In 1924, in the front room of 117 Sutton Road, Erdington (now a dental practice next to McDonalds) a group of young men founded Erdington Rugby Football Club. At the time, there were only around a dozen rugby clubs in the whole Birmingham area.
After a couple of ground moves, the club settled at Spring Lane playing fields, which became its long-time home. The picture below is one of the earliest in existence, taken in 1928 and published in the Erdington News. On the right-hand side, it shows Erdington RFC with many of the founder members of the club and on the left, their opposition on the day, Kings Heath Rugby Club.
The club thrived for many years and achieved success in local and regional competitions and was as key part of the North Midlands Rugby Union. In its heyday Erdington RFC were even known to have beaten the now mighty Worcester Rugby Club and at its peak in the early 1990’s the club was fielding up to five senior teams every weekend.
However, a lack of long term strategy and focus on a dedicated youth policy, resulted in a decline in playing numbers. The problem was not isolated to ERFC, as across the Birmingham area many other historic clubs, such as Kynoch RFC, Witton RFC, Birchfield RFC and Old Centrals RFC either closed or were forced to merge with other clubs to survive.
The final nail in the coffin for Erdington came late in 2003 when the old clubhouse at Spring Lane Playing Fields was burnt to the ground by vandals. This was a sad end to a great social institution, summarised at the time by one wag who suggested “this can’t be the case, the carpet was too sodden with beer to have caught light”.
From 2003 to 2016, the Erdington area has been devoid of rugby, not only lacking a senior club, but also with the decision of many schools not to play the noble game, there has been no opportunity for the local youth to play the ultimate team sport, be part of a community within a community, where no social barriers exist and diversity is the accepted norm!
However, the good news is the Phoenix has risen from the ashes!
In 2016 thanks to a young man living near the Spring Lane Playing Fields, who wanted a local club for his young son to play for, he began coaching a small group of local kids on the fields. He has since been joined by some of the late club’s players, who have collectively formed a committee and began raising funds and membership of the new Erdington Rugby Football Club.
Erdington RFC has reached an agreement to use Erin Go Bragh’s, Holly Lane Sports and Social Club as its temporary home for training, an ironic twist in the history of ERFC, who hosted Erin Go Bragh in the late 90’s when the Gaelic team moved into the area for the first time.
This relationship with the equally noble Irish game is no coincidence, as ERFC have a long history with the Irish community, many of the ex-players of both recent and older teams were from the Irish community, including several practicing priests who played for the club! The recently departed and much missed club President, Mr Bernard Tinney, was a pillar of the Irish community as well as being a pillar of the bar of the Spotted Dog in Digbeth.
The newly formed Erdington RFC are now appealing to the community in Erdington and surrounding areas for support. The club is looking for players of all ages and both genders, of all abilities from novices to seasoned players
A pre-season friendly between Erdington RFC and Greyhound RFC in 2017.
Many thanks to Erdington RFC for this information.