Goole (Rugby League)

Goole was a semi-professional rugby league club based in Goole, Yorkshire, England. The club joined the ranks of the Northern Union semi-professionals in 1901–02 and played for the single season in the Yorkshire Senior Competition, which was effectively Division 2 (East).

In January 1898 Goole RUFC were ordered by the governing body of rugby union, the RFU, not to play a charity rugby match against a touring Little Red Riding Hood pantomime troupe; this was deemed to be an act of professionalism because earlier on its tour the troupe had played in a charity match with Batley. Very shortly after that Goole RUFC changed code and joined the Northern Union.

In that year, 1898, they, together with Eastmoor,Featherstone, Hull Kingston Rovers, Kinsley, Normanton, Outwood Parish Church, Ripon, Rothwell, and York, were among the founders of the Yorkshire Second Competition (Eastern Section).

At the end of the 1901–02 season, the County Leagues elected 18 teams to join the new Division 2 (7 from Lancashire and 10 from Yorkshire and new member South Shields) with the existing second competition scrapped.

Goole was one of the 4 Yorkshire (the others being, Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Sowerby Bridge) and 2 Lancashire clubs (Altrincham and Radcliffe) not elected to the new Division 2, but it is unknown as to which route the club followed

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