On December 1st 1981 Ramsey RUFC was admitted to the RFU. This means 1st December 2007 was our 25th Birthday and to celebrate we held a dinner sponsored by Collin Stewart at the Mount Murray Hotel in Douglas. Guest speaker for the night was Martin Bayfield. Detailed below is the Club History published that night.

Martin Bayfield presents Ramsey RUFC with the RFU Seal of Approval at the 25th Anniversary Dinner.

Club History

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away there was a small school, in a small town on a small Island with a group of schoolboys with nothing in common but a taste for beer and a liking for oddly shaped balls and it was from these humble beginnings that Ramsey Rugby Union Football Club was born.

Under the expert tutelage of Graham Atkinson and Peter Hooson-Owen, Rugby Union was introduced as a curriculum sport at Ramsey Grammar School in the mid 1970s. Both Graham and Peter were playing for Douglas Rugby Club at that time and were keen to share their knowledge with an eager northern audience.

Rugby was a success in the school and as the first batches of pupils began to leave the education system, they found that there was nowhere to play in Ramsey and the north. There were clubs in Peel, Douglas and Ronaldsway, but nowhere else. The decision to form a team was easy to take and in the late 1970s the first Ramsey side took the field. The game was played against Douglas and Ramsey won!! The score and other details like that have been lost in the mists of time.

In the early days, kit was borrowed as was the odd player needed to make up the numbers. The club took part in the big Douglas Easter Festivals as well as playing friendlies against the local sides. The side was made up mainly of youngsters who were fairly new to the sport so it wasn’t a great surprise to find that defeats were common and often heavy. In fact at times, the results were so poor that it was suggested to fold the club. The early diehards had none of this however and good or bad, right or wrong, win or lose the club carried on and on 1 December 1982 was finally admitted to membership of the RFU.

1980s

RFU membership meant recognition. The club was listed in the RFU Club directory and contact details were instantly available to clubs around England. As a full member, Ramsey was also entitled to a vote at RFU meetings and an allocation of International tickets.

RFU membership also brings with it certain obligations. Colours were needed; players insurance, subs had to be paid not just to Twickenham but also to Cheshire RFU and a whole host of other bits and pieces of admin work which crop up the minute a club becomes official.

It was during this period that the club appointed its first full time official in the rather large shape of Bryan “Doobie” Strickett. Doobie wasn’t actually full time as such, however after a back problem ended his playing career, he invested so much of his personal time in Club work that he may as well have been full time. Doobie was the Club Secretary and he used this role to involve himself on as much of the club’s operations as he could. He booked pitches, organised referees, helped out at training, collected subs, acted as touch judge and sponge man. He kept records, photographs and press cuttings. He organised the Club’s dinners, the Christmas Disco, he kept minutes of meetings, he ordered kit and he dealt with all Club correspondence and represented Ramsey at the Isle of Man Federation of Rugby Clubs. If anyone ever deserved the title Mr Ramsey Rugby in the 1980s it was Doobie. Without the effort he put into these early years, the club wouldn’t be the success it is now.

As the 1980s neared an end another new club sprung up on the Island and with Douglas and Vagabonds running second teams by this time, a domestic league was set up. The Okells Manx Shield as it was known then was played in much the same way as it is now. Everyone plays each other home and away and the winner is the team with the most points at the end of it all. New club Southern Nomads won the first Manx Shield in 1987/88 and Ramsey bagged it in 1988/89 to show that the decision to carry on playing was a good one. 1988 also saw the club make its first Tour which was to Peebles in the Scottish borders.

1990s

The Manx Shield was dominated by Vagabonds B in the early 1990s. Ramsey were right behind them and rivalry was pretty fierce on the field (and off it too on occasion). Games between the two were very close, often decided by a single penalty and this only served to intensify the rivalry. In May 1994 however the annual General meeting of the Club took a decision which was to change the fortunes of the club on the field and kick start a whole new phase of domestic domination for Ramsey. What did they decide? Well, they made Alf Cannan Captain.

Under Alf’s leadership Ramsey took the Manx Shield in 1994/95 and again in 1995/96. They also won the Shield in 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2006/07 and most recently 2007/08 in a period of domination which suggests the club may have outgrown the competition…but more of that later.

Another landmark in the 1990s was the introduction of a second team. The Shield success in the late 80s saw a big influx of new players to the club and eventually there were just too many to try and fit in one team. The seconds competed in the Shield along with the firsts and while they weren’t as successful the second team proved to be an excellent breeding ground for future first teamers.

