1955-56: Maurice Takes Charge

R.G. Cameron took over as Secretary and George DelaMare became Treasurer. At the 1955 and 1956 AGMs, two non-playing stalwarts were rewarded with Honorary Life Membership - A. Moore (father of Pip) and H.F. Harding. Maurice Goymer began a two-year stint in charge of the playing side, along with Bob Carden as his vice-captain. After our splendid season the year before we lost some key players, with Tim Drew, John Richardson and Micky McGuire having left the area. Among the new players were John Drury and John Griffin, who both played at either centre or fly-half and Barry Leyton, who was also a centre. Peter Jones returned from Northampton and resumed at scrum-half. In the forwards, Mike Parkin became a regular and Ted Thorpe joined us. He was stationed locally with the RAF and his claim to fame is that when he retired, he took up refereeing and lived to tell the tale of how he sent-off his commanding officer!

It was a slow start with the only wins against Kidderminster and Stourbridge in the autumn, but we picked up after that and finished in credit with 16 wins and 12 defeats. Bad weather wiped out all the games in February. In the derby games we suffered a rare double defeat at the hands of Old Warwickians and this was the last time we lost the Boxing Day game. We did however score a win over Kenilworth in a late season match, our first win in the series, at our 14th attempt. Allan Hogge played for Warwickshire and Bob Carden was a travelling reserve. Carden had a very good season: he played for Warwickshire in a friendly fixture (along with Bill Baillie) and for Warwickshire Colts and he also topped the club point scorers with 56, followed by Jack Devis and Bill Baillie, each with 32. Mike Parkin played for the County under-18s. We entered the Oxfordshire Sevens for the first time but went out in the first round. We were more successful in the Lockheed tournament where we again reached the final and lost to D. Sproul’s Seven.

First XV – 1955-56 Ted Thorpe, Mike Parkin, John Griffin, Roger Philpott, Bill Baillie, John Walters,

Ken Hitchman, Ray Kirkland – Lol Smith, Barry Leyton, Maurice Goymer (Captain),

Bob Carden, John Drury - Peter Jones, Rod Macrae

George Wilson resumed the captaincy of the seconds but was injured and Jack Devis took over for much of the season until George recovered and got over the thought of retiring. They had a disappointing season winning only 8 of 27. Bert Bailey continued to lead the 3rd XV. They had an awful start with a series of big defeats and, following the winter break, a 38-0 loss to Coventry Tech brought their season to an end with just 2 wins from 17 games. Their poor record was partly due to having to play with men short because of late cry-offs and call-ups to the second team. The peculiar Dr Peter Parry arrived late for one game and without seeking the referee’s permission packed down at the back of the scrum and apologised for his lateness. He was told “You are not only late you are in the wrong game - that’s the third team pitch over there!".

1956-57: Tour to Devon

This was the season of the Suez crisis, which ended the political career of our club vice-president and Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. On a practical level, just when we thought wartime petrol rationing was behind us it came back with a vengeance and was a problem throughout the season. With players unable to get petrol for their cars, we had to resort to hiring coaches for our away games, at increased cost. Frank Wood was elected as President and R.G. Cameron, our new Secretary, resigned in October as his job moved him away from the area. John Griffin took his place. In September we organised an inter-club goal kicking competition which 12 local sides entered. Each team had five players and they had 3 kicks per man, the winners going forward on a knock-out basis. We won the competition in 1956 and again in 1957. A cup was presented by our President.

The Goymer-Carden captaincy team continued for a second season. We started fairly well with 10 wins before Christmas, which included a second success against Kenilworth. We played some excellent rugby with an exciting back line of: Carden, Proffitt-White, Griffin, Drury, Carr and (alas) Smith and Jones. But our form dipped from January resulting in several losses which should have been wins. We ended up slightly in deficit. We lost 12-3 to Coventry Extras on a wet day in February and the event was recorded by the Coventry Telegraph in the cartoon below.

Part of the problem was that Maurice Goymer had been moved to London with his job and could not supervise mid-week training, which was poorly attended. We also lost vice-captain Bob Carden and John Drury to National Service after Christmas, although we did have the bonus of the return of John Shurvinton from Northampton. In the forwards, Allan Hogge was back from Nuneaton and newcomers were Roger Philpott, Tony Voisey and Brian Griffin. Late in the season, David Proffitt-White broke his leg badly in a District match, with the broken bone coming through the flesh of his leg. He was put out of the game for 13 months and out of work as a consequence. Although he played again it took away his confidence and he packed up the game. Nevertheless, he finished as top scorer for the 1st XV with 51 points (17 tries) followed by Bill Carr with 45.

