1970-71: Move to Moorefields

With the clubhouse finished and the ground in good order, the club finally moved to Moorefields in time for the AGM in June 1970. Pip Moore’s term of office as President was extended to allow him to preside over the opening of the ground, which bears his name. The formal opening took place 8th September and was conducted by Bill Ramsay, President of the RFU along with Dudley Smith MP. In a match to mark the occasion, a Warwickshire XV played the Leamington President’s XV, with the Warwickshire side coming out on top by 22-6

The new facilities created a lot of interest and attracted many new players, at all levels. There was some feeling at the AGM that the growth in non-playing members might disturb the power balance of the club and detract us from our core activity. A working party was duly set up to look at ways of restricting their voting rights and numbers. There was a lot of work to be done to finish off the facilities and it was decided to appoint a part-time caretaker to help with cleaning the changing rooms and a range of other tasks. Fred Colston got the job and gave us great service over the next four years. With so much going on, it was decided to produce a revamped monthly newsletter, which was edited by Bernard Gallagher and was known as the “Moorefields Mag”. Its irreverent style proved popular, but it was a big job to produce and circulate it and after a few years it appeared less and less regularly, despite the odd re-launch.

In the first season at the new ground, Ray Ward and Roger Maycock continued to lead on the field and we achieved 18 wins, but suffered almost as many defeats. The opening game at Moorefields was against Stratford and we started with an 8-3 win, with Keith Bradford, who had joined us from Saracens, making his debut in the back row. Our form was disappointing throughout the autumn and in October we were hit by the double blow of losing Guy Nicholls, who decided to move to Kenilworth after a disagreement over selection; and Trevor Roberts who went on trial to Rugby. Whilst there he unfortunately broke his leg in an inter-district game, which put him out for the season. Ultimately, he became a big success at Rugby, captaining the club and becoming a regular for Buckinghamshire, his home county. He also played for Warwickshire before later returning to Leamington.

John Lambden came in at full-back for Nicholls and at Christmas, Jim Doak, who had been with us as junior, re-joined from Stratford and brought with him his mate, a young Kit Forrest, who was new to the game but progressed through from the Tigers into the first XV and became our regular fly-half for most of the next decade. Another recruit was John Bolton, an outstanding centre, who joined us from Harlequins. After winning all our games in January we lost the lot in February, but with a reshuffling of the side we began to throw the ball around and with Doak, Bolton and Paul Lea causing havoc we achieved a good finish to the season, recording outstanding wins against Westleigh, Aylesbury and Wigan. A number of youngsters, who were to become club regulars, came through into the side including Forrest, Billy Harris, Jim Poynter, Dave Reeve and Paul Brant. John Wheildon took on the kicking duties and was top scorer with 60 points. Archie Banks was top try scorer with 21, including 5 tries against Wellingborough.

We dominated the local derby games, beating Stratford, Kenilworth (twice) and Old Warwickians and were now without doubt, the strongest club in south Warwickshire. However, the games were becoming rather violent, with our “mean machine” of forwards attracting a lot criticism for their uncompromising play. The continuation of the Stratford fixture was at risk and this year the game was described as a typical “no-quarter asked encounter” with both sets of forwards having a good time. The Kenilworth club’s history book also refers to the games this season when, in the first match, two of their players were forced to leave the field, “with a shut eye and a broken nose respectively, both thanks to one Oggy Thompson”. A big crowd turned out to watch the return game when the local reporter noted that several old scores were settled and “Thompson did well to fight on with a broken wrist” that he suffered early in the game as he got his retaliation in first!

The Extras, captained by Tony Grimes had a slow start to the season but picked up well and lost only 2 games after Christmas to finish with 22 victories. Geoff Miller scored 13 tries with Archie Banks getting 9. The Seconds were again led by Ianto Moody and after losing 3 of their first 6 games (albeit fielding only 14 players in 2 of them) they went on to have an outstanding season, winning their last 24 matches in a row, from late October, to set a new club record. They scored almost 700 points and their top try scorers were Vic Barber with 17, Gary Green with 12 and Max Johansson and Jim Drury with 10 apiece.

Malcolm Bloomer captained the Stags and they also had an outstanding year, winning 27 games and setting a record total of 905 points, including a record 83-0 score against Banbury, with Dave Thomas getting a record 8 tries in the game. They also won 73-0 against Old Coventrians 3rd XV. The try scorers are too numerous to mention but Lol Smith’s right boot amassed 158 points. In his first year as captain, Paul Harrison almost doubled the Tigers’ best ever win record with an excellent 20 from 27 games. Mervyn Cowley had plenty of kicking practice and notched up 105 points. Mick Hewitt scored 13 tries and Malcolm Chard 10. At times we had so many players that we could field a sixth team, which was looked after by Dave Smith. They were known as the Dragons and they played 7 times, winning 3.

