Canterbury Rugby Football Club - CRFC - History

A Brief History of Canterbury RFC

Founded in 1929 Canterbury are the first ever East Kent club to achieve National League status. That milestone was reached when they became champions of London and South East Division One in 2005/06. In the most rewarding season in the club's history they also won the Kent Cup for a second successive year and gained further recognition when named rugby's Team of the Year by Rugby World magazine.

Founding Fathers

Times have certainly changed from when the founding fathers, many of them involved with agriculture, first took their post-match pints and pies in a local pub and played on a hired pitch. Modern players might even envy them in that the season rarely started in earnest before October when all the fruit picking in the area was over and farmer/rugby players could start thinking about a free Saturday afternoon.

Dudley Hallwood

However, the club's first skipper was no son of the soil. Dudley Hallwood went on to become a noted newspaper cartoonist and the club's principal Sevens trophy still bears his name. Apart from the interruption of the Second World War, Canterbury built steadily over the years and boasted one of the strongest fixture lists in the county. They produced a number of fine players who represented Kent but the only tangible reward came in the 1974/75 season when the club beat old rivals Maidstone to win the County Cup.

Leagues

Some indeterminate years followed but the advent of leagues in the late 1980s was, like the experience of so many other clubs, a culture shock. After first being placed in London 3 South East, Canterbury went steadily downhill. They fell to the depths of Kent Division 2 at the start of the 1990s and it was from that lowly position that a revival was born,which included the expansion of a really healthy junior and colts section.

New Millennium

Through the next decade they climbed steadily up the league ladder and made it their ambition to be a London One club by the millennium. They would have achieved it, too, had it not been for the administrators. Having won the London 2 South championship in 2000 they were told there was no promotion because of re-organization of the leagues. Lesser sides may have crumbled but they won a place in the top division two years later. Since then the club has become even stronger at every level.

Kent Cup

The club did not achieve success in the county competition until 1975 and then had to wait another 30 years before winning the cup again.

When they did get their hands on the trophy in 2005 the victory over Westcombe Park inspired a dominant four-year run. In the following three seasons they met the same opponents, Blackheath, in the final and each time Canterbury were the victors.

In 2008/09 the county committee decreed that Kent's three National League clubs must enter their second teams in the competition and the club's grip on the cup was loosened. It was four years before the trophy returned to Canterbury when they defeated Westcombe Park in 2012.

National Leagues

After an outstanding promotion season Canterbury made a tentative start to their first venture into National League rugby but then exceeded all expectations by ending 2006/07 in fourth position in National 3 South.

The demands of the higher league increased every season but
Canterbury responded to the challenge and were consistently in the
top half of the table, despite the presence of many clubs with heavy
financial backing.   The 2010/11 season, however, proved to be a
bridge too far and the team was relegated to National 3 London & South East on the final day of the season.  However, they responded in positive fashion to win back their place in National 2 South at the first attempt and iced the cake by also recapturing the Kent Cup. 

David Haigh - 2012