A-list West were pride of the north
WEST Hartlepool have been enjoying their rugby in the quiet backwaters of Durham/Northumberland 1 recently but have scaled much greater heights in their tumultuous roller coaster history.
The coastal town, north of Middlesbrough, was an industrial powerhouse in the later 19th century and a magnet for workers from all over Britain and Ireland with large docks needing to be built and maintained to service the Durham coalfields and with that influx of able bodied men came a need to cater for their sporting needs.
Rugby already had a foothold, mainly due to the considerable early influence of Durham School, and the best part of a dozen clubs popped up before they consolidated with Hartlepool Rovers being founded in 1879 and West Hartlepool two years later.
To begin with all was fine and dandy and by the turn of the century both were a power in the land. West’s first big name player was utility back Sammy Morfitt, who won six England caps and captained the club, although three of those caps were won when he moved to Hull Kingston Rovers.
Morfitt has his own small footnote in rugby history in that Hull KR switched to League a couple of years after he joined and he won both England Union and League caps from the same club.
West Hartlepool went from strength to strength and by the turn of the century were a crack outfit which is reflected by their contribution to the Durham County side which dominated the County championship which was far and away the biggest rugby event outside of the Home Unions games. Along with neighbours and deadly rivals, Hartlepool Rovers, they formed the backbone of the strongest select XV in the country.
During that golden era, West won the Durham County Cup on three occasions with Rovers
taking it on five occasions. For a decade these were the two strongest clubs in the country and as you can imagine their annual Boxing Day derby game was much anticipated.
Between 1900 and 1909 Durham, very much on the back of these two powerhouse clubs, appeared in every single final, a run which included five championship wins, four defeats and one shared title with Devon in 1907. Throughout that period West averaged four or five players in the county team the most notable being their England utility back Jack Taylor who won 11 caps and captained the club for ten years.
Under Taylor, who also captained England, West were definite A listers – in the 1902-03 season alone they defeated the Barbarians, Leicester, Northampton, Hawick, London Welsh and Lansdowne while in 1905 they entertained French touring side Stade Francais. West moved in very elite circles.
There were other stars apart from Taylor who went on to captain England. Powerful Welsh forward Joe Booth curiously got dropped by Wales after impressing on debut in 1888 in a famous win against Ireland in Limerick.
Booth resisted the temptation to turn ‘professional’ with one of the northern union clubs, found gainful employment in booming West Hartlepool and added his weight and experience to West’s pack.
Jim Auten was a powerhouse back, a local lad, who was a standout in Durham’s 1904 win before turning professional with Wakefield Trinity while flanker Harry Havelock won three England caps in 1908. Havelock later turned professional with Hull RL. Also highly regarded at the time
were Jimmy Duthie, Brian Wellock, Jack Wass, Jack Waller, Gordon Lewes and Bob Bradley.
But in the background, all was not well. Had the club grown too quickly? Did the big industrial sponsors suddenly get stingy? It’s not quite clear but rather abruptly West stopped playing rugby in 1908 and were dissolved at pretty much the height of their powers. Financial issues were stated as the reason but the club quickly remustered as a football team and of course the north east has always been a football hotspot but three years later, the powers that be reverted back to rugby. A slightly baffling episode in the club’s history.
After the Great War, with the Reverend Bertram Jones much to the fore, West started to build again. The town was in fairly decent shape with the timber industry almost as big as the allpervasive coal pits which is how
the family of Carl Aarvold arrived in the area.
West have laid claim to some notable players – not least the Whetton twins who made quite an impact during their season at Brierton Lane much further down the line – but the best known home product remains Aarvold who in later life became the senior judge at the Old Bailey and the Recorder of London.
By 1965, West had moved to Brierton Lane, the ground which became their best known home and they started to build with a strong surge around the time of their centenary season in 1981-82 when they acquired the services of a young All Black lock Gary Whetton and his twin brother Alan. Both were to become World Cup winners while Gary won 58 New Zealand caps and Alan 64.
The story of the Whettons’ arrival goes that a local businessman – a prominent builder – became very involved while his two sons were playing for the club’s Colt’s team and wanted to do his bit to help so of his own accord contacted Gary Whetton who had already made the All Blacks side and was playing in the 1981 series in France when the invitation to play came.
Alan, less well established at this stage, was part of the deal and although the early 80s were much more innocent times we can safely assume that the Kiwi duo were “well looked after” during their season in the north east.
The brothers contributed significantly to a successful centenary season which included a Durham Cup win and raised the whole tone of proceedings and that ambition and pursuit of excellence continued when they departed. They were the catalyst for even better years to come with West fighting their way up the newly installed League system.
Local businessman Philip Yuill provided considerable backing and West could boast a number of standout players including a pair of North locks in John Howe and John Dixon, a prolific try scorer in David Cooke and a talented fly-half in local policeman John Stabler who had played his early rugby for Hartlepool Rovers.
Alas, Howe was to suddenly collapse and die on the field during a game against Morley in March 1992 while Stabler was to become a local legend as he led West on an extraordinary odyssey, a rugby battle against huge odds as a team of essentially local lads tried to maintain a place at the top table of English club rugby.
Three times they won promotion to the top flight and at one stage enjoyed three seasons on the bounce with the big boys but ultimately the venture ended in failure. The maths simply didn’t add up in the professional game but they gave it their best shot before finally tumbling out of the Premiership for the last time in 1999.
As they slipped down the Leagues, West have had to reset and recalibrate, trying not to think too much of their illustrious past while finding their new status in the brave new world. Recently they have been enjoying life in Northumberland/ Durham 1 playing old local rivals such as Hartlepool Rovers, Stockton, Whitley Bay, Percy Park and Novocastrians. Some things never change.