2005-06: Relegation Again

There were a number of changes on the Committee, with Hugh Smith becoming Chairman and Peter Preece becoming President. Louise Johnson headed the Youth Section and Mike Fairbotham agreed to resume as Treasurer. There were also big changes on the playing side with Tony Smith moving to Rugby Lions and Tony Timms resigning as Rugby Chairman shortly afterwards. Alan Roberts and Tony Bristow continued as the main coaching team and Alex Carroll captained the side for a fourth time. Players on the move included fly-half James Robertson who went off to university and coming in was ex-junior winger John Raby.

The league season began with an excellent draw at Malvern, with Chris Lahey, in his final game before returning to South Africa, starring in a dominant pack. This was followed by a comfortable win over Stoke. We were drawn away at Huntingdon on the Intermediate Cup and after taking an early lead through scrum half Danny Keogh, we were ripped apart before the break. Although we fought back hard and reduced the gap, we went out by 27-17.

First XV 2005-06 Dave Barry (physio), Mark Warrilow, Terry Curran, Rob Butler, Alan Roberts, Simon Brand, Scott Conduit, Neil McMillan, Andy Siddle, Kit Forrest (manager), Adam Preece, Simon David, Marcus Pask, Richie Evans, John Raby,

Alex Carroll (captain) Gareth Renowden, Danny Keogh, Dorian Ward, Tony Bristow

The season went downhill from there. After losing to Hinckley and Barkers Butts, we changed the line-up and battled out a 3-3 draw with Camp Hill. Gareth Renowden moved into the centre to replace the injured Dave Smith and Matt Davies played at scrum half. Franco Gouws made his debut on the wing and Neil McMillan and Simon Brand came into the back row. During a break in the league action, we took on Old Leamingtonians in the Warwickshire Cup at Moorefields. We went behind to an early try but quickly levelled and then took control to win 36-15.

It was a less happy derby experience when we went to Kenilworth for a league fixture the following week. Played in front of a large crowd, Kenilworth were firing on all cylinders and we conceded 45 points by half time and were looking at a catastrophic score-line when we conceded in the first minute of the second period. But our forwards rallied and as we began to match them point for point, tempers started to fray, resulting in a Kenilworth player being sent off for stamping. He was quickly followed by Fran Hemmings, to even things up. 64-19 was the final result. It was much closer the following week when we entertained Newport but we still lost narrowly.

If our Kenilworth experience wasn’t bad enough, our next game was at league leaders Broadstreet, who went slightly better and hammered us 67-6. It was a much more resilient performance however and the score did not really reflect the game. The Street pack was dominant throughout but we held out strongly for the first 25 minutes before they were able to capitalize on their advantage. It was only after Alan Roberts departed to the sin-bin for the last ten minutes that we were over-run, with four late tries. If we needed any confirmation that our luck was out, it arrived against Newbold in mid-November. On a dismal day when the fog left spectators gazing at figures in the mist, Newbold took the lead and after 55 minutes, the referee agreed with the captains to continue, but ten minutes later with things no worse and Leamington applying heavy pressure he abandoned the game. As it had gone past the 60-minute mark Newbold were awarded the points. We were now slipping rapidly into a relegation scrap, but we managed to ease our worries somewhat with a welcome victory over fellow strugglers Old Laurentians at Moorefields. Hopes were high of winning the return match against Newbold and an early try by Renowden got us off to a good start, but the Bold were in front by half time and never looked look like losing.

The start to the second half of our campaign brought Broadstreet to Moorefields. Although well beaten, it was another dogged display, particularly by the forwards, who stood up well to the visiting pack and as in the first game, late tries with Roberts in the sin bin put a gloss on the score-line. Broadstreet were our visitors again a few weeks later in the Warwickshire Cup and the game produced an almost identical score with the Street winning 40-3 on their way to lifting the trophy. We fielded an experimental line-up, including wing-forward Sebastian Meurnier, a French student at Warwick University.

First XV 2005-06 Brian Holt (sponsor) Simon Brand, Rob Butler, Alan Roberts, Mark Warrilow, James Pearl, Terry Curran, Richard Dalton, Andy Siddle, Jon Raby, Alex Carroll, Danny Keogh, Gareth Renowden, Simon David, Bill Unsworth,

Pete Blunt, Dave Smith, Marcus Pask, Richie Evans

We failed to ease our league predicament at Stafford, where after making all the early running it was the home side that broke the deadlock and went on to win. An excellent victory at third place Newport moved us out of the bottom two, but this result proved to be no more than a flash in the pan, as Kenilworth again proved far too strong when they visited Moorefields. They piled up 42 points, with our only response being a try from Simon Brand, after a break by the outstanding Renowden. Away at Camp Hill we started strongly with two tries from fly-half James Pearl and were looking good, with our forwards pushing the Camp Hill pack all over the field, but our hosts revived and tries either side of half time turned the game in their favour.

