1990-91: Midlands 2 West Winners

our playing strength diversified somewhat over the summer and the legs on show on Saturdays were no longer restricted to the hairy variety. We were joined by the AP Leamington Ladies netball team, who, like the AP rugby club a few years before, had lost their playing facilities due to the selling-off of most of the Automotive Products’ site. They sought our help and Maurice Goymer took the lead for the club in bringing about a merger, as he saw the potential for breeding genetically superior athletes for both games. After a couple of extraordinary general meetings to provide the mandate for their admission into the club and to authorise the funding and construction of a court, the netball ladies played their first game at Moorefields on 23 September 1990, in the national knock-out competition against Queensberry from Stoke-on-Trent. The court was built at a cost of £10,700, paid for by grants from the Sports Council, Warwick District Council and funds raised by the netballers.

On the rugby field: after securing promotion with a young team, led by Peter Gray and coached by Dave Reeve and Rob Hickman, hopes of further success were high. To build up team spirit it was decided to have a pre-season tour and twenty-five players trooped down to the far reaches of Cornwall. On the Saturday, the first team took on a strong St Ives side and won 18-0. The next day the Extras played St Just’s, at Land’s End and won 43-9. Meanwhile, back at Moorefields, those who had chosen not to tour lined up with the Spartans against Shottery 2nds and their star-studded selection romped to a 102-0 victory, with Tim Byford showing his intent for the season by scoring 5 tries. The season proper began well with victory over neighbours Kenilworth and a first ever win at Hinckley. The team was mostly the same as the year before but with the much-improved Laurie Stokes moving up from the Extras to become the regular partner to Gray in the second row. Rob Rennel was also new to the side and played brilliantly on the wing in place of Simon David, and James Cook came into the Centre.

Our first game in Midlands 2 was against Newbold who had sent us down three years earlier. This time we came out on top by 18-8 in a closely fought match. The next game was against Dudley-Kingswinford and John Williamson scored 26 points in a 50-7 blitzing of the Black Country side. Bedworth were next up in what was to prove a bit of a grudge match. They had defeated us in the Cup semi-final the previous season and were determined to do us again. In what was reported as one of the most unsavoury games ever played at Moorefields, we won 10-4, but at the cost of losing both our Centres - Dudley Turner with a broken nose caused by head-butt and James Cook, sent-off for retaliating because of it. The Bedworth players went unpunished.

Further wins over Keresley, Wolverhampton and Burton put us top with a 100% record at Christmas and well on course for promotion, having played our closest challengers. Guy Stanton returned from Moseley and added a new dimension to our back play with his powerful running and Pete Elliott came in for Dicky Davies, who broke his arm. When games resumed, further victories over Old Yardleians and Bromsgrove took us into the penultimate game two points ahead of Keresley, the only other side in contention. We had a superior points difference and one more win was all that was needed, but this proved to be far from easy. An inspired Stafford side took us all the way and, in a see-sawing game, led 19-16 going into the final minute. Then, winger Dave Jenkins sped down the touchline to score a brilliant try to clinch the match and virtually ensure promotion. The final game, at Worcester, was a rather flat affair. With word coming through that Keresley were losing it was difficult to produce the motivation needed and we lost our unbeaten record, but promotion to Midlands 1 and the championship were secured. Worcester, were to follow us into Midlands 1 and with huge financial backing were about to begin their spectacular rise into the Premiership.

The Warwickshire Cup had a new format, with all the games played after Christmas. Our first-round match was an 87-0 romp against Standard, with 17 tries scored. Rennel bagged 5 and Jenkins and Stanton 3 apiece. In the second round we drew with our promotion rivals Keresley who we had beaten earlier in the league. They tried to stifle and maul us out of the game, but a converted try from Rennel and 3 penalties by Williamson saw us through by 15-3. A comfortable win over Stratford took us into yet another semi-final: against Barkers Butts, who were on their way to clinching the runners-up spot in Midlands 1. The match was played at Nuneaton and a torrential downpour before kick-off turned the pitch into a swamp. Handicapped by the absence of Byford and Harris we could not take advantage of the elements and Butts shaded the game by 10-8.

