Lancashire (North)

Lancashire (North)
Current season or competition:
2016–17 Lancashire (North)
SportRugby union
Instituted1987; 37 years ago (1987)
Ceased2017; 7 years ago (2017)
Number of teams12
Country England
HoldersTarleton (2nd title) (2016–17)
(promoted to North Lancashire/Cumbria)
Most titlesDe La Salle (Salford) (7 titles)
WebsiteEngland RFU

Lancashire (North), formerly known as North Lancashire 1 was a regional (tier 8) English Rugby Union league for teams from the South Lancashire and Manchester area. The league champions were promoted to North Lancashire/Cumbria while the runners had a playoff against the runners up from the Cumbria League for the final promotion spot.

The division was initially known as North-West East 1 when it was created in 1987, and had a number of different names since with North Lancashire 1 being the longest running. The most recent version known as Lancashire (North) was set up for the 2015-16 season when the RFU decided to break up the South Lancs/Cheshire league into 3 different zones also included Merseyside (West) and Cheshire (South). The format was not a success and South Lancs/Cheshire was resurrected for the 2016-17 with only Lancashire (North) remaining albeit with 12 teams instead of 14. When it was known as Lancashire Division 1 teams were relegated to North Lancashire 2.

After reinstating the league for one more season, at the end of 2016-17 the RFU again decided to cancel the league. Teams were instead transferred to the new Lancs/Cheshire 3 (North) division - which was created from breaking South Lancs/Cheshire 3 into two regional leagues.[1]

  1. ^ "2017-18 Lancs/Cheshire Division 3 (North)". England Rugby. Retrieved 28 August 2017.