Swinton Lions

Swinton Lions RLFC is an English professional rugby league club from Swinton, Greater Manchester. The club has won the Championship six times and three Challenge Cups. From 2016, Swinton Lions will compete in the Kingstone Press Championship, the second tier of European rugby league (behind the Super League), after winning promotion from League 1. Prior to the 1996 season, the club was known simply as Swinton.

History

Early years

The club was formed on 21 October 1866 when members of Swinton Cricket Club decided to take up "football" in the winter in keep fit. Other than an annual challenge against the local Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (the first of which was recorded on 2 January 1869), the only games played in those early days were amongst the club's own membership.

In 1871 they joined the Rugby Football Union, under the name Swinton and Pendlebury F.C., playing at their first ground located off Station Road (B5231) in the town. Their first game was against Eccles Standard, within 4 or 5 years the team became virtually unbeatable in the Manchester area and beyond. This rise in stature was surprising because Swinton and Pendlebury, at this time, were nothing more than tiny colliery villages with a few cotton mills. However, it also had a large number of local junior teams from which the club drew its talent.