1994-95: Midlands 1 Becomes a Struggle

This season was a clear turning point for the Club. After three successful years in Midlands 1, we were now in transition, both on and off the field. Stuart Mallinson maintained the club tradition of organising his wedding at the beginning of the season, although fortunately it was the date of the opening friendly against Banbury. They were managed by Leamington life-member Peter Payne, who had taken up a paid position with the Oxfordshire club. Leamington fielded a weakened team but Mark Phillips, Nick Ash, Andy Scurfield, Chris Holt and Nobby Styles all made their debuts in a narrow win. In the second warm-up game, against Cheltenham, we fielded more or less the same youthful side and were hammered 54-0 - our worst defeat for several years.

Retirements, Injuries, and non-availability continued to blight our efforts throughout the season and particularly prior to Christmas. In the forwards, the all-conquering pack of previous years more or less broke up as a regular unit. Carl Fripp transferred to Leicester having been hunted by most of the first-class clubs. Peter Gray was injured and all sorts of combinations had to be tried. On top of all this, Chris Shoesmith, the Rugby Chairman and Guy Stanton, the captain, were unable to fulfil their commitments and had to stand down. Fortunately, Roger Crockford (right) stepped up to take over the captaincy and new coach John Williamson, supported by Bob Hickman, Bill Dalton, Dave and Alan Reeve managed to create some stability as the season progressed.

The opening league game resulted in another tight finish against Bedworth and with our visitors leading 10-5 deep into injury time, history repeated itself and we snatched a draw with a try by scrum-half Kenny Johnson. The league games came thick and fast, with six matches in seven weeks up to the end of October, resulting in four defeats, against Syston, Worcester, Wolverhampton and Whitchurch, and another draw against fellow strugglers Camp Hill. So, at the half way stage we were in the relegation zone with only two draws and badly in need of reinforcement and stability. Fortunately, there was a two-month gap in the league programme and a series of friendly games to sort things out. Our true form was hard to find as results were inconsistent and included a record 66-3 thrashing at Stourbridge. There was an eagerly awaited derby game at Kenilworth prior to Christmas, with our neighbours (still two leagues below us) unbeaten since the opening day of the season and on an 11-match winning run. We looked likely to win when leading by 20-13, but Kenilworth inched their way back into the game and nicked it 24-20.

The next league game, in January, was a vital match against fellow strugglers Tamworth and was one of our worst performances for several years, but fortunately finished 9-8 in our favour, thanks to three Mallinson penalties. We hit top form at last with a rare win at Derby and an outstanding triumph at second in the table Westleigh, with Tim Byford and Rob Rennel back in the side after long injury spells. The game was decided ten minutes from the end when ex-colts fly-half Adam Coleman, displayed a touch of genius on his debut to break out of our 22 and feed Dudley Turner to score the winning try.

Our mini revival was halted by Burton in mid-March when they sneaked an undeserved 10-8 victory at Moorefields, with a very late long-range penalty. This fixture had been postponed from February in controversial circumstances, when the game was called-off because the pitch was deemed too wet and dangerous to play on. Burton claimed that the decision was made by the referee and that they would have been happy to play if so directed. The referee stated that Burton had refused to play and he was powerless to insist on it going ahead. Games took place on the other two pitches and we suspected that Burton were short of key players and found an excuse not to play. A comfortable victory over Towcestrians ensured our safety and a win at Mansfield would have taken us into fifth place, but as usual the Nottinghamshire side proved to be a handful and we went down 18-25 and dropped to ninth.

The Warwickshire Cup was again played after Christmas and we were drawn at home to Claverdon, who had lost to our third team the week before. Unsurprisingly we ran out easy 76-12 winners, scoring twelve tries. On the same day the Extras, Spartans and Stags all beat Old Leamingtonians opposition, scoring 70, 56 and 82 points respectively. The Tigers scored a modest 44 against Nuneaton Old Edwardians, contributing to a record Saturday aggregate of 328 points from the five games. Southam proved to be more difficult opposition on their own pitch and led 8-3 at half-time. It was only when we unleashed our backs in the final quarter that we clinched the tie, with tries from Rob Rennel and Adam

Coleman. This took us through to the quarter-finals at home against Broadstreet who had beaten us narrowly a few weeks before. In a lethargic display we went 13-3 behind in the first half before closing the gap with a Simon David try and a Coleman penalty but, with the tie in the balance, Broadstreet raised their game and ran out comfortable winners. They went on to win the Cup for the first time, beating Kenilworth in the final.

