Tony Bottomley remembered as Hertfordshire celebrates 50 years of Rugby League

It may be nearly 200 miles from the game’s heartlands but Hertfordshire belatedly celebrated 50 years of Rugby League this weekend.

The code’s first club in the county was Watford, who launched in 1969, swiftly followed by St Albans Beehive in August 1970 who played for four years alongside the Roman remains at Verulamium. From their ashes were born St Albans Waverley ARLFC, who lasted a season, by which time Watford had also folded. 

“As usual it was a league fan from the north who got things started – the landlord of The Beehive pub in the town centre – and the locals threw themselves into it,” explains local league historian Gavin Willacy â€“ whose varied contribution to the game has included a key role in the development of a number of outstanding young players from the South, stalwart service to Scotland Rugby League as their media officer, and also as a journalist for a number of publications including The Guardian’s No Helmets Required blog. 

“When he broke his leg playing, his wife took over running the team, which brought plenty of attention from the local paper! They played in brown jerseys with a tankard on them to represent the sponsors, Whitbread, competing in the Southern Amateur League on Sundays. Unfortunately local union clubs were very negative and there were constant challenges to keep going.”  

By the time exiled league enthusiasts Gary Tetlow and Ken Edwards launched St Albans Centurions in 1996, Hemel Hempstead ARLFC had been going for 15 years, the Stags flourishing at various periods in their eventful 40 year history, playing in the National Conference League and for several seasons as a pro club in League 1.   

Centurions have played at numerous venues in the city and a variety of competitions, and currently boast a Masters and junior teams while the first team are in step five's Eastern Division. The first team, Masters and the youngsters were all in action on Sunday when events planned for the summer of 2020 eventually took place at St Albans Centurions’ Colosseum ground. Players and supporters travelled from all over the region to support the event, with Cambridge University providing the opposition for a Herts Under-22 XIII in the opening match. 

Since last summer, former Centurions chairman Tony Bottomley, a stalwart of the game in Hertfordshire had sadly passed away. Tony’s family were there to see three matches in his honour, as friends of St Albans and Hertfordshire rugby league celebrated a tremendous achievement. Players in each game received a commemorative Herts RL 50 Years Medal as a difficult 2021 season drew to a close for most combatants.  

Gavin is helping Centurions gather a database of results (and line ups, scorers etc) of every senior game a St Albans RL team has played since 1970. They have most of the 20th century information but anyone with any data from earlier, especially the 1970-75 years, former players etc, would they please contact gavinwillacy@hotmail.com.