Welcoming Wigton

As I was brought up in the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, I am aware of Wigton as a sporting force in the past. When I was a youngster in the 1960s i Wigton had a good reputation for rugby and green bowling so it is pleasure to welcome the rugby sides ( walking and walking a little faster) to Ashbrooke. It also gives me to opportunity to have a look at old newspapers for anything of historical interest.

According to the local 'Wigton News' Wigton Rugby Football Club was 'newly formed' at the beginning of the 1906/7 season. Its first recorded game was against Aspatria Agricultural College and the chosen colours navy and blue. Elsewhere in the papers it is noted that there had been club in the late nineteenth century but it had gone to the wall. The 'News' also reported that the club was able to put out a strong side - although they could not 'blossom into All-Blacks right away'.

By May 1907 the 'West Cumberland Times' was able to report on a 'promising ' first season. The players had given 'an excellent exhibition in all their matches'. They had managed to complete a number of matches and had stopped the opposition from scoring in seven of them. The club had managed to win seven, lose six and draw one (or elsewhere won eight, lost six and draw two). At the first AGM the club reported a profit of nearly £5 - not bad as they started with 'nowt'. ( Don't laugh it would be worth nearly £800 today!)

Early opponents included Silloth, Cockermouth and Whitehaven and these early games seem to have remained local. In more recent times Cumbrian sides have frequently crossed the Pennines to play North East Clubs.

According to these early newspaper reports one of the founding families was the Rigg family of Grange Bank. Sam Rigg was an early star - a trainee solicitor who landed seventeen tries in his first season. He was only 18. His brother Stanley was also mentioned by the press during that first season. He was 17. Samuel was recorded 'founder of Wigton Rugby Union Club' when he went missing in action during the German push on the Western Front in 1918. Stanley died of wounds a few weeks later. Their names appear on a number of war memorials Like many of the Ashbrooke Boys who failed to return from the First World War, they were young officers.

We will remember them all.