First XV 1990-91 Dave Jenkins, Pete Elliott, Laurie Stokes, Tim Byford, Stuart Mace, Steve Harris, Kevin Oliver, Phil McGaffin, Stuart Mallinson - Dicky Davis, James Cook, Peter Gray, Rob Rennel, Dudley Turner, John Williamson, Tony Murray

The Extras were skippered by Chris Shoesmith. A few results are not available but of those we have, they won 26 and lost 8. In the Warwickshire 2nd XV Cup they defeated Lanchester Polytechnic, Trinity Guild, and Old Coventrians, before going down 6-9 to Broadstreet. Records of the Spartans, Stags and Tigers results are very patchy in the Leamington Courier and all that can be said is that of the results reported, all sides did reasonably well and won more than they lost

The successful junior Colts from the previous season became the senior Colts and surpassed all expectations. Led by Peter Broome, they won 30 of their 35 games, mostly by big margins. Their three defeats came against an outstanding Wolverhampton side and two games on a pre-Easter tour, when the touring spirit overcame the competitive zeal. They became only the third side in the club’s history to score 1,000 points in a season. Fly-half Paul McGreevy led the way with 213 points, thanks to his brilliant kicking and scrum-half Kenny Johnson scored 25 tries. Johnson, Justin French, Jason Stanbridge, Paul Finn, Simon Payne, Grant Bingham and Steve Moorhouse all played for Warwickshire Colts.

In the Colts Cup, victories over Broadstreet and Newbold took us into the final against a much-fancied Barkers Butts side, which had a much bigger and more powerful pack. Played in appalling conditions at Coundon Road, a converted try by centre Grant Bingham put us 6-0 up at the break but two tries by Butts, one of which was a penalty try against our scrum for touching down in-goal, left us facing defeat. But back we came and No 8 Andy Keeshan hacked though and touched down to level the scores at 10-10 and for the third time we shared the Colts Cup. In recognition of their success, the Colts were invited to the national colts’ tournament held at Colchester at the end of March, where they reached the final before losing 22-10 to Haywards Heath.

The new under-17 squad was not put together until mid-season, but when they did get going, they won 7 out of 10 games and again they did well in the Vale of Lune tournament, this time reaching the semi-finals. Our strength at junior level was remarkable at this time. Coming through was an under-15 side that remained unbeaten all season and took the scalps of Coventry, Nuneaton, Cheltenham and Bath. The club took the Cheltenham junior sevens by storm, winning the under-13, 14, 15, and 17 age group events.

Laurence Boyle and Guy Pattinson both played for Warwickshire under-21s in the national final at Twickenham, defeating Hampshire 19-18. The Leamington under-11 side played in a curtain raiser game, prior to the main events. Boyle also added to his international appearances by playing for England Students and captaining the England Under-21s, with whom he toured Canada in the summer. Nial Griffiths, now of Edinburgh Academicals, played for Scotland under-21s. Another end of season success was victory in the Warwickshire Sevens at Old Leamingtonians, beating Barkers Butts by 34-4 in the final. The team was - Tony Philpott (the smaller) Simon David, Brian Taylor, Dave Jenkins, Mike Crowley, Geoff Walker, John Williamson, Mike Cleary and James Cook

Norman David and Dick Ashley were both elected as Honorary Life Members of the Club at the 1991 AGM. Dick had been a club stalwart for many years; one of his tasks being to organise the club dinners. We were entering a very successful era in the history of the club and things were booming, both on and off the field. Membership was up and successful league rugby was drawing spectators in numbers never seen before. Getting a drink after the game meant facing a long queue. Rod Grinnell left at the end of the season to run his own establishment, having increased both bar turnover and profits. Derek French stepped in to take over the bar whilst a new Steward, Les Woodfield, was recruited in September 1991.

Despite the improved membership and bar profits and a significant increase in sponsorship and donations, we were still not making money. The final payment on our loan from the Middlesex RFU memorial fund was made in July 1990 and we immediately sought a new loan of £25,000 from the same source to enable us to carry out further clubhouse improvements. These included a new roof over the clubroom, new ceilings, improved drainage and a revised bar layout. In the summer of 1991 work commenced on the erection of a new prefabricated building (the gym) which had been donated to the Club by Roger Maycock. This addition enabled us to provide extra changing rooms and showers to help accommodate the netball section and a weight training area to improve the facilities for Rugby. The cost of removal of the building to our site, plus preparing the ground and erecting and fitting out the “free” building came to over £21,000. The Committee allocated £6,000 and obtained another £6,000 in loans and grants from the Sports Council. The building was completed in the spring of 1992 and officially opened by Sir Peter Yarrington, President of the RFU, on 30 January 1993. Taken as a whole, the capital repayments on the clubhouse improvements, the construction of the netball court, the gym and the employment of the steward, put a huge strain on the club’s finances over the next twenty years.

