Swinton Lions glory years to return

by Tom Rodgers

A new £50,000 project to celebrate the 145-year history of Swinton Lions rugby league club has been launched.

Local schoolchildren will be trained by the BBC to record the memroies and stories of Swinton fans past and present, with the longer stories given to the National Rugby league museum at the end of the project.

Groundless and with crowds dwindling, it seems Swinton Lions's star has fallen.

But for most of the 20th Century the club had a much bigger following than local rivals Salford City Reds.

In 1962 the Station Road ground in Swinton attracted 30,000 people to watch England vs Australia.

And it's not well publicised that Swinton are the third oldest Rugby League club in the world.

The team was formed in 1866 when local cricketers decided to take up football in the winter.

The side had their greatest run of form in 1960s, winning the Rugby Football league in 1962-3 and 1963-4. Three Swinton players also made the squad for the 1966 English tour to Australia.

In 1992 the famous Station Road ground was sold, something which has rankled supporters ever since.

Since then, the club have played their home matches in stadia as far flung as Kersal, Whitefield and Bury.

Swinton will play their 2011 home matches at the soon-to-be-demolished Salford City Reds Willows ground in Weaste.

The Federation of Stadium Communities will manage the project, which will run for two years.