All Spartans RUFC formed in 1980 – 1981 season, residing in many club houses in Mansfield and Sutton – in – Ashfield, starting off at the Dial Inn, Mansfield, and then moving on to New Cross, Damans Head and Golden Diamond in Sutton, Before finally resting at The Hosiery Mills Club, where we fielded 2 senior teams a colts side, an under 14’s, under 13’s and a ladies team.
(Click Picture to go to History Album)
Chairmen’s were Vic Wilkes, Steve Goodhall, Carl Boaler, and Joe Higgins, 1st Team Captains were Arnie Brown (Current Coach), John Chambers, and Gary Needham (Current Rugby Development Officer). 2nd Team Captains were Keith Freestone (Current Vice Chairman), Steve Goodhall, Tommy Everback, Tommy Murry, and Phil Taffy.

All Spartans RUFC won numerous trophies in this Era including the NLD (ThreeCounties Plate 1995 / 96 Season), beating Sleaford RUFC 1st XV in the final at Matlock, We won the Fleetwood Trophy 3 Times thus retaining the trophy, We also reached many semi finals of local cup competitions and we were a well-known club throughout Notts. Lincs. And Derbys. At the end of this Era we won the Notts Junior Cup against Ashfield Swans in 96 / 97 Season, and amalgamated with them right after the final whistle to form Ashfield RUFC.

We were then known as Ashfield RUFC From 97/98 Season until 2003/ 04 season, winning many cup and league competitions. Brett Coupe (Now Chairman and Captain of All Spartans RUFC) was the second team captain at Ashfield RUFC, where he, Keith and Dean freestone gathered together an impressive young second team made up of mostly former Spartans colts players. In this period Ashfield 2nd XV won numerous trophies including the Nottinghamshire second team trophy beating Ollerton 2nd XV in a thrilling final, watched by hundreds at Newark.

However after the final success and a winning run of 6 months without a loss, the 1st XV selected a lot of the second team players including Brett Coupe and Dean Freestone, this left the 2nd’s in disarray and without a captain to lead them, and eventually after numerous embarrassing defeats a lot of the second team refused to travel away to play games with only 13 or 14 players, because the 1st XV had selected their best players to go along with the 1st team “just as cover”.

When a lot of the second team players had a word with their old captain Brett Coupe and made him aware how they were being treat, after all the success of the previous season, Brett was disgusted and had heated words with the committee, after hearing the committees views Brett decided that they was only interested in the 1st teams success and he then had to choose between playing for the first team and furthering his own career or leading the second team, so he decided to leave the club and reform Spartans RUFC taking most of the second team with him along to Rainworth using the Robin Hood Pub as a clubhouse.

Also at the end of 2003 / 04 season Some of the Older All Spartans Players were also disgruntled with the way Ashfield RUFC was being run at the managerial level and they were also unhappy at the way the family atmosphere had disappeared so they broke away and set up All Spartans Old Boys RUFC as a Vets side to recreate the All Spartans family atmosphere with the older generation of players. The 1st game was in honour of All Spartans 1st ever chairman Vic Wilkes’s 50th birthday; they then went on to play games to raise money for charity, which they did on numerous occasions.

The younger generation who were now based at the Robin Hood Pub then approached the vet’s side to use their name as it was already registered with NLD, and the Vets agreed and came on board as part of the new committee.

All Spartans Old Boys RUFC as it is now known was formed with Steve Goodhall acting as Chairman and various other “Vets” players taking on committee roles. We played Worksop RUFC 3rd XV in the historic first match after Spartans had reformed and we won convincingly with a team made up of  “Vets” players, former Spartans Colts Players and some new local faces from Rainworth Robin Hood Pub, The team was captained by Dean Freestone.

After a season based at the Robin Hood Pub where we used The Manor School as our home ground, we moved to the Linden Club on Chesterfield Road, and secured the Queen Elizabeth School Pitch as our new home Ground. The Linden Club accepted us with open arms and made us all feel very welcome, they also secured our future with lucrative sponsorship deals from the committee of the Linden Club and Worthington’s Bitter. With our new clubhouse and home pitch secured we went on to play 18 competitive home and away “pool” and cup matches including getting to the semi final of the NLD cup and narrowly missing out to Skegness RUFC 1st XV even though we scored 2 tries to their 0, the score ended up 12-10 after a cruel late penalty dashed our hopes, however later on that season we did reach the Notts Vase final, knocking out Ashfield RUFC on the way, unfortunately we were eventually beaten by West Bridgford RUFC 2nd XV who were just too much for us on the day running out 25 – 14 winners.

Spartans eventually won their 1st silverware (after the reformation) at Mansfield RUFC’s annual 10’s tournament, winning the plate trophy where they beat an impressive Manor School Colts side, and Meden Vale RUFC 1st team on the way to the spectacular final win over Dronfield 1st’s.

In the 2006 / 07 Season we (All Spartans Old Boys RUFC) were accepted into the NLD league structure in the Midlands Division 6 East (NW), also the 2006 AGM brought some changes to the club which freshened things up with Brett Coupe standing for and being elected Captain and Chairman (Making him one of the leagues youngest ever chairman’s) and former 1st team captain from the old Spartans Era Arnie Brown being persuaded to take control of the coaching, We are now well known again throughout the NLD rugby community and are a constant talking point at monthly meetings with good comments being reported about how quickly we have reformed and becoming a prominent force on the NLD rugby scene.

We are always looking for new players of any age, ability, race, creed, sex, national origin, religion or political affiliation and if you interested in becoming a member of one of the fastest growing Rugby clubs in Nottinghamshire (whether playing or social) then please contact our Director of Rugby Lee Watkins on 07824364757, or turn up at the Linden Club on Chesterfield Road, Mansfield any Saturday around 12.00 Noon.

Future Aspirations of the Club.

We hope to be fully affiliated to the RFU for the 2007/08 season, we also hope that All Spartans Old Boys RUFC will work alongside Ollerton RUFC and, Meden Vale RUFC as the main junior clubs in the Mansfield area all working alongside the main senior club Mansfield RUFC whom we have built up a very good relationship over the last 3 seasons, we hope that together us 4 rugby clubs can be a vital part of the local community liaising with local schools and colleges to keep youngsters off the streets and playing Rugby at all levels, eventually building a solid foundation for the regional and national Rugby clubs.

Our main objectives for the near future are for our 1st XV to be playing as high up the Midlands League structure as possible (Preferably Midlands East Division 1), and our 2nd XV to be competing in the Pennant League and cups. We also hope to form a youth team and colts XV with help from local schools such as Queen Elizabeth and All Saints School, both of which are within walking distance of our clubhouse and home ground.