Ballymena R.F.C. Ballymena Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in the town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland , playing in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League . It is affiliated to the Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union . The club fields 5 adult teams and an under-20 team. In youth rugby there are under-18, under-16 and under-14 teams. The incoming club captain for the 2020/21 season will be David Sloan .Formation Ballymena RFC was first affiliated to the Northern Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union in 1887, but the Club as we know it today, began after the First World War , in 1922, and entered the Junior League in the 1923-24 season, playing their games in the local Demesne. Within the next 10 years, they twice won both the Provincial Towns· Cup and the Junior Challenge Cup, and even competed, albeit with little success, in the Senior Challenge Cup. The Post War Era At the end of the Second World War , the Club reformed, and were now playing at the Showgrounds, using the changing facilities provided by Ballymena Academy , whose Headmaster, the late W.H. Mol, had taken over the position of Club President. Ballymena a Senior Club After a number of successful years, which produced successive Junior League Championship wins in 1950-51 and 1951–52, an application was made to the Ulster Branch for admission to the senior ranks, and so, in the 1952-53 season, Ballymena became a Senior Club. Two years later, they moved to their present home at Eaton Park , then a modest 9 acres, which they had acquired from the Mid-Antrim Sports Association, and where other sports like Cricket, Tennis, Men’s Hockey and later Athletics, were being catered for. Only the first of these has survived, and continues to flourish as a very successful and thriving Section of the Club. The following couple of decades saw Eaton Park expand to 30-odd acres, and the erection of a pavilion, a function hall, training floodlights, a grandstand and a clubhouse with kitchen facilities. Success After acquiring senior status in 1952, Ballymena had to wait ten years for their next playing success, winning the Senior Cup in 1962-63, benefiting from the leadership and superb place-kicking of captain Jonathan Moffett . This was followed by a number of lean years, which, however, still produced Internationals like Syd Millar , a past-President of the I.R.F.U., and a past-Chairman of the International Rugby Board , Barton McCallan and the legendary W.J. McBride. Trail Blazers In 1970, Ballymena blazed a trail in Irish rugby by appointing a principal coach, adopting a squad system and setting up a club coaching scheme, and the stage was set for the golden decade that was to follow, during which Ballymena were arguably the foremost club in Ulster and Ireland . They contributed many players to the Ulster Provincial side and to the Irish International team during this period, which came to a climax in 1980 with a major Club tour to Canada.Honours All-Ireland League: 1 * 2002-03 Ulster Senior Cup: 14 * 1962-63, 1969–70, 1974–75, 1976–77, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1995–96, 1996–97, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2011–12, 2012–13 Ulster Senior League: 14 *1972-73, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1985–86, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2015–16 Ulster Towns Cup: 13 * 1927-28, 1931–32, 1952–53, †1962-63, †1969-70, †1972-73, †1973-74, †1976-77, †1978-79, †1990-91, †1993-94, †1999-2000, †2004-05 Ulster Junior Cup: 8 * 1928-29, 1929–30, †1971-72, †1972-73, †1997-98, †1999-2000, †2000-01, †2004-05 † Won by 2nd XVNotable players Ireland The following Ballymena players have represented Ireland at full international level. The following Ballymena players have also represented the British and Irish Lions See also 2009/10 Squad Full-backs: Ricky Andrew , John Nicholl, Jamie Smith Wings: Stephen Castle, Roger McBurney, Tommy Seymour Centres: Matthew Banks , Chris Brigl, Peter Budina, Michael Smith , Alan Smyth , Andrew Trimble, Paddy Wallace, Ian Whitten Out-halves: P. Campbell, Rory Drysdale, Ian Humphreys , Luke Marshall Scrum-halves: Isaac Boss, GaretVh Fisher, Allen McCluggage, Richard McCrudden, David O'Hara Front-rows: James ‘Slim boy’ Carson, Andrew ‘Baton’ Ferguson, Adrian Kirkpatrick, Simon Shawe, Bryan Young Hookers: John Burns, Chris Cundell, James ‘wkd’ Taggart, Andrew ‘big license’ Warwick Second-rows: Darren Best, Matt McCullough, Darrell O'Kane, Chris Smyth, Dan Tuohy , Mark Wilson, Bob Young Wing-forwards: Joel Andrew, Mark Connaughty, Ryan Fisher, Ross Hackney, Andrew Kerr, Paul Pritchard , Paul Smith Number 8s: Chris Henry, Sam McKinney Pan's: Mikey Smith, Jamie Smith
