Old Whitgiftian Rugby Football Club History
The first Old Whitgiftian rugby club was formed in 1876 as 'North Park Whitgift FC'. Unfortunately it proved difficult to raise a regular team comprising solely Old Whitgiftians, and after a few seasons the club became open under the title 'Croydon F.C.', although a strong O.W. influence remained.
Amongst the club's opponents in those early years were such long forgotten and delightful names as The Arabs, The Reindeer, The Swallows and The Buffaloes as well as clubs still active today like The Wasps, London Welsh, London Scottish, Guy's Hospital, Rosslyn Park, Blackheath and Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
In 1901 some younger O.W.s decided to re-form a club exclusively for old boys, and the present O.W.R.F.C. was born. The club was an immediate success, and in 1905 won the old Surrey Cup defeating Custom Sports 21 -3 in the final - a considerable achievement for a club formed just four years earlier!
The club had several home grounds during those early years, but eventually settled in Addiscombe Road, East Croydon, where we played until 1929, when we obtained our current Croham Road headquarters in South Croydon.
The O.W.s' greatest successes came in the 1960s, both at the fifteen-a-side game, and in sevens, in which we reached the Finals of Middlesex competition at Twickenham in six consecutive years – still a record for a junior club. In 1977 we were runners-up in the Surrey RFU Cup.
Over the years the club has provided England with five Internationals (including one British Lion), twelve Oxbridge 'Blues', and numerous County players.
In recent years with the introduction of league Rugby, the club has once again become open to non-Whitgiftian membership. Recent seasons have seen mixed results, but we won the Surrey One League Championship in 1994-95.
In our centenary season 2000-01, our Colts XV won the Surrey RFU Under-18 Championship, and in 2002-03 we won the Surrey RFU Shield.