Transition is always difficult but it has its compensations, particularly with recent Colts securing first team places. Kenny Johnson, Danny Sparks, Mark Phillips and, most improved player-of-the-year, Michael “Nobby” Styles, all played regularly. Adam Coleman came in for the later games and looked a great prospect at fly-half. Newcomers to the club included prop-forwards Attilio Talamini and Gavin Wright (who learned his rugby in South Africa) and centre Ian Kyffin from Hereford. Relative newcomer John Swannell was the player-of-the-year and filled in at both back-row and second-row, as did Roger Crockford who also had an outstanding season. Kenny Johnson was capped by Warwickshire.

First XV 1994-95 Gavin Wright, Dave Ward, Tim Byford, Dicky Davis, Roger Crockford, John Swannell, Danny Sparks,

Attilio Talamini – Simon David, Stewart Mallinson, Kenny Johnson, Rob Rennel, Adam Coleman, Dudley Turner, Nobby Styles,

Graham Howgate captained the Extras and they finished with an even record, the highlights including 70-7 and 79-5 wins, over Old Leamingtonians and Sutton Coldfield respectively. In the Warwickshire second XV Cup they defeated Trinity Guild, but were knocked out by Kenilworth in the next round. The Spartans, skippered by Pat Callaghan were the most successful team winning 22 of their 31 games and the Stags led by Ian Kimberley did nearly as well. The Tigers also had a better than even record and had another enjoyable tour, this time to Wharfdale, where they lost against Bingley and beat Keighley.

There was sad news in pre-season of the sudden death of the under-17s captain, Stuart Kearsey, who was tragically struck by lightning. A memorial match was played between a Leamington XV and Warwickshire U-21s. The Colts had a relatively good season with a very young side and after a shaky start they became competitive and were able to reverse early season defeats against Broadstreet, Newbold and Lichfield. In the Warwickshire Cup they went out to eventual winners Coventry for the second year running in a hard-fought battle of penalties. Guy Newton captained the side, assisted by James Pearl. Rob Shuttleworth was outstanding at scrum-half and played for Warwickshire Colts. Matt Dale was another up-and-coming player at fly-half. A successful under-19 tour to France resulted in a win against Saumur U-21s and a loss to Chinon, the national under-21 champions. The under-16 side won the prestigious Colchester tournament in October, beating the best in their age group from all over the south of England. In their seven games they didn’t concede a point, beating Chelmsford, Burnham-on-Crouch, Westcliffe, Romford, Old Albanians, St. Olave’s School and in the final, Sevenoaks, who had had not been defeated for two years.

The Under-16s at Colchester - Chris Wheeldon, Alex Hodgetts, Steve McGuire, Chris Butler, Gareth Jones, Michael Clarke, Chris Massen, Nick Collett, Tom Chandler - Dalen Tsang, Phil Davenport, Mark Hislop, Tristan Woods-Scawen, Andy Dillow (cap), Craig McConnachie, Gavin Back and Hedley Ayres

Financially, 1994/95 was another bad year with the club making a loss of over £14,000. The Royal Show was still an earner and car boot sales became more important. One of the threats to our development was finally removed when the County Council announced that plans to widen the A452 into a dual carriageway was officially dropped due to lack of funding. At the AGM, Lol Smith and John Richardson were elected as an Honorary Life Members and Dick Ashley stood down from organising the club dinner after many years, mainly due to the poor behaviour of members.

John Richardson was elected Senior Vice President of the RFU in the summer of 1994, which meant he would become RFU President in 1996/97. This was a difficult time to take on the job. The walls of amateurism had been cracking since the introduction of leagues and the question of whether players should be paid was causing a huge rift within the game. The RFU was fighting a rear-guard action and things came to a head in May when Will Carling spoke on the subject on TV and made what he thought were off-line comments about the “57 old farts” that ran the RFU and was sacked as England’s skipper. This led to the team threatening not to play in the World Cup. The press had a field day and reported that a secret meeting of the old farts was taking place in London on Friday 1st May, to try and resolve the problem. They listed the farts who were supposed to be there, including John Richardson, who was in fact at our club dinner at the Lord Leycester hotel at the time, acquainting us with what was going on. Carling was reinstated and the World Cup went ahead, but the commercialisation of the tournament blew away the last vestiges of amateurism and the International Rugby Board declared rugby union an "open" game and removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game.