London S Oldest Rugby Clubs

A comprehensive guide to every London rugby club that is over 100 years old - whether or not they are still playing.

Rugby League is a northern Working Class sport. Since its inception, when breaking away from the Rugby Football Union in 1895 over the issue of "Broken Time Payments," it has been entrenched in what is now known as its "Northern Heartlands." The sport has tried to break away many times from these heartlands and establish itself in other areas of the country. This is the story of one of these attempts when it attempted, and very nearly succeeded, to establish itself in the Capital. The 1930s was the decade to try and break into London. Only years after the Empire Stadium at Wembley opened and hosted, for the first time, the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final. The Northern Working Class was moving around the country to find work and professional sport was growing in popularity. Using letters from the owners of the clubs in London, supporters and from the Rugby Football League the book shows how close Rugby League came to establishing itself in London with initially 2 well run teams and eventually what could have been, as originally planned, a 6 team Southern Division. The Rugby League landscape and the sporting landscape of Britain as a whole could have been very different.

Discover facts, fiction, trivia and history of some of London’s boroughs that you may not have known before. All of this done whilst visiting some very interesting pubs and getting some exercise to boot! Why not read and discover about a reputed spy for Russia, who lived in a quiet suburb unbeknownst to her neighbours for decades after WWII? Or learn about Her Majesty the Queen’s beasts and what they mean? Find out about the Fighting Temeraire and the part it played in the Battle of Trafalgar. And finally, uncover the Great Fires of London, but not the one everyone talks about. A wealth of factoids which will astound your friends and family and could very well prepare you for some quiz nights!

Originally published in 1928, this is a wonderfully comprehensive look at 'rugger'. It includes personal reminiscences of some of the top players from the 1900s and goes on to offer a complete training and tactics guide. Illustrated throughout with photographs and diagrams, the book still has much practical advice to offer the modern rugby enthusiast, as well as the historical interest. Many of these earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Applying for medical school needn't be such a daunting prospect with this book on your side. Packed with insight, tips, and information you won't find anywhere else, the second edition of So you want to be a doctor? is an essential guide to the application process from start to finish. Over 100 medical students and admissions tutors have contributed to unique profiles of every medical school in the UK. An insider point-of-view on each school is complemented by straight-forward rankings of each school by the cost of living, the difficulty of the course, and the competition for each place. With such a comprehensive and honest survey of UK medical schools, choosing the right one for you has never been easier. Alongside these profiles, this guide is packed with practical advice for every step of the application process. Find out what kind of work experience is best, and how to go about getting it. Prepare for your interview with an updated chapter including sample questions taken from the direct experience of successful medical school candidates. Ace your UKCAT or BMAT by learning how to approach the tests strategically and practising with the included sample questions. So you want to be a doctor? Then you'll need this book!

From the myth of William Webb Ellis to the glory of the 2003 World Cup win, this book explores the social history of rugby union in England. Ever since Tom Brown’s Schooldays the sport has seen itself as the guardian of traditional English middle-class values. In this fascinating new history, leading rugby historian Tony Collins demonstrates how these values have shaped the English game, from the public schools to mass spectator sport, from strict amateurism to global professionalism. Based on unprecedented access to the official archives of the Rugby Football Union, and drawing on an impressive array of sources from club minutes to personal memoirs and contemporary literature, the book explores in vivid detail the key events, personalities and players that have made English rugby. From an era of rapid growth at the end of the nineteenth century, through the terrible losses suffered during the First World War and the subsequent ‘rush to rugby’ in the public and grammar schools, and into the periods of disorientation and commercialisation in the 1960s through to the present day, the story of English rugby union is also the story of the making of modern England. Like all the very best writers on sport, Tony Collins uses sport as a prism through which to better understand both culture and society. A ground-breaking work of both social history and sport history, A Social History of English Rugby Union tells a fascinating story of sporting endeavour, masculine identity, imperial ideology, social consciousness and the nature of Englishness.

Volume two of a bibliography documenting all that has been written in the English language on the history of sport and physical education in Britain. It lists all secondary source material including reference works, in a classified order to meet the needs of the sports historian.