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On September 12th 2015, Wimbledon RFC celebrated its 150th anniversary with a grand ball organised by Meg Gardiner and Louise Ayton with 500 Dons present. The film below was made to celebrate this major event featuring a poem by Olivia Whitcroft with members of Wimbledon RFC, Nick Easter, Nick Evans, Jason Leonard and Wayne Barnes.
The history of Wimbledon RFC
The club goes back a long way.
Wimbledon’s first recorded match was against Richmond in November 1865, making the club one of the oldest in the country, and one of just twelve surviving clubs that founded the RFU in 1871. The club’s then captain, L.J. Maton, drafted the first laws of the game and went on to become the third president of the RFU in 1875. Also that year two club members, the brothers J.D. and H.J. Graham, gained one and four caps respectively for England.
The club played on Wimbledon Common until World War 1, using the Rose & Crown in Wimbledon Village as changing rooms and clubhouse. You can read another account of Wimbledon RFC's history on this website which credits Dick Tyson for allowing that site to use content from his excellent book London’s Oldest Rugby Clubs.
More recently
The club’s move to its current clubhouse in Barham Road, off Copse Hill, coincided with the launch of league rugby in Britain in 1987/88. Both events have benefited the club considerably.
After being placed, somewhat arbitrarily, in Surrey 2 in the first year of the leagues, Wimbledon began its spectacular rise through them:
1988/89. Introduction of leagues. WRFC put in Surrey 2.
1989/90. Finished 3rd in Surrey 2.
1990/91. Finished 2nd in Surrey 2.
1991/92. Finished 2nd in Surrey 2 (on points difference).
1992/93. Winners of Surrey 2.
1993/94. Winners of Surrey 1.
1994/95. Winners of London League 3 South West.
1995/96. Winners of London 2 South. (With 26 consecutive league wins on the way).
1996/97. Finished mid-London 1.Runners-up Surrey Cup, losing narrowly to Sutton & Epsom.
1997/98. Mid-table London 1 again. Runners-up Surrey Cup, losing to Camberley.
1998/99. Top half finish in London 1.
1999/00. Although coming back strongly after an appalling start to the season (9 straight defeats), finished 6th from bottom in London 1 and, due to the re-structuring of the leagues, were relegated.
2000/01. London 2 South. With a new coach, Tim Herman, recruited from Rosslyn Park , and a new team spirit, finished 4th.
2001/02. Finished equal third with Gosport & Fareham, but with 15 wins to their 14. Only a couple of narrow early defeats prevented promotion. The 2nd XV were unlucky to lose the final of their new league.
2000/05. London 2 South.
2005/06. The club was moved to London 2 North.
2006/07. Back in London 2 South and looking for promotion.
2007/08. Club moved to London 3 South West
2014/15. Under head coach Nick Easter, finished top of London South 1 having been top of the table all season. Promoted to National 3 League - the highest league the club's ever played in. In our 150th year as well!
2015/16. Finished a strong 8th in National League - winning 13 out of 26 games
2016/17. Finished second in National League 3 London & South East. Beat Dings Crusaders 50-5 in the playoff to be promoted to National League 2 South. Once more, the highest league the club has ever played in!
2017/18. Playing in National League 2 South. After a hard fought season, the team, along with Barnstaple RFC, were relegated on the last day of the season back to the fifth tier: London and South East Premier (ex National 3 LSE). As the final match report of the season stated: "after losing their first 14 matches in this league, several narrowly (and a couple they have lived to regret), the First XV made a real fist of it in the second half of the season with eight good victories…several of them outstanding wins against top sides. If they continue to produce performances like those next season, there’s every chance they’ll bounce straight back up to National 2.
2018/19. London and South East Premier (ex National 3 LSE) league. Missed promotion by a whisker.
2019/20 & 2020/21. Covid-19 affected seasons.
2021/22. London and South East Premier (ex National 3 LSE) league.
2022/23. London and South East Premier champions. Promoted to National 2s for 2023-24 season.
