Who owns harlequins rugby club

Below, Centurion takes a look at the rich history of the Quins. The Harlequins were founded in , originally forming as part of Hampstead Football Club. The first official game as a rugby union club was played the following year, but it wasn't until four years later in that Hampstead changed its name to the Harlequin Football Club when the club began to take in members from further afield than Hampstead.

The club wanted to continue to use the same HFC monogram and it's matching motto 'Nunquam Dormio', and so after much debate over names beginning with the letter 'h', the club named itself 'Harlequins'. With the name change came a split in the Club, with half of the members staying with the Harlequins and half forming a new team now known as Wasps. At the same meeting, the club's famous quartered shirts were derived, to replace the previous black and gold still worn today by Wasps.

In the early years, the Harlequins didn't have playing grounds, and up until they played matches from no less than fifteen different homes to include the Twickenham stadium in , which was the official headquarters of Rugby Union and was where the club eventually made its permanent home three years later. One of the most memorable performances from the Quins in their early life was against the American Olympic team in who had come to Europe to defend their Olympic title at the Games in Paris.

The team chose to play the club as a warm up fixture, but the Quins ended up beating the America team ! In , two years later, the Quins triumphed again when they beat visiting New Zealand team Whilst there were many positives to finally having a playing ground of their own, there were a number of drawbacks to playing at Twickenham.

The sheer size of the stadium meant that Harlequins' supporters were unable to fill the ground and it therefore lacked atmosphere. David relishing Saracens derby Play Now. Smith starts for England against Australia Read More.

Highlights: Wasps v Harlequins Play Now. Big Game 13 tickets on sale. Tickets on sale. More news. Buy the home kit On sale now. Previous results. Match Highlights Match Report. I mentioned that Harlequins had significant financial problems in the mids.

They invited the Beckwiths to invest in the club. John Beckwith joined the board, but the club was disappointed when there seemed to be no inclination to bail out the bank loans.

The trustees had a series of grim-faced meetings, mainly around the fact that the Beckwith Brothers were unprepared to underwrite the club with the bankers. Instead, they were ready to assume a majority holding in the event of the Harlequin club effectively going under.

It was during this time that Halliday phoned Duncan Saville for a rescue deal. The rest, as they say, is history. There are a lot of parallels between the financial difficulties of Harlequins and those of Bath Rugby club at a similar time.

The owner of Bath rugby was also looking to sell to another investor. Check out our article on the ownership of Bath rugby. Wasps are the traditional rival of Harlequins, dating back to when both rivals were based in London.

Wasps has an even more turbulent ownership history than Quins! You can read about it in our article on the o wners of Wasps rugby club. Saracens Rugby Club have also moved around, but they currently play home matches in the Greater London area. So, they can be considered a London rival of Quins. You can check out our article on the current and former owners of Saracens.

There is one more Premiership club in the greater London area. We have an article on the current and former owners of London Irish. Who Owns Harlequins Rugby? Early business success Saville, an Australian citizen, made his fortune during the UK privatization boom. What attracted Saville to Harlequins? A chance conversation Simon Halliday had coached at Harlequins, and the club also appointed him as a trustee.

By the end of the day, Saville shook hands with Halliday on a promise to invest in Harlequins.