1991-92: Warwickshire Cup Winners

After the success of the Cornwall trip, it was decided to have another pre-season tour and for the first time we went abroad: to Holland, where we played Hilversum and Leamington’s twin town of Heemsteede. On the field things went well with two wins, but off it the usual high-spirited behaviour went badly wrong when, in Amsterdam, a fracas with locals resulted in Pat Callaghan being stabbed in the chest, Guy Stanton in the back and Trevor Roberts in the lower bowel and spleen. In Trevor’s case his wounds almost proved fatal but thankfully all three made full recoveries. The season proper opened with a friendly against Banbury and we fielded four new faces – full back Mike Conlon from Derby, fly-half Kerith Rees from Redditch, second row Mark Shimwell from Rugby and wing forward Simon Blake from Stratford. There were also two old faces – Paul Gisbourne from Stratford and Tim Moore back from Old Leamingtonians.

Because the second Rugby World Cup was being held in England, the league programme was put back until November and the Warwickshire Cup until after Christmas. The months of September and October were like old times with a series of friendly matches and it was encouraging that our newly won status as a Midlands 1 side was enabling us to get fixtures we had struggled for years to acquire. We started off well with wins against Banbury, Kettering and Wolverhampton, but then surprisingly came unstuck in a local derby against Kenilworth, who after several bad years, were beginning to climb the leagues. Kerith Rees was proving to be a great kicker and pulled several games out of the fire, but on this occasion, he slipped when taking a last-minute conversion which would have tied the game. It was a good job the league programme was delayed as our form then slumped badly and we lost 7 of 9 matches, due in part to a horrendous injury list and as a consequence, constant chopping and changing of the side. New skipper John Williamson was one of those out of action and Richard Nuttall, Geoff Williams and the up-and-coming Kenny Johnson were all pressed into service at scrum half.

First XV 1991-92 (with Warwickshire Cup) Dave Reeve (coach) Kerith Rees, Dan Sparks, Phil McGaffin, Tim Byford, Peter Gray, Simon Blake, Laurie Stokes, Kevin Oliver, Steve Harris, Simon David, Bob Hickman (coach) - Guy Stanton, Dudley Turner, Stuart Mace, Dicky Davis, John Williamson, Richard Miller, Simon Roper, James Cook, Tim Moore

Our first game in Midlands 1 was against Newark who had finished third the previous season. Simon David put us ahead with a try but we were overhauled and went down 6-18 despite a sustained but unsuccessful assault on the Newark line in the final ten minutes. Bogey side Mansfield were our next opponents and there was concern that another defeat might mean the beginning a relegation scrap. However, we achieved a splendid 19-0 win at home in one of our best performances for years. Founder member Cliff Harrison was present at the game but he had been ill for some time and sadly he died two days later. His last memories would no doubt have been pride in the performance of the team and the level they had reached, for which he had worked so hard over the years. Cliff had been made an Honorary Life member of Warwickshire RFU in August 1991. Basil Jones, another founder member, died shortly afterwards, in February 1992.

Game three was against Stoke-on-Trent who had been relegated from National 4 but had retained most of their best players, including a dazzling set of backs. They beat us by 38-7 and went on to win the league. A 6-6 draw at Camp Hill concluded the pre-Christmas programme and it was clear that we needed to turn things around in the second half of the season. From January we were competing on two fronts – the league and our annual pursuit of the Warwickshire Cup. The injury situation was improving, with John Williamson returning after four months on the sidelines and the opportunity was taken to shuffle the team. Stuart Mallinson moved to fly-half, Dan Sparks came in at full-back and Guy Stanton moved into the centre. The result was spectacular and Moorefields witnessed a number of epic games as we left any concerns about relegation behind us, moving up the table and progressing in the Cup. The forwards were terrifying the opposition with their scrummaging power.

Our next league game was against Barkers Butts and after three-quarters of a see-saw game we were seven points down when, from a scrum on the Butts 22, the forwards initiated a drive which went on and on and on and on until, in panic and only a metre from their line, Butts were forced to collapse and concede a penalty try. With the match all-square Leamington were awarded another put-in at a similar range and with everyone expecting a repeat drive, John Williamson whipped the ball out to Ade Cleaver who made the winning score. A disappointing defeat in the fog at Leighton Buzzard brought us back to earth for a while but Derby were our next visitors and they were pressing hard for the title. Their ambitions were blown away by a brilliant exhibition of rugby, initially through the forwards, who repeated their 20-metre scoring drive, followed by another pushover try by Tim Byford - his sixth in three games! The backs took over in the second half with Rennel, David and Stanton completing the scoring. Syston were also in contention for the title when they arrived in town and appeared to be heading for victory until a late kick and chase by Rennel brought a last minute try to equalise at 14-14. Further victories over Birmingham-Solihull and Westleigh completed the programme and we finished fourth, as the in-form team.