In this season of records, Lol Smith raised the overall individual points record to 210 and Vic Barber scored 32 tries, with Geoff Miller also exceeding the previous mark with 31 and Archie Banks notching 30. Ray Ward played for Warwickshire against East Midlands. Gary Green and Mick Glover played for Warwickshire Colts and John Wheildon for the county under-25 side. Other highlights were the club tour to Cumbria (or Westmoreland as it then was) where we stayed at Morecombe and lost twice: to Furness (Barrow) and Vale of Lune. In the Sevens we lost in the semi-finals at Worcester in September, going down 20-5 to Moseley, who fielded their full international contingent and won the tournament. We made it through the preliminary rounds of the Oxford Sevens held at Banbury and took part in the main event, which was regarded as second only to Middlesex in quality. We lost in the first round at Lockheed.

First XV 1970-71 (October) John Taplin, John Thompson, Steve Nicholas, Brian Ryan, John Lambden, John Wheildon,

Keith Bradford - Brian Montgomery, Bernard Gallagher, Fred Emeney, Ray Ward, Roger Maycock, David Scannell

Geoff Miller, Archie Banks

1st XV April 1971 Jim Doak, Kit Forrest, John Bolton, Archie Banks, Trevor Reynolds, Geoff Miller, John Catlin, Steve Nicholas, Brian Montgomery, Bill Harris - Roger Maycock, Dave Reeve, Ray Ward, John Wheildon, Fred Emeney, John Oxenbould

Extras 1970-71 Dave Grove, Cled O’Connell, John Wilson, Trevor Reynolds, Bob Russell, Dave Inglesent, Peter Gallagher,

Stuart Copeland, Ken Kirkwood - John Taplin, Geoff Miller, Steve Nicholas, Colin Hartwell, Dave Green, Norman David

1971-72: A Season of Records

Buoyed by the success of the British Lions in New Zealand during the summer, the profile of the game had never been greater and our numbers continued to swell. Although only just established in the No.8 position in the first team, Paul Brant (left) was elected as skipper and a great success he was too as, in another year of records, his side set a new mark with 28 wins, passing the previous best by 4.

The first team also amassed a record 558 points, due partly to an earlier start to the season, which meant more matches than ever before, but also to a change in the scoring system, with 4 points instead of 3 for a try, inflating scores from here-on. The team was more or less as before but John Thompson emigrated to Australia (with Kenilworth players having a whip round to pay for his ticket – one way) and Bob Russell and John Lyne proved adequate replacements at second-row. Jim Doak was vice-captain and led the backs and a number of outstanding players joined us during the season including winger Geoff Farndon, fly-half Mike Carding and centre Phil Marsland. It was also good to see Guy Nicholls return from Kenilworth and resume in the full-back position. Kit Forrest continued his progress and had an outstanding season and solved our long-time problem by proving to be a reliable goal kicker, scoring 158 points.

The early season highlight was the introduction of the Warwickshire Cup which for the first time added a competitive element to our fixture list (other than sevens) and over the years brought us into contact with clubs who did not appear on our regular fixture list, particularly some of the stronger Coventry sides. Our debut in the competition was away to our old friends Old Wheatleyans and in the shock of the round they defeated us by 9-4 with our backs having an off-night. Other than this upset we had a strong start to the season with 6 wins out of 7. A 38-8 hammering by Birmingham University was our only heavy defeat and this was followed by a run of 11 wins from 12, beginning with a 28-13 win at Stratford and including victories over Kenilworth, Dudley-Kingswinford and Old Warwickians. Stratford got their revenge with a surprise single-point win at Moorefields in the middle of February, but we bounced back to win handsomely at Kenilworth the following week and finished the season strongly with one of our best performances, securing victory over a strong Newbold side.

First XV 1971-72 John Taplin, Jim Doak, Vic Barber, John Lyne, Bob Russell, Jim Poynter, Guy Nicholls, Roger Maycock, Dave Green - Ray Ward, Dave Grove, John Wheildon, Paul Brant, Brian Montgomery, Kit Forrest

Steve Nicholas captained the Extras but also supported Paul Brant in the general training and coaching of the players. Compared to some of the other sides, the Extras’ record was relatively modest, but they still had a very good season and won 23 of their 36 games, despite losing a number they should have won easily. They started in spectacular style topping 50 points in successive home wins over Banbury,

Cilfynnyd and Shipston, but they failed to touch these heights again, except for a 49-0 win over Buckingham 1st XV in January and a 35-0 win against the Keresley first-string in April. Nicholas scored an impressive 18 tries and proved hard to stop when breaking off from the scrum at close range. Jim Poynter was the pick of the backs with 17 tries.

