Newmarket Rugby Union Football Club was formed in 1956, when a group of rugby football enthusiasts from a wide cross section of the community in Newmarket, got together and decided to form the Club. For the first season only away games were played, but for the next eleven seasons, the Club used hired pitches in nearby villages and changed in local clubs and pubs, travelling to the grounds in cars. The Club moved to the present ground in 1969 when it was “Scaltback recreation Ground” and before the current major occupier of the site, Scaltback Middle School, was built.

The present clubhouse, owned by Newmarket Sports Development Association, was built in 1974, but, at that time, it was in a much more basic form and was shared with other sporting and recreational clubs. In the last 15 years there have been two major extensions to the clubhouse to provide extra changing rooms and a larger clubroom. These extensions have been largely funded, both financially and from voluntary labour, by Newmarket Rugby Union Football Club, with support from local authorities.

From a slow start with one team for the first seven seasons, the club expanded to two teams from 1964; this second fifteen being largely made up of young players (colts) from the local secondary school. This school had started to play rugby football in 1957 as a result of encouragement from a club member. A regular third fifteen was started in 1977 and at the peak up to four teams and a veteran’s team have been supported. However, in common with the national trend, the last ten years has seen a slow decline in the number of adult players, so that recent years only two teams have been fielded, the last two years have seen a regeneration of numbers which has seen the re-emergence of the third team on an occasional basis.