Ards Rugby Football Club has been in continual operation since its foundation in 1928. There is no question but that it has been sustained through its close connection with Newtownards' rugby playing grammar school Regent House. It has never been, however, a former pupils club as such. It is, and always has been, completely open to the community at large and has benefited accordingly.

It is probably the single biggest sporting organisation in the Ards area in so far as active participation by adults and young people in structured team competitions week in week out is concerned. The club currently turns out 3 adult and numerous youth sides on a regular basis in League and Cup competitions. Mini rugby, involving well over 100 children in the 7 to 11 years of age group, is also actively promoted on a weekly basis.

The club 1st XV currently plays in Ulster Rugby Championship Division 2, home games being played at Hamilton Park, Lansdowne Road, Newtownards.

Although there is periodic evidence of rugby in the town of Newtownards from as early as season 1879/80, the club in its current form was founded when 40 people attended a meeting in Newtownards on 11th April 1928 in response to a local press notice signifying an intention to form such a club. And formed it duly was, with an application following to the Northern Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union for membership of the Minor League which was in turn accepted.
The first recorded game was against Kings Scholars (the Stranmillis Teacher Training College side) in March 1928. Ards then played their first league game on 19th Oct 1928 against the 2nd XV of Cooke and registered a narrow 5 points to 3 win. The team went on to win their section of the Minor League, earning them a Ravenhill appearance in the Harden Cup (Minor League Championship) play-off final. Regrettably they suffered a defeat at the hands of Malone 3rd XV.

At this stage Ards rugby and the club trundled along as a gentle little provincial entity enjoying a modicum of success primarily in the middle and lower levels of Ulster Junior rugby. The first significant breakthrough was the winning of the Towns Cup in the traditional Easter Monday Ravenhill Final in 1962. The names of the members of that side are firmly etched in the Ards roll of honour:

David Coffey, Sam Kielty, Billy Heron, Gordon Kennedy, Bobby Haslett (Capt), Billy Shaw, Bert Jordan, Raymond Hodgkiss, Ken Halliday, Wilgar Whiteside, Eric Gourley, George Ferguson, John Dalzell, George Hunter, Bobby Bishop.

After that success, it was gradual progress. In 1966 Ards were promoted for the first time to the top section of the Ulster Junior League following two successful seasons under the respective captaincies of John Dalzell and Ivan Coffey. The late 1960s were significant too, from the standpoint of facility development. Having played for nearly 40 years at its headquarters with indifferent playing pitches and somewhat primitive changing accommodation, the club moved in 1970 to its present Hamilton Park location. The complex now houses a pavilion, a clubroom and three full scale playing pitches, the main one of which has high quality floodlighting. It was appropriate that the new grounds were named after John P. Hamilton. Having joined Ards in 1933, John maintained an active relationship with his home town club for over 70 years until his death. He had occupied every significant administrative position. His imprint was left not only on Ards rugby, but on Ulster rugby in general. He served for 40 successive years as an Ulster Branch Committee member, contributing with distinction to all aspects of administering the game at central level. He received due recognition when he was made an Honorary Life Vice President of the Ulster Branch.
By the mid 1970s Ards had become the dominant force in Junior rugby in Ulster, to the extent that serious aspirations for Senior status were being entertained. Players of the calibre of Will Barker, Clarke Millar, Teddy Sloan, Ian Fraser, Wesley Campbell, John Armstrong, Trevor Haslett, Derrick Nash, Barry Calvert, Ian Wallace, Reggie Haddock, Mervyn Lappin and the formidable back row players Neville Edgar, Denis Calvert, Crosby Cleland and a youthful Nigel Carr deserved a wider stage to perform on.

And they got it. A glorious 1977/78 season, in which success was enjoyed by all of the 7 teams the club was now fielding, saw Ards clinch promotion to Ulster Senior rugby under the captaincy of the redoubtable Denis Calvert, with former captain and current club secretary Billy Dickson as 1st XV coach. The transition to Senior rugby was not easy, but season by season Ards consolidated their position. Prop Barry Calvert was the first Ards player to play in all of Ulster's games in the 1979/80 season and the first to gain an Irish trial.

A significant development took place in the 1981/82 season with the appointment of David McMaster as 1st XV coach. The incomparable D.A. (as he is universally known) had already established himself as a leading Schools coach having been in charge of Regent House School rugby for some years. Through his insight into the development of the game, his judicious exploitation of individual skills and strengths, his sheer dedication to his squads preparation and the confidence which his charges reposed in him, Ards 1st XV were fashioned into a potent force. It is not surprising that D.A.'s credentials earned him due recognition through his appointment in 1992 as Ulster coach in which capacity he took Ulster to three successive Inter-Pro championships.