First XV 1971-72 Gary Green, John Lyne, John Wheildon, Ray Ward, Kit Forrest, Fred Emeney, Bill Harris, Dave Scannell,

Mick Pett – Brian Montgomery, Vic Barber, Paul Brant, Jim Doak, Dave Reeve, Roger Maycock

The Seconds and Stags had outstanding seasons. Norman David took over as captain of the Seconds and his side continued from where they had left off at the end of the previous season to increase their winning run to 32 games before being held to a draw by Stratford at the end of October. They went on to win another 16 games before Westleigh Extras ended their magnificent 49 game unbeaten run (of 48 wins and 1 draw) in March. Over the season they scored 844 points and won 29 games. Not to be outdone, Maurice Goymer’s Stags equalled the Seconds’ total of 29 wins and in doing so became the first team in the club’s history to exceed 1,000 points in a season, just getting over the line with 1006 points. Big wins against Marlow, Pinley 2nd and Earlsdon, where the magic 1,000 barrier was reached, were the highlights. There was a lot of movement between the sides and this was reflected in the leading scorers with Mervyn “The Boot” Cowley scoring 208 points and Jimmy Keenan leading the try-scorers with 31. Archie Banks was next with 24, followed by Chris McKinley with 19 and John Chandler with 17.

Tigers skipper Paul Harrison missed the first half of the season due to business commitments abroad, but veteran Jack Devis, fresh from having played his 600th game for the club the previous season, postponed his retirement and led the side until Christmas. They began with a 14-match winning run which only came to an end in December when they travelled to Stoke to play Linley 1st XV in a fixture mix-up. The second half of the season was not so good, with many cancellations and they finished with 17 wins from 24 games. One match that surprisingly went ahead was at Bedworth on an awful day in March when the Tigers all-bald backline of Brian Badger, Mick Murray, Eddie Green and John Lyons played for forty minutes into a torrential hailstorm without a single hair of protection between them, as hailstones the size of frozen peas ricocheted off their pates. The referee only abandoned the game after the soccer players on the adjoining pitch had called off their game and were well out of sight.

After five seasons we were again able to field a Colts side which was led by Denis Brown. They were looked after by Ianto Moody and Lol Smith who both finally retired from regular play. Although the Colts were the only side not to finish in credit, they had a reasonable record for a new side with 10 wins from 24 including a remarkable club record win of 94-0 win against Trinity Guild with Phil Marsland scoring 7 tries. They also had a 64-0 win over Northampton Casuals and they defeated Newbold and Kenilworth, the top Colts side in the county. Our neighbours were bad losers and they complained in the press about Leamington fielding over-age players and providing a biased ref – as if we would do either.

These excellent results were due to several reasons. Firstly, enthusiasm in the club was very high which was reflected on the social side and in training where attendance was good and was aided by the erection of temporary training lights. Secondly, we had a good intake of players at all levels including John Faulkner, a tall second row who was new to the game and began progressing through from the Tigers. In particular there was a large influx of players from the Lockheed club, including Rob Hickman, Steve Whitby, Dave Cole, Jim Gidney and Jimmy Keenan, who added to our strength at first team level and in depth throughout the club. A number of players gained individual honours - Jim Doak played for Warwickshire 2nd XV and both he and John Wheildon played for the County under-23s. This year also saw the start of the club Oscars with an anonymous donor presenting a cup for the most improved player of the year which was awarded to dynamic wing forward Dave Green.

In April, Max Johansson, the most short-sighted player ever to have played for the club moved to Rio de Janeiro and hadn’t been there long before he was picked for “Brazil” against “France’. In fact, it was collection of ex-pats, including five Welshmen a Kiwi, two US marines a few Brazilians and the remainder from England, including Max. They played against a touring team from the Combined Universities of Paris. The press and television were there, anthems were played and the teams were introduced to the President of the Brazilian RFU. The French won 27-12 and then proceeded to beat the locals at drinking, singing and rude games. Max went on to become captain of Rio before returning home, allegedly deported for streaking along the promenade of the Copacabana beach.

2nds 1971-72 Charlie Gardner, Glynn Morgan, Malcolm Bloomer, Bob Howe, Robin Andrews, Howard Blackmore, John Hibben, Tony Grimes, Jim Gidney - Archie Banks, Bob Hickman, Jim Drury, Norman David, Tommy Tucker, Ken Kirkwood –

Mark Tucker (mascot)

Stags 1971-72 xxx, Vernon Lowe, Glyn Morgan, John Faulkner, Andy Gardner, Peter Houghton,

Mervyn Cowley – Kevin Hunt, Gordon Mallinson, Maurice Goymer (captain), Charlie Gardner, Jim Gidney

- Jimmy Keenan, Peter Gallagher

Colts 1971-72 Paul Beard, Richard Lewin (?), John Cole, Andy Tallett, Phil Marsland, Bill Day, Andy Shaw, Alan Gough, Kevin Rourke, Colin Middleton – Pete Forrest, Brian Wesley, Dennis Brown (C) Steve Vicary, Tony Harris

Tigers 1971-72 – Ken Smith, Roger Grier, Mick Hewitt, Charlie Gardner, Russ Urry, Mick Thurlbeck, Nigel Carter, Vernon Lowe, John Lyons, Eddie Green – Terry Pugh, Neil Taylor, Paul Harrison, Jack Devis, Martin Tottle