Although a beautiful day for rugby, there was further gloom for us as we took on Barkers Butts at home. We played some magnificent rugby and scored four first half tries, to one by the Butts. Unfortunately, a succession of penalties kept them in the game and then took them into the lead, but a further try by Smith levelled things up. In the final stages, a move which looked like providing a winning Leamington try ended with a breakaway score by the Butts, to which they added another in the final move of the game to win 39-27. The next week’s events were overshadowed by the news that former skipper Dave Reeve, who led the club to a record 29 victories in 1982, had died following a long struggle against cancer. Another home defeat, this time by Hinckley, left us firmly rooted in the relegation places. Again we started well but the game swung against us when Alan Roberts was sent off for a second yellow card and they capitalised on their numerical advantage.

Our next three games were against our main relegation rivals and the results would determine our fate. The first of these was against Stoke and our opponents, fielding two imported Fijian mercenaries, won by 17-10. Malvern had improved their side before the February transfer deadline by taking some Worcester academy players on loan and they made a big difference. Again, we led early on but we couldn’t maintain our advantage and three second half tries won the game for Malvern.

Relegation was finally confirmed when we slipped to the narrowest of defeats at rock-bottom Old Laurentians in the penultimate game. With the wind behind us we led 23-5 just after half time, but Laurentians slowly clawed their way back and in the last movement of the match they were awarded a penalty, which was taken quickly and resulted in a try under the posts. Putting the disappointment of relegation behind us, we ended our campaign with our best performance of the season, outplaying Stafford in every department. Skipper Carroll was in inspired form, pulling the strings in midfield and setting up tries for Keogh (2), Renowden (2), Smith, Ward and Evans. So, after climbing the ladder two years before, it was back down the snake again. Apart from Broadstreet and Kenilworth, who were well ahead of the rest of the Division, there was not much between the other sides and most of our games were close and several would have been won had we been able to turn possession into points and not let vital leads slip away.

Gareth Eastham managed and captained the 2nd XV and they won just over half of their games, but like the first team their form tailed off in the second half of the season and they won only two games after January. In the Warwickshire 2nd XV Cup, they defeated Shipston 61-0 and Manor Park 51-15 before going down 17-41 to Rugby Lions. Bryn Evans managed the Spartans and they had a similar record, winning twelve games, including a double over Kenilworth. The Stags played only one game and all sides suffered from an unhealthy number of “free” Saturdays, with games called off or no fixtures available on those weeks allocated for cup games.

Spartans c.2005/06 - James Matthews, Tim Gershon, Dave Hickman, Andy Thomas, Gez Robinson, Ryan Oliver,

Ian Gascoigne, John Gibson, Roger Heydon, Steve Hersey, Roger Copping – Dean Taffe, Stuart Nunn, Mark Jones,

Dave Ward, Neil Bennett, Sebastian Meurnier, John Robertson, John Forrest, Simon David

The club won the plate in the inaugural Warwickshire 20-20 midweek competition, for which the club acted as one of the hosts, utilising our floodlights. We went out to Southam in the main event. The club were also runners-up in the Warwickshire Veterans’ tournament played at Southam, winning our group by beating Broadstreet and defeating Nuneaton OE in the semi-final before losing 5-0 to Old Laurentians in the final. The April tour was to Denia, near Valencia, where we took part in a mini-tournament. Matches were decided on tries scored and we defeated the hosts and two other English touring sides - Blake’s Bears (Bridgwater) and Old Elizabethans (Bristol) to win the event.

Bill Dalton and Mark Brown worked hard to develop a young Colts side which, although it lost more than it won, showed signs of progress towards the end of the season with some very promising players coming through. They reached the semi-finals of the Warwickshire Cup before losing to Barkers Butts and in the new National Colts cup went down 5-10 to Birmingham-Solihull. Matt Timlin played for Warwickshire and he, Tom Secher, Leigh Cleary, Steve Fitzgerald, Danny Ruyssevelt, Tom Haig, Nick Hart, Gary Hales, Ryan Oliver, Danny Phillips, Patch Northover, Tom Brown and Alex Wilman all played for South Warwickshire. Alan Roberts and Gareth Renowden both played for the senior Warwickshire XV, with Alan captaining the side.

