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St Matthew’s
is delighted to have a very special ministry to Sport & Recreation and Allen is the Sport & Recreation Chaplain
for the East Riding Archdeaconry.
This began as
Allen Bagshawe, the present Vicar, arrived back in 1979. At the same time he was invited to become the first Chaplain
to Hull City AFC, Hull’s
professional football club. So
began an unexpected ministry that has expanded as the years went by. In 1979 Allen was one of the early pioneers of Chaplaincy in
Sport but the years have now seen this become a regular feature.
Over 70 of our professional football clubs (there are 92 in the
network) now have Chaplains offering pastoral support and encouragement.
A network to
bring the Chaplains together was eventually established - SCORE.
This is based in Manchester from where it is led by the Rev’d
John Boyers, a Baptist minister who is also Chaplain to Manchester
United. Read more about
SCORE below. Also
on this page is an introduction to our Chaplaincy link at both Hull City & Hull FC and our links to Rugby League as well as other sporting Links.
Enjoy our
Sport’s Pages!
Hull
City AFC
Hull
City – “The Tigers”
have just been promoted to the Championship
League just one division below the Premiership.
Their arrival in the Championship completes a remarkable recovery
following a number of seasons in the basement division and flirting with
financial oblivion. It took
the arrival of a dynamic new Chairman, Adam Pearson, to rescue the club
and now they are debt free and climbing. Another key to success was the appointment of Peter Taylor as
Manager. He is one of the leading coaches in the country and currently
is in charge of the England Under 21 national squad – as well as Hull
City.
Promotion in
season 2004-05, after finishing Runner’s Up in League 1, was a repeat
of the previous season when they came up from the basement division. Following these back to back promotions there is now a real
sense of expectation about rising even higher –
Premiership: Here we come!
Part of the
renaissance of the “The Tigers”
came with the move from their famous home,
Boothferry Park, for the new Kingston
Communications Stadium. The club had moved to Boothferry Park
in 1946 to what was then “state of the art” in stadium development. Previously they had
played at “The Circle” and significantly the new home has been built
at the Circle (“turning full
circle”) which is,
appropriately, alongside St Matthew’s Church!
The last match at Boothferry Park was on Saturday, 14th
December ’02 when Allen, as Club Chaplain, was asked to say some
appropriate words of blessing upon the old home before leading the
singing of “Abide with me”. A few days later, and just before Christmas, Hull City moved
to the KC Stadium with a very special friendly match against Premiership
club Sunderland.
Early that morning Allen had done a prayer walk round the new
stadium, seeking God’s blessing throughout. Stands, dressing rooms,
hospitality suites – they all received a blessing, even the visiting
team’s dressing room! On
the evening, before the opening match, Allen was asked to bless the
Stadium. This was an awesome privilege.
The KC Stadium
This computer
generated image shows the new 25,000 all seater “state
of the art” stadium. Along
with a 1,500 seater Sport’s Arena the development has cost over £40
million and has been financed with funds from Hull City Council that
came from the part sale of shares in our city’s own Telephone Company
– Kingston Communications. We
are a most fortunate city. When
the development started in October, 2001, a time capsule was buried at
the site. Among the items included are those from St Matthew’s Church
as well as our local schools.
With a new
stadium with superb spectator facilities everything has blossomed and
the gates have soared. Already
the 25,000 capacity has been stretched and, with future ambitions in
mind, there are already plans to extend the KC Stadium with a further
8/10,000 seats. Saturday 30th
April ‘05 saw a crowd of 24,277 witness the Tigers last home game of
the season. Although the Tigers lost 2-1 to Sheffield Wednesday, it did
not really matter to the loyal fans. The Tigers had gained their second
automatic promotion in two seasons! The pictures below show something of
the atmosphere and the party feeling when the Tigers were presented with
a silver salver for finishing second in League 1.
So the Tigers gained promotion to the Championship League in 2005 and had a reasonable season. The 2006/07 season saw the Tigers' fans nail-biting until the last match hoping to avoid relegation. Phil Brown had taken over as manager of the club after Phil Parkinson had been sacked and we were desperate to avoid relegation, which we did! The 2007/08 season began and the team blossomed under Phil Brown's guidance, finishing 3rd in the league. The Tigers' play off games were against Watford; beating them 2-0 away and 4-1 at home. This meant the Tigers were finally at Wembley, for the first time in their 104 year history. May 24th 2008 was a day that will never be forgotten by Hull City fans. Not only their first attendance at Wembley but a 1-0 victory against Bristol City launching the Tigers into the Premiership. The first time in 104 years that the Tigers have been in the top tier of football. The match was electrifying and the celebrations after were fantastic. Below are a few photographs taken by the webmaster at Wembley on that wonderful day.
