About Us
The Anvils were formed in 1997 after a conversation between former Orrell players Barry Fishwick and Colin Nicholson who were concerned at the lack of Rugby Union being played at Orrell in the professional era. Colin agreed to coach the side and with the help of John MacDermott John Yates and Bert Wilkinson, they set about recruiting players old and new, and even managed to talk some out of retirement. The first season was played in the name of one of Orrells most successful sides,the third team,and was made up mainly of young players with ex 1st teamers Dick Fisher Dave Cleary and Tony Pegg providing the experience.
Expertly led by captain Mike Webb the team went from strength to strength winning 21 of 22 matches played that season,and thanks must be given to the then director of rugby Sammy Southern for his help in getting it up and running,he even turned out a couple of times when we had a prop shortage.
With fixtures becoming increasingly hard to get, it was decided to apply to the Rugby Football Union to enter the league system, this was initially turned down as they said you cannnot have two sides from the same club playing in the leagues. Not taking no as an answer, Bertie Wilkinson worked tirelessly till the RFU finally agreed to our plans,as long as we had our own constitution and a different name. So Orrell 3rd team became Orrell Anvils, also Berts idea, the anvil logo coming from Orrells history as a nail making village.
We believe we were the first club in England to do this. It created quite a stir and soon other clubs including Manchester, West Park (St.Helens), Sale and Wharfedale followed suite.
Season 1998/99 saw us in South Lancs and Cheshire Division 4, missing out on promotion by one point,after having two points deducted for fielding an unregistered player. Towards the end of this season Colin and his team were asked to take over Orrells second team,with Mike Webb and Tony Pegg taking over the running of the Anvils.
The following season with former first teamer's Jeff Huxley Steve Taberner and England winger Nigel Heslop strengthing the squad,our goal of promotion was achieved with two games remaining,winning every league game,and scoring over 500 points in the process.
In the seasons up to the present time the captaincy has changed hands,first to Paul Stokes and then on to Andy Unsworth with Andy helping to coach the side with Steve Huxley,Rob Jones and Brenden O'Keefe all putting time and effort in under difficult circumstances. One more promotion was achieved in this period,despite not being allowed to play at Edge Hall Rd during the Dave Whelan years.
Various grounds have been used since then, Abraham Guest, Winstanley College and our current home John Rigby College
The start of season 2006/07 saw us in South Lancs and Cheshire Division 2, but because the professional side were struggling for players,five or six key players were re registered for Orrell RU, resulting in the Anvils being unable to fulfill their fixtures and withdrawing from the league. With the professional side struggling and facing another relegation battle,a group of former players including Tony Havlin, Colin Nicholson, Jimmy Williams, Dick Fisher Derek Ashcroft, John Yates,and Dave Hewlit with John Carleton as president, decided that in their view the professional model wasn't working,and the only way to keep a rugby union side in the Orrell area viable, that wasn't haemorrhaging money,was to revert back to being an amateur Club. After failing to convince the Orrell R U committee of the merits of this, they decided to try and breathe new life back into the Anvils, and at the time of writing we have just been re instated back into South Lanc's and Cheshire Division 2 for 2007/08 season.
