formation of the Widnes club : Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:43 pm  

There's a thread on the TIW site asking about the club's first ever game in 1873. Thought a few people on here might be interested to know that the club website (and Wikipedia) have been updated recently with this very info - or at least with as much certainty as I could find. The club was actually founded in the autumn of 1875, not 1873, and the first game mentioned in the press is Northwich Vics at home in January 1876. more details here... http://www.widnesvikings.co.uk/page.php?id=637 and here (I like the idea of Mr Powell's efficient string band)...

There's a thread on the TIW site asking about the club's first ever game in 1873. Thought a few people on here might be interested to know that the club website (and Wikipedia) have been updated recently with this very info - or at least with as much certainty as I could find. The club was actually founded in the autumn of 1875, not 1873, and the first game mentioned in the press is Northwich Vics at home in January 1876. more details here... http://www.widnesvikings.co.uk/page.php?id=637 and here (I like the idea of Mr Powell's efficient string band)...

Re: formation of the Widnes club : Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:42 am  

And many at the club still celebrate a win in the same way, dancing to a string band until a rather late hour in the morning.

Re: formation of the Widnes club : Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:00 am  

Interesting stuff.

I wrote the original version of that history article in about 1995, based on no original research whatsoever and any errors in it are my fault. Amazing how long it's persisted and good that it's been updated.

Do you know how the 1873 date first came about? I seem to recall that the club had centenary celebrations in 1973, so it's an error that's been around for a while?

Re: formation of the Widnes club : Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:15 am  

JonM wrote:

Interesting stuff.

I wrote the original version of that history article in about 1995, based on no original research whatsoever and any errors in it are my fault. Amazing how long it's persisted and good that it's been updated.

Do you know how the 1873 date first came about? I seem to recall that the club had centenary celebrations in 1973, so it's an error that's been around for a while?

From what I can see, the 1873 date first seems to have got mentioned during the mid-1930s, which of course is the first time the club had any regular success.

For instance the WIdnes Carnival brochure of 1932 has a history of the club but leaves the formation details vague. But as we kept getting to Wembley and the status of the club was increasing, the demand probably arose for a "definitive" date so I suspect a few old-timers were asked and they came up with this guess.

Once you print something like this as "fact" it just gets accepted as so but I was always a bit suspicious because the Centenary Booklet and any other history of the club I've ever read has had absolutely zero evidence of this date and no info at all about those first few years.

It took me a week or two camped out in the Colindale newspaper library in London to unearth this nugget!