Changing the record - rugby league's history being brought up to date

A group of enthusiasts have revived the Rugby League Record Keepers’ Club and are putting together a database of every game played since the sport began 125 years ago.
World record points scorer Neil Fox. Picture: YPN.World record points scorer Neil Fox. Picture: YPN.
World record points scorer Neil Fox. Picture: YPN.

The mammoth undertaking is being coordinated by Neil Ormston, a Warrington Wolves fan who lives in Leeds.

Run by Irving Saxton, the original club was dissolved in the mid-1990s after researching rugby league’s first century.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The idea now is to pool that information with details from the summer era, which began in 1996.

Tom Briscoe's five tries for Leeds Rhinos against Hull KR is 2015 is a Challenge Cup final record. Picture by Steve Riding.Tom Briscoe's five tries for Leeds Rhinos against Hull KR is 2015 is a Challenge Cup final record. Picture by Steve Riding.
Tom Briscoe's five tries for Leeds Rhinos against Hull KR is 2015 is a Challenge Cup final record. Picture by Steve Riding.

“It came up from some chatter on social media over the course of last year,” Ormston said.

“The original Record Keepers’ Club was formed in the 1970s and they standardised the way rugby league records were kept and agreed which games were included and which weren’t.

“By the mid-90s they’d done an exercise document on all the games and had got teams and scoring records for all the matches up to that point. They had kind of done their work at that point, in their mind and there were publications like the Rothman’s Yearbook and other things which were continuing to do things on a season by season basis.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“They wound the old Record Keepers’ Club up in the mid-90s, but the shift to Super League has changed things. You can get quite easily a lot of reference to Super League appearances and the summer game, but there’s not really anything which stitches the two together and gives an overall view.

“If you want to see an all-time try scorers list now, it doesn’t really exist anywhere - no one has attached the new records with the old ones.

“It felt like there was that big gap there.”

The old club’s records were paper-based and are not easily accessible to the public.

Ormston explained: “The rationale for us, thinking about getting things going again, was to bring the record up to date and have one overall record of the game; to digitise it, get it all loaded into a database and ultimately to get it online, on a website and make it freely available to the wider public.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The reformed club was opened for membership on April 1 and 109 people have signed up already.

“From a fairly standing start, I think we have got to a fairly good place and we have got the vast majority of clubs covered,” Ormston added. “We’ve got a website - rugbyleaguerecords.com - which has basic details and hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll have something a bit more substantial.

“The full records going online will be much further down the line because we’ve got a lot of work to do to get everything electronic and secure the data quality before we get to the point of publishing. That’s what we’re asking people to get involved in to help support it this stage. If anyone’s got any interest, please contact me.”

The Rugby League Record Keepers’ Club can be contacted by contacting Ormston’s email address: [email protected].

A message from the Editor:

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Thank you for reading this story on our website. These are challenging times but the team at the Yorkshire Evening Post need your support more than ever in the weeks ahead.

While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you - wherever possible and providing it is safe for you to do so - to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Inevitably falling advertising revenues will start to have an impact on local newspapers and the way we continue to work during this period of uncertainty. So the support of our readers has never been more important as we try to make sure that we keep you connected with the city you live in during this time. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. We need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Our team of trusted reporters are working incredibly hard behind the scenes- from kitchen tables and spare bedrooms - to look at how we can do this and your continued support to the YEP will help to protect its viability in the days and weeks ahead.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For more details on our subscription offers please visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk/YEP, email [email protected] or call us on 0330 4033004

Thank you

Laura Collins

Editor

READ MORE: https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/opinion/were-therewithyou-now-your-yep-needs-your-support-too-laura-collins-yep-editor-2521777