The final big development of the 1990s was the Mooragh Project. After much soul searching the club decided to embark on a pitch development at the Mooragh. Much fundraising had been done for this but even so the project took just about every penny it had and only for Ramsey Town Commissioners weighing in with some help, the club would have been insolvent. Thankfully, the pitch project was a huge success. The surface is excellent for running rugby and it drainage is second to none. Since the pitch was opened in 1996 no games have as yet been lost to bad weather.

The noughties and beyond

The Shield has become Ramsey property more or less and while a slight fall in playing numbers saw the club drop the second team, they formed an alliance with Southern Nomads and launched the Northern Spaniards. This loose association allowed Ramsey to continue blooding new players until the club was strong enough to stand on its own again. The Spaniards final game saw them lift the Shimmin Wilson Manx Bowl at the end of 2006/07. The Club is now back up to 2 teams of its own and at one stage during this season were lying first and second in the Manx Shield standings.

By far the biggest development in the 2000s to date has been the building of a brand new clubhouse. This project was driven by Garry Vernon and Sally Mason and was funded by a combination of fund raising, an interest free loan from the RFU and Sports Council & Lottery Grants. The building opened in December 2003 and has seen plenty of use from both the club and members of the local community.

Cheshire Cup and Plate

With success coming on the Island in the 1990s it was the right time to try and build some off the Island and the club entered the Cheshire Cup for the first time. Initially, Ramsey lost away at Shell Stanlow (now Ellesmere Port) and Old Anselmians but finally they got a few wins too. Port Sunlight, Wallasey, Parkonians, Helsby and Runcorn all crashed out of the competition against non-league Ramsey at some stage and the Manx minnows have also given bigger clubs plenty of scares along the way.

In recent years however reorganisation of the County competitions has seen entry restricted to the Cheshire Plate only. The building of a bar and clubhouse has meant that Ramsey can play home fixtures at home and use the bar revenue to assist with the travelling costs which must be paid for the visitors. For those of you who don’t know, the Manx side have to meet the travelling expenses of the UK side in full and while there is a modest amount of financial support from Cheshire RFU each game still costs the club around £1500.

Ramsey Juniors

In the early 2000s it became readily apparent that the club needed to become more proactive in player recruitment. Rugby Union was and still is a fantastic game to be involved with both on and off the field but nothing was being done to market it.

Club coach Gareth Hinge together with a dedicated band of volunteers took the bull by the horns. Coaching qualifications were obtained and contacts were forged with local schools and the club started to bring rugby to the north. A junior section was formed and the fruits of all this hard work are now being harvested with juniors making the leap into the senior sides. The club holds a summer schools’ tag festival which is an unqualified success with all northern primary schools sending at least one team.

Their finest hour?

No resume of the club’s history would be complete without a mention of the Manx Cup. The Cup had been the exclusive property of Douglas and Vagabonds for a long long time. The draw was seeded each year and Ramsey had historically always fallen at the semi final hurdle. All that changed in 1995 when a semi final victory against Douglas put Ramsey into the final. They were out muscled by Vagabonds and again the following season. A third consecutive final was ruled out when MRFU awarded a drawn semi to Douglas the following year and the run seemed all but over…….until 2001.

Ramsey beat Nomads 63-0 in the opening round and went on to meet Vagabonds in the semi final. They lost 18-13 at the Mooragh but the MRFU ordered the game to be replayed after Vagabonds fielded ineligible players. They were unable to comply with the replay order and Ramsey’s place in the final was secured. The final against Douglas was on 5 May 2001 and a try by Chairman Billy Kneale saw them squeeze home 20-15 on a magical afternoon.

For the record the squad that day was Simon Mason, Billy Kneale, Chris Melvin, Darren Ideson, Tynan Pritchard, Mike Caine, Will Moffatt, Mark Corkill, Geoff Quayle, Matt Moffatt, Aneurin Pritchard, Gareth Hinge, Garry Vernon, Myles Ellis, Dave Harding, Mickey Melvin, Chris Penketh, Matt Livesey, Jason Walker, Andy Gale and Rupert Leaton.

The future

During the last few seasons, the club has been experiencing difficulties with fixtures. It seems that some of the other local clubs are less than enthusiastic about playing them and several have called off games.

This is something which the Club hasn’t taken lightly and they are continuing to badger the RFU about the lack of competitive matches. Ramsey have been refused entry into the RFU National Vase and are exploring other options, one of which could be an application to join the national leagues. This will be a major step forward for the club competitively and a major challenge for the players and the administrators. Ramsey v Douglas in the Euromanx League could become a possibility much sooner than you think.

If you had asked the founding players all those years ago “how do you see things in 25 years?” very few would have mentioned domestic domination or a junior section let alone a pitch, a clubhouse and a Manx Cup win. It just goes to show what you can do if you put your mind to it.

By Dave Christian


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