In the Warwickshire Cup we crushed Warwick University, Silhillians and Stratford to reach the quarter finals. At the toughest of away venues, we then took on Bedworth and went behind to an interception try, before the pack started to turn things around and establish a 15-10 lead. Bedworth were not done however and an equalising try and a penalty put them ahead before a last-minute drop goal by Stuart Mallinson took us through by 18-17. There was more nail biting two weeks later when we played Barkers Butts in the semi-final at Newbold. Tries by Miller, Williamson and Byford looked to be enough and the game appeared to be wrapped up when Williamson made a long pass to Rennel to send him in for another score, only for referee, Kevin Mahon, to disallow it for obstruction: one of a number of strange decisions which kept Butts in the game. Having been given a reprieve the Butts came back to level the scores with a late breakaway try from deep defence to send the match into extra-time. There was no further score and with great relief we went through to the final on a 3-2 try count, following a nervous wait whilst the competition rules were checked.

The final against Broadstreet was held at Coundon Road and we were strong favourites against the Midlands 2 outfit, who were in their first final. The first half was scoreless and things were becoming tense as a deadlock developed. The breakthrough came in the 65th minute, with Guy Stanton bursting through the centre and selling a dummy to put Rob Rennel through on the overlap. Scenting victory we upped the pressure and ten minutes later Stanton, powered over from close range to seal the win. Although Broadstreet gained a consolation try in injury time, the Cup was ours at last by 10-4. So, after a shaky start to the season, we achieved our great ambition of winning the Warwickshire Cup as well as our achieving our highest league placing. We had also broken the south Warwickshire hoodoo in the Cup with both Kenilworth and Old Leamingtonians, like us having got to the final twice before, but never able to clinch it.

John Williamson holds the Warwickshire Cup aloft. The final line-up was - Dan Sparks, Simon David,

Dudley Turner, Guy Stanton, Rob Rennel, Richard Miller (sub James Cook), John Williamson,

Phil McGaffin, Dicky Davies, Stuart Mace, Peter Gray, Laurie Stokes, Simon Blake, Tim Byford,

Steve Harris. Sub – Brian Taylor

There are no reports or scores in the Courier for the other senior sides, but from other sources it has been possible to piece together most of their results. Geoff Walker captained the Extras and they won around 20 of their 32 games. In the Warwickshire 2nd XV Cup, wins over Trinity Guild, Silhillians and Southam took them into a tie at Keresley, where they went down 6-9. After four losses in the first six games, the Spartans, led by Alan Reeve, hit form and lost only one of their next 20 games. The Stags also had a mixed start but like the other sides picked up well after Christmas and won 18 out of 26 games. The Tigers, under new skipper Mick Brain, did not get started until mid-November and suffered cancellations throughout the season. Their results suffered accordingly. The Tigers toured to Llandudno at Easter with the usual mixed bag of players, including Stuart Mace, fresh from the Cup final the week before. The club’s reputation went before us and Llandudno, thinking they might be facing our first team, fielded most of their own senior side and gave us a hammering. The second game against Colwyn Bay was closer. The happy tourists are pictured.

The Colts went through a partial rebuilding having lost a number of players to Academia, but they still had another good season under Glynn Halford, winning 21 and drawing 2 of 32 games. They ran up some big scores and lost only to the strongest opposition. They were again invited to the national colts’ tournament over Easter and got through to the semi-finals where they lost to hosts Colchester, who went on to win the trophy. Some consolation was a convincing win in the Warwickshire Colts sevens where we beat Rugby 38-0 in the final. The winning squad was - Ian Taplin, Justin French, Paul Thompson, Will Purcell, Rob Turner, Martin Bartlett, Glynn Halford, Kenny Johnson and John Sparks. A number of players received individual honours with Justin French and Paul Finn both playing for Warwickshire Colts. Kenny Johnson was also in the county side and went on to play for the Midlands and for the combined Midlands & North side against England in the national trials. Steve Grove was kept out of the Leamington side by Kenny, so at a representative level he went up an age group and was picked for Warwickshire under-21s.

