25 Facts About Keighley Cougars

Keighley Cougars are a professional rugby league club from Keighley in West Yorkshire, England who compete in League 1, the third tier of English rugby league.

Keighley Cougars officially joined the Rugby Football Union on Tuesday, 8 April 1879, and the following year, in a match at Bingley, there was a peculiar incident.

Keighley Cougars were elected into the Yorkshire Second Competition on 14 July 1900.

Keighley Cougars was one of the new clubs to join the second division, which they topped with 27 wins out of 34 games and were duly promoted.

Keighley Cougars played in their first and so far only Challenge Cup final in 1937.

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Keighley Cougars again met Northern in the second round of the Challenge Cup later the same season.

Keighley Cougars finished sixth from the bottom of the league table.

Until half-time Keighley Cougars were well placed against their opponents – Wakefield Trinity.

Keighley Cougars were on the wrong end of a thrashing as the Aussies scored a half-century and beat the previous best score for a touring side in an opening match.

Keighley Cougars lost their opening three games and Bak Diabira quit as coach.

Keighley Cougars finished the season in ninth place in the league, winning 15, drawing 5 and losing 12.

Keighley Cougars finished second from bottom of the second division with only seven wins and three draws from 34 games.

In October 1985 Keighley Cougars were served a winding-up order by Inland Revenue, which was avoided only by selling the cricket field for a reported £30,000 and the training pitch for £65,000.

Keighley Cougars again completed the season in eighth position, winning 16 from 28 games.

Keighley Cougars finished the season 19th out of 21 clubs and winning only 6 games out of 28.

In 1993, the Keighley Cougars won the third division only to be denied promotion due to the Rugby Football League merging the second and third divisions.

However, when the Super League was created for the following year, Keighley Cougars were excluded, and the edifice collapsed as the disappointment of being denied promotion for a second time due to marketing decisions, cost them fans and sponsors.

Keighley Cougars took out an injunction to try to stop the new competition kicking off and only withdrew their legal threat with the offer of more money for lower division clubs and the prospect of promotion and relegation.

Keighley Cougars was later arrested and convicted of supplying fake illegal drugs.

In January 2002, Keighley Cougars appointed Gary Moorby as their coach in succession to Steve Deakin who left to join London Broncos as their assistant coach.

Keighley Cougars won promotion from National League Two in 2003 by winning the divisional final after only finishing third in the League and were promoted to National League One, having defeated Sheffield Eagles in the final.

The petition hearing was adjourned until January 2010 but in the interim Keighley Cougars Ltd went into administration on 18 December 2009 following a hearing at the High Court in Leeds.

Under March the Keighley Cougars played in the Championship until 2014 when they were relegated in controversial circumstances that led the club to consider taking legal action against the RFL.

Keighley Cougars decided to part company with head coach Craig Lingard midway through the 2019 season, replacing Craig shortly after with Rhys Lovegrove supported by returning ex-head coach Phil Larder.

Keighley Cougars finished the 2019 season in 10th place with five points; despite this lowly finish the club was named RFL League 1 club of the year at the RFL annual awards ceremony in September 2019.

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