The playing of the game of rugby in Ampthill can be traced back, via local news archives, as far as 1881. Reformed after WWII in 1950 the current club, Ampthill & District Community Rugby Union Football Club Ltd was incorporated in 1959 as a company limited by guarantee.
The club originally played on a pitch located in Ampthill Park, then another in Station Road before acquiring the first 3 acres of its current home in 1958 from local farmer A J Woodward for the sum of £300! Despite levelling, ploughing and seeding the ground was unusable for the 1958/59 season thus a further year was spent playing at Station Road. A further 2 acres were soon acquired with the help of a grant from Bedfordshire Playing Fields Association and a loan from the RFU while changing facilities remained primitive and were located at the rear of what is now Parkside Hall.
The current clubhouse was built in 1980 and extended in the 1993. More recently, the club has attained Accredited Club Status from the RFU, has increased its playing pitches by adding a further 2 full-size pitches thus ensuring the future of the club and first-class rugby facilities for everyone.
This well attended and successful club for the whole community has teams from U6’s through every age group up to seniors and veterans. The clubhouse is loaded to the rafters with silverware and trophies from regional, national and international competitions.
The mini & youth section was started in 1971, sometime before the concept was adopted by the RFU, by the current President David Williams who was asked by the local cub scout master if he could organise rugby training so that the pack members could obtain their ‘Sports’ badge. The Mini & Youth section, having gone from strength to strength, has now reached unprecedented numbers and has a deserved reputation for excellence second to none in the Constituency Body. More recently the advent of girls (U15 & U18) squads has seen the clubs playing membership hit record levels.
A possibly unique achievement was the introduction of more than 450 US servicemen to rugby during the 1970s & 80s. Mostly stationed at RAF Chicksands, some would arrive by air transport on a Thursday and play their first game on the Saturday! Eventually there were enough players to form an ‘extra’ team, a name that lives on in the current 3rdXV.
Practically every age group has achieved regional or national notoriety and we have had many players pass through our club on their way to Championship, Premiership and International Rugby.
The club aspires to be the most ‘professional’ community rugby club in the country, we aim to offer the best possible player development environment through high quality coaches, support staff and volunteers to aid players of all abilities to reach their potential.
In 2019 the club achieved promotion to the Greene King IPA Championship for the 2019/20 season and have finished seventh the last two seasons.
The club clinched sixth place during the 2021/22 season.
