York Wasps
| Full name | York Wasps Rugby League Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Wasps |
| Founded | 1868 |
| Disbanded | 2002 |
| Location | York, North Yorkshire |
| Ground(s) | Clarence Street, 1885-1989 Huntington Stadium, 1989-2002 |
York Wasps (known simply as York until 1989 and Ryedale-York from 1989-96) was an English professional rugby league club based in York. At the start of the 2002 season, the club was dissolved. A new club, York City Knights was established to take the Wasps' place for the 2003 season.
The club was first formed as York Football Club in 1868 and played both association and rugby football, for the first few seasons they had portable goal posts as they did not have their own ground and would play wherever they could find a pitch. Eventually a permanent pitch was secured on Knavesmire.
It took three years for the club to record their first victory, and that was in an association football match against York Training College. Results picked up in the mid-1870s as the club attracted a higher standard of player. In 1877, York were among several leading Yorkshire clubs who inaugurated the Yorkshire Challenge Cup. In the first season 16 teams battled it out for the T'owd Tin Pot, with York eventually losing out to Halifax in the final.
Financial problems in the early 1880s forced the club out of the Yorkshire Gentlemen's Ground in Wigginton Road and in 1883 the club amalgamated with York Melbourne Club.
After playing on Poad's Fields for a short time, the York Lunatic Asylum leased the club a plot of land at the end of the Clarence Street in 1885. The first game at the new site was between a York XV and 20 players from the city.
The club made great strides with the team of 1895, which won virtually all their home matches. Off the field the club paid £85 for the Waterman's Mission Hut in Fishergate and converted it into their first grandstand, incorporating dressing rooms.
Northern rugby teams broke away from the Rugby Football Union to form their own Northern Union in 1895. York initially stayed with the Rugby Football Union but as more and more clubs began to join the new order, it became a financial necessity to follow suit. The decision to join the Northern Union was taken at a meeting at the Bar Hotel, Micklegate, on Monday, 25 April 1898 and five days later they played their first Northern Union match against Hull Kingston Rovers losing 29–2.
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