Another club member to be honoured was Tony Sparks who was appointed as touch judge for the warm-up international between England and Russia prior to the World Cup. Later in the season he refereed at the Hong Kong international 10-aside tournament. At the AGM held in May 1992 a number of Committee members stood down after several years in their jobs including Peter Payne (Colts) and Trevor Roberts (Senior Rugby), John Gray (Rugby support) Anna Prosser (catering) and Kit Forrest (Assistant Treasurer). Peter Payne was elected as an Honorary Life Member for his outstanding work on the Committee and his coaching of the colts.

1992-93: Harrogate in Pilkington Cup

Having achieved the long-held ambition of winning the Warwickshire Cup, the Club was keen to move on, with the ambition of promotion to the national leagues. John Williamson (right) was captain for a second season and the dynamic coaching team of Reeve and Hickman continued. New players included the versatile Simon Walkden, who had played many times against us for Stratford; Roger Crockford from Coventry; and Guy Pattinson who had returned from Moseley. The opening games were friendlies against Banbury and Kettering which were won comfortably, but at a cost, with injuries to Guy Stanton and Dudley Turner, who broke his leg.

As Warwickshire Cup holders, the early season reward was an appearance in the Pilkington Cup in September. Our opponents were Harrogate, holders and seven times winners of the Yorkshire Cup. All other club games were cancelled, which enabled a large travelling contingent to support the team. Hopes of success were not high however, particularly with Stanton, Turner, Gray, Byford, Harris and Mace all missing from the line-up. It looked as though we might be in for a torrid afternoon when we went 13-0 down in the first quarter, but from then on there was nothing in it. We fought back well and scored tries through Roger Crockford, Simon Croft and a penalty-try after Simon Blake was impeded. Harrogate were hanging on desperately in the last 10 minutes before winning 25-15 and we were left to reflect on a wonderful display and what might have been. Harrogate were runaway winners of national Division 4 that season.

First XV 1992-93 (at Harrogate) - Brian Taylor, Dave Mortimer, Phil McGaffin, Stuart Mallinson, Guy Pattinson, Simon Blake, Danny Sparks, Nigel Church, Roger Crockford - Simon Roper, Simon David, Dicky Davis, Rob Rennel, John Williamson, Tim Moore, Kerith Rees, Richard Miller

Our league campaign began the next week. Midlands 1 had been extended to 13 teams, and for this season it was 14, with Paviors added, due to a successful appeal against relegation. We began with a run of 5 straight wins. This started in dramatically with a 29-28 victory over newly promoted Bedworth, decided by a long-range penalty from Kerith Rees, well into injury time. We then visited Leicester and ended Syston’s two-year unbeaten home run. Now back to more or less full strength, wins over Vipers, Camp Hill (where Crockford suffered a cheekbone fracture) and Wolverhampton followed, with the Wolves game ending in another tight finish when our hosts were pulled back and awarded a penalty when they were about to score a winning try. Our run was ended at Barkers Butts in November when Tim Byford broke his arm early in the game, but played on until well into the second half. We were leading when he eventually had to go off but the Butts then ran in three late tries to win 25-9. We completed the pre-Christmas games with a comfortable win against Leighton Buzzard which gave us 6 wins out of 7 and a realistic prospect of taking the title

Leamington versus

Harrogate

Friendly victories over Burton, Lichfield (from national league 4) Kenilworth (by over 40 points) and Stafford took us through to Christmas and a playing record for 1992 of 31 games, with only 3 defeats. The Stafford game saw the debuts of Richard Croft at prop, Graham Howgate at flanker and Carl Fripp in the second row. Carl was in his first season of rugby, having switched from boxing and had played less than 10 matches at any level, but was showing huge potential as an aggressive and skilful forward who could run like a back – and he was 6 feet and 9 inches tall! The Boxing Day game, which in recent years had been played as the 1st XV against a President’s XV was revamped to become the President’s XV against a Cliff Harrison XV, in honour of our former President. A host of players with Leamington connections turned out, including Nial and Adam Griffiths and Simon Boyle, who scored two tries and combined brilliantly in the centre with Matt Price, who had joined the club from Havant. The President’s men won 34-19.

