The History of Long Buckby Rugby Football Club.
The club was officially founded in 1875, however the club had been running as a social gathering for three or four years before that with add hoc games arranged. The club originally consisted of around 20/30 players making up the original teams and formed a committee. There were no leagues in the early days only so called "friendly games". The club first played down Mill Hill (Bakesome) and then played at the top of the village for a number of years. The original headquarters for meetings were held at the Peacock pub. Later to be held at The five Bells for a short time. There were no games played during the 1st World War and a number of the players lost their lives. It wasn't until the 1920's that they rented a pitch on what was known as the cricket field. At that time the field was ridge and furrow and it was levelled by hand, filling the bottom of the furrows with coke cinders from the 'gas house'. It was done by two farm labourers called 'John Townsend' and 'Mike Lee' using wheelbarrows, spades and forks but no mechanical equipment. They set up the original land drainage for the pitch.
In the field was a 1st World War army hut and in 1924 it was bought by the club for its first dressing rooms. This was on the site of where the club is today. It was just one large hut which was converted into three rooms. Galvanised tanks were put in each dressing room and a solid coke boiler and hot water storage tank were put in the middle room to get the bath water. The tanks are still in existence today on the present Presidents farm. In the late 1930's the club held its meetings at The Horseshoe when the landlords son Ken Warner played for them.
The team often travelled long distance, in the early days it would take all day because of travelling by pony and cart. Later fixtures were reached by train. These were still friendly fixtures. The leagues did not develop until the 1980/90's. The first clubhouse was built in 1958 adjacent to the dressing rooms and cost a staggering £750. It was a wooden building.
The old wooden dressing rooms were knocked down in 1970 and the new dressing rooms were built. The new dressing rooms had a flat roof to allow for future building up. This was done quicker than expected and the new bar was opened in 1974. The old wooden clubhouse was sold to Yelvertoft Youth Club and Scouts and was used by them until 2004.
In the 1980's the club ran 4/5 teams on a regular basis and they played at 'the berges' and other venues.
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