The Bingham Cup came to Manchester.

The First XV

The First XV played in the University of Salford Division 5 East, captained by Matt Whiteley with Dean Bee as vice captain. It opened with three straight wins: Tyldesley 3 beaten 36–14, Littleborough 3 by 24–14 and Aldwinians 5 by 76–10. By 20 September 2011 the club stood first in the division on points difference. The side trained on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9pm and played on Saturdays. The last scheduled league game for the First XV was set for 21 April 2012.

Recruitment and a second team

Winning the right to host the Bingham Cup, ahead of a rival bid from Sydney, had brought a large influx of new players and a wider interest in the club, and the club looked to develop a second team from those recruits. Neil Mason is recorded as Second XV captain for the season, his entry in the club’s roll of honour carrying the annotation (BC12). At the annual general meeting the following July the chair, Steve Farmiloe, summarised the year as continuing to build a stable platform for the club, with recruitment a clear strength, and Matt Whiteley reported increased playing numbers and significantly improved training attendance.

The Bingham Cup comes to Manchester

Manchester had won the right to host the sixth Bingham Cup on 29 September 2010, beating Sydney by six votes. The bid had been launched that August in partnership with Visit Manchester, Marketing Manchester and Manchester City Council, with the backing of the Rugby Football Union, letters of support from the Kings Cross Steelers and the Caledonian Thebans, and Gareth Thomas and Ben Cohen as its ambassadors. Alex Smith, then club chair, chaired the bid committee, with Paul Wheeler on communications, David Brewster on travel and logistics and Marlon Morais on sponsorship. Written into it from the start was an undertaking to covenant any profit back to International Gay Rugby, to fund a bursary helping players reach future tournaments.

The tournament itself was staged at Broughton Park RFC at Hough End, a club founded in 1882 with six pitches and an enclosed championship ground, from Friday 1 to Sunday 3 June 2012, officially sponsored by the Rugby Football Union. Those had been the bid’s preferred dates, chosen to fall on the Diamond Jubilee weekend of Queen Elizabeth II. Registration opened on 9 September 2011, early entry closed on 31 December, and standard registration ran to 1 April 2012.

It was the tournament at which the Bingham Cup changed scale. Thirty three teams had registered by the spring, which the organisers recorded as one of the highest levels yet, and the competition assembled the largest field of inclusive clubs in its history to that point. More than a thousand players and supporters came to Manchester, one club account putting the number of participants at 1,500, and the club estimated the weekend at over two million pounds to the city’s economy, a figure its own records give variously as that and as hundreds of thousands. Every Bingham Cup since has been a tournament on that scale.

Teams travelled from across the world. The Melbourne Chargers, founded only in 2009, made the front cover of their local GLBTI newspaper as they prepared to depart, and Dean Beck, a broadcaster with JOY 94.9 in Melbourne, wrote to the Village Spartans captain asking for a short video message of encouragement for them, promising to follow the Chargers through the tournament on his radio shows.

The weekend opened with a ceremony at Manchester Town Hall on the Friday evening. Nigel Owens led the refereeing team. City Therapy supplied physiotherapists and sports masseurs across the three days. Ben Cohen turned out during the tournament and decided to play for both sides. A Sydney team won the final. The closing event was held at Manchester’s Palace Hotel on the Sunday and featured the Manchester 2012 ambassador and former British and Irish Lions captain Gareth Thomas.

Delivering it fell to the club’s own members. Paul Wheeler was communications director. Matt Whiteley sat on the delivery team with responsibility for RFU and International Gay Rugby liaison and for the tournament’s rules and structure, brought in sponsors and partners, and organised the closing party. Dean Bee served as the club’s liaison. The photography and footage that survives was contributed by Ryan McGrath for Gaydar.net, by Grant Davis Williams and by Kevin Scott, and the tournament logos and graphic designs were the work of Gavin Burnett.

The club’s own verdict, recorded at the annual general meeting six weeks later, was characteristically level: the competition had run well with no major complaints about the event itself, the club had performed well as a whole and achieved a decent result, and the tournament had raised the club’s profile generally and within the RFU, which was expected to help with sponsorship and liaison. It was set down as the key event of the year and one that further built the club’s reputation.

The fuller measure of it came later. The club drew on the experience of delivering Manchester 2012 when it bid to host the Union Cup in 2019, and when the Ottawa Wolves bid for the 2020 tournament they placed Manchester in the line of hosts that had made the Bingham Cup what it had become.

The club off the field

Gareth Longley was PR and Communications Officer, and Neil Mason was club President. The annual general meeting was held on 28 July 2012, with Ste Farmiloe, Ben Short, Wayne Eastman, Brett Dawson, David Fox, Ste Sharpe, Neil Mason, Karl Bee, Iain Shiels, Richard Harrop, Martin Owens, Stan Sandland, Drew Hastie, Matt Whiteley, Gareth Longley, Brad Allen, Martin Halsall, James Hand, Nathan Moran, Ste McQuen, Dean Bee and Bing Kuan recorded as attending.

The year’s awards

Dean Bee was Player of the Year and Alex Smith took the Players Player award. Steve Sharpe was Best New Comer and Rich Harrop Most Improved. Tez Law finished as highest try scorer with nineteen. Karl Bee won the Queens Boots, and Steve Joyce was Supporter of the Year. The Chair’s Award went not to an individual but to all members of the Bingham Cup 2012 committee.

The tournament itself lasted a weekend. The players it brought in, and the standing it gave the club within the RFU, outlasted it.