Club Information

WESTCLIFF RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB – A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was founded in 1922 as the Old Westcliffians RFC, for the benefit of the old boys of the recently-formed Westcliff High School for Boys.  The first president was H.G.Williams MA, the first school headmaster, who was an avid Welsh rugby fanatic.   The club led a nomadic existence in its early years, playing at a variety of grounds, but by the outbreak of the war was running three sides, mainly against Essex clubs, London Old Boys clubs and the second fifteens of established First Class clubs such as Wasps, Saracens, Harlequins, Rosslyn Park and London Welsh.

In 1954, having previously used rooms in a variety of Public Houses in Old Leigh, the club became proud owners of “The Gables” – a former dance school on the A13 London Road, which was to be its home for the next thirty years.  Around this time, the club joined forces with their neighbours from Southend RFC to host the annual Southend Easter Rugby Festival, which for many years was the biggest such festival in the world.

In the early sixties, with recruits from the school dropping, the club went semi-open, enabling players from outside the area to join, and the club went fully open a few years later, although many playing members are still old boys.   The club continued to play high-standard rugby against the better Essex sides, running six teams and being particularly successful on the sevens field, winning the Essex Sevens six years out of seven between 1964 and 1970, as well as several other tournaments.

In 1984, the club relocated to Aviation Way, enjoying surroundings which were then certainly amongst the best in the South East of England.   At this stage, the club was running seven senior sides and all appeared rosy.

The arrival of the leagues saw the club initially in London Three North East, where it stayed until the mid-nineties, having changed its name to Westcliff RFC in 1989.  The mid-nineties saw a fall in fortunes, with successive relegations and league restructuring finding us languishing in Eastern Counties Division Two South.   The rebirth was, however, just round the corner.  The club has always had an excellent youth policy, and today must be counted as one of, if not the best youth and mini set up in Essex.   The success of the youth had dramatically been transferred to the senior teams, with regularly at least fifteen of the first team squad of eighteen on match days having risen through youth and mini ranks.  From the start of the millennium, the club enjoyed five promotions, culminating in finishing  as Champions of London One North in 2011, losing only one match all season .  Thus the club entered the National Divisions for the first time, finishing a creditable tenth the first season before finding the increased demands too heavy to contend with in 2013.   We refused to be downhearted by this, however, and  bounced back at the first attempt, winning the London One North championship for the second time in four seasons.  We then enjoyed five seasons at Level 5, twice surviving by the skin of our teeth and, more pleasingly, gaining promotion to the National Leagues for the first time.   This proved something of a baptism by fire, and was further disrupted by the Covid pandemic.   During our three seasons at this level, we could at least boast victories over the likes of Redruth, Old Albanian and Esher – sides we wouldn’t even have dreamt of playing twenty years ago.  We are renowned for fast, exciting and entertaining rugby, with a young side who have learned quickly.  Success has not been confined to the first team – the second (Lions) third (Rhinos) and, when they were still running, the fourth (Bulldoga) and fifth (Honey Badgers) fifteens are and were on numerous occasions champions of their respective merit tables, often winning the end of season cups for good measure.  The Colts and Junior sides have many times been county cup winners  champions at their respective age levels and the future is bright.   The club recently reformed its ladies’ team, the Lionesses, who have won back to back promotions, culminating with their fine success in the final of the Papa John’s regional cup at the end of the season, The club also caters for children right down to under five, the Lioncubs.  

With the expansion of Southend Airport, we moved to  bespoke state-of-the-art new premises and pitches a short distance away from our previous base in Aviation Way.   Alas, within three months of our official opening, Covid struck, causing more than a year of inactivity, and the road since has been rocky for the first fifteen.   The demands of Level Four were, frankly, beyond our capabilities and a further relegation last season will see us in a position to regroup at level Six.   Many of next season’s senior squad will be drawn from the excellent set of youngsters who have come up through the junior sides over the past few years, and there are grounds for optimism that we can put our current mini-slide behind us.