1972-73: Mini Section Formed

Paul Brant continued as captain in 1972/73 with John Lyne as his vice-captain and although the side was unable to scale the heights of the previous season, it was still a very good year with 23 wins from 41 games. Paul Morgan who had joined the previous season from Coventry, but was injured for most of the time, took on the role of coach. Guy Nicholls left again, this time to join Harlequins and he made a number of first team appearances as understudy to England’s Bob Hiller. His debut was in Cornwall against Camborne and his proud father Tom made the trip to see him play. Arriving on the Friday evening and being a sociable fellow, he made his way to the Camborne clubhouse for a drink. He introduced himself and mentioned that his son was making his debut for the Quins the next day. “What position will he be playing, my beauty?” they asked. “Full-back” he replied. “We’ll see how he likes the up-and-unders then” they said. “Thanks Dad” said Guy as he took man and ball all afternoon.

Bill Harris took over at full-back, with Phil Marsland and Geoff Farndon also becoming regulars. There were a number of other significant additions, particularly Tony Evans, who was to become our regular scrum-half and Dave Etherington, another import from Lockheed, who was an outstanding centre. In the forwards, we lost John Wheildon early in the season and Dave Cole, Cled O’Connell and Terry Cleaver all had a run in the side to replace him at prop. In the case of Cleaver, he was new to the game and progressed from the Stags to the first team by Christmas. He deservedly won the most improved player award at the end of the season. Robin Andrews established himself in the second-row and Tommy Tucker took his turn as hooker - perhaps the most competitive job in the club. The most prominent arrival in the forwards was Pete Abel an outstanding back-row forward from Scotland.

After a good start to the season, a 6-27 defeat at Brynmawr at the end of October led to a run of 7 defeats in 8 games, due mainly to a heavy injury list and lots of chopping and changing. This run included early elimination from the Warwickshire Cup, this time by Stoke Old Boys from Coventry and it culminated in a mauling at Westleigh. Our second visit to Wales resulted in a narrow 20-19 win at Cilfynnyd and stopped the rot and started a run of 9 wins out of 10 into January. Thereafter we just about finished in credit over the remainder of the season. The Boxing Day game was won by 33-3 and we defeated Kenilworth and Stratford, although the Bards reversed the result with a surprise victory under lights when our kicks failed to go over. One of the best performances was a 3-0 win against Wolverhampton in a pool fixture, a team we had been trying to get a regular game with, without success. On 6th January our top three sides all played the first teams of other clubs and all won - against Banbury, Buckingham and Daventry. We had a third trip to Wales at the end of March where we lost narrowly to Mountain Ash. The poster for the game shows that we were attractive visitors, commanding an entry fee of 12p, or 3p for OAPs and minors. Kit Forrest scored 149 points for the 1st XV and topped the overall club scorers with 202 points. Paul Lea played several times for the Royal Navy and when he was available, continued to turn out for the first team with great effect and scored 24 tries.

Steve Nicholas continued to lead the Extras and they improved to have a great season, winning 27 out of 36 games and scoring a total of 717 points. Many of their players were interchangeable with the 1st XV and the side was almost as strong on good day. Geoff Miller converted from wing to fly-half and scored 88 of their points, with Mike Carding adding another 50. Nicholas was again top try scorer for his side with 13. The biggest win was 65-6 against Lutterworth 1st XV and 40 points or more were scored against Stratford, Banbury and Reading. Norman David took over the role of Rugby Chairman from Lol Smith and in his second season with the Seconds, he led his team to 29 wins, equalling the outstanding mark of the previous season and scoring a massive 957 points. Bob Howe accumulated 96 points in only half a season, with Carding scoring 53. Big wins of 77-8 against Stratford and 68-8 against Westleigh were the highlights, along with a 54-0 thumping of Kenilworth on the final Saturday.

First XV 1972-73 Ray Ward, Colin Hartwell, Dave Green, Jim Doak, John Lyne, Robin Andrews, Jim Poynter,

Kit Forrest - John Taplin, Phil Marsland, Paul Brant, Fred Emeney, John Wheildon, Brian Montgomery, Roger Maycock

Maurice Goymer finally called time on his playing career with the Stags and although they could not repeat the 1,000 points of the previous season, they had another fine year and played fast and open rugby, winning 23 of 32 games. John Lyons was top points scorer with 17 tries for the Stags and 30 overall to be equal leading try scorer. Andy Gardner took on the Tigers captaincy and they had a difficult season suffering badly from numerous cry-offs further up the sides, which became a major disciplinary issue within the club. They won 9 of 28 with John de Morgan topping their scorers with 48 points. Jack Devis retired after playing 637 games for the club.

