The Club
Pocklington has a rugby tradition stretching back to 1879, and Pocklington RUFC is the area’s biggest and oldest sporting organisation. We currently turn out three senior Saturday sides, a Colts XV, an occasional Ladies wide and 12 mini/junior teams from U6 to U17 on Sundays – a combined membership of over 600. Pocklington has won four RFU league championships since 1995, and we lifted the Yorkshire challenge shield in 1976 and 2000. Also in 2000, Pocklington was named Britain’s “Team of the Year” by Rugby World magazine.
Champion Juniors
Three of our junior teams have been Yorkshire champions in recent years and in 2008 Pocklington mini sides were East Yorkshire champions at three out of the four age levels, one also got to a national final at Twickenham where they drew and shared the trophy.
Over the past decade a dozen Pocklington mini players have gone on to win junior International caps, and more than 100 have played for Yorkshire, with several progressing from Pocklington to Premiership outfits. However, Pocklington is not just about star players, we are an open community club that values and encourages all abilities and backgrounds, and thousands of local youngsters have experienced rugby at PRUFC.
Pocklington is known and respected well beyond the Yorkshire boundaries. The annual ‘Pock 7s’ has a national reputation with some 3,000 rugby enthusiasts packing Percy Road every Good Friday. We organize numerous other rugby and social events, raise monies for local charities, and both senior and junior teams go on regular overseas tours. We also take a youth rugby development programme into a dozen local schools.
Community Use
Percy Road is also the headquarters of Pocklington Runners, with a membership of some 150 athletes. It holds weekly club runs for both seniors and juniors, and has its own varied race programme, including staging the Snake Lane 10, one of the north’s top 10 mile road races that attracts 850 runners. In addition the rugby club facilities have been used by various other community groups and organizations.
Not Good Enough
But all of the above success and activity has been achieved in spite of increasingly inadequate facilities. Our current changing rooms are simply too few, too small, are expensive and difficult to maintain and clean, and have antiquated plumbing and wiring. The root has been patched and re-patched, and just to re-roof and replace the old boiler would cost over £50,000, which would still not address the underlying problems. They also do not allow for males and females to change at the same time.
We have looked at various ways of improving our changing facilities, and knocking them down and starting again is clearly a better option than trying to extend or refurbish. Further information about the club can be found at the web site: www.pocklingtonrufc.co.uk
Please email any questions you have about this site to info@shop2supportprufc.co.uk.