Traditional 'nicknames' of English RL clubs

[The Partisan]

For years i can remember various English sides having industry or geographic related 'nicknames' before the advent of Super League and the introduction of ' Warriors' ; 'Wolves' and ' Wildcats'.

Chemics, The Wire, ????


Wonder if some of the locals could enlighten us to the past nicknames ..and the reasoning ? Perhaps also the acceptance ( or not !) of current 'nicknames".

 

[Evil Homer]

Super League club nicknames:

Castleford: The Fords
Huddersfield: Fartown/Fartowners
Hull FC: Airlie Birds
Hull KR: Robins
Leeds: Loiners
Salford: Red Devils
St Helens: Saints
Wakefield: Trinity/Dreadnoughts
Warrington: Wire
Widnes: Chemics
Wigan: Riversiders/Pie Eaters

As for the origins, Huddersfield's was taken from the name of their old stadium, Warrington and Widnes were the town's major industries (Warrington was famous for making wire and Widnes was known for chemical works). Castleford and St Helens are fairly obvious, and I'm guessing Hull KR's is because of their club colors of red and white. No idea where the other nicknames came from. Most of the teams still use these nicknames in some way, Loiners is really the only one that has completely died out.

The lower league teams all have nicknames too, I know that Bradford were 'Northern', Featherstone were 'The Flat Cappers', Leigh were 'The Leythers' and Oldham were 'The Roughyeds' as a few examples, again no idea about the origins.

 

[roughyedspud]

roughyeds is thought to come from a time when oldham had a large hat making industry....something to do with the felt that was used in the production of the hats...


im actually not that keen on it...its our official name,OLDHAM ROUGHYEDS RLFC....id rather we just be OLDHAM RLFC and "roughyeds" just be a nickname...

 

[WireMan]

roughyeds is thought to come from a time when oldham had a large hat making industry....something to do with the felt that was used in the production of the hats...


im actually not that keen on it...its our official name,OLDHAM ROUGHYEDS RLFC....id rather we just be OLDHAM RLFC and "roughyeds" just be a nickname...

It is actually something I'm glad warrington did. They use the wolves as a promotional name and left Wire to be an unofficial nickname.

We are the wolves because it flows well and there is a wolf on the town crest.

We are Wire as the original nickname was the Wirepullers. The large factory (now knocked down) dominated a large area. They made the wire for suspension bridges etc.

The correct nickname is 'Wire'. Not 'The Wire' or 'Wires'.
The Wire is now a registered name by the local footy team.

 

[WireMan]

Wigans nickname is the pie eaters.

This is because they are a bunch of scabs who had to eat humble pie whilst shafting every other miner in the area during the old miners strikes...

 

[roughyedspud]

to everyone else though its not wire or wolves.....its wanky

 

[The Partisan]

The Dreadnoughts name for 'Wakey' seems to be more about aspiration than industry or location ! Alledgedly about their post WW1 ability to be undefeated in battle according to one source I've seen. Didn't ring true unfortunately !



From memory the Adrian McGregor book covering the 94 Kanagaroos has a bit of history on a few of the old nicknames. ( And he will be the guest speaker at the QRL History Committee lecture in 2015 !)

 

[expansionist]

Ive always loved some of the historical nick names for the smaller clubs in England..

Gallant youths?? thats just magic

 

[roughyedspud]

the seven fingered shit chuckers.......is rochdale's "unofficial" nickname

 

[The Partisan]

Interesting ...I'll have to check out the Rochdale On-line Shop and get me some seven fingered @#$%^&* chuckers merchandise ! How original !

 

[WireMan]

to everyone else though its not wire or wolves.....its wanky

:lol:

Yeah true that. Still every one in warrington knows warrington is the best town on the m62 to live so who cares what the great unwashed think.

Outside warrington we have 6 fingered folk from weirdness, inbreds from saints, newton which is banjo country and Wigan, which is its own level of wtf-ness. You think the rugby team are bad with the chicken wing tackles and punching unconscious players on the floor? Check the football team out!! Funny stuff!

 

[roughyedspud]

used to go out with a girl from newton...must admit she had funny looking toes lol

 

[axl rose]

Weren't Hull FC the Sharks for a while. Glad they ditched it.

Halifax were the Blu Sox! wtf. Would Halifax ever be a chance of the Super League again? didnt mind them back in the day(in other words do they have any money or a decent stadium?)

 

[roughyedspud]

its possible....and they have a decent stadium too..

 

[Evil Homer]

Weren't Hull FC the Sharks for a while. Glad they ditched it.

Halifax were the Blu Sox! wtf. Would Halifax ever be a chance of the Super League again? didnt mind them back in the day(in other words do they have any money or a decent stadium?)

Stadium is ok but I think it's pretty unlikely that they will ever be back in SL.

 

[WireMan]

You guys seemed to have forgotten its promotion and relegation now.

Stadium etc means nothing. Just be better than the lower super league teams and they are in.

 

[Evil Homer]

You guys seemed to have forgotten its promotion and relegation now.

Stadium etc means nothing. Just be better than the lower super league teams and they are in.

Which is why they probably won't ever make it.

I'm glad TBH, I was at a Halifax match last year and ended up sitting amongst some of their fans, it was honestly one of the most depressing experiences I've had at a RL game.

 

[deal.with.it]

There's still minimum standards

 

[expansionist]

Which is why they probably won't ever make it.

I'm glad TBH, I was at a Halifax match last year and ended up sitting amongst some of their fans, it was honestly one of the most depressing experiences I've had at a RL game.

Why? What particularly made it so memorable?

 

[roughyedspud]

all yorkshire people are depressing and miserable...and halifax is smack bang in the middle of bat country