Chairman puts boot in to kick off rugby match (From Wharfedale Observer)

Chairman puts boot in to kick off rugby match

4:32pm Thursday 28th June 2012 in Across the Years

They weren’t exactly the best shoes for the job but Horsforth Council’s chairman gave it a good try anyway when he prepared to kick off for the first of a series of seven-a-side rugby matches at Yarnbury.

Dressed in a smart suit and official chain of office, Coun J Butler got the matches off to a flying start back in 1967. Watching him were the referee, Coun J R B Turner, Mrs Butler and Chris Wendon, a former player.

Yarnbury is one of the oldest clubs in Yorkshire, with a history dating back to 1872 and members of Headingley Hill Congregational Church.

It took the name Yarnbury in1896, after a match during a summer camp at Grassington. After the game, Captain F Stocks entertained the Leeds players at his cottage ‘Yarnbury House’, close to the hamlet of Yarnbury.

According to the club’s website, it was agreed in the “post match euphoria” to re-name the chapel team Leeds Yarnbury RFC.

The club played at various grounds in north Leeds, finally settling in Horsforth in 1926. At first, it played behind the Grey Horse Inn, Long Row, moving to Parkers Field behind Horsforth Cricket Club after the Second World War.

The club was allocated the King George V pitch next to Horsforth Cricket Club in 1951. It bought its present site in 1963.