Jack Devis captained the 2nd XV and they were again in deficit in a pretty average season. Bill Baillie was top points scorer with 48, followed by Malcolm Aitcheson on 39 and Spencer Lee on 27. Mick Walsh was in charge of the 3rd XV and there was huge turnaround in their fortunes winning 19 of their 29 games, including a long unbeaten run from the beginning of December. Ted Byron was top scorer with 66 points, just one ahead of A. Bailey on 65. One of their regulars was an 18 year old second-row forward called Ray Ward who was new to the game and in his first season of rugby. He made good progress was soon to be in the 1st team.

This was the year of the second bi-annual Easter tour and we went to south Devon with a relatively small squad of about 20 players, where we played Salcombe, Collumpton and Wiveliscombe – we lost to Salcombe on Good Friday, but won the other two games. A number of players achieved county honours with Allan Hogge, Brian Seaton (now with Rugby) and John Shurvinton playing for Warwickshire and Bob Carden travelling as a reserve. Mike Parkin played for Warwickshire under-19s. Roger Philpott and Ray Ward were also picked for County sides.

First XV – 1956-57 Roger Philpott, Peter Jones, Bill Baillie, John Shurvinton, Allan Hogge, David Proffitt-White, Brian Griffin, Ray Heaton, Tony Voisey, Lol Smith - Ianto Moody, Bob Carden,

Maurice Goymer, John Griffin, Rod Macrae

1957-58: Wallabies’ Visit

Maurice Goymer moved to Newbury with his job (but was to return), so Ianto Moody (right) replaced him as captain, with Dave Butler as his deputy. Ianto, who hailed from the north-east, had joined us in 1954 when he was serving as a regular in the RAF at Gaydon, from where he played for Bomber Command for several seasons. He stayed on in the area and played for us when he left the air force and was equally brilliant at scrum half or back-row forward: so good in fact that some of his Welsh teammates in the RAF said he was too good to be English and they renamed him Ianto instead of Ian and this stuck. There was a severe outbreak of Asian Flu at the start of the season and this seems to have affected our early results for we had a slow start, losing 5 of the opening 7 games. The team then hit form in early November and went unbeaten for the next 14 matches and remarkably didn’t concede a single try for three months. The run included excellent wins over Stratford and Northampton Wanderers (Extras) and overall, we won 18 and drew 4 of our 31 matches. Late season games included a loss to Warwickshire “A” and a narrow reverse at Coventry Extras but this had been one of our best seasons since the War and was the start of one of the club’s best periods as our numbers expanded both in quality and depth. We now had around 60-80 players on the books and interestingly a similar number of vice-presidents and other non-playing members.

First XV – 1957-58 Ray Ward, Bill Carr, Alan Lines, Tony Voisey, Tim Drew, xxx, Roger Philpott, Maurice Goymer - John Shurvinton, David Butler, Ianto Moody, Denis Johnson, Allan Hogge - John Griffin, Rod Macrae

Peter Jones had to give up playing early in the season, so Moody took over at scrum-half. New players included: Roger Johnston, a speedy winger from Old Coventrians and Nuneaton, who was a schoolmaster at Leamington College and; Guthrie Higgett, a hooker and a colourful social character who arrived via Moseley, the Army and New York RFC. A number of home-grown talents returned or were also making their mark in the game. Dennis Johnson became a regular on the wing, Ray Ward continued to make spectacular progress and was in the second-row after Christmas and he was joined in the pack by Dave Inglesent. Tim Drew returned after a season at Rosslyn Park where he had played in their first team until a fractured spine put him out of action, but he recovered to prop with Dave Butler, who made the switch from the back-row. The star of the team was John

Shurvinton and he led the scorers with 73 points, from Tim Drew on 52, who kicked the goals. Tim was selected as captain of both the South Warwickshire and the Leamington & Warwick District representative sides. We lost again to D. Sproul’s seven in the Lockheed Sevens, this time at the semi-final stage. Pinner were our Easter visitors and they left us with a piece of art, the significance of which is not remembered.

In contrast to the senior side, the 2nd XV had their worst season for some time wining only 6 of their 30 games, although well led as always by Jack Devis, who topped the scorers with a modest 17 points, followed by Norman David and Tony Grimes with 12 apiece. Mick Welch’s 3rd team did rather better, winning 11 of 22 games. A. Bailey scored 66 points and Johnny Allen 51.

