1867-1914: The early years

Wasps was founded in 1867 in the Hampstead area of London by a group of members who previously had connections with Harlequins – or Hampstead FC as it was then known.

In addition, a strong link existed to Merchant Taylors, where the club's & first secretary William Alford had been educated.

His younger brother Fred was the first club captain, while Richard Pain was President.

The first fixture was staged at Primrose Hill, but no further records exist from the club’s inaugural season.

Early opponents regularly included local schools, when matches were played to the rugby rather than association football code, but "without tripping or hacking."

The club’s familiar black-and-gold has largely remained unchanged since its inception, with black being the predominant feature of the early jersey.

Wasps were not part of the foundation of the 21-club RFU in 1871, according to folklore because the club's meeting delegate attended the wrong pub. However, they had become members of the union 12 by March 1872.

The club's early years were characterised by its nomadic status, indeed home games had been played at 12 different venues prior to the outbreak of war in 1914, while changing facilities and post-match hospitality were usually provided by local pubs.

The 1875/76 season saw Wasps, led by stockbroker Jack Angle, go unbeaten through the season, winning 14 games and drawing two, in a feat which the club has since repeated only once.

John Biggs also became the club's first international in 1879, but a decade later most of these early Wasps had retired, and with the club also required to leave the Half Moon ground in Putney which had been home for 14 years, it faced difficult times.

However, the arrival of George Harnett as President brought about a gradual upturn in fortunes through the remainder of the pre-war period.

Indeed, by 1914 Wasps were running four sides from a ground in Acton which they had called home for over a decade.

1914-39: The inter-war years

Rugby was cancelled immediately following the outbreak of World War One, and Wasps’ secretary Jack Spiller soon reported that 92 per cent of the club’s active membership had joined the King’s forces.

Sadly, of the 150 or so young men with Wasps connections who served, 38 lost their lives in the course of the next four years.

When rugby recommenced in November 1918, a number of the club’s fixtures retained a strong military feel, since many opponents were made up of overseas’ servicemen still stationed in Britain.

By the mid-1920’s Wasps had moved from Ealing to Sudbury, and were once again fielding four XV’s on a regular basis. Nonetheless, it was not until 1923 that help from regular benefactor Albert Toley saw the club became established at the Vale Farm ground in Sudbury. This became a long-term home, subsequently known as Eton Avenue then Repton Avenue, which with help from the RFU the club eventually purchased from Toley in 1928.

Tragedy struck in 1928/9 when the club’s 23-year-old fly half Harold Clinch died as a result of an injury sustained during a match against Steatham.

By the end of the 1920’s, in an attempt to restore its waning first-class status, Wasps travelled further afield to face the likes of Newport and launched what was to become an annual Easter tour to places as far-flung as Somerset and Yorkshire.

This period also marked the first involvement with the club of Ronnie Swyer who became a key figure in its future development.

The former World War One pilot captained the club from 1925 to 1934, at one point playing 301 consecutive games in the back row.

After retiring from the field of play he served Wasps with distinction in the committee room and was twice President prior to his death in 1995 aged 101.

Wasps’ second unbeaten season, 1930/31, came during Swyer’s time at the helm, while the club’s powerful forward-based game also enabled it to go over four years and 50-plus matches unbeaten at home.

This upturn saw the club granted fixtures against a number of top-level clubs including London Scottish, Moseley, Richmond and London Welsh, while in 1933 Wasps reached the final of the Middlesex Sevens for the first time.

Neville Compton, the man regarded by many as Wasps’ most prominent pre-war player, featured in that Twickenham line-up, and he also became Wasps first Barbarian when he played against East Midlands in the Mobbs Memorial match.

When war arrived, the club was therefore in very good health, often running ten or more sides against a diverse range of opponents.

1939-63: World War Two and beyond

Rugby continued where possible during the Second World War, with Wasps being one of the fortunate clubs.

As a result, membership was opened up and a great many overseas servicemen took advantage, including 40 New Zealanders.

Neville Compton, who was in a reserved occupation, continued to feature as a goal-kicking second row, as he had since the mid-1920’s in a career which eventually spanned 21 seasons.

After this he served the club with distinction in a number of administrative roles prior to becoming President from 1970 to 73.

The temporary player arrangements during the war years also saw a number of internationals appear in black-and-gold, including players capped by Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In addition, two of the club’s own members, hooker Clarence Gilthorpe and scrum half Pat Sykes appeared for England in non-cap wartime internationals.

In 1947 a new stand – named after benefactor and former player Charles Bell – was constructed, which went on to serve the club for over 40 years.

And in 1949 a war memorial was erected which added 39 names from the 1939-45 conflict to those Wasps who lost their lives in World War One.

