Westoe Rfc & South Shields Cricket Club (South Shields)

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In 1875 a young South Shields man called Charlie Green and a bunch of his friends, all aged between 16 and 19, accepted a challenge to play Tynemouth, a prominent local rugby club at that time, and beat them. In high spirits, they discussed forming a rugby club of their own as they returned home on the ferry crossing the River Tyne. The outcome was a meeting at Green’s home in Westoe, then a village a mile from the town then clustered along the bank of the river, but now part of the urban sprawl - and Westoe Rugby Club was formed that night.

South Shields Cricket Club, formed 25 years earlier, rented a nearby field from the Church Commissioners and the infant rugby club was allowed to sub-rent part of it - provided they helped the cricketers to level the former ridge and furrow farmland. And Westoe Rugby Club has been there ever since, the ground being purchased for £2,500 from the commissioners just after the First World War, an appeal fund having been launched based on a £1,000 legacy by T Forsyth Wilson, a veteran player and official of both clubs (and representing Durham County at both) A temporary closure during the great conflict was the only time that rugby has ceased on the field - cricket and rugby being played in limited fashion throughout the Second World War.