Winter Sports - Rugby


D


uring the nineties, two rugby giants joined forces to play on the thirty‐six acres at the Shaw’s Bridge grounds following decisions to sell their own


grounds and upgrade.


First to make the move in 1991 was Cooke Rugby Club, which is reportedly the oldest junior rugby club in Belfast having been founded in 1910.


Joining them at Shaw’s Bridge eight years later was the Instonians Rugby Club which was originally founded in 1919.


Cooke Rugby Club was previously based at Upper Galwally for a long eighty‐one years before its move in 1991. Club members may


have heard their ancestors fondly remember the old black wooden hut that stood as Cooke’s first clubhouse. Following the move to Shaw’s Bridge, Cooke Rugby Club set up a women’s rugby section which is the longest standing women’s club in Ulster, established in 1992. Focusing on the Instonians Club, it dates back to formation on 23rd May 1919, emerging as the Old Boys Rugby Club of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. Two teams were fielded in that inaugural year and they played in the yellow and black traditional colours of the school, with the addition of purple, which was a permanent memorial to the 132 old boys who had fallen


during the war. The club was established on just five acres of leased land, which was a part of the former Malone Golf Club Links at Bladon.


When the lease on Bladon expired, fourteen acres of mud, rubble and swamp were purchased in the bend of Blackwater stream on the edge of Belfast. These new grounds and a clubhouse were named Shane Park, where the club remained until 1999. Due to spiralling costs to maintain a large sports club, Instonians decided to sell Shane Park and move to Shaw’s Bridge in a ground sharing arrangement with Cooke RFC. This agreement, as it still stands today, allowed both clubs to remain independent,


PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018 I 33


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