Greenock Wanderers RFC
Encyclopedia
Greenock Wanderers R.F.C. is a rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team based in Greenock
Greenock
Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It consists of 1st XV, 2nd XV, under 18s, under 17s, under 16s, under 15s, S2 and S1 plus a complete Mini
Mini rugby
Mini rugby also known as New Image Rugby is a form of rugby union designed to introduce the sport to children. It uses a smaller ball and pitch than standard rugby, and has nine players a side....

 section; a mini rugby tournament is organised every year. Greenock Wanderers was formed in 1873, making it one of the oldest clubs in Scotland. They won the 2009/10 Scottish National League Division Two
Scottish National League
The Scottish National League is the ice hockey league in Scotland.Seen as the third-tier of ice hockey, below the British Elite Ice Hockey League and the English Premier Ice Hockey League . However, its standard of play has been considered closer to the English National Ice Hockey Division One,...

 losing only one game and thus being promoted to the Scottish National League Division One
Scottish National League
The Scottish National League is the ice hockey league in Scotland.Seen as the third-tier of ice hockey, below the British Elite Ice Hockey League and the English Premier Ice Hockey League . However, its standard of play has been considered closer to the English National Ice Hockey Division One,...

. They now compete in the Scottish Premiership Division 3.

Greenock Wanderers Rugby Football Club is one of the oldest clubs in Scotland. It was formed in 1873, the same year in which Napoleon III of France abdicated, David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...

 died in Africa and the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 was still uppermost in people's minds.

For the football supporters, Rangers F.C.
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

 were founded in this year and Celtic F.C.
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...

 were still some 15 years away from their birth.

Wanderers are extremely proud of the fact that they have been able to maintain the interest and enthusiasm within the local environments for more than 130 years, forging numerous links with the local community. They are currently going through an expansion program, to open the field of rugby football to a greater audience, hitherto untapped.

The 1st XV is once more competing successfully in the top 25% of clubs in Scotland, and, supported by a flourishing Youth Program spanning ages 7 to 17, they are the envy of many other clubs.

In early 2010 a Ladies' section was opened.

A new clubhouse was opened in 2008 after extensive work projects, providing top-notch hospitality to home and away supporters and any kind of alickadoos. The clubhouse was officially opened by The Princess Royal
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

.

Notable former players

James Bridie
James Bridie (rugby player)
James Bridie was a Scottish-born rugby union scrum-half who played club rugby union for Cardiff and Newport, international Wales and county rugby for Monmouthshire.-Rugby career:...

, Scottish born Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 international. James Reid-Kerr, played for Scotland in 1909 and was selected as a member of the first British and Irish Lions
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 team representing all the four Home Nations
Home Nations
Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on the context. Politically, it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom...

 that toured South Africa in 1910
1910 British Lions tour to South Africa
The 1910 British Isles tour to South Africa was the eighth tour by a British Isles team and the fourth to South Africa. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950. As well as South Africa, the tour included a game in...

; he also played cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

for Scotland. L. Harvey - Scotland, 1899

External links

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