By now the club was again operating ten sides, with its first XV firmly among the elite, facing the likes of Cardiff, Gloucester, Coventry, Bath and Northampton on a regular basis.

Wasps lifted the prestigious Middlesex Sevens for the first time in 1948, when teenage wing sensation Ted Woodward made his first impression on the wider rugby public.

By the early 1950’s Wasps players were regularly winning selection for representative sides, and Woodward made his England debut against South Africa in 1952 while Bob Stirling who had recently joined the club from Leicester captained his country in the 1953 Five Nations.

Peter Yarranton also represented Wasps and England during this time, but it was for his post-playing days he will mostly be remembered as chairman of the Sports Council then RFU President.

By the end of the 1950’s Wasps regularly fielded 14 sides, while a membership of 1500 made it the biggest club in England and second biggest in Europe behind Paris-based Racing.

The club celebrated its 90^thanniversary in style with a match at Twickenham, and by now flankers John Herbert and Ron Syrett had become full internationals.

Fly half Richard Sharp also became a Wasp in 1957, and went on to have an illustrious career for club and country.

This period also saw hooker Bill Treadwell make his first Wasps appearance, and more than half-a-century later the dentist - who many believe to be the finest stitcher of wounds around - remains an important part of the match-day team.

And with an impressive new clubhouse now in place thanks to a large donation from club member Reg Curner, and the work of another Wasp, architect Doug Harvey, the club approached its centenary season in good heart.

In 1967 Wasps joined an elite band of rugby centurions including Bath, Sale, Harlequins and Richmond, and celebrated with a match against Warwickshire on the Close at Rugby School plus a 36-8 home defeat at the hands of the Barbarians.

However, a difficult six-year spell followed, as a number of playing stalwarts retired or moved on. As a result, the club recorded a win/loss ratio well below 50/50, although 1973 ended with a first overseas tour when a party of 40 headed for East Africa.

Playing fortunes picked up by the mid-70’s, by when the John Player Cup had also become a regular feature for England’s leading clubs, and while Wasps made little progress ties against the likes of Gloucester drew big crowds.

A number of southern hemisphere internationals played for the club during this period, most notably All Black centre Mark Taylor, fresh from New Zealand’s 1978 British Isles tour, who went on to captain the club for three seasons in the early 1980’s.

The club reached the John Player Cup semi-final for the first time in 1978/9, while the arrival at Sudbury of England forwards Roger Uttley and Nigel Horton plus a youthful Nigel Melville also provided a major boost to a side which went on to enjoy an outstanding start to the 1980’s.

A stream of Oxbridge blues also featured during this spell, including the likes of Chris Oti, Fran Clough, Huw Davies, Mark Bailey and Rob Andrew, and the club's strength was shown when it lifted the London merit table and Middlesex Sevens in 1984.

And better followed in the next two seasons, when Wasps reached the John Player Cup final for the first and second times, only to slip to 25-17 and 19-12 defeats at the hands of Bath.

Ivor Montlake played a prominent part in the club at this time, including being the driving force behind a number of projects which greatly improved the Sudbury facilities. He subsequently went on to devote endless hours behind the scenes as club secretary and was heavily involved in his club’s transition to professionalism a decade later.

The man who went on to become a Lions coaching legend was replaced at Wasps’ helm by one who already enjoyed that status – Ian McGeechan.

And the Scot immediately signed Raphael Ibanez, the French international hooker who went on to become an integral figure in subsequent events.

2005/06 brought a semi-final defeat in the Premiership and pool stage exit in Europe, but Wasps did at least get their hands on one trophy, in the form of the Anglo-Welsh Cup, which had replaced the English Cup. This was secured with a 26-10 win over Scarlets.

The arrival in Wycombe of England World Cup winner Phil Vickery captured the headlines ahead of the following campaign, but by the end of it, a second Heineken Cup was very much the centre of attention.

An away win in Castres secured a home quarter-final, after which Leinster and Northampton were seen off – Saints in a Paul Sackey-dominated semi-final which took place at the Ricoh Arena.

The final pitted Dallaglio’s side against familiar foes Leicester, and after a pair of smartly-worked lineout moves produced tries for Ibanez and Eoin Reddan, the black-and-golds claimed a 25-9 success.

Seven Wasps - skipper Dallaglio, Vickery, Lewsey, Sackey, Simon Shaw, Tom Rees and Joe Worsley – were then part of England’s 2007 World Cup near miss, alongside a big group of Tigers.

The rivalry between Wasps and the East Midlands giants was now at the forefront of the English game, and the pair squared up again in the 2007/08 Premiership final.

