Leigh Leopards
The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. Leigh play homes games at Leigh Sports Village and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league.
Leigh Leopards have won the League Championship twice and Challenge Cup three times.
The clubs traditional home colours are red and white. They have a local rivalry with Wigan Warriors.
History
1878–1915: Early history
Leigh RFC was founded in 1878 by a surveyor named Fred Ulph. Leigh's first practice match was on 5 October 1878 at Buck's Farm in Pennington and their first game was against Eccles two weeks later.In 1879, the club moved to a field behind the Three Crowns in Bedford and played there for 10 years. Leigh came to the attention of the wider district in 1885 when they had a 23 match unbeaten run with 21 wins and 2 draws. As attendances grew, improvements were made to the ground and the field's slope was levelled.
The club moved to Frog Hall Field, later known as Mather Lane, in 1889. The pitch was drained and levelled, a 10-foot-high hoarding was built around the ground, and a 500-seater stand was erected. The first game at Mather Lane was played on 7 September 1889 against Aspull and Leigh forward James Pendlebury scored the first try in front of a 2,000 crowd.
The 1894–95 season saw a new stand open on the south side in a momentous year for Rugby football. Leigh, along with Salford and Wigan, was suspended for professionalism by the Rugby Football Union, and placed joint bottom of the Lancashire league. With automatic promotion and relegation, it faced dropping down a division, and potential financial ruin. On top of years of arguments with the Rugby Football Union concerning player expenses, 22 teams including Leigh decided to form a breakaway governing body – the Northern Union.
The first season of the new game kicked off in September with Leigh recording a 6–3 loss against Leeds. Leigh finished ninth that season. Leigh had a great start in the new Union, they played well and the crowds increased, but they had mixed fortunes over the next few years. As the new century began, Leigh struggled and despite winning the West Lancashire and Border Towns Cup, the crowds and their fortunes dropped dramatically.
In the 1904–05 season, there was a dispute with Wigan in the Challenge Cup game. The game was played on 4 March 1905 and Leigh won 3–0 in front of 13,000 spectators. The Northern Union, after being alerted by Wigan, alleged that Leigh player Dick Silcock had played illegally after being absent from work in the week before the game without a permit breaking the 'working clause'. Leigh was found guilty of fielding an ineligible player and ordered to replay without expenses and for Leigh the gate receipts to be given to the Northern Union. Wigan won the replay 5–0 and Leigh were so incensed that the club considered leaving the Northern Union and starting an Association football club. Leigh became a limited company as a result of this financial blow.
In 1906, Leigh were Northern Union champions after a season with an 80% win rate. Many clubs complained that Leigh had provided themselves with an easy fixture list, ducking the challenge of the stronger clubs and play-offs were brought in.
In 1907–08, Leigh and Wigan were again in conflict in the Lancashire Cup. An attendance record was set when 17,000 spectators watched Leigh and Wigan draw 3–3 at Mather Lane. Leigh lost the replay at Central Park but appealed for another replay because a Wigan player had left the field during the game without the referee's permission, Leigh lost the second replay.
In 1909, Mather Lane was upgraded when the embankment on the popular side was extended and raised giving the ground a capacity of 20,000 spectators. Around this time Leigh named its first coach – Jim Jolley. Over the next few years, Leigh had little success and crowd numbers dropped dramatically.
When the First World War began in summer 1914, the Northern Union believed that it would be over by Christmas and the season began as normal. Leigh performed poorly. Competitive rugby was suspended in 1915 until the hostilities ceased.
Inter-war years
Competitive rugby resumed in 1918 with an interim season from January to May. Leigh finished 2nd. Leigh had limited success just after the war and the Leigh directors set about building a new team. They had 19 players and even though their league performances were patchy, they had some success in the cups.In the 1920–21 season, in a round of the Lancashire Cup in which Leigh played Rochdale Hornets, an attendance record was set at Mather Lane when a crowd of 21,500 saw Leigh win 9–7. Leigh reached the final but lost to Broughton Rangers. In 1921 the club won the Challenge Cup with a shock 13–0 victory over Halifax at the Cliff in Broughton, Salford. In 1934, Leigh played under floodlights for the first time, losing 8–25 at London Highfield. Leigh were the first Lancashire side to win the Challenge Cup since 1911.
Over the following seasons Leigh was quite successful in the league and cup. The club attracted huge crowds, and a Leigh v Wigan derby was guaranteed to draw in the spectators. One such meeting when Leigh met Wigan in the first round of the Challenge Cup in 1923–24, saw a crowd of 33,500 at Mather Lane. The 1920s and 1930s were marred by strikes, unemployment and periods of economic depression. The government levied an entertainment tax of around 20% on gate receipts, at a time when clubs were experiencing difficulties balancing the books. For Leigh the mini-boom was over.
In 1924–25, Leigh slipped to 20th in the league and suffered a record 9–52 defeat in the league game at Central Park on Christmas Day. In December 1925 star player Abe Johnson was transferred to Oldham for £650 and Leigh's decline continued the next season when they slipped to 4th from bottom in the league. The club lost every away match and suffered some heavy defeats as confidence left the team. 1926 was the year of the General Strike and Leigh admitted miners free of charge for many home games. Leigh had a decent season, finishing 7th in the league. Around this time, Mather Lane was improved including the construction of a covered terrace at one end, the doubling in size of the grandstand and an iron bridge was constructed across the canal to give the spectators easier access from the town centre.
