World's oldest rugby club one win away from writing a new chapter in its history

Founded in 1858, Blackheath FC is the oldest continuous rugby club in the world.

Legends of ‘Club’, as it’s known, include William Percy Carpmichael, the first President of the Barbarians, and WW1 hero and England international Cyril Lowe, Blackheath’s most-capped player.

While All Black World Cup winner John Gallagher and iconic England flanker Micky ‘The Munch’ Skinner – in the last decade before professionalism – and England hooker Theo Dan and PREM top try scorer Noah Caluori, are notable names from a more recent age to have worn the black and red jersey.

But now the current crop of players have an opportunity to write a new chapter in the long and vaunted history of the south-east London club, as Blackheath are one win away from playing in the second tier of English rugby for the first time in 28 years.

Standing in their way are London Scottish, founded some 20 years after Blackheath.

While the Champ’s bottom club Cambridge and National 1 champions have Rotherham swapped places, the 14th and final place in the 2026/27 Champ line-up will be decided in the ‘Champ Accession Final’ at the Richmond Athletic Ground (RAG) this Saturday.

National 1 runners-up Blackheath beat third-placed Plymouth Albion to earn their shot at promotion, while Scottish find themselves on the brink of relegation after finishing 13th and losing their Champ play-off against 12th-placed Richmond.

Blackheath are on an 11-game winning run, and one more would tie the club record, as well as sending them into territory not visited since 1998/99.

Former England 7s captain and coaches, Simon Amor and Mike Friday, and experienced top-level coach Toby Booth were teammates of current Blackheath Managing Director, Russell Ticehurst, when ‘Club’ played in what was then known as Allied Dunbar Premiership 2.

It wasn’t a particularly memorable season. Blackheath lost their first 12 games and despite rallying in the second half of the season, they finished second-from-bottom and were relegated. and never to be seen in the second tier since, something they hope to put right this weekend.

“Let’s be honest, the odds are against us, I would say,” said Ticehurst.

“It’s been a great season regardless as far as I’m concerned. To come second in Nat One, ordinarily would be a great achievement, and to have the play-offs as well, it’s just a bit of a cherry on the top there. It’s something that we weren’t really expecting, we weren’t really lining up for it, it’s happened because we’ve been consistent all year.”

Spearheaded by Billy Harding’s remarkable try-scoring exploits from hooker, Blackheath have improved immeasurably from their sixth-place finish the season before.

“We were trying to rebuild this year, we were putting everything back together,” Ticehurst pointed out.

“Shanners (James Shanahan), our head coach, had moved back to Suffolk, Markus Bircham, who’d played 265 games for the team had gone, Tom Baldwin, Jake Lloyd and Tom Stradwick, who is now the head coach had retired, so we’d lost some serious caps there and we were thinking this is a rebuild year; let’s take out time; let’s get everything sorted, and see how we go.

“My message to Tom was quite simple: ‘Don’t get relegated’. I did that on purpose just to take the pressure off everybody, including him in his first year. And here we are, in second place and in the play-offs. So we have surpassed all expectations.”

The play-off against Plymouth attracted a crowd of just under 2,000 at the Utileta, their home ground at Well Hall, which has two seated stands, one covered and plenty of terracing. Should Blackheath beat Scottish they will go up, as the Minimum Operating Standards for entry into the Champ have been met.

“The RFU this year has made a big thing about the Minimum Operating Standards. They certainly seem to be onto that more than they’ve ever been,” said Ticehurst.

“We simply wouldn’t have been ready had we not invested in the facilities over the years. So it was quite a nice thing to get the sort of RFU seal of approval.

“Yes, there’s things we’ve got to improve and things we’ve got to change, but fundamentally, the club is ready.

“I don’t think you’re ever ready from a step up in the playing side of things, because teams have been there for a while and they’re acclimatised to it. So it’ll be a shaky start, I’m sure, if we do go up, but we’re looking forward to it. We’re not scared to go up, so that’s a good thing.”

It’s been just over 10 years since the club made the dificult and emotional decision to move first-team activities away from Rectory Field to Well Hall in nearby Eltham.

As a ground that once hosted England internationals, Rectory Field – which still operates as a multi-sports hub, involving some of Blackheath’s other teams, had the history – but Well Hall, which now carries the name of one of the club’s main sponsors, has the space.

Slowly but surely infrastructure befitting a semi-pro rugby club has been put in place, and as an endorsement of the facilities on offer, Millwall FC’s academy have trained there. “Moving to Well Hall is the best thing we ever did,” said Ticehurst.

The former lock can’t understand how clubs still prioritise spending money on players over making sure their ground is fit for purpose.

“You’ve got teams in Nat 1 who are playing on council grounds or restricted land where they can’t actually do all the things that are required on them. But they’re continually giving overseas players, superstar players, thousands and thousands of pounds. And you think, is it just an ego trip?”

Whilst not exactly a RAG to riches tale worth millions, London Scottish and Blackheath are playing for RFU central funding, of circa £160,000, plus the spin-offs that come with playing in the Champ, such as bigger gates and greater brand appeal to sponsors.

“From a financial perspective, it’s all positive,” stated Ticehurst. “But what we’ve what we’ve tried to do, myself and the Chairman and the Board, is to make ourselves sustainable at this level, with an eye on getting promoted and being sustainable there as well: not just throwing good money after bad, but seeing seeing if you can live by your means.

“I think if you’re smart enough and you’re sensible enough, you can. Bedford has done it well, Coventry has done it well. There are some good clubs in the Championship who have shown that if you’re sensible and you don’t just go for the big money tickets all the time, you can build a squad and you can build something that lasts and that’s what we want to do,”

While Blackheath’s playing squad is probably unknown to most outside of the division, the aforementioned Harding has been getting plenty of press of late. “Billy who?” Ticehurst says, jokingly.

Harding finished the regular season with a National League record 48 tries to his name, scoring a try in every match en route to the play-offs, a feat that has never been done before.

“He’s scored six hat-tricks as a hooker. You’d probably struggle to go through the archives and find a winger that’s done that in the season.

“He’s signed up for a couple more seasons. But we didn’t agree to his terms for a try bonus, though!” Had they done so, Blackheath might not have been quite so sustainable.

Blackheath’s squad will be part-time next season, with Club enjoying the luxury of other London-based teams in being able to sort out well-paid jobs for their players in lieu of offering big money playing contracts that they can’t afford.

“It’s amazing how much easier it makes recruitment when you’re at the top of the table, isn’t it? Retention’s been good. I can, with hand on heart, say we haven’t lost anybody yet. We’re talking to various people, and we’ve got some signings to announce, some key signings, very shortly, which we’ll do after this weekend.

The sporting gods have looked down favourably on Arsenal fan Ticehurst this week, with the Gunners having won the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years. But you get the feeling a win on Saturday would be even more special for Ticehurst who experienced playing the likes London Irish and Northampton in the old Courage League/Allied Dunbar days.

“We’ve won 11 on the bounce and we’re riding the crest of a wave, so there’s nothing to be scared of for us, really. And I’m sure if I look at it from the other direction, it probably feels a bit different for our colleagues over at Scottish.

“We’re looking forward to next year wherever we are, whether it’s in Nat One or whether it’s in the Championship.”