Pill Harriers RFC
| Full name | Pill Harriers Rugby Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Pill, The Harriers |
| Founded | 1882 |
| Location | Pillgwenlly, Newport |
| Ground(s) | Court-Y-Bella Terrace, Newport |
| Chairman | Brian Crowmell |
| Coach(es) | Gary Williams |
| Captain(s) | Dave Tovey |
| League(s) | WRU Division Two East |
| 2011-12 | 2nd |
| Official website | |
| www |
|
Pill Harriers RFC are a Welsh rugby union club based in Newport in South Wales. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Newport Gwent Dragons.
At the end of Jeddo Street, Baldwin Street and Marion Street in Pill was an area of bogland which was filled with ballast from ships calling at the Old Town Dock, North Dock and Alexandra Dock. The local Pill boys played many games on ‘The ballast’ as it was then called. They played baseball, football and their own brand of rugby.
Eventually a team was formed to play general sports called ‘The Curb Stone Dashers’. The jerseys were black or navy seaman’s jerseys. They played for about three years and then in 1879-80 Liverpool House opened, an establishment that employed a lot of young people with the intention of keeping them out of trouble. With the influx of the Curb Stone Dashers they turned to rugby.
In about 1881-82 Lord Tredegar gave the people of Pill a ground on built up swampland on the 'Mendalgief'.
At this time Liverpool House went to the Pill ground, and with the dockers and coaltrimmers formed Pill Harriers RFC.
The first season was successful and saw the club reaching the semi-finals of the Newport Challenge cup.
Although the Pill Harriers Athletic Club provided facilities for all sports, it was rugby that had pride of place. After the turn of the century Pill became one of the strongest sides in the area becoming Monmouthshire League Champions five times and runners up three times between 1902 and 1912. During this period Pill Harriers provided a stream of intelligent, strong players who would first move to first class team Newport before playing for Wales. George "Twyber" Travers, rugby’s first specialist hooker, gained 25 caps between 1903 and 1911, George Boots gained 16 caps between 1908 and 1904, Tommy Vile who would become president of the WRU and Gus Merry who gained 2 caps in 1912. Gus's caps and photos were donated to the Pill Harriers club in about 1996 by his great-nephew Glyn Maggs.
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Wikipedia