In their second season, Denis Brown’s Colts improved their record to score an excellent 17 wins from 31 matches. Their best score was a thumping 74-0 win over Bedworth who were a decent side. Their top performers were: Dick Luckman who joined from Leamington College and played at fly-half for Warwickshire Colts during the season; Fred Blunsden, a powerful centre who was the club’s equal top try scorer with 30; and Pete Forrest who scored 150 points, mainly with the boot.

The Easter tour was to Sussex where we beat Eastbourne 22-4 in the opening game with our weaker line up, but then we went down 8-10 to Lewes, the Sussex cup holders, on the Saturday and finally by 9-19 to Brighton on the Monday, as food poisoning and alcohol excess gradually took effect. The highlight of the weekend was meeting up with a French touring side in Eastbourne when in the spirit of entente-cordiale the sides sang each others’ national anthems and it was discovered that the French also had a rude version of ours! The French surprisingly lost two balls, six shirts and three presentation pennants during the evening. We were outrageously accused of taking them, but we did return them.

It was decided to take a more professional attitude to sevens and Maurice Goymer was roped in to organise the side along with Geoff Farndon. It paid immediate dividends when we reached the final of the Worcester tournament in November, which included a lot of first-class clubs. We were beaten by Cymru who were mostly Cardiff payers, led by international fly-half John Bevan. There is no record of the end of season events.

Back in the autumn of 1970, when the club first moved to Moorefields, a number of the senior players, including Ray Ward, Maurice Goymer, Norman David, Tony Grimes and a handful of others, began coaching the basics of rugby to schoolboys on Sunday mornings. Some 25 youngsters, aged between 7 and 13 turned up on the first week and numbers expanded rapidly to around 60 or 70. This was the beginning of mini rugby at Leamington and we were among the first clubs in the country to start this sort of initiative.

The mini-rugby section was formed in December 1972 and the current organised version of the game came into being based on playing 9-a-side on a scaled down pitch, with no kicking and tackling gradually introduced. In the early days, before standard laws had been formalised, the rules of combat often had to be agreed before each match much in the way that the senior game had started 100 years earlier. The first matches were against Stratford and Sutton Coldfield and from this beginning a regular pattern of local fixtures was developed along with visits further afield to clubs holding mini-festivals or invitation tournaments. Leamington became regular competitors at Wilmslow, Macclesfield and elsewhere. George Delamare, Malcolm Bloomer, Keith Ogilvie and John Moloney were among those who organised the new section

At the AGM in June, it was decided to change the status of the Chairman, from being chairman of the Committee, elected by the Committee, to being Chairman of the Club, elected by the members at the AGM. It was also agreed to extend the size of the Committee to allow more opportunity for younger members to participate – although captains had always been members. We introduced a second “Oscar” this season with an award for clubman of the year which was given to Peter Lines.

Leamington Ladies (v the Gentlemen) circa 1973 – xxx, Pat Roberts, x Brant, Kate Smith, xxx, Anne Turner,

Sue Russell, Fran Goymer – Stephanie Ward, Ann French, Jill Goymer, Clare Oxenbould, Jackie Evans, Mavis Gayton, Jo Faulkner

1973-74: Sevens and Mini Festivals

In changes at the top, former skipper John Richardson took over as President from Tim Shaw who continued as Honorary Treasurer, although he had to stand down at Christmas after 15 years in the job, during which time the annual turnover of the club had risen from £1,000 to £10,000. He was subsequently elected as an Honorary Life Member at the AGM in 1974. Tim was a master at extorting subscriptions from reluctant players. He was replaced as Treasurer by Dave Inglesent.

An outstanding event during the early season was the visit in September of Meraloma RFC from Vancouver, our first overseas visitors. They were celebrating their Golden Jubilee and played Llanelli, Newbridge, Coventry and Roundhay. We played their colts side and lost 32-6. They stayed in the area for nine days and used our facilities for training and socialising - and they were very sociable indeed with a good repertoire of songs and an appetite for every variety and mixture of liquid refreshment.

Also in September, we held our own Sevens event for the first time, which was organised by Cliff Harrison. From a strong entry of 16 teams, Cheltenham beat Newbold 24-4 in the final to lift the trophy donated by Whitbread-Flowers. We didn’t do too well ourselves, losing to Stratford, Newbold and Walsall 2nd, to go out in the preliminary round. In the end of season events, we went out in the preliminary round of the Oxford Sevens, but we won the Lockheed tournament for the fourth time, and the first time since 1962, when Brian Montgomery led our seven to wins over Southam, GEC, Old Leams and Warwickshire Fire Brigade.

