Our history with Birkenhead Park

Birkenhead Park FC were formed in 1871, the same year as the RFU was formed, and for the greater part of the succeeding years were regarded as one of the foremost clubs in England.
During those years the club has fielded 42 international players, including 6 British Lions, and 317 County players.
In 1885 the club moved to the Upper Park ground in Park Road North, Birkenhead, and have remained there until the present day.
Two international games were played there when England played Wales in 1894, and the Ireland v Wales game in 1887 was the first ever international game to be played on a neutral ground.
The club have hosted the All Blacks on four occasions the last one in 1978. During the 1920s two Park three-quarters, H.M. Locke and W.M. Lowry played several times for England and Locke actually captained the side.
Park have hosted the County Finals on two occasions, when Cheshire won their first championship by beating East Midlands in 1950 and again in 1961 when Cheshire were again successful over Devon.
In 1971 which was the centenary of both the RFU and Birkenhead Park FC, Upper Park was the venue for the North of England v RFU President’s Overseas XV.
In 1975 local club Old Birkonians merged with Park and in 1991 Park embarked on an ambitious tour of South America, playing games in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.
As recently as 1991 another notable occasion was when Park played a game against the West Indies International XV at the Upper Park.
The advent of league rugby was not kind to the club and they languished in the South Lancashire and Cheshire Division One for some years before gaining promotion to North West One after season 2000-2001 and the following season they were again promoted into the old North Division One.
They remained at level five until season 2015-2016 when they were relegated back to North West One but in the following season they regained their status in level five via the play-offs.
They have also won the Cheshire Cup on four occasions, in 1878-79-81 and the last time in 2008.
Our history with this famous old club began in season 2004-05 which was our first season in North One and since then we have played them on 12 occasions, winning seven and losing five of those games, all at level 5 covering North One, National Three North and now the Northern Premier Division.
The results are as follows;
2004-05: Hull 40 – Park 15, Park 3 – Hull 53
2005-06: Park 22 – Hull 15, Hull 55 – Park 7
2006-07: Park 13 – Hull 10, Hull 27 – Park 3
2007-08: Hull 0 – Park 51, Park 8 – Hull 38
2008-09: Hull 28 – Park 0, Park 12 – Hull 7
2015-16: Hull 32 – Park 13, Park 16 – Hull 14
One notable feature is that four of Park’s five wins have been at home.  Our team will have to consider this ‘warning from history’.