The big breakthrough season was 1983/84. Following a pre-season tour to Canada, led by the 1982/83 captain Ian Wallace - the club's first overseas trip - Ards, under the captaincy of the irrepressible Teddy Sloan, won a series of Ravenhill matches to secure the Ulster Senior League title. They went on to dominate Ulster rugby in the following years winning the Ulster Senior Cup in 1984/85 - just missing out on a league and cup double by taking runners up position in 1985/86 - and bringing the Senior Cup back again in 1986/87. Leading the side as captain in 1986/87 was a young Brian McLaughlin, who followed up many successful years as coach at RBAI and the Irish skills coach by becoming the Head Coach with Ulster. Nigel Carr and Phillip Matthews were featuring on the International stage and Ards representation on the Ulster side was becoming commonplace. Indeed Carr, Matthews and centre Iain Moles were members of the Ulster team that defeated the touring Australians at Ravenhill in 1984.

It was clearly going to be difficult to sustain the level of success enjoyed in the 80s and Ards just lost out on a place in the inaugural All-Ireland League. While this had a curtailing effect on recruitment and indeed retention of players, Ards were provided with a new dynamic when the All-Ireland League was extended in 1993/94 to include all Senior clubs. The challenge was accepted with relish with Mark McKee as captain and continued under the captaincy of Cyril Stocker whose team just missed out on promotion to a higher division in 1997.

Despite valiant efforts by captains and coaches, progressive decline set in and Ards position as a senior club was placed in jeopardy. Its tenuous hold was lost in 2001. In consequence, the club embarked on a development scheme with 3 component parts:
• continuing infrastructural improvements at Hamilton Park;
• consolidation and expansion of an already firmly established youth structure;
• and provision of enchanced coaching, medical and physiotherapy services for players.
Thanks to Duncan Wallace and Roy Lawton there was an innate belief that Ards had and was developing through its youth system, the playing resources to compete again at Senior level. It was a matter of acquiring the right personnel to nurture and exploit them.
And that came in the person of Mervyn Tweed as coach. Mervyn had not had any particular association with Ards up until his introduction as coach in 2001/02 season, although he had been an interested resident of the Ards area for some years. He had no problem, hence, in assimilating the Ards ethos and applied himself with vigour, to his coaching responsibilities. His infectious enthusiasm, his committed pursuit of achievable objectives, his innovative training programmes and his facility for communication have reaped dividend for Ards. In consort with a youthful captain Michael Creighton (at 20 years of age the youngest captain since Blair Mayne and the first captain to captain Ards 1st XV for 3 consecutive years), Mervyn Tweed steered Ards back to Senior rugby within a few years.

The drama of the 2002/03 season would be hard to replicate. Dramatic end of season winning of the Ulster Qualifying League and then the nail-biting finale of All-Ireland round robin engagements along with the recapturing of the Towns Cup. A key recruit this season was Dave Dillon, a star player who never took a backward step.

Division 3 of the League was a highly competitive environment to which Ards adjusted reasonably comfortably through Mervyn Tweed's marshalling of the club's own nurtured players and judicious recruitment. On their return to Senior rugby Ards contested the Division 3 Championship Final at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, on a memorable day in May 2004. It was a fitting reward for a squad of young homebred talent, albeit buttressed by a few sturdy imports, including Stewart Paul the young outhalf playing fullback that day who scored a try on the famous ground. Mervyn received the wholehearted support from Robin Johnston, the quietly efficient manager of the 1st XV squad's welfare and week to week logistical affairs.

Mervyn and his managerial team stepped down at the end of 2008/09 season and the club appointed former player Cois Beukes as Head Coach, ably assisted by Roy Lawton and David Irwin. Unfortunately, the pressures of travelling and recruitment took its toll and the 1st XV were relegated from the AIL at the end of season 2013/14. However, rugby is still being enjoyed at all levels in the club with the 1st XV, under captain Danny Patton, coach John Anderson and the management team of Stephen Nutt and Alan McHugh, competing well at its current Ulster Championship level (Division 2) while the 2nd XV (under captain John Gray and coach/manager Simon Hamilton) and the 3rds XV (captained by David Thompson and jointly managed by Stuart Stevenson and John Dowey) almost won and did win their respective leagues in the season just finished.

Women's and girl's junior rugby is flourishing under former 1st XV captain/club president Gary Presho and Jill Shaw respectively. The Ards women now compete as part of the North Down Women's team in association with Bangor and Donaghadee while the junior girl players compete competitively in tandem with other clubs such as Ballynahinch and Cooke. Add to this the commitment of Will Hoey and Dayle Jones at mini and youth level and Ards RFC is well placed for a return to its former glory days.

In the last couple of seasons there has been considerable investment in improving the social facilities at the club, not least through Stephen Cargill of Forestwood, the club's man sponsor. Ards can now boast an outdoor social area second to none in the Ards and North Down Borough Council area which, when added to the club's picturesque location, is something to be envied.

Ards RFC - Ulster Championship 2