First XV 1973-74 Andy Shaw, Jim Poynter, Dave Etherington, John Taplin, Archie Banks, Kit Forrest, Roger Maycock -

Tommy Tucker, Terry Cleaver, John Faulkner, Ray Ward (capt) Bob Russell, Brian Montgomery, Steve Nicholas, Dave Reeve

Ray Ward started his fourth spell as captain, with Jim Poynter as his vice-captain. We held a pre-season trial session with Birmingham in August which was a great success and was repeated in the following two seasons. However, the season proper could have started better. After a narrow defeat at Luctonians we had a good win over Newbold, but Ray Ward fractured his cheekbone, putting him out for two months. Four defeats in a row followed, including a surprise loss to Warwickshire Police and another early exit from the Warwickshire Cup, with Old Wheatleyans repeating their victory of two years earlier by winning 10-3 at Moorefields. Injuries became an increasing problem with stand-in captain Jim Poynter joining Pete Abel, Dave Etherington Robin Andrews and Rob Hickman on a lengthening list. New players coming into the side included Peter Owen-Evans at full-back, Dick Luckman and Mick Bruton in the centre and John Wheildon making a welcome return at prop. Despite good wins at Hertford, Kettering and Marlow, the team didn’t get back into its stride until the Christmas period, when a run of five wins on the trot accounted for Kenilworth, Old Warwickians and Dudley-Kingswinford, but it was a false dawn and results tailed off again over the remainder of the season, although most games were close. The season finished with 17 wins and 20 losses, the first time the senior side had been in debit since the mid-1960s. Dave Reeve became a regular in the back-row after Christmas and Ian Millington came in on the wing. At 6 feet 3 inches he was the tallest winger in the club’s history at that point and managed to resist the general clamour for him to be put in the pack where every tall player was thought to belong in those days.

Led by Brian White, the Extras bore the brunt of the injury problems, but still had a good season with 25 wins, including successes against a number of first XVs, including Keresley, Stow and Pinley. The team had an experienced core of players in Roger Maycock, Paul Brant and Steve Nicholas with a younger element of Pat Healy, Dick Luckman and Kieran Concannon giving the side a good balance. Ian Millington was top scorer with 48 points and 12 tries, closely followed by Geoff Miller and Andy Shaw. Norman David led the Spartans again but he was sometimes moved up to cover for injuries and his vice-captain Pete Lines often led the side. Although not as dominant as in recent seasons they still had a good record of 23 wins against 11 losses, despite an ever-stronger fixture list. Bob Howe was their top scorer with 50 points, just pipping Pete Forrest who got 49.

Extras 1973-74 – Steve Nicholas, Dave Grove, Steve Whitby, Mike Carding, Neville Richardson, Kieron Concannon, Colin Hartwell, Paddy Healy, Chris Jackson- Bob Hickman, Pete Forrest, Dave Cole, Brian White, Cled O’Connell , Jim Poynter

Tony Grimes took over the Stags and with a policy of running the ball at every opportunity his youthful side chalked up an impressive 746 points and had the best record in the club with 23 wins and only 9 defeats, to match the previous season. One of the losses was by 42-4 at Hertford, when the team travelled there with only 9 players and roped-in the coach driver who had never played before. Gary Green led the scorers with 16 tries and vice-captain Brian Badger collected 58 assorted points. The Tigers were the most improved team, despite the usual problem of having to cope with the loss of players to the higher sides and cancellations, Andy Gardner’s side won 17 of 27 games and played a quality of rugby that looked anything but fifth team level. Mervyn Cowley scored 56 points with John De Morgan adding 33. One of their highlights was an 89-0 thumping of Southam 3rd XV in October. Andy Shaw touched down 8 times to equal the club record for tries in a game.

Ianto Moody and Dave Forsyth ran the Colts with Dave Charles as captain. They had a very tough time, winning only 3 of 28 games, but they were a very young side including a number of 15-year-olds. Despite numerous heavy defeats they never gave up trying and showed promise for future seasons. John Houston scored 7 tries and Brian Bywater equalled him with 28 points.

After the euphoria of the first years at Moorefields this season was a bit of a let-down and results, whilst still generally good, took a dip. Injuries played a significant part, but another factor as we moved into the New Year was that the government brought in a 3-day week for industry to conserve energy during a national miners’ strike. This meant that non-essential use of electricity was banned and we were unable to use our floodlights for three months and were forced indoors for training. Kit Forrest again topped the overall points table with 162, followed by Andy Shaw on 146. Gary Green was top try scorer with 24, followed by Jackie Turpin on 21 and Archie Banks on 20. In the family tradition, Jackie was a professional boxer who had suffered the withdrawal of his licence on medical grounds and whilst sorting this out decided to keep fit by playing rugby. Playing on the wing he was a raw talent and didn’t always know what to do, but he was supremely fit, very quick, and his right jab proved an effective hand-off.

On the representative front, Paul Lea played for the Royal Navy and John Faulkner played for Warwickshire 2nds. Numerous players represented South Warwickshire, including Norman David, who also played regularly for Warwickshire Police, Combined Birmingham Old Boys and anyone else who would have him. Jim Doak, who had moved to Rugby at the start of the season, got into their first team alongside Trevor Roberts and they both played in the Lions’ side that defeated Coventry.

