SRFC PART OF NEWCASTLE RED BULL'S HISTORY

Red Bull and 'Newcastle Falcons' have just announced the takeover and re-naming of the club and, in so doing, has also referenced the club's history back to its very roots. The Bar at the club is called 1877 as that is when Gosforth affirms its foundation. However, for about five years from 1882 - 1887, it merged with and took the name of Northumberland Football Club before returning to its Gosforth title -one which many of the older members of the club will recall from their playing days!

SRFC is acknowledged as one of the fifty surviving 'original' clubs and in its very first season (1873/4) fulfilled an away fixture with the Northumberland Club. Here is the related extract from my recent 150th anniversary publication;

'The final game of Sunderland’s first season was played at Newcastle upon Tyne. The opponents on 21 March 1874 were players from the Northumberland Club – a club which is part of the history of both the modern and historic Gosforth club as well as the professional Newcastle Falcons. The home side proved victorious by a goal and a try to a try thus inflicting on the visitors their first defeat and only defeat of the season. The most prominent player was Lowthian Bell, one of the college backs and possibly the most famous early Tyneside rugby player. Only aged 20 at this point he went on to represent England against Ireland four years later. In the Sunderland match, he scored the winning side’s unconverted try. The goal was a drop goal and Junor, once again turning out for Sunderland, scored Sunderland’s try. A sign that the north east of England was on the rugby map is the fact that there was a report on this game in the national Field sporting publication. The Field reporter was pleased with the quality of the play, noting ‘the game throughout was one of the fastest we have witnessed.'

With Red Bull happy to announce the old (and long defunct) Northumberland Club as part of its history, we can safely say that the 'new club's' links to SRFC can have few rivals in terms of longevity. Given that the arrival of professionalism proved the end of regular fixtures, there are still club members who can remember giving 'Gosforth' a good game in times past.

The photograph is of the 1873/4 players - many of whom would have played in the game against Northumberland Club.