Club information | |
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Full name | Nottingham Outlaws Rugby League Club |
Colours | White shirts with blue and green chevron |
Founded | 1999 |
Website | www.nottinghamrl.co.uk |
Current details | |
Ground(s) | |
Competition | Yorkshire Men's League |
Nottingham Outlaws are a rugby league club from the city of Nottingham, England. They were founded in 1999 and their first team plays in the Premier Division of the Yorkshire Men's League. They have a junior section and in 2006 launched an academy team. They play their home matches at Highfields Sports Ground. They are also known as the 'hooded men'.
The first Nottingham rugby league club took part in the Southern Amateur Rugby League some time between 1965 and 1973. The club is believed to have been a university team.
In the late 1980s an attempt was made to introduce semi-professional rugby league into Nottingham with the creation of Nottingham City, who replaced another Nottinghamshire team, the Mansfield Marksman. In 1992-1993 they finished bottom of Division 3 of the Rugby League and were demoted to the National Conference League. They achieved the dubious honour of being the recipient of one of the widest margins of defeat in rugby league history when they lost 138-0 to Barrow in 1994. Official records
Nottingham Foresters were the first community team to form in Nottingham. They were based at The Forester pub in the city centre; the landlord was one of the founder members. When the landlord left the following year the club relocated to The Crusader pub near the Nottingham Polytechnic playing fields, where the club played, and the club changed its name to Nottingham Crusaders in 1986. The club joined the now defunct Mansfield and Nottingham Amateur Rugby League Association, which later became the EMARLA (East Midlands Amateur Rugby League Association) league, and played there until 1995. Nottingham Crusaders then played in the Yorkshire League from 1995/96 to 1998/99 but kept an A-team in the EMARLA.
Nottingham Outlaws RLFC were founded in 1998 when a number of players from the Nottingham Crusaders Yorkshire League outfit decided to explore the possibility of playing in the emerging Rugby League Conference. The newly founded Nottingham club took the name "Outlaws" in deference to the follows of local legend Robin Hood. The club colours were taken from the local Nottingham Trent University. The club joined the Northern Division of the Rugby League Conference that same year. In its early years the club were based in Wilford village at Nottingham Moderns RUFC.