Colts c.2005/06 - Mark Brown, Steve Hersey, John Robertson, Mark Tuckey, Danny Ruyssevelt, Alex Wilman,

Leigh Cleary, Danny Phillips, Lewis Kelsey, Nick Luntley, Bill Dalton – Adam Dewsbury, Tom Brown,

James Warrilow, Matt Timlin (captain) Matt Dalton, James Matthews

Denia tour (Valencia) 2006 - Simon Parsons, Barry Hopkinson, Andy John, Stu Chamberlain, Dave Ward,

Dudley Turner, Dickie Davis, Phil McGaffin, Peter Gray, Joe O’Meara, Peter Elliott, Neil McMillan

– xxxx, Paul Smith, Simon David, Derren Nesbit, Matt Dale, Dean Taffe Matt Davies

2006-07: Youth to the Rescue

Relegation to Midlands 3 resulted in an exodus of players: Simon Brand moved jobs to Banbury; Tony Bristow finally hung up his boots and went to Rugby Lions in a coaching capacity; Richie Evans returned to Nuneaton Old Eds and; Scott Conduit, Doz Ward and Fran Hemmings moved to Silhillians. Nick Maxwell decided to try his luck at Rugby, but was injured for most of the season and Gareth Renowden, our player of the year, went to Kenilworth where he was an instant success. Danny Keogh our Most Improved Player and his obvious successor, moved away.

Danny Birks (right), a product of our mini and junior set-up and an outstanding open-side wing forward became our new skipper, but to add to our woes he was out injured until Christmas and prop forward Terry Curran broke his leg in the opening game. Peter Blunt took over the captaincy in Danny’s absence and he was supported by Alex Carroll, who replaced Bristow as backs coach, alongside Alan Roberts. New players coming in included talented fly-half Simon Dudley and big centre in Sam Bower.

Our depleted side opened against a well-drilled Pershore side who scored 4 tries without reply. The next game was away at Stratford. Touch judge Dick Jewitt raised his flag before the ball was kicked to confirm that his son Tom had put us into the lead with a penalty, but Stratford responded strongly and ran out easy winners by forty points. Edwardians were our next visitors and after an early exchange of tries it was all about penalties and the visitors kicked four to our one. A welcome first win arrived against Bedworth. The omens were not good when the Extras took the match shirts away with them and then the match ball went missing, but when the game got underway, Simon Dudley began to orchestrate things and we were rewarded with two Raby tries and another from young scrum-half Tom Secher. It was back down to earth the following week with 68 point thumping at Nuneaton Old Edwardians and then a further defeat at Silhillians. At high flying Hereford we were up against a very fit and mobile side but we produced a positive performance, with Pete Blunt and Neil McMillan outstanding in the back-row. In the end, lapses in defence were punished severely and Hereford gradually pulled away to win comfortably.

In the national competitions, our lower league status relegated us to the new EDF Senior Vase in which we were drawn against Wellingborough, but they withdrew on the morning of the match. In the next round we visited Oakham where, after trading two tries apiece in the first half, some spectacular running from Carroll and Smith put the Rutlanders on the rack, but we were unable to turn our pressure into points and they got the vital score and went on to win by 25-12.

After six defeats in our opening seven league games, we were in the relegation zone and in urgent need of points. The visit of Ledbury at the end of November put a smile back on our faces as we put on a very professional display, to secure a 22-7 win. This was followed by a second success, against fellow strugglers Old Coventrians.

If ever a game signalled a low point in the fortunes of the club, it was surely the next match, against Old Leamingtonians, in the Warwickshire Cup. On a dark, cold, wet and blustery afternoon at Bericote Lane, the two teams put on an awful display. With the wind behind them the OLs went ahead with a try and a penalty. Just on half time, Tom Secher took a tap penalty and darted over, but with conditions worsening, play became even scrappier and the OLs held on to win by 11-5.

We resumed the league programme with a heavy loss at home to Hereford and then, after Christmas, narrow defeats to Earlsdon and Silhillians. Things were now looking really ominous and another relegation was a strong possibility. At the end of January, we played joint-leaders Old Laurentians and although we came away without any points we put in a determined and much improved performance, inspired by the efforts of Patch Northover, Steve Hersey and Simon Harry, who had been promoted from the Colts at Christmas and were beginning to find their feet at senior level.

