Chesterfield Spires RLFC
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| Full name | North Derbyshire Chargers RLFC |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2008 |
| Ground(s) | Netherthorpe School (Primary); Frederick Gent School (U12); Warsop Vale & Springwell Community College (PTRL) |
| League(s) | Midlands Rugby League; Yorkshire Junior Amateur Rugby League |
North Derbyshire Chargers RLFC are a rugby league club who play in the Midlands Rugby League at open age and junior level. Shortly after formation a merger was agreed with the Chesterfield Spires club.
Rugby league in the area can be traced back to 1978 when a team bearing the Chesterfield name were involved in the West Yorkshire Sunday League. Due to shortage of players, the team ceased playing at the beginning of 1983. The club also ran an Under 15s team, recently identified via an article in a West Yorkshire newspaper from 1980 indicating that the team lost 110-0 to Upton ARLFC. The last secretary of the club was Patrick (Paddy) Fagan.
Within a year, Shirebrook Rugby League Club had been formed by Paddy Fagan and Mick Meadows. Although this new club had a few players from the old Chesterfield team, the majority of the players were from the Shirebrook area. A new team was also formed at Clowne shortly afterwards. Both Clowne and Shirebrook were stalwarts of winter rugby league on the fringes of the game's heartlands in the 1980s, and early 1990s. With the introduction of summer rugby in the mid 1990s, both clubs disappeared, with their players moving to the new summer clubs or to winter clubs in Yorkshire.
In 1997 a new junior club was formed in the town of Eckington on the back of development work by the Sheffield Eagles club. The Eckington Eagles played in the Yorkshire league for a few seasons but after the Eagles merged with Huddersfield and then reformed at a lower level there was no development support and the club folded.
Although for many years there has been a latent interest in the sport around Chesterfield, not the least due to the Sheffield Eagles using the football club's Saltergate home for games in the early 1990s, the town itself was not represented in rugby league circles until 2003, when Chesterfield Spires was formed by a group of three friends in the Welbeck Arms on Soresby Street on July 29, 2003. The first training session was held the week after on Highfield Park with only three players.
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