Birkenhead Park FC

This article is about a rugby club. For the soccer club in Birkenhead, see Tranmere Rovers FC.

Birkenhead Park Football Club is an English rugby union team based in Birkenhead, Wirral. The club operates five senior teams, a ladies team (Birkenhead Park Panthers) and six junior sides. The men's senior team play in Regional 1 North West, the fifth level of the English rugby union system, following promotion as champions of Regional 2 North West in 2023–24.

Birkenhead Park

Full name	Birkenhead Park Rugby Club
Union	Cheshire RFU
Founded	1871; 154 years ago (1871)
Location	Birkenhead, Merseyside, England
Ground(s)	Upper Park
Chairman	Barry Fitzgerald
President	Richard Morris
Captain(s)	Sean Mooney
League(s)	North 2 West
2023–24	1st (promoted to Regional 1 North West)
Team kit
Official website
birkenheadparkrfc.rfu.club

History

Birkenhead Park was formed in 1871, the same year as the Rugby Football Union, from the amalgamation of two smaller clubs, Claughton and Birkenhead Wanderers during the 1871–72 season.^[1] After an initial period where the club failed to find any form, the season of 1877–78 saw the team losing only two matches from nineteen played. The club was central to the formation of the Cheshire County Union, and in 1887 Birkenhead Park was chosen as the venue for the Home Nations clash between Wales and Ireland; the first time a Home Nations Championship game was played on neutral soil.

The club has a rich history and have hosted the New Zealand All Blacks team on four occasions most recently in 1978 and in 1984 they hosted the North of England's match against Romania.

The club has won two promotions in the 25 years of club rugby – winning South Lancashire and Cheshire Division One and North 2 West in consecutive seasons in the early 2000s.^[2]

Honours

• Cheshire Cup winners (4): 1878, 1879, 1881, 2008
• Euromanx South Lancs/Cheshire 1 champions: 2000–01
• North 1 West champions (2): 2001–02, 2014–15
• Cheshire Vase winners: 2016
• North 1 (east v west) promotion play-off winner: 2016–17

Notable former players

The pitches

British Lions

• Paul Robert Clauss 1891
• Elliot Nicholson (1899)
• George Hancock (1936 British Lions tour to Argentina)
• Frank Croft Hulme (1904)
• Reg Maxwell (1924)
• Tom Knowles (1930)

International players while at Birkenhead Park

• Harry Alexander
• James Baxter
• Paul Robert Clauss
• Wilfrid Lowry
• C. S. Edgar
• Frank Croft Hulme
• P. D. Kendall
• J. C. Marquis
• B. B. Middleton
• Elliot Nicholson
• John Paterson
• C. Phillips
• J. J. Ravenscroft
• J. Feldman

Other notable players

• Ian Buckett
• Austin Healey
• Richard Downend (a notable cricketer)