We turned the corner the following week with a 37-15 thumping of Nuneaton Old Edwardians, who had scored 68 points against us earlier in the season. Tom Secher returned from injury and moved to the wing to accommodate Northover, but it was the mercurial Alex Carroll and fit again skipper Danny Birks who stole the show. A rare victory at Bedworth made it two wins in a row, but it was a close-run thing. We were leading towards the end of the game but Bedworth had us under tremendous pressure and finally managed to breach our defence, following a scrum close to the line, to go ahead. All appeared lost, but back we came and in an incredibly exciting finish Simon Dudley raced under the posts for a winning try in the last minute. A disappointing defeat at fellow strugglers Edwardians put us into the relegation zone once more but fortunately it was back to winning ways the next week, with a fine display at home against Earlsdon, with youngster Leigh Cleary outstanding. Matt Timlin, another of our Colts, came in at hooker and had a fine game.

There was a strong breeze blowing through the Vale of Evesham when we visited Pershore and like most teams we left pointless. Playing into the wind, things were looking good when a Hersey try on half time levelled the score, but with the breeze behind us we messed things up by conceding three breakaway tries. Fortunately, all our relegation rivals lost too. We then lost a high scoring local derby at home to Stratford. We were just ahead at half-time and with the forwards in control we applied strong pressure, but disaster struck ten minutes from time when an interception enabled the visitors’ wing to run the length of the field to put them ahead and the same player scored his fourth try from the restart to wind up the match.

Safety was finally secured against bottom side Old Coventrians at the end of March, when we achieved our biggest win of the season, by 57-12. The final game against strugglers Ledbury had been seen as a potentially difficult final obstacle, as their side had been stiffened by players hired from Oxford University in an attempt to avoid the drop. However, with our relegation fears removed, we travelled in a relaxed mood and had our hosts on tenterhooks before they scored the decisive try to win the game - only for them to receive the news that Bedworth had won and they were relegated anyway.

First XV 2006-07 Dick Jewitt (linesman), Alan Roberts, Alex Carroll, Steve Hersey, Rob Butler, Simon Harry, Neil McMillan, James Pearl, Gareth Eastham, Matt Timlin, John Cooper, Kit Forrest (manager), Dave Smith, John Raby, Mark Warrilow, Danny Birks (cap), Leigh Cleary, Patch Northover, Danny Phillips, Simon Dudley, Bill Unsworth

So, after a nightmare start with a depleted team, we picked up after Christmas and finished four places above the bottom - but with only one point to spare. The improvement was particularly due to the performances of a number of young players who came into the side through the Colts, including - Tom Secher, Matt Timlin, Leigh Cleary, Patch Northover, Steve Hersey, Simon Harry, Rob Butler, Danny Phillips and Andy Siddle. They gave the side a new look, a new spirit and above all the hope of better times ahead if they could stay together. Prop forward/hooker Mark Warrilow was voted most improved player of the year and the Young Player award went to No.8, Steve Hersey. The Player of the Year was Neil McMillan who was outstanding in the back row, particularly in the first half of the season when the side was struggling. Leigh Cleary topped the league points scorers with 48, closely followed by John Raby who got 8 tries. On the representative front, Alan Roberts continued to play for the Warwickshire senior side.

Gez Robinson and Matt Dale led the 2nd XV, supported by Bryn Evans and they won just under half of their games. The Spartans’ team of “golden oldies”, led by Dave Ward, had an excellent season winning 17 out of 21 and were unbeaten from the end of November. They were awarded the South Warwickshire “tail-enders” trophy as the top third team in the area. Among the highlights were an 89-0 victory over Broadstreet and a 94-0 win over Edwardians, with Simon David bagging six tries. Overall, Simon was top scorer with 35 tries.

Bill Dalton and Mark Brown continued to develop the Colts and were able to see the fruits of their labour with so many players graduating to the first XV. This weakened the Colts side, but they still managed to improve their record from the previous season. Matt Blay was Colt of the Year and Aaron Liebermann won the Junior Colt award. In the national cup they beat Sutton Coldfield before going out to Worcester. They then went into the plate competition where they had to concede to Walsall who had earlier postponed the game (contrary to the rules) because they couldn’t field a team, only for us to then be required to play it on a date when we couldn’t field a side! In the Warwickshire Cup we dispatched Old Coventrians before losing heavily to Rugby Lