Wharfedale RUFC started life late, by rugby standards, in 1923, when a local doctor and the local vicar were instrumental in the club’s formation. The vicar donated the first ball and also became the first chairman of the selectors, and the doctor became the first captain. The club’s crest has a ram’s head and the White Rose of Yorkshire, and the club motto, “Vis Ex Montibus Venit,” which translates to, “Strength Comes from the Hills.” The club is known locally as the ‘Green Machine.’ By the mid 1930s Wharfedale RUFC’s fixture list included games against Bingley, Huddersfield and Hull, reaching the Yorkshire Cup quarter-finals on more than one occasion. They won the Yorkshire Shield in 1957 and the Yorkshire Cup three times in 2010, 2013 and 2014.

The first recorded game between Harrogate and Upper Wharfedale, as they were known at the time, was 4/2/1933 when the greens won 9 – 6 in an early round of the Yorkshire Cup. Regular fixtures between our two clubs began in 1972 and have continued to the present with league and Yorkshire Cup matches. In the 2015 Yorkshire Cup Final played at West Park, Leeds, Harrogate won 16 – 12.Last week Wharfedale defeated Sheffield Tigers 22 – 8. 2016 was the last time Harrogate won a game against Wharfedale, 20 – 17.