First XV 1957-58 Ray Ward, xxx, John Walters, Brian Griffin, xxx, xxx – xxx, Dave Butler, Ianto Moody,

Denis Johnson, John Shurvinton, Bill Carr - Rod Macrae, John Griffin, Roger Philpott

Other points of note were that the Wallabies were touring the UK and they became the third international side to train at Leamington and use our facilities: prior to their match against Midland Counties West on 22 February. In November, we held our first bonfire night party, which has become a regular part of our social activity and fund raising ever since. This was during the “teddy boy” era and there was sometimes trouble with local youths which was usually resolved with the threat of a visit to the canal. Drinks prices were increasing, with a shot of whiskey going up to one shilling and nine pence (9p) and beer to two shillings a pint (10p). Tastes in beer were changing and the Committee decided that in future we should only stock Keg Bitter, with a small quantity of Mild for shandy drinkers. Lager hadn’t even been discovered.

The Club’s first Colts met for training and practice in 1957/58 but didn’t play fixtures until the following season. The identities are not all known but the photo includes - xxx, David Broadridge, xxx, Colin Commander, xxx, Archie Banks – S. Vitali, Dudley Fletcher, xxx, Clifford Veasey, xxx – x Saunders, xxx, Paul Bryan

1958-59: President Harrison

The great event this year was that Cliff Harrison was elected as President of the Warwickshire RFU, the first member of the club to receive this honour. Pip Moore replaced Cliff as Chairman of the club to allow him to devote more time to his two-year term with the County. Lyn Jones, the father of Peter Jones, was elected as President of the club and Dennis Johnson became Hon. Secretary.

John Shurvinton (left) was elected as captain with Tim Drew as his vice-captain and they managed to maintain the club’s improvement with a new record of 23 wins from 32 games. After opening week successes against Nuneaton Old Edwardians and Kenilworth, the team were unbeaten until mid-November and continued to play well throughout the season, gaining victories over Stourbridge, Stratford, a very strong Coventry Extras side and a 40-0 thumping of Handsworth. Among the new players were scrum-half Roger “Dodge” Mace and Alec Daley, John Leonard and John Walters in the forwards. Another surprise addition to the forwards was Bill Carr who switched from his normal position on the wing for the Boxing Day game and played so well at wing-forward that he converted on a permanent basis. Late in the season the Committee took the risk of playing two Leamington College schoolboys at centre in the 1st XV – they were Geoff Care who later played for Notts. Lincs. & Derbyshire, and Keith Savage who went on to play for Northampton, England and the British Lions. Jim Wilkinson retired at the end of the season after 21 years with the club, mostly in the 1st team pack.

The game was speeded up by some modifications to the laws, notably by a relaxation of the knock-on, which permitted an adjustment or fumble of the ball when catching it, providing it wasn’t a clear double movement. The necessity for a player to roll from the ball when grounded and a placer to hold the tip of the ball for kicks at goal were also removed. These changes may have had something to do with the increased number of points scored, which at 344 was our second highest ever and the best since the war. John Shurvinton topped the scorers with a record 103 points followed by Tim Drew with 51 and John Griffin with 45. Ward, Butler and Shurvinton all played for Warwickshire “A” sides.

Jack Devis led the 2nd XV and they had an average season, finishing slightly in debit. Jack was spreading rumours that the next season was going to be his last. Glynn Griffiths took over the captaincy of the 3rd XV assisted by Johnny Allen and they had a similar record to the second team finishing with a slight deficit – they had a frustrating time with many games cancelled.

One of the significant things Cliff Harrison did as Warwickshire President was to steer through the development of Colts rugby as we know it today. Hitherto, it had been played only at county level by under-23 representative sides. The situation in the late 1950’s was that rugby was spreading from the public and grammar schools to the new secondary modern schools which were expanding to accommodate the post-war baby bulge. Locally, Blackdown High and Kenilworth Grammar School were both founded at the end of the 1950s and with these and other schools having no old boys’ clubs and many boys leaving at 15 or 16 years of age there was little opportunity for them to continue playing at adult level. The RFU grasped the problem and advised clubs to establish under-19 Colts teams and in 1958 Warwickshire set up a Colts organisation to oversee this. Leamington were keen to be involved and build on the Saturday morning coaching we had been running for some years and after much hard work our first ever Colts side took the field against Barkers Butts in January 1959. The game was lost by 0-28 and although full records have not been traced, we lost the two games we are known to have played, although the team showed much promise.