And tries from Rees and Lewsey ensured once again McGeechan’s team came out on top – this time 26-16 – to claim a tenth final win in as many years and provide the retiring Dallaglio and Fraser Waters with the perfect send-off.

After a decade of unprecedented success, Chris Wright and his business partner John O’Connell sold their Wasps shares to Steve Hayes, MD of Wycombe Wanderers.

And with Shaun Edwards and Ian McGeechan respectively involved with Wales and the Lions, there was also change in the coaching ranks where Tony Hanks returned to the fold as a precursor to taking over from the Scot as rugby director.

With a spate of injuries also biting hard, perhaps unsurprisingly Wasps slipped to a seventh-placed Premiership finish in 2008/9, the lowest since 2002, and also failed to escape their European pool.

2009/10 began more promisingly, but Wasps slipped badly in the post-Christmas period during which they were also eliminated in the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup by Dai Young’s Cardiff Blues.

Worse followed in 2010/11, as Phil Vickery was forced into retirement, and after Hanks departed mid-season caretaker boss Leon Holden guided the club to a ninth-placed league finish.

Off the field, Hayes was foiled in his bid to establish a ‘sports village’ development to jointly house Wasps and Wycombe Wanderers. Despite having now attracted the considerable talents of Dai Young to be his new director of rugby, this substantial blow was enough for the club to be placed on the open market in October 2011.

The former Wales and Lions tight head could scarcely have faced a tougher baptism in English rugby, as this off-field uncertainty was followed by a series of injury-enforced retirements to the likes of Steve Thompson, Joe Worsley, Tom Rees and John Hart.

Young was therefore forced to throw a host of young players including Christian Wade, Joe Launchbury, Sam Jones and Elliot Daly into Premiership action, and in the process lay the foundations of the side which subsequently moved to Coventry.

However, short-term prospects looked far less promising, and only Tom Varndell’s round 21 bonus-point clinching tackle on Bath’s Sam Vesty sentenced Newcastle rather than Young’s team to the drop.

Given the parlous state of the club’s finances, relegation was almost certainly have spelt the end of the road. However, this Varndell-driven respite proved temporary since in late 2012 the club faced a large unpaid debt to HMRC which again threatened its existence.

The saviour arrived in the form of current owner Derek Richardson, an Irish businessman who was also a keen rugby fan, who saw the club through this immediate cash-flow problem prior to purchasing Wasps Holdings Ltd from Hayes.

On the field Young’s team experienced a steady upturn in fortunes, with an eighth-place finish and European Challenge Cup quarter-final appearance, while Wade was named as both Premiership player-of-the-season and young player-of-the-season.

Twelve months on, a now stabilised club had made further progress, finishing seventh in the league and clinching a return to the European Champions Cup for 2014/15 with a memorable two-legged win in a playoff contest against Stade Francais.

Richardson immediately identified that being tenants in a stadium where the owners control the majority of non-ticket income was an unsustainable commercial position, and began seeking alternatives.

In autumn 2013, the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, which was owned by Coventry City Council and the Higgs Charitable Trust and had recently been vacated by tenants Coventry City FC, came to his attention, and after a series of talks it became clear that purchasing the 32,000-capacity stadium was a viable proposition.

The deal was done in time for Wasps to host London Irish in Christmas 2014. A week after 6,507 fans saw their team pay an emotional farewell to Adams Park with a 44-17 European Champions Cup win over Castres, no fewer than 28,524 supporters saw Cov kid Andy Goode claim a Premiership record 33 points in Wasps’ 48-16 win over the Exiles.

The Ricoh experience certainly inspired Young’s team, who reached the last eight in the Champions Cup before losing in Toulon, and climbed a further position up the Premiership table to sixth.

The first 18 months in Coventry presented a logistical challenge, however, since the return of Coventry City to the Ricoh dictated most home games took place on a Sunday.

With training still based in Acton, where thriving Wasps amateurs ensured Twyford Avenue was otherwise occupied on Saturdays, Dai Young’s side often faced a 36-hour round trip and overnight hotel stay for a home game.

Gradually the club’s backroom staff and players relocated north, until by the beginning of the 2016/17 season the club was based fully in Coventry – at the Ricoh Arena and a training base a few miles away at one of Warwickshire’s traditional junior rugby powerhouses, Broadstreet RFC.

Prior to this, a very successful 2015/16 season saw Wasps return to the Premiership semi-finals for the first time since 2008, and also reach the final four in the European Champions Cup.

Young’s squad had been boosted by the signings of All Black Charles Piutau and legendary Wallaby George Smith, plus Kiwi No.10 Jimmy Gopperth, all of whom made a telling impact on the campaign.