On the resumption of the league programme our luck ran out and our promotion hopes took a dive at Derby in another tight finish. Having dominated, we were leading with three minutes of injury time gone, but a drop goal which defied the strong winds sneaked over for a 9-8 win for Derby. Unbeaten league leaders Birmingham-Solihull (pictured) arrived in town in mid-February and in one of the finest performances ever at Moorefields we won a titanic encounter by 14-13, with tries from Rennel and a penalty-try for collapsing as our dominant pack was about to score its signature push over try. There was another great finish at Paviors when we were leading 15-13 deep into injury time only to concede a penalty to go behind. Paviors were then awarded another penalty, but this time the kick drifted wide of the posts and we ran it out from behind our line, with Rennel going the length of the field before being stopped – but Tim Byford was on hand to pick up and go over to snatch the win in the 9th extra minute. Defeat at Westleigh eventually put us out of the running for the title, but after wins against Newark and Bromsgrove we clinched third place with one game to go and the possibility of the runners-up spot. It was not to be and a hammering at Mansfield concluded events.

In the Warwickshire Cup we opened our defence of the trophy in February against Rugby St Andrews. The referee stopped the contest after 70 minutes with Leamington leading 62-0. Up and coming Old Laurentians proved to be more difficult opponents in the third round but we went through 15-6 in a close game. We then came up against old cup rivals Bedworth in the quarter-finals with our opponents still smarting from injury time defeats in our previous two games. On their small and muddy pitch, the forwards were even, but our superior backs had little room for manoeuvre. We were leading 6-3 going into the final quarter when we and were penalised when attempting a push-over try that would have clinched the match. Instead, Bedworth rallied and scored a push-over themselves to end our reign.

All in all, it was brilliant season, possibly the club’s best ever in the terms of performance and results, given the level of competition. Kerith Rees was the player of the year and was top scorer in the league with 98 points out of our total of 235, scoring in every game. Although it didn’t affect Kerith’s total, scores were inflated by increasing the number of points for a try from 4 to 5 which gave a new opportunity for record scores. Courier records do not cover the results of the other senior sides and very little information is available from other sources. Brian Taylor captained the Extras, Alan Reeve the Spartans and Rob Wootton the Tigers. There is no record of who captained the Stags.

In order to provide more continuity between youth and senior rugby and to try and keep more students involved in the club, it was decided to field an under-21 side, with a short fixture list, focused on the gaps in the academic year when players were more likely to be available. Again, full results are not available but they won 5 out of 7 games played in the autumn, led by Glynn Halford. In recognition of Leamington’s status as one of the county’s leading clubs for youth development we were invited to field a side in the prestigious national tournament hosted by London Irish in April. In a top-class, 16 team, competition we finished 10th scoring two wins, against Northampton and Blackheath, but losing five including West Hartlepool, Harlequins and Saracens.

No details are available on the Colts, except that it was a difficult year, with few players moving up from under-17s. When at full strength, some good successes came about, including the runners-up spot for a second time in the prestigious Colchester international colts’ tournament at Easter. In the round-robin stage we beat West Hartlepool, Colchester, Bishops Stortford, Greystones and Ipswich and had just one loss: to Birmingham-Solihull. This took us into the final where we played the posh end of Brum again with a similar result (3-10). The under-17s played in the Vale of Lune tournament in Lancaster in which they had been finalists, semi-finalists and winners in the previous three years. There is no record of how they did.

Laurence Boyle moved from Moseley to Leicester and began to establish himself in their first choice back-line, alongside the Underwood brothers. Although Leamington failed to progress in the Pilkington Cup, we at least had a representative in the final as Laurence played for Leicester as a substitute. Still a Leicester player he went on to gain an Oxford Blue in December 1993, playing at fly-half on the winning side in the varsity match. Old Warwickians held their end of season veterans’ tournament for a sixth time and we had our fourth win’ beating Old Leamingtonians in the semi-finals and the hosts by 15-0 in the final.

Although the club was booming, with increased membership, we made a heavy loss of £18,000 on the season, which would have been higher but for donations from members and a significant increase in sponsorship. Basically, our costs were rising. The professionalisation of the bar was necessary but made a huge dent in our bar profit. The gym was completed for the start of the season and was opened by Sir Peter Yarranton in January 1993. He is shown testing out the apparatus in the photo, along with club Chairman Noel McCluskey, club President Tony Grimes and Councillor Bob Crowther. This proved to be a valuable addition to our facilities but cost a lot more to fit out and furnish than was anticipated. Fund raising and events of various sorts therefore became an increasingly important part of the club’s efforts to balance the books. The club always had a number of regular fund-raising events including, since late 1970s, the use of the ground as a caravan site for the Royal Show. By 1993 the income from the Show had diminished as the organisers retracted onto internal sites. In place of this in May 1993 the ground was used to stage car boot sales for the first time which became a regular and major source of income for nearly 30 years.