Prior to the season we ran our first club Fete which raised £100, of which we donated 20% to the Sunshine Home for Blind Babies. This was a major event involving large numbers of people to run the various stalls and entertainments. Over the years it was held at the club or on the Pump Room Gardens and became a key part of our fund-raising efforts, along with bonfire night, the Christmas draw and others. The annual place-kicking competition was run for a third and final time, with OW's winning and therefore they held the Harding Cup in perpetuity - in theory at least, as it was lost.

2nd XV circa 1959 at Earlsdon – Ted Byron, Jim Wilkinson, xxx, Roger Patterson, xxx, John Leonard, xxx,

Gerry Strong, xxx – xxx, Jack Devis, Dave Inglesent, xxx – Norman David, Bernard Gallagher, Peter David

1st XV 1958-59 - Pip Moore (Chairman) Ianto Moody, John Richardson, Bill Carr, Mike Parkin, Roger Philpott,

Ray Ward, John Griffin, Alec Daley, Geoff Care – Roger Johnston, Dave Butler, J.A. Tallent (President of the RFU),

John Shurvinton (captain), Cliff Harrison (President of Warwickshire RFU), Tim Drew, Lol Smith -

John Leonard, Rod Macrae, Tony Grimes

1959-60: Shurvinton Shines

The Shurvinton-Butler leadership continued into 1959-60. John Shurvinton, who had been playing for us since he was schoolboy, was now in his prime. A very talented fly-half or centre, his party trick was to run with the ball in one hand held high above his head, which seemed to mesmerise the opposition. He went for a trial with Coventry during the season but then returned to Leamington. Northampton must have been monitoring the situation though, as he joined them in 1960-61. Keith Savage and Geoff Care were now regulars in the side and among the newcomers were: Max Sisterson, a very good wing forward; Terry Pugh a fly-half or centre from Coventry; Tony Payne another a fly-half, from Harlequins; and an excellent scrum half in Ian Francis who had played for Dorset & Wiltshire. We were also pleased to welcome back Maurice Goymer after his sojourn in Newbury.

First XV 1959-60 - Maurice Goymer, Mike Parkin, Dave Butler, Roger Philpott, John Griffin, Ray Ward, Pip Moore –

Keith Savage, Guthrie Higgett, John Richardson, John Shurvinton, Ianto Moody, Tim Drew, Roger Johnston

- Ian Francis, John Leonard.

With the strongest fixture list so far, we had another outstanding season winning 22 of 30 games and scoring 478, points the highest total in the club’s history. Among our notable scalps we achieved a double over Coventry Extras, and a 15-3 victory at Northampton Wanderers. We lost to only three clubs all season, including double defeats at the hands of Stourbridge and Stratford and a single loss to Kenilworth, who we trounced in the return fixture. Over Easter we entertained Abercarn and Osterley Park and defeated them both by the same score of 21-3. Shurvinton increased his points’ record to 112 followed by Drew with 54 and Savage with 51.

Lol Smith dropped down from the 1st XV to captain the seconds and they also had a very good year, winning 19 of 28 games. Brian Badger was their top scorer with 54 points. One of the players coming up through the sides was Bernard Gallagher, who was a very good talker and organiser as well as a useful fly-half. Their best win was a 53-3 trouncing of Old Warwickians. Glynn Griffiths continued to lead the 3rd XV and they had an even record, winning 9 and losing the same number of games. With more players coming through we were able to field a fourth side for the first time ever, and they played 4 times. After two games in the previous season we now began to turn out a Colts side on a fairly regular basis and they played 15 times. Their line-up included Archie Banks, who captained the side, plus Bob Russell and Colin Commander who were to go on to become 1st XV regulars.

Our improvement at Sevens also continued and we retained the Lockheed trophy by beating Old Silhillians 8-3 in the final. John Shurvinton captained the team pictured although he is not in the photo. The squad shown is - Ianto Moody, Ian Francis, John Richardson, Tim Drew, John Leonard, Keith Savage, Roger Johnston and Ray Ward (being sick?).

Pre-season training circa 1960, featuring John Richardson, Max Sisterson, Bill Carr, Roger Philpott,

Ted Byron, John Griffin, Geoff Care, John Leonard, Tim Drew. Guthrie Higgett, and Mike Parkin