with an approximate capacity of 3,500 including 900 seats and fantastic disabled facilities. As part of the Rams' Community Development Programme, the stadium also hosts matches for a number of other organisations. This ranges from local schools matches, representative amateur and student rugby league games to American football matches and fun days. The ground was renamed to Ram Stadium in 1998 and then in 2005 to the Tetley's Stadium. There are plans to develop the complex over the next couple of years as the club aims to bring the ground up to Super League standards.

The Rams have enjoyed a high degree of success in recent years. They finished top of what was then known as the Northern Ford Premiership for 2 consecutive seasons in 1999 and 2000, as well as winning the Grand Final and Trans-Pennine Cup in 2000 (endearingly termed by Rams fans as the Grand Slam). The NFP was the division below Super League, the sport's elite division, and despite the Rams' sustained success they were denied entry due mainly to an insufficient stadium capacity. The Rams proposed ground sharing with Sheffield Eagles playing home games at their Don Valley Stadium while Dewsbury's stadium was improved, this was turned down by the RFL however. After a difficult couple of seasons which saw the club relegated to Rugby League's 3rd tier for the first time in 10 years, the Rams enjoyed great success in National League Two in 2005 thanks mainly to a successful recruitment drive which brought several big names to the club. The Rams went on to reach the play-off final where they were defeated by NL1 strugglers and local rivals Batley Bulldogs, 28-26. The team's last piece of silverware was won on Boxing Day 2005 when they beat Batley Bulldogs in the annual Boxing Day Challenge.

After a successful 2005, the Rams' recruitment drive picked up pace again. The club brought in several new faces in 2006 which promised to be another successful year for the developing club and, as was in 2005, the main aim was promotion to NL1.

2006 was the year the Rams did it. 19 wins from 22 games saw the Rams crowned National League Two Champions, finishing 2 points ahead of eventual Grand Final winners Sheffield Eagles. With the Championship comes promotion to National League One and a new set of objectives. The first of which will surely be survival in the first season of NL1 rugby. Andy Kelly has retained most of the NL2 winning squad and has also brought in several new players as well as some of the local young talent, who will be keen to kick things off with the annual boxing day bash at Mount Pleasant this winter.