Who's Who

Your Executive Committee:

Dawson Daglish, Chairman	Steve Coxon	Shaun Tumelty	Ian Innes

back to top

Club Membership

Membership of the club is not restricted and a small annual membership fee is payable prior to the commencement of the season.  The club raises the remainder of the necessary funds through sponsorship and other fund raising ideas.  Sponsorship is a way of ensuring you don't have to pay too much for your football.

For more information please e-mail rutherfordafc@hotmail.com or call in to our club house.  Maps and directions are available here.

The General Committee of fourteen members consists of elected representatives voted by the members at the Annual General Meeting.  Most equipment is provided, all players are asked to bring is boots, shin guards and of course, themselves!!!

back to top

Rutherford A. F. C  -  A Club History

The club was formed in 1878 as Science and Art F. C. involving the masters and pupils of the school, which was later to change it's name to Rutherford after it's founder Dr John Hunter Rutherford.  The club became a founder member of the Northumberland Football Association in 1883.

Known at the turn of the century as "The famous amateur club from Newcastle" local leagues competed in were the Northern Alliance, Northern Combination and the Northern Amateur Leagues; all now joined under the auspices of the Wade Associates Northern Football Alliance.

In the early years the club competed in the Northumberland F. A. Senior Cup and reached the semi-final on three occasions, each time losing out the eventual winners, Newcastle United "A".

The club joined the North Eastern Amateur League in the late 1920's and the club remained in this competition until the late 1950's when the Tyneside Amateur League was formed by the then Rutherford chairman Tommy Heslop.

Rutherford rejoined the North Eastern Amateur League in the mid 1980's and won promotion to the Northern Alliance Division Two in 1994.  The first eleven gained promotion to the Northern Football Alliance Division One in 1998-99.

back to top

The 1800's

From the formation to the turn of the century the club mainly played in friendly matches but competed in both the Northumberland F. A. Senior, Minor and Junior Cup competitions.

The club's first ground was the Town Moor, Newcastle and the side regularly met the likes of Berwick Rangers, Gateshead Swifts, Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End.

One of the earliest recorded games following the club's formation in 1878 is a Northumberland F. A. Senior Cup defeat by North Eastern in 1888.  The next season (1888-89) the juniors won the Northumberland Junior Cup for the first time before completing a further success in the same competition the following year.  In the 1891-92 season the club - then known as Science and Art FC - lost a Senior Cup tie to Newcastle West End who later that year amalgamated with Newcastle East End to form the club now known as Newcastle United F. C.

In 1889 the club secured tenure of a ground at North Road, Gosforth.  The club magazine "Ours" shows the following seasonal record for the club in May 1890:

The seniors won the Northumberland FA Minor Cup in 1890 and again in 1896, whilst the juniors repeated successive Junior Cup wins in 1895 and 1896.

Subsequent years the club - now known as Rutherford College FC - lost Senior Cup games to Willington (1893-94), Shankhouse (1895-96) and Rendal the following season.  In the 1896-97 season Rutherford beat Hexham Excelsior and St Peters Albion to set themselves up with a Senior Cup semi-final tie with Newcastle United Reserves.

A match report in the Evening Chronicle of Saturday 25 September 1896 shows that United won 4-2 after a mammoth battle.  Colin Veitch captained Rutherford on this day.  Veitch impressed United to such a degree that he later transferred to them and subsequently captained the Magpies to League Championship and FA Cup glory as well as being capped six times for England.

In the 1897-98 season the club had another good run in the Senior Cup and a hat-trick each from Patterson and Angus Davenport helped Rutherford to a 7-3 win against Berwick Rangers.  The side again met Newcastle United Reserves at the semi-final stage and this time went down 3-5 at St. James' Park.

The following two seasons saw Rutherford knocked out of the Senior Cup by Seaton Burn and a terrible 1-15 defeat against Morpeth Harriers in 1899-1900 which to this day in still the record defeat for the club.

back to top

Clan Rutherford

Nec Sorte Nec Fato - Neither By Chance Nor Fate

The clan Rutherford comes from the lands of Rutherford near Maxton in Roxburgshire and there are two possible origins of the name.  One explanation is that Rutherford is derived from "Rue the Ford", a name given to a site on the Tweed where an English army abandoned a strong position to attack a Scottish force on the other bank, but were soundly defeated for their troubles.  The other explanation says that a man named Ruther guided an ancient king of Scots over a little known ford in River Tweed, helping him to attain victory of the Northumbrians.  According to the story, the King then rewarded Ruther with a grant of land named after the crossing.

The earliest records of this name come from the early tenth century and since that time the Rutherfords have had a strong military tradition, being fierce defenders of their lands, especially against the English.  One instance of this was during the Battle of Red Swire at Carterfell in July 1575.  During a meeting that was made for the purpose of negotiations, an English army attacked a Scots army and initially drove them back.  However, a force led by Thomas Rutherford ("The Black Laird of Edgerston") was able to defeat the English force and capture several of it's officers.

The Rutherford Coat of Arms:

back to top