Growing financial problems forced Leigh to sell players. In the 1930–31 season, the lack of experienced players had an effect on the field when Leigh won only one away game. The directors decided to ease the financial pressure by reducing players' wages. The players went on strike in response and Leigh were forced to play their reserves. The striking players eventually agreed to take a pay cut. Crowds fell to about 1,000 for home games and one midweek fixture against Swinton saw only 400 spectators. Leigh rallied briefly in 1931–32, encouraged by the return of Abe Johnson, but it didn't last. In the 1932–33 season, things were so bad that the players played for free in several games. The club had major financial problems and a young inexperienced team. Financial support from an outside source was received which enabled the club to continue. Things went from bad to worse in the 1936–37 season when Leigh won only five games all season and finished third from bottom in the league. Gate receipts crashed to an all-time low, with the final home game of the season against Broughton Rangers attracting a crowd of around 250 spectators.
From the start of the next season, a new pay structure was agreed with the players, with each receiving £1 each per game. Leigh lost their best players and any new signings were juniors or free transfers from other clubs. The Rugby League Management Committee visited the club in March and two of its members were co-opted on to the Leigh board until the end of the season and the A-team was scrapped to cut costs. The 1937–38 season opened with some encouraging signs as Leigh beat Rochdale Hornets in the Lancashire Cup, their first win in any competition for 21 games. They took the touring Australians to within two points on the opening match of their tour. These were desperate times though and when Dewsbury visited Mather Lane for a mid-week game in November 1937, only 200 spectators were there to see Leigh suffer a record home defeat of 64–6. This prompted the Leigh directors to resign en masse and the Rugby League Management Committee stepped in to prevent the club from folding by guaranteeing their fixtures until the end of the season. The following February, a members club was formed, though the RFL stayed in control until June and Leigh won only one of their last 15 games, again finishing 3rd from bottom.
The club found itself without a ground in August 1940 when Callender's Cable and Construction Company bought the Mather Lane site from the owners, Messrs. George Shaw & Company Ltd of the Leigh Brewery. The new owners needed the ground to store steel drums and cases and they advised Leigh that they were unable to let them have a lease on the ground. Leigh's last game at Mather Lane was a War Emergency League fixture against St Helens on 27 April 1940 where a crowd of only 300 spectators saw the visitors win 16–5. Leigh had intended playing in the 1941–42 Lancashire War Emergency League but weeks before the new season began, the Rugby Football League passed a resolution that clubs could only participate if they had a home ground. Leigh arranged to play at Hindsford Football Club's ground but this was over-ruled by the RFL and Leigh ceased operations for the duration of the Second World War.
Post-war
In 1946–47, the Rugby Football League drew up the fixture list but Leigh's name was omitted and it was only when local businessman James Hilton made a personal and impassioned plea to the Rugby Football League that Leigh were included. In January 1946, a public meeting at Leigh Liberal Club approved a motion to re-launch the club as Leigh RLFC. The club played the 1946–47 at Madeley Park, the home of Leigh Harriers & Athletic Club. In 1947, the club moved to Kirkhall Lane headquarters and in 1953 floodlights were installed at a cost of £4,100. The ground saw a record home crowd of 31,326 attend a Challenge Cup tie with St. Helens in the same year. Later, Kirkhall Lane was officially renamed Hilton Park after James Hilton.Leigh signed Jimmy Ledgard from Dewsbury in January 1948 for a then record fee of £2,650. Joe Egan joined Leigh for a record £5,000 fee in October 1950 and succeeded Emlyn Jenkins as player / coach. Leigh finished 4th in the league in his first season. In Egan's second season, Leigh made it to the Lancashire Cup Final and a Challenge Cup semi-final as well as finishing 7th in the league. On Saturday 27 October 1951, 33,230 spectators saw Leigh lose 14–6 to Wigan in the final of the Lancashire Cup at Station Road, Swinton. The club repeated that league placing a year later, this time helping Leigh win the 1952 Lancashire Cup, in front of a crowd of 34,785 at Swinton, by beating St Helens 22-5. The 14 March 1953 brought the biggest recorded crowd at Hilton Park when 31,326 crammed in to see St Helens win 12–3, to make up for their Lancashire Cup defeat.
In 1951, Leigh signed Australian rugby union test forward Rex Mossop. The tough man known as "The Moose" played three seasons with Leigh before returning to Sydney to play for his local club Manly-Warringah. Mossop became a dual-international when he was selected to play for Australia against the touring Great Britain side in 1958 and was the vice-captain to Welsh born Kangaroos captain Keith Barnes on the 1959–60 Kangaroo tour.
An injury to Egan saw him sit out the entire 1953–54 season and his absence hit Leigh hard and the club finished 13th and interest in cup competitions also finished early. Joe tried to make a comeback the following season but was forced to retire, although once more the club enjoyed runs in the cup competitions, losing to Barrow in the Lancashire Cup semi-final and then getting knocked out of the Challenge Cup by Featherstone. Joe Egan remained with the club as coach and the team was successful in his final season, finishing 11th, but winning the 1955 Lancashire Cup for a second time with a resounding 26–9 success over Widnes.
Leigh and Bradford Northern were the first rugby league clubs to stage matches on a Sunday in December 1954, although there was opposition from the Sunday Observance lobby. The 1955–56 season saw the introduction of a tournament titled the ITV Rediffusion Cup. Eight clubs participated in a series of games played at football grounds in the London area, with Warrington eventually running out 43–18 victors over Leigh at Loftus Road.