Mini-rugby was now becoming an established part of the club and another landmark this season was the introduction of an end of season festival, which was held for the first time on 5th May and was a great success, with around 500 players plus parents and supporters attending each year. Building on the success of the mini-rugby initiative, junior rugby (or junior colts) was introduced this season to cover the gap between the top mini age group of under-13 and the Colts at under-19. One of the highlights of the festival was an under-15 game against Stratford, which we won.

It was clear from the time that we moved to Moorefields that the new clubhouse was not big enough. It had been planned to be compact, so that the atmosphere of the old club would not be lost, but the reality of the situation was that it was too small for three sides at home and the range of social functions we wanted to provide. Therefore, from the time we moved in, planning began to extend the building and the work was completed over the season, which resulted in a bigger clubroom/dining area extending beyond the bar and the relocation of the kitchen. The work was financed by transferring our beer supply to Whitbread-Flowers in order to take advantage of a £5,000 loan. The project was not without its problems, as the builder went bust which meant we found it difficult to get the work finished and when we did the ceiling developed a sag which then had to be reinforced. The original layout and the extension are shown below

1974-75: Inflation of Scores & Beer Prices

Our President John Richardson was elected as the Warwickshire representative on the RFU and was immediately placed on the County Championship and Schools Rugby committees. John Oxenbould became Chairman for the second time and Norman David took over as Match Secretary from Tommy Tucker. It was to be a difficult year off the field with the national economy in a mess and high inflation causing serious problems, not least of which was that the price of beer went up in penny increments from 14 to 21 pence during the season: which didn’t stop a record number of players being breathalysed and banned from driving. Jim Poynter won the clubman of the year award for managing the bar. It was also necessary to increase annual subscriptions for players to £4.

The previous year’s skipper Ray Ward decided to retire after having played over 600 games for the first XV, which may already have been a record, but like Frank Sinatra there was to be a number of encores and he was back in the side by Christmas. Our resident enforcer Brian Montgomery (pictured) turned diplomat and took over as captain, with Dave Etherington as his deputy. Unfortunately, Dave was injured and had to hang up his boots and call time on a promising career. Peter Abel, whose own career had been ended by injury, took over as coach. After the relative disappointment of the year before this was a good season with a healthy 24 wins from 41 games and a record haul of 607 points – although we also conceded a record 488. Etherington’s place in the centre was taken by newcomer Ian Johnson and Mike Carding slotted in at fly-half, centre or full-back. The main addition in the forwards was Rob Fardoe, who came from Old Wheatleyans and stayed for a season before moving on to Coventry where he became a regular in their pack for several years.

After an excellent opening day win at Aylesbury, our second fixture was in the Warwickshire Cup against Cheylesmore OB’s and after three years of being the shock early casualty, this time we made no mistake and went through by 45-3. An excellent 31-10 win over Camp Hill was our only success in the next six games but the team got into its stride by the end of October with a run of good results, including the scalps of Hertford, Dudley-Kingswinford and Newbury and a comfortable 28-0 win over Atherstone in the Cup. Our quarter-final was a derby fixture against Kenilworth, played under lights at Stratford in early January. It didn’t look good as Kenilworth romped into a 10-0 lead, but we came back strongly to score a try by Dave Green and as Kenilworth repeatedly infringed in the scrum, we forged ahead with two penalties from Kit Forrest and three from Mike Carding, to go through by 19-10. The semi-final was played the following week against Solihull, who were the holders, having won the competition in its first three years. The game was level until just before half time but Solihull then pulled away to win 26-9, an exact repeat of the score-line when they had beaten us earlier in the season, with kicking winger Chris Scotford helping himself to 22 points for a second time.

Fortunately, there was to be no hangover and we bounced back the next week with an excellent win at Caldy and maintained our form throughout the second half of the season and completed doubles over Stratford and Kenilworth. During March, John De Morgan, who was a former Wasps player, managed to persuade the London club’s Sunday side (The Vandals) to come and play our first team. The game was played in atrocious conditions and we swam home by 30-0. Our Easter tour was to Devon and Dorset. Travel weariness and an excess of gin helped us lose 12-21 to Bridport, who were the weakest side we faced, but despite the continued drinking we crossed into Devon and managed to overcome Sidmouth and Exmouth, by 6-0 and 15-12 respectively.

The most improved player was Mick Holder, who was top points scorer with a new record total of 226, of which 114 were scored playing for the first team. One of several fireman playing for the club, including Colin Hartwell, Geoff Miller and Bob Hickman, Mick was equally at home playing at full-back or fly-half. His points were made up of 6 tries, 35 conversions, 43 penalties and a drop goal. Kit Forrest scored 95 points, Mike Carding 78 and our Brazilian international, Max Johansson, marked his return as top try scorer with 17.

