Beginnings, 1998 to the summer of 1999

The idea of setting up a rugby team in Manchester for men who identify themselves as gay or bisexual was first discussed in a conversation between two friends, Simon Stanley and Duncan Leckie, at a house party in Manchester in August 1998. Simon had played rugby in the past and was a keen follower of the game, but Duncan had never played, having been put off by his experiences at school. Both were in their late twenties, and both had heard about the Kings Cross Steelers in London, which in 1996 had become the first rugby team specifically set up to provide a supportive playing environment for men who identify as gay or bisexual. “Why don’t we set one up in Manchester?” they asked.

In January 1999 the two met Alan Stone, a representative of the Rugby Football Union, and Chris Galley, then Secretary of the Kings Cross Steelers, at the Metz Bar in Manchester. They came away with helpful advice from Chris about setting up a new club, and with the support of the RFU. The Steelers’ experience had shown that there was a pool of gay and bisexual men who wanted to learn the game for the first time, or to take it up again after stopping.

On 9 March 1999, after several weeks of advertising around Manchester’s gay village and in the local press, the first meeting was held at the Via Fossa bar on Canal Street to see whether enough people were interested in a rugby club. To Simon and Duncan’s delight, fifteen people came, and there followed a lively and enthusiastic discussion about setting one up. Alan Stone was in attendance and announced that he could recommend a coach, David Smyth, who, he went on to mention, “has coached several girls rugby teams”, at which there was much laughter in the room. Alan died a few years later, and the club will always be thankful for the help he provided to the Spartans, for his work with the RFU and for his passion for rugby.

On 24 March 1999 the club’s first training session took place in the indoor sports hall at the Y-Club, Manchester, coached by David Smyth. Over twenty men took part, with a mix of rugby experience, ability and age. Training continued every Wednesday evening, moving after two sessions to the Sugden Centre at Manchester University, and soon there was additional training on Sunday afternoons at the public sports fields at Hough End.

David Smyth proved to be a superb coach for the club. He brought with him many years of playing and coaching experience, was full of enthusiasm and patience, and endeared himself to all its members. A strong bond was formed with him and his family, to the extent that he brought his two sons, Chris and Jonathan, then teenagers and keen rugby players themselves, along to training. His wife, Elaine, later became Treasurer of the Spartans for a few years. David should be credited for much of the success of the Spartans’ formation and establishment.

Through April, May and June 1999 new members joined each week, and friendships were formed over post-training socialising in the gay village. It was during those evenings that possible names were discussed. An early suggestion was the Manchester Village Maulers, village being a reference to the gay village; eventually the Manchester Village Spartans was agreed. A club emblem of a Spartan helmet was designed and a motto decided upon, Unione fortior, roughly, strength through union. Duncan Leckie, by then club Chair, successfully applied for a grant from the NHS Manchester Health Authority towards the hire of the training venues, and the Lesbian and Gay Foundation became a supporter a few years later. Both recognised the positive impact the Spartans were having on the lives of gay, bisexual and indeed straight men given access to sport and exercise.

The first kit and the first parade

Training continued twice weekly through the summer, and it was then that the Kings Cross Steelers, in an act of support, challenged the Manchester Village Spartans to their first rugby match, to take place in August 1999. The Spartans now had an event to prepare for, and training picked up in its intensity. The first rugby kit was generously paid for and sponsored by John Hamilton, the promoter of the club nights Hellfire and Poptastic: the shirt and socks were red, and the collars, cuffs and shorts black. It was received just in time for the Mardi Gras celebrations, and on 28 August 1999 the club joined the parade through the streets of Manchester for the very first time, among the first LGBT sports teams ever to march. The sight of so many men in rugby kit was a huge crowd pleaser, and the Spartans have taken part in every Manchester parade since, through its changes of name to Gayfest and then Pride.

The Armitage Centre, 29 August 1999

The match had been trailed in the national press. On 19 August The Guardian carried a piece by Emma Brockes headed “Out of the locker room”, which gave the kick-off as one o’clock on 29 August at the Manchester University sports complex.

The next day, at the Armitage Centre by Manchester University, the Manchester Village Spartans took on the London Kings Cross Steelers in what is historically the first rugby match in the northern hemisphere between two gay teams. There had previously been a game of touch rugby between two gay teams in Australia; the club records this as the world’s first fifteen a side, eighty minute match of rugby union between two gay sides. Captained by Neil Mason and watched by a crowd of around 200 people, the Spartans had a squad of twenty players and participated as a team for the first time. They put in a tremendous performance, buoyed by the large crowd, and managed two tries, the first from Mick and the second from Chris Smyth. The opposition scored four, and the final score was Spartans 10, Steelers 22.

After the match medals were awarded to all the players by John Hamilton, and the first Spartans Man of the Match award went to Jonathan Mayor. The Steelers were impressed at how far the Spartans had come in such a short time, and among everyone there was a sense of tremendous achievement and celebration. The team photograph taken that day records the front row as Phil, Adie, Simon, Phil, Neil, Spencer, Mick and Andy, and the back row as David Smyth, Paul, Simon, John, Ian, Duncan Leckie, Chris, Matt Ince, Tony, Rob, Jonathan Mayor and Simon Stanley.

Where it left the club

Twelve months separated a conversation at a house party from a rugby club with a name, a crest, a motto, a coach, a kit, a grant and twenty players on a pitch in front of a crowd. The Spartans had lost the match and won everything else that mattered, and the season that followed would be their first full one.