Full name | Broadstreet Rugby Football Club |
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Union | Warwickshire RFU |
Nickname(s) | 'Street |
Founded | 1929 |
Location | Binley Woods, Coventry, West Midlands, England |
Region | Midlands |
Ground(s) | The Ivor Preece Field (Capacity: 1,500 (250 seats)) |
Chairman | Simon Skene |
President | Garry Watts |
Captain(s) | Luke Truslove |
League(s) | National League 2 South |
2016–17 | Champions (promoted from National League 3 Midlands – level transfer) |
Official website | |
www |
Broadstreet Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in the city of Coventry, West Midlands, England. The club currently play in SSE National League 2 (North); a fourth tier of the English rugby union system. The 2014–15 season was the third time the club had played in the fourth tier of English rugby (having progressed though the Rugby Football Union Midland Division), but the first time it had maintained at that level. Furthermore, the club have also recently enjoyed plenty of success, by winning the Warwickshire Cup (for a record thirteen times).
Their home ground is The Ivor Preece Field, named in honour of former President Ivor Preece which was opened in Coventry in 2002. Their previous ground from 1973 to 2002 was located on Brandon Road, Coventry. Before that the club played at the Henley Road ground where the club still have an active social club with over three-hundred members.
The Broad Street Old Boys' Rugby Club was founded in 1929 by former and current pupils of the Broad Street School in Broad Street, Foleshill, Coventry. The club's history goes back even further to when Broad Street School was opened in 1911. It was many years later that the club decided drop the "old boys'" title and merge the two words to become one and known as Broadstreet Rugby Club.
It was after winning the Coventry FC Shield in 1929 the old boys' club was formed with the help of the school sports master 'Pop' H T Suddens. With seven former schoolboy internationals, it was a formidable team. In fact, the school went on to have twenty-two schoolboy England players and three senior England players, Ivor Preece, Ernie Robinson and Phil Judd who went on to captain England in 1967.
When the ‘Old Boys’ was formed, a farmer’s field at Bedlam Lane was the home ground and this was used until after the Second World War. After the war, the club rented grounds in various parts of Coventry, eventually using the War Memorial Park, Coventry as its base until the 1950s. A site for a new ground was purchased in Henley Road from a Colonel Bushill in the early 1950s. Raising the money to purchase the ground and to build the clubhouse was an enormous task, but it was a very proud day for all involved at the time, when Cliff Harrison, President of the Warwickshire RFU, opened the club in 1955.