Popular articles Javier Milei - Argentine libertarian economist, author, radio conductor and public speaker sympathetic to the Austrian School of economic thought. He became widely known for his regular ...Jimmy Carter - American politician, philanthropist, and former farmer who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previ...UEFA Euro 2024 - The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship , commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 or simply Euro 2024 , will be the 17th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial internationa...Argentina - country located mostly in the southern half of South America. Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is also b...Sam Altman - American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the former president of Y Combinator and now the CEO of OpenAI. Early life and education. ...Rosalynn Carter - American who served as First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. For decades, she has been a leading advocate for numerou...Next Argentine presidential election - Next Argentine presidential election - presidential election in Argentina....Popular movies The Hunger Games (film) - 2012 American dystopian action thriller science fiction-adventure film directed by Gary Ross and based on Suzanne Collins’s 2008 novel of the same name. It is the first insta...untitled Captain Marvel sequel - part of Marvel Cinematic Universe....Killers of the Flower Moon (film project) - Killers of the Flower Moon - film project in United States of America. It was presented as drama, detective fiction, thriller. The film project starred Leonardo Dicaprio, Robert De Niro. Director of...Five Nights at Freddy's (film) - Five Nights at Freddy's - film published in 2017 in United States of America. Scenarist of the film - Scott Cawthon....Popular video games Minecraft - sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios. Created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language and released as a public alpha for personal computers in 2...Grand Theft Auto V - 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since 2008's Grand Theft ...Roblox - online game platform and game creation system that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Founded by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released in...Baldur's Gate III - upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios for Microsoft Windows and the Stadia streaming service. It is the third main game in the Baldur's ...Alan Wake - action-adventure video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios, released for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The story follows best-selling thri...Fortnite - online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ...Super Mario RPG - is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1996. It was directed by Yoshihiko Maekawa and Chihiro Fujioka and produced by...Popular books Book of Revelation - The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament, and consequently is also the final book of the Christian Bible. Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: apok...Book of Genesis - account of the creation of the world, the early history of humanity, Israel's ancestors and the origins...Gospel of Matthew - The Gospel According to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and one of the three synoptic gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, rejected and executed in Israel, pronounces judgement on ...Michelin Guide - Michelin Guides are a series of guide books published by the French tyre company Michelin for more than a century. The term normally refers to the annually published Michelin Red Guide , the oldest...Psalms - The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms , the Psalter or "the Psalms", is the first book of the Ketuvim , the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and thus a book of th...Ecclesiastes - Ecclesiastes is one of 24 books of the Tanakh , where it is classified as one of the Ketuvim . Originally written c. 450–200 BCE, it is also among the canonical Wisdom literature of the Old Tes...The 48 Laws of Power - non-fiction book by American author Robert Greene. The book...Popular television series The Crown (TV series) - historical drama web television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, created and principally written by Peter Morgan, and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Tel...Friends - American sitcom television series, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast sta...Young Sheldon - spin-off prequel to The Big Bang Theory and begins with the character Sheldon...Modern Family - American television mockumentary family sitcom created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for eleven seasons, from September 23...Loki (TV series) - upcoming American web television miniseries created for Disney+ by Michael Waldron, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, shar...Game of Thrones - American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It...Shameless (American TV series) - American comedy-drama television series developed by John Wells which debuted on Showtime on January 9, 2011. It...
OWIKI.org . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.