1993-94: 5th Place Finish

There were major changes in the management of the club over the summer. Dave Scannell succeeded Tony Grimes as President and Noel McCluskey moved to Ireland, to be replaced as Chairman by Mike Cotton. Peter Horgan became Honorary Treasurer, taking over from David Glasborrow, who stood down after serving in most key roles since he joined the Committee in 1967. In recognition of his service, he was elected as an Honorary Life Member at the AGM. After a bad financial year in 1992/93, the incoming Committee was faced with the usual financial problems – lack of cash flow and reserves and the need to control expenditure. In order to encourage the involvement of our former members a new committee position of Chairman of Vice Presidents was established and Bob Howe was appointed with the immediate aim of expanding the traditional early season lunch into a more regular series of events.

It was all change on the playing side too, with Maurice Goymer taking over from Brian White as Chairman of Rugby and John Williamson standing down as first XV captain. With him went our immensely successful coaching duo of Rob Hickman and Dave Reeve, who with their no-nonsense approach had developed the team into such an effective unit. Williamson was probably the most influential player of this era and you can map the significance of his contribution by the improvement in the club’s fortunes during his two periods with us. Rob Mallinson, returned from North Walsham, but was subject to RFU transfer quarantine and could not play for four months - so he took over as coach. Guy Stanton (left) replaced Williamson as first team captain and but for the loss of Kerith Rees (who moved to Glasgow) the squad was more or less as before. New players included John Swannell, a dogged back-row forward from Loughborough, fly-half Derek Brown from Shrewsbury and wingers Paul Betts from Old Saltleans and Doug Grant from Harbury.

The season began in spectacular fashion with a run of seven straight wins prior to the league programme commencing. This included three brilliant victories, on successive Saturdays, against National League opponents, on their own grounds - Lichfield, Birmingham-Solihull and Stoke-on-Trent. This raised expectations that we might soon be joining them. Stuart Chamberlain stepped into the scrum-half vacancy for these games and Dave Ward also played. The Birmingham-Solihull game was particularly satisfying, given their dominance of Midlands 1 and our epic match against them earlier in the year. In an inspired second-half spell we ripped them apart to win 25-10. Kenny Johnson took over the permanent scrum-half duties and his first game was a record 103-0 win (for the first team) against Bletchley. The highlight of the 17-try romp was a run from deep in his own half by giant lock Carl Fripp, who burst through a number of tackles into open space and ran though the unlucky full-back.

Confidence was therefore high as we went into the opening league game at Bedworth, but as usual at the graveyard, things did not go to plan and we were 21-0 down by half-time. Despite a spirited fight back, we could not rescue the game. We beat Syston 10-9 in our next match, but were lucky when they missed a penalty in the last minute. In a gap between league fixtures, we picked up a pool game against Selly Oak, from Midlands 2 West and we appeared to be heading for a comfortable victory until two late tries by the visitors turned the game around and they pulled off a shock 17-15 win and became the first side to win at Moorefields in over two seasons.

Our league form was patchy, with defeats against leaders Worcester, Camp Hill and Barkers Butts and wins over Wolverhampton and Leighton Buzzard. This took us into the Christmas break with only 6 points from 14, but owing to the competitive nature of the division we were in mid-table and had played most of the top sides. The first game after Christmas was against Derby and an early Kenny Johnson try put us on our way to victory. This was followed by an impressive away win at Burton where we laid siege to the home side’s line for much of the game, resulting in tries for Paul Betts, Guy Stanton and Tim Byford, with the usual pushover.

Midland League games alternated with Warwickshire Cup ties and our cup campaign started with Old Silhillians, who were playing four leagues below us. After stubborn resistance for half an hour, the floodgates opened and we went through 65-10. This was followed by a 58-5 win over Standard, with the Moorefields pitch a quagmire. Nuneaton Old Edwardians were beaten 29-0 in the third round and

old adversaries Keresley were our quarter-final opponents. There was no repeat of our earlier titanic struggles and we played well to breeze through by 33-3. Leamington and Barkers Butts were by far the

First XV 1993-94 Matt Price, Bob Mallinson (coach), Phil McGaffin, Steve Harris, Pete Elliott, Carl Fripp, Peter Gray,

Dave Ward, John Swannell, Dicky Davis, Dean Rawlings, Tim Byford - Stuart Mace, Rob Rennel,

Kenny Johnson, Guy Stanton, Simon David, Simon Walkden, Stuart Mallinson.

best two sides left in the competition and we hoped that the semi-final draw would keep us apart, but it wasn’t to be and we clashed at Stratford in March in sunny spring weather. The game was a battle-royal between the two sets of forwards, resulting in a string of penalties, mostly in favour of the Butts, who kicked three, plus a drop goal. Despite the frustrations this caused we moved ahead with tries by Rob Rennel and Simon David and were in sight of victory when two more penalties and a late try put the Butts through by 25-18. They went on to win the final comfortably and had already clinched Midlands 1 with two games to play.

