Rugby team
Broughton Park FC, is one of the oldest rugby union clubs in England and was established in 1882, just one year after the Lancashire County Rugby Football Union was founded and eleven years after the formation of the national Rugby Football Union. The first XV played in North 1 West, a sixth level league in the English league system following their promotion as champions of South Lancs/Cheshire 1 at the end of the 2017-18 season.
History
Broughton Park was established in 1882 and despite this early beginning was the third Broughton based rugby club, after Broughton RUFC (1862) and Broughton Rangers (1877). The club was overshadowed in terms of international representation by its two neighbours for the first decade of its existence. In 1919, just after the First World War, it started to make a mark on the national scene with A M Crook becoming both the Lancashire Union president and also being elected to the presidency of the Rugby Football Union. J E Kidd was elected Lancashire president in 1930 and it was not until the 1960s that Broughton once again came to the fore. The glory days of the club were in the 1960s and 1970s and at one point they fielded four internationals on the pitch.[2] In this period they also had two more Lancashire presidents and in 1981 in John Burgess they had a president of the Rugby Football Union. Broughton Park were never able to recapture the heights of this period, and in the professional era have not managed to reach the top flight.
Ground
The club has had a number of different grounds in its time, mainly in the Salford/Prestwich areas, but also in the south of Manchester. Since 2004 its present new facility is at Hough End in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Football club Salford City F.C.'s stadium, Moor Lane, was once the club's home ground. It is located in the Kersal Moor area of Salford, close to the boundary with Prestwich.
Representation
Originally the club had only one senior side, but now fields five senior sides (4 male and 1 female) and supported by one Colts (U19), four youth (U13-U17) and six mini (U6-U12) teams; a total involvement of some 330 players each week. Broughton Park R.F.C. is the City of Manchester's highest placed representative in the Rugby Union Leagues.[3]