The Stadium The pre match celebrations
Allen visits
the club regularly for his pastoral duties. He spends time at the
Training Ground and on matchdays he will be found just behind the "bench" giving his
all! His primary role is pastoral and he may be called on from
time to time but he is also an avid fan!!
One
of his other duties is to meet with families who would like the ashes of
a loved one scattering at the Stadium.
He also keeps the records with the intention that eventually
there will be a special Book of Remembrance at the K C Stadium.
The new home, The
KC Stadium, is shared with the local Rugby League Club, Hull FC
(more about them below)
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Hull
FC
Rugby
League
The K
C Stadium is shared between Hull City & Hull F C. The “F C”,
as they are often called, are one of the countries leading Rugby League
clubs. Like “The
Tigers” they too have thrived since moving to the new stadium.
Previously their home was the Boulevard
Stadium in Airlie Street. They had played there for almost one
hundred years and the emotions involved with the move seemed to be even
deeper than those experienced by the football fans.
The club had for a number of seasons been underneath the top
clubs, plenty of ambition but not really succeeding.
That has all now changed. Their gates, whilst not as good as
those for “The Tigers”, have risen dramatically. From an average of
about 7000 in 2002 the club is now regularly attracting five figure
gates. The fans, although missing something of the intimacy of their old
home, have loved the new facilties and splendid views.
The facility has also been recognised by The Rugby League who
arranged for Great Britain to play test matches in both 2003 and 2004
– against Australia and New Zealand. Both played to capacity 25,000
gates.
Hull
FC
are currently playing well in the 2005 season. The season is about
midway and they hold fourth position as well as a place in the Challenge
Cup semi-final at the end of July.
Allen has been Chaplain to the “Airlie
Birds” (their official nick name) for about 20 years and
enjoys a very close relationship throughout the club.
It was a very moving moment to speak at the close of the last
official match in the old Boulevard Stadium following a friendly match
with the visiting New Zealand test team.
There were many tears shed and he says that he has never ever had
so much response to a “sermon” throughout his 30+ years of ministry! Following his speech and blessing a brass band brought
down the curtain with a very poignant rendition of the club song “Old
Faithful”.
Chaplaincy in Rugby League is still in
expansion mode and Allen has represented SCORE
in this development. He
even took a sabbatical in Sydney NSW where he met up with a number of
chaplains in the NRL.
Click to view a compendium of photographs from the Australian visit.
This season there are chaplains at about
half of the clubs in the Super League.
They usually meet together twice each season –a day in Leeds
and as part of the residential conference organised by SCORE
at the Lilleshall centre in Shropshire.
Chaplaincy is
not evangelism, it is a pastoral ministry. However, opportunities to
speak about our Lord will arise from time to time and I aim to seize
them! My prayers for R.L. are to see chaplaincy accepted at all clubs,
for those Christian players (there are some) to receive spiritual
support and encouragement to witness for the Lord and, tongue in cheek,
for Hull FC to win the Super League Grand Final!
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The
Rugby League World Cup 2000 |
This major event for the
game of Rugby League was hosted in Britain in 2000. It culminated with a
memorable final played out in front of 44,000 spectators at the so
called “Theatre of Dreams”, other wise known as “Old Trafford”,
the home of Manchester United. The pre-tournament favourites, Australia,
eventually overcame a wonderful challenge from the New Zealand team, the
Kiwis having previously accounted for England in the semi-finals.
And the
Chaplains were involved. 
Allen was appointed as the Lead Chaplain for the World
Cup and led a team of chaplains numbering 40 in all. Between them they
were able to visit all the team hotels and provide a chaplain or two at
every fixture during the month. That meant covering over 50 matches and
visiting up to 25 teams (16 in the World Cup, 6 in the Emerging Nations
Event and 3 in the Women’s World Series) and a total of approx. 600
players. All were given a welcome pack including the JESUS Magazine, a
wonderful presentation of St Luke’s Gospel along with life stories and
testimonies. These were donated by churches in Merseyside and two
players who had featured in the Super League Grand Final in October
‘00 - Apollo Pereline & Jason Robinson.
Allen spent much of the month dedicated to
ensuring that the Chaplaincy was in place and providing support as and
where needed. He visited many games in all three events and was involved
at the World Cup Final on Saturday, 25th November. He also visited the
Australian team each week in their Leeds hotel. It was a busy month but
wonderful experience which has raised the profile of Sports Chaplaincy
within the game of Rugby League.
Other sports:
Allen was involved in the chaplaincy team for the
2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
To read an account of his experience just click on the log below
or visit our Message Page.
