NFR London Broncos

[Russianrob]

Formerly known as FULHAM Rugby League Club.Promoted to the top league last night.Another feather in the Fulham cap!!

[gang]

Very exiting game London won 4-2. This is the last time promotion will be decided by the playoffs as the structure will be changed for next season.
London play at the Trailfinders Sports Club, Ealing.

[SP]

Some great memories, good luck to them.

[paulbrookersmazydribbles]

A fantastic achievement. Well done to the Broncos!

[Vinnieffc]

My FoF piccie is the ex Missus Vinnie wearing the Fulham RL shirt back in 83.  Yes we're both divorced and remarried and still good mates (yes it can and does happen)..

[Russianrob]

Nice story Vinnie.My new wife is a heathen and does not support Fulham but what can you expect from a Russian female!!

[grandad]

Really loved our short venture into the world of Rugby League. That first season was great to watch.

[Stoneleigh Loyalist]

Back in the 80s we went to the Lyric Hammersmith to see a play by Colin Welland.

To our surprise he was in the audience with the whole of the Fulham Broncos team.

Was he a Director of the club?

They certainly more than filled each of their seats up as they were big lads!

[Marinelloguthrie]

Actually good memories if i remember rightly reggie Bowden and cambriani or something similar.
Still got the programmes, obviously the only but a massive problem was the pitch being cut to bits when our team played football on the ground.

We really are a special club 😁

[gang]

Reggie Bowden and the others could not believe the money Clay was willing to pay them, my wife still remembers Van Bellan charging into the opposition.

[gang]

Back in the 80s we went to the Lyric Hammersmith to see a play by Colin Welland.

To our surprise he was in the audience with the whole of the Fulham Broncos team.

Was he a Director of the club?

They certainly more than filled each of their seats up as they were big lads!

The Broncos name came a lot later.

[Holders]

Yes, they started off as Fulham but I have no interest since the name change. 1. why? 2. a lot of "broncos" in London, are there?

[Penfold]

The name change took place in 1991 from Fulham to London Crusaders. At the time, the club had not played in Fulham since 1984 and had had no relationship with FFC in the same time period. They felt a London theme may attract a wider support. The Broncos tag was adopted after Brisbane Broncos had links with the club. For a while they were Harlequins RL but that didn't go well.

[Holders]

What I can't understand is why so many Rugby clubs have taken to using incongruous suffixes - there's no "broncos" in London and no native American "chiefs" in Exeter so far as I know.

[deadcowboys]

Colin Welland offered me a lift to a game one rainy day at Chiswick Poly back in the day, nice man. Season Ticket holder at Fulham, Broncos & Quins with 2 of the 3 having great seasons. Broncos probably have the rugby league equivalent of Fulham's youth set up. Lots of talented South East boys producing the goods. Very few Aussies & a few northerners. May have taken 38 years to get here but things appear to be on the up.

God knows how many home grounds we've played at but all felt like home except Stamford Bridge.

They use Brocos, Chiefs whatever for marketing Holders. Perhaps a little more inventive than football's Town, Utd, City or Albion!!

[gang]

After the first season promotion Fulham played and won  a challenge match against Bradford Northern after they had said Fulham wouldn't survive in the first division. I was a guest of Harold Genders who was the founder of the club, Fulham won the game but unfortunately Bradford were proved right and Fulham were relegated.

[cmg]

Great memories. Who expected that first win over Wigan (admittedly one of the poorest Wigan sides in history, but still the RL equivalent of Manchester United.
A side cobbled together from some excellent top pros at the end of their careers (Eckersley and Karalius had played for Great Britain) led by the inspirational Reggie Bowden.
A great feature was that all the players joined the fans for after match beers. Tony Karalius had some entertaining stories, mostly concerning his brother the legendary Vince.
Beating Bradford Northern was one of the most satisfying of results. I have many friends from Bradford and Rugby League was the only area of superiority over London they could justifiably claim - until that night!

Question for any RL fans: Who was the only man to gain a Great Britain cap as a Fulham player? It was against the all-conquering Aussie side - the greatest Rugby side of either code I ever saw.

[deadcowboys]

The 1 and only John Dalgreen. Bit of a thug at times but very good hooker who would have played more for GB if he played anywhere other than Fulham/Crusaders/Broncos/Quins/ Broncos.

Harshly banned for life before common sense prevailed.

[deadcowboys]

Actually Dalgreen's attitude of "they wont get past me" would be quite handy in Fulham's midfield & with a lot more style than Michael Brown or Peter Storrie could manage.  :005:

[cmg]

The 1 and only John Dalgreen. Bit of a thug at times but very good hooker who would have played more for GB if he played anywhere other than Fulham/Crusaders/Broncos/Quins/ Broncos.

Harshly banned for life before common sense prevailed.

Spot on!  :54:

Could be quite frightening.
I remember being amazed at his 'life' ban and then highly amused when, on appeal, it was reduced to two weeks!
Probably got the GB nod on the back of his display for Fulham against the Aussies. The Aussie's centres at CC (11,000 crowd) were Wally Lewis and Gene Miles, two all-time greats who, along with Mark Ella, couldn't get into the Test team.