I played club rugby for Southport and Waterloo at full back and centre during which time I had a county trial.
In the 1970s the northwest was a hot bed of rugby. Pre professional leagues Waterloo was one of the great British rugby clubs with a fixture list to match. Leicester, Harlequins, Sale, Richmond and so on. A quick look at Waterloo’s history shows sides littered with internationals. Such as Colin Fisher (Scotland), Dick Greenwood (England), Alan Ashcroft (England) and Gordon Rimmer (England )who went to my old school. More recently Gill Burns and Sonia Harris have represented England as Women Internationals.
So quite a pedigree allowing me to rub shoulders with Bill Beaumont, Tony Neary, Mike Slemen, Frank Anderson, Fran Cotton and Mike Gibson all internationals and Lions .
But work came first in those days and I moved to Swindon in 1981 and Steve Cook (former 1st XV and Committee Member) introduced me to Marlborough Rugby Club.
What a difference!!
We played on the common, changed at the school and entertained in Elcot Lane.
Although it was slightly different to what I’d been used to it was still rugby. Grass roots maybe but rugby nonetheless.
Doing things properly I had to have a trial run out with Ian Clements 3rd XV at Cirencester Agricultural College before I was accepted then the 1st XV came calling and I never managed to get dropped again.
Whatever our surroundings we did have good players and a good committee. Player wise John Pye, John Bailey, Steve Cook, Simon and Shanks Horwood, Nathan Blau, Alec Thomas, Pete Shepard, Conrad Frysol, Pete Olding, Richard Palmer, Trevor Burkin, Dean Cowley, Andy Massey, Tim Gent, Phil Beattie, John Newman, Ian Perkins, Simon Clements, Guy Nicholas, Simon Watson and Nick Childs spring readily to mind as good players even if sometimes they weren’t that good at catching the ball. Behind the scenes Andy Ross, Howard Cripps, Mark Gibson, Nigel Ludlow and countless others also contributed hugely. Alec Thomas was long term fixture secretary, Steve Cook was treasurer and Alex Hay was an invaluable asset to the club as he’s continued to be.
Similarly Rod Adams.
Then calamity. John Bailey had to move with work and I became captain.
Just so you new members can understand I will outline captains duties in 1980 on match days. Delegate
Marking out of the lines.
Buying the oranges.
Pick up the shirts from the laundrette in Swindon.
Get the balls, line flag posts, bucket and post protectors from the clubhouse and take them to the common.
Fill the bucket from the cemetery tap .
Pick up those players without cars.
Hope the team and our visitors will arrive.
Collect the posts and the filthy shirts ,
Cook the pie and beans. Usually with help from wives and girlfriends.
Collect match fees.
I often led the singing. Always happy to do that again.
Oh and in between play a game of rugby. Hopefully we won.
By the way I did get help. Usually. Thanks to everyone who did help. They know who they are.
Monday we trained under lights at Elcot Lane. Picked the teams then posted out the team sheets with a report on the previous weeks match and an events calendar.
The club though did well. We built a better side and the minis flourished. I really think we were ahead of our time with mini rugby and its great to see how it thrives today. Well done to Owen and Gibbo (Mark Gibson) and those who followed them.
The committees goal though was to find a ground with a clubhouse attached. It was a very frustrating process and we seemed to have few friends at the time. I believed we might fold without better facilities.
Without doubt what we have now is a game changer and i hope we can continue to develop our facilities and improve.
So thats it with rose tinted spectacles save for a few special thoughts.
a) We were all got sent off along with our opponents (Gloucester Civil Service) along with our touch judge for witnessing a fight between the Watson brothers and a couple of opponents. The referee was a policeman who amazingly wanted to abandon the game with us winning no less. We all got a month ban and I didn’t get to throw a punch. (The following fortnight the second team represented the club against Swindon 1st XV in a Senior Cup round round and came second remembering at that time our 1st XV played Swindon 2nds).
b) A bad car crash on the way home from a match in Dorset saw five of us visiting hospital. Only Simon Clements was seriously injured. Thankfully he recovered.
The season John Pye joined us we hardly won a game before Christmas then went unbeaten till our last match which we lost. That cost us promotion.
We played our only international match against Leduc Crude. (?) swapping sweaters. We won. At half time only Richard Hughes, Alec Thomas and I weren’t smoking.
We entertained a Orrell Club XV at Easter on the common. They were one of the country’s top sides at the time. We won but they were on tour.and slightly “worse for ware”.
Lastly, and I’m sure I’ve lost most of you by now ,we toured the North West one Easter playing Blackpool,Wolverhampton and my old club (Southport) where we won.
Post retiring from Rugby I’m afraid i lost touch with the club. In recent years though i’ve returned and enjoy standing on the popular side with ex comrades.
The current side is a good one and all congratulations to those who have built and grown both the rugby sides and the infrastructure alongside.
I hope those who came before you played some part in ensuring that opportunity existed.
Best of luck to everyone and let us hope we get some Rugby before the end of the season.
P.S.
If I’ve left people out then its down to my memory.