And it was the former Newcastle and Leinster fly half who produced perhaps the most memorable Coventry moment to date, when his touchline conversion with the final kick of the game saw off Champions Cup quarter-final opponents Exeter.

However, the Chiefs later exacted revenge by ending Wasps’ league season at the semi-final stage, while the European campaign drew to a conclusion at the hands of Saracens.

Christian Wade grabbed a record-equalling six tries during Wasps’ league win at Worcester in early 2016, and the pacy winger went on to enjoy an outstanding campaign 12 months later during which he equalled Dominic Chapman’s longstanding Premiership try-scoring record by touching down 17 times in the season.

By now Springbok Willie Le Roux and Aussie Kurtley Beale had replaced Smith and Piutau as the club’s big overseas stars, while half-back pairing Dan Robson and Danny Cipriani enjoyed prolific campaigns.

Young’s team raced to the top of the table - and stayed there – clinching a play-off berth with four rounds of action remaining as well as securing a last eight place in Europe.

They then saw off Midlands rivals Leicester in a heart-stopping home Premiership semi-final before only being pipped in extra time at Twickenham by Exeter, after Leinster had earlier ended their European hopes in an Aviva Stadium quarter-final.

Elliot Daly and James Haskell won selection for the 2017 Lions, and at one stage the club’s unbeaten home run extended beyond 18 months.

Hopes were therefore high for 2017/18, only for an injury-ravaged autumn to put Wasps on the back foot.

Indeed, after suffering five consecutive league defeats during this spell, Young’s team did well to finish third in the table, prior to suffering a semi-final defeat at the hands of eventual champions Saracens.

The 2018/19 season began well with four wins in the first five games, but soon Wasps were ravaged by injuries and players away on international duty which meant some difficult winter months - and eventually an eighth-place finish in the Gallagher Premiership.

Long-serving stars Elliot Daly, Nathan Hughes, Joe Simpson and Jake Cooper-Woolley left the Club at the end of the season - but in the other direction came All Blacks Malakai Fekitoa and Jeff Toomaga-Allen along with some exciting young talent in Italy's Matteo Minozzi, Tonga's Sione Vailanu and England hopeful Ben Vellacott.

CONSOLIDATION

The period from 2019 to October 2022 was significant for Wasps RFC, encompassing both notable achievements and challenging developments.

In the 2019–20 Gallagher Premiership Season, Wasps demonstrated their strong performance by finishing 2nd in the table. Although the squad was similar in personnel to the previous season, strategic changes at a coaching and leadership level immediately paid dividends, and as well as missing out on another Premiership title by less than a converted try, the team produced the RPA Players' Player of the Year, Premiership Player of the Year, Land Rover Discovery of the Season, and Premiership Top try scorer.

Off the field, the club had a number of successes including a club record kit and retail deal, a 3 year extension of principal partner rights with Vodafone and the roll out of a groundbreaking EDI programme, incorporating staff, players, partners and supporters, highlighting its commitment to growth, commercial success and inclusivity.

The club also made substantial progress in its infrastructure, including the establishment of a new state of the art training ground in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire.

THE ADMINISTRATION AND A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

Despite these advancements, the club faced financial difficulties in early 2022 when another company in the group that owned Wasps was unable to repay a bond. The result was devastating, and on the 22nd of October 2022 the club entered into administration which led to the suspension from the Premiership, the top division of English Rugby, and the threat of demotion to the bottom of the English Rugby pyramid.

Despite being one of the most recognised brands in World Rugby, and a huge groundswell of support from across the sporting landscape, these developments marked a challenging phase for the club, with uncertainty surrounding its future in professional rugby.

In November 2022 Christopher Holland, a former sponsor and Non-Executive Director of Wasps purchased the club and unconditionally set about securing the IP and brand, and with a small group of former players and executives, embarked on a journey to restore the club back into English Rugby, via the Championship of the Rugby Union ladder in England. The route to achieve this proved problematic, with numerous regulatory and financial compliance hurdles. Approval came in December 2022 amid some controversy between the RFU and the Championship on the Strategic direction of the game in England, that was to last for several years.

Having passed the fit & proper test to enter the Championship, Wasps repeated their clear ambition to return to professional Rugby at the highest level possible. By then the club had also clearly advertised the 4 pillars of recovery and sustainable success for Wasps;

• A ground to play in.
• The finance to support the club.
• A team to play.
• A league in which to play that had shared values.

In May 2023, some 2 weeks short of a deadline set by the RFU to provide further financial information, the acceptance to join the Championship was withdrawn and the club was effectively removed from the professional game in England.