IN the 1870s a group of young men, many former pupils of Highgate and Mill Hill Schools, founded a cricket club which played in a park which used to be part of Rosslyn House in Hampstead.

They decided to play rugby in winter and that was the birth of Rosslyn Park RFC.

They played at several venues and the turning point came in 1890 when fixtures were arranged with Oxford University, London Scottish, Blackheath and Richmond.

The following year Harlequins and London Welsh came on the list.

Before the Great War the club proved a true ambassador of the game by playing the first games of rugby seen in Prague, Budapest and Vienna.

In record-breaking 1926-7 and 1949-50 seasons, only seven games were lost and in the latter campaign Park were the first club to bring the Melrose Sevens title south of the border.

The club moved to Roehampton in 1957 and went from strength to strength, losing the 1976 and 1977 John Player Cup finals to Bedford and Gosforth.

Rosslyn Park were placed in Division Two when leagues were introduced in 1987-8 and were champions, one point clear of Liverpool St Helens.

Two of their greatest players were Prince Obelensky and the late Andy Ripley who had 24 England caps and was a British Lion in the 1970s.

Park survived in the top flight for three seasons before finishing bottom with one point.

Then despite eighth position in Division Two, a re-organisation of the leagues meant an immediate drop to Division Three in 1992-3.

Park won their way back to the third tier in 2010 when they beat Loughborough Students 43-21 in a National Two play-off.

Our clubs met for the first time in the league in the 2019/20 season, and Rams edged an epic clash 27-20 at Old Bath Road before the coronavirus pandemic stopped hostilities being renewed with both sides still in the title race.

Further success arrived in the following two seasons, with 24-21 (home) and 17-13 victories (away) in 2021/22, before a superb 29-21 triumph on the road and 43-10 win at Old Bath Road.

Rams made it six on the spin with a 31-20 home triumph back in September 2023, then pulling off an incredible fightback to snatch a final-play 21-17 success at The Rock last January.