The Extras were slightly down on the year before but won 22 of 36. Their victories included the first teams of Old Laurentians, Southam, Stow-on the Wold, Corby and Cirencester and they took on the first team fixture at Mansfield the day before the cup semi-final and lost unluckily by 3-4. Brian White captained the team and Mick Holder topped the scorers with 82. The Seconds were well down on recent seasons but still finished slightly in credit with 17 wins to 14 losses, despite a fixture list that included a number of good Extras sides. They had a disastrous start, losing 6 of their first 7 games, but Chris Shoesmith stepped up to take over the captaincy and he managed to turn things around. One particularly good result was a 7-7 draw with Southam first team. Norman David led the scorers with 61

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First XV 1974-75 (at Atherstone) Terry Cleaver, Fred Emeney, Cled O’Connell, John Faulkner, Bob Russell, Brian White, Paul Brant, Rob Hickman - Brian Montgomery (capt) Mick Holder, Ian Millington, Ian Johnston, Jim Poynter, Archie Banks,

Kit Forrest, Tony Evans

First XV v Kenilworth, April 1975. Geoff Farndon, Ray Ward, Rob Fardoe, John Faulkner, Bob Russell,

Jim Poynter, Kit Forrest, Mike Carding – Phil Marsland, Roger Maycock, Cled O’Connell,

Brian Montgomery, Dave Reeve, Fred Emeney, Mick Holder

Extras 1975 – Mike Carding, Norman David, Bill Slora, Colin Hartwell, Jim Poynter, John Kane, Pat Callaghan, Simon Chandler – Malcolm Bell, Pete Lines, Brian White, Neil Hubbard, Brian Bywater

The Stags had a solid campaign with Tony Grimes in charge for a second season. Like the other sides they struggled through September and October but a 21-3 win over Dudley-Kingswinford in November set them on the winning trail and they finished with 20 wins out of 32, with most of the losses coming against third teams. Highlights included a 45-6 thumping of Sutton Coldfield and a 30-6 win at Kenilworth. Bob Howe got 50 points. The Stags went to jail in November when they played a Prisoners’ XV from Long Lartin high security prison, in a mid-week fixture. Entering the prison was a strange experience and meant going through searches and checks. Getting out was always a great relief. Endless “Porridge” jokes helped to reduce the tension and every warder was addressed as Mr Barraclough. John Hibben took in a file to smooth his studs and was told that “If you want to bring that in, at least be clever enough to hide it in a cake”. There was a large and intimidating crowd on the touchline and wingers learned to play 10 yards in-field to avoid tripping or worse. There was a double wire fence to the side of the pitch and a good kicker could clear the inner fence with a line clearance. In one game Kit Forrest did this twice, losing two balls in no-mans-land, leaving only one left to play with. Fearing a riot if he did it again and the match had to be abandoned, he wisely changed his tactics. This became a regular fixture for several years, but of course, they only played us at home.

Peter Payne was the new captain of the Tigers and he had a testing year with the usual difficulties. They won only one game less than they lost but had outstanding performances in scoring 52 points against Sutton Coldfield and 84 against Southam 3rds. Pete Gardiner topped the point scorers with 13 tries, including 6 in the Sutton Coldfield game.

The Colts had a disappointing year, mainly due to having no adult to look after them and no nucleus of players to build the side around, with many of their better ones, such as Brian Bywater, Gary Taylor, Paul Hawthorne, Mick Doak and Laurie Kord playing up the club. They won only 1 of 17 games, before eventually throwing in their lot with some spare senior players to become the Dragons for the final few weeks of the season. The Dragons results were no better as they lost their five games.

The second running of the Leamington Sevens in September resulted in a win for Newbold, who beat Old Leamingtonians 32-10 in the final. Our first seven failed to make it beyond the opening pool, beating Kenilworth but losing to Cheltenham: but our second team got through against Winnington Park and Stratford before losing to the OLs in the semi-final. We also entered the tournaments at Worcester, Newbold, Stratford, Oxford, Coventry and Lockheed. We lost to Old Dixonians by 16-10 in the final at Stratford with a line-up of – Nicholls, Forrest, Doak, Evans, Brant, Harris and Montgomery. At the end of the season we got through to the final day at Oxford but lost to Saracens and fielded a scratch side at Lockheed (pictured) - Nick Williams, Bob Russell, Ian Millington, Norman David – Steve Whitby, Pete Forrest and ANO - where we came away with the Plate.

The club had been continuing to provide players for South Warwickshire since the District Union was set up after the War, but there was lot of concern that selection was not based on merit and some Leamington players were being overlooked in favour of inferior players from weaker sides and then asked to come in as late replacements when those selected dropped out. The club gave notice that in future, Leamington players would not be made available for selection although players could choose, as individuals, to play if they wanted to. Arguably this may have done something to sharpen up the selection process but it seems to have done nothing for our relationship with the other clubs who thought this to be typical Leamington arrogance.

Club Dinner 1975 – Bob Holland (Old Coventrians), Peter Jackson (Coventry & England),

John Richardson, Nigel Carter, Tim Shaw, John Oxenbould with captain Brian Montgomery