2023/24. National 2 East. Sadly mirroring our previous run in the national leagues, we were in the mix until the very last Saturday of the season when other results went against us and we were relegated. The team recorded highly impressive results throughout the season. Collin Osborne hung up his head coach's boots at the end if the season and we welcomed Steve Hill, formerly DoR at Richmond Rugby, to lead our adult rugby section for the 2024/25 season.
2024/25. Regional 1 South Central (Level 5).
History of Wimbledon RFC minis and youth section
Wimbledon Rugby Football Club came into existence over 150 years ago... but it was not blessed with a mini’s section until more recently. The Club's first team had done well under the captaincy and coaching of Jim Green and so, rather than allow him to join the rest of the O.F.s on the committee Jim was asked to set up a mini section. This he duly did, during the 97/98 season.
A small group of children eventually became the under 7s and under 8s and Wimbledon Minis were born. The philosophy of the club was simple; this was to be a place where children had fun and learned to love and play rugby. A very small group of parents helped it develop, but for a while the only official positions were Jim as chair and head coach and Dawn as secretary, kit lady, treasurer, and just about everything else.
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The club grew year on year from the bottom up as a new group of 6 year olds became the under 7s each season. As the club grew so did the need for organisation and information. A few more parents came to the rescue and formed an informal committee to run the club from. At this point the clubs links with the main club were pretty limited and this group found their own way forward.
After 5 years Mini rugby was gaining in popularity and an under 6s group was formed to accommodate the growing band of 5 year olds who wanted to play the RFU approved game of touch rugby that was so much fun. The following season this game was to morph into the tag game our youngest three age groups play today.
This was also a watershed season for the club. Jim was still at the helm but Dawn had gone and been replaced by at least half a dozen volunteers helping to run the club. The club was a popular one with many parents stating they chose WMRFC because of its friendly atmosphere. It was growing all the time and at this point Jim decided the club was ready for a new chair and he neatly passed the ball onto a new chair and the informal committee.
During the course of the next season the committee was added to and infrastructure established that formalised many of the rules that “everybody knew”; like each age group had a head coach and at least one coach in every age group was qualified. Shouting at children was not acceptable and team managers took on communication for their group. The formalising of the team manger role was widely held to have improved the operation of the club more than any other single improvement.
As well as moving the administrative matters on we also set out to continue to improve the reputation of the club. As well as being a nice place to play and visit we also wanted to be a club known for the quality of the rugby played. Alongside putting more and more volunteer coaches through training courses, the fixture list was steadily improved thanks to sterling work by the fixture secretary and a growing realisation by other clubs that we were a club they wanted to play against.
We also put ourselves up for assessment by the RFU and applied for and received the RFU seal of approval and the Clubmark accreditation. This meant we had to have an acceptable constitution, development plan and other supporting documentation but also pass a field assessment that assessed the standards of coaching and safety measures taken. The overall philosophy of the club was not changed though and a place where children have fun and learn to love and play rugby is enshrined in our constitution.
The fun is not limited to the young players as the coaches and managers have their share as well. This is either through social events or playing touch rugby on a Thursday evening. We also able to boast that several of our coaches regularly turn out for Wimbledon stroller (vets) team.
The size of the club is now such that we have had to expand into the neighbouring fields or we would just not fit everyone into the space available. The clubs has a 50-year lease on the main grounds and is in the process of agreeing a 30-year lease on the grounds next door. The fact that this is being done is testimony to another change. The Mini & Youth section are now very much part of WRFC and applying for the lease supports this as our need is as high as that of the main club. The main club enjoys being part of a wider rugby community, particularly with a mini section as strong as ours. It is also looking forward to a few first team players coming through and in the meantime enjoys our other contributions like painting the club house and laying a new floor as a willing band of volunteers did recently, or watching the new TV we provided the year after.
Wimbledon Minis and Youth RFC is in a strong position to continue to make a positive contribution to the area and to rugby. We can’t be complacent however. Many of the rules and ideas we have put in place in recent years, because we thought they were a good idea, are now compulsory if we want to maintain our registration and we need to keep up the good work that has got us to this stage.
Equally importantly we are now ready for a new chapter in our history. We now have teams from under 5 to under 18. Our youth teams consistently do well in their respective leagues and we field players at county level on a regular basis.