GORTON STREET GAZETTE Today our 1XV will be entertaining Widnes RUFC, who were founded in 1924 as Widnes Secondary School Old Boys RFC. The following year the name was changed to Old Widnesians RFC before becoming an open club in 1959 when, with its new ground and clubhouse at Heath Road, the name changed to Widnes Rugby Union Football Club. The first recorded fixture between Eccles and Widnes we can find in the club archives is from the 1926/27 Season - 4th December,1926 Old Widnesians 1stXV 20 v Eccles 1stXV 8 with the "A" teams playing each other at Eccles. The 1XV teams met again later that season in the reverse fixture on Easter Saturday, 16th April,1927 with the "A" teams playing each other at Widnes. At this time Eccles played at Redclyffe Road, near Barton Swing Bridge on the Trafford Park side of the Ship Canal, behind All Saints RC church on land that faced Barton Power Station (what is now B&Q today). This was our second season at this ground having moved here in 1925 from Barton Lane, where the club had used the King's Head Hotel for Club Head Quarters and changing facilities. Eccles temporally used the Pack Horse Hotel, Barton, for changing facilities in 1925 before constructing its own facilities at Redclyffe Road with 4 dressing rooms, a hot water boiler and a bath installed for the 1926 season. Eccles 1stXV would face Old Widnesians again the following season on 17th Sept.,1927 and 21st April, 1928, these two dates being the first and last playing Saturdays of the season. This was clearly a nomadic period for Eccles, who were looking to rebuild and recover from the terrible losses suffered during the First World War, and had once again readopted the Rock House Hotel on Peel Green Road as club H.Q, where we had played before WWI, before adopting the Patricroft Conservative club as HQ for the 1928/29 Season. On 22nd September 1928 Eccles 1st XV would defeat Old Widnesians 24-19 at the old Redclyffe Road ground and go on to enjoy good form and distinguishing itself as the only club amongst 52 northern clubs to be beaten only once during the season. Despite the regular inconvenience of ship canal traffic which meant a long wait to cross Barton Swing Bridge to get to the pitch, the club remained at Redclyffe Road until the outbreak of WW2.
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