Our next league games were against Westleigh and Towcestrians and comfortable victories left us in a four-way tie for the runners-up spot with one match to go. What should have been an easy final game against struggling Mansfield, proved to be anything but. After cruising into a 13 point lead a blizzard blew up and Mansfield’s forwards adapted better to the changed conditions and with the penalty curse striking again we were overhauled and went down 13-14. So, our third campaign in Midlands 1 resulted in a fifth-place finish, but could easily have been better in what was a very wide open league.

Steve Johnson captained the Extras and they like the first team started well, winning seven of their first eight games, but results were fairly even after that and they finished just in credit. In the Warwickshire 2nd XV Cup, wins over Coventrians and Silhillians took us through to the quarters’ where we lost to Sutton Coldfield. Highlights of the season were a 60-0 win over Old Moseleyans’ first team and a 100-5 thrashing of Stratford. The low point was a convincing defeat against Old Leamingtonians.

Rod Philpott took over the captaincy of the Spartans from Terry Gilbert and they had a highly successful season, winning three quarters of their games. The Stags didn’t fare quite so well but they were still in credit and their highlights were running-up 70 points against Lichfield and 55 against Burton. Playing numbers were on the increase and the Tigers had one of their best seasons for a while and enjoyed not being the junior side anymore - that honour going to the newly created Rovers, who won 16 of 23 games. The Tigers had another end of season tour - this time to Southport.

The Colts continued to prosper under skipper Simon Brown and they won two thirds of their games. In the Warwickshire Cup they went out in the quarter-finals to Coventry, who were 20lbs per man heavier but needed every ounce to wear our side down. During the season we entertained a number of touring sides from as far away as South Africa and Argentina. The Under-17 Colts had a disappointing start to the season and as their results are not available after October, it is assumed their fixtures were abandoned. They did however compete again in the Vale of Lune tournament, where they made the final of the plate event.

There was double success in the Warwickshire Sevens in May - the senior squad and the Colts romped to their 7th titles. The seniors beat Broadstreet in the final by 36-12. They fielded Simon David, Doug Grant, Paul Betts, Stuart Coleman, Colin Aston, Ade Cleaver and Carl Fripp. The Colts beat Sutton Coldfield 17-0 in their final and their squad was Simon and Will Brown, Nobby Styles, Richard Connolly, Rob Shuttleworth, Chris Cronin, Guy Newton, Paul Piggott, Richard Appleton and Adam Smith. In the annual Richard Caldicott memorial game, a very good Warwickshire College side beat Leamington under-21s by 29-8. A number of the college boys were also part of the Leamington youth set-up and during the season, three of them - Michael Styles, Richard Connolly and Rob Varney, played for the British Colleges against the Dutch under-19 and -21 sides.

April saw the 20th anniversary of the mini-rugby festival, which was first staged in 1974 and had been held every year since, except for 1976 and 1982 when it was wiped out by snow. Our visitors over the years had included our neighbouring clubs, but also sides from Wales, London (including London Welsh) Cheltenham, Wilmslow and Macclesfield, who had visited every year without fail, and we had received many invitations in return. In 1994, the clubs taking part were Chippenham Loughborough, Macclesfield, Winnington Park and Woodford and of course Leamington. 95 games were scheduled from under-7 to under-12, involving more than 400 players. Macclesfield won the under-8s and 11s, Chippenham the under-9s, Woodford the under-10s and Winnington Park the under-12s. Ex-England prop forward Jim Broderick presented the prizes, as he had at the first festival. It was apposite that Guy Stanton, who was a graduate of mini rugby, starting as an under-8 and playing right through to Colts level with the Guinness Record breakers, should be first XV captain in this anniversary season.

At the AGM in May it was announced that discussions had taken place with Old Leamingtonians about a possible merger, on the basis that this would be the best way for the town to achieve national league status. The Old Leamingtonians decided against the proposal and discussions were ended, thereby repeating the outcome of previous discussions on the subject.