Visit of Newcastle will be historic occasion for Leicester Tigers

As well as having the largest supporter base in English club rugby, Leicester Tigers are also blessed to have the best rugby historian in the business in Stuart Farmer.

Thanks to the treasure trove of information at his disposal, Farmer has alerted the club to the fact that Saturday’s game against Newcastle Red Bulls – the ‘Geoff Parling derby’ – will be the 5,000th match in the club’s 146-year history.

The very first Leicester match was played 12 weeks after the club was founded in August 1880, and ended in an inauspicious 0-0 draw against Moseley.

It took Leicester 21 years to bring up four-figures, the Tigers celebrating their 1,000th match in 1911 with a 13-6 win against the Barbarbians in what became the customary Boxing Day fixture.

The outbreak of two World Wars and a long period of inactivity meant the 2,000th milestone wasn’t reached until October 1947, when Newport emerged 21-10 winners at Welford Road.

A quarter of a century later, in 1972, North Shields-based Percy Park were beaten on their own patch, 32-18, in game number 3,000.

Nottingham were the opposition for the 4,000th match, which came in the early days of professionalism in March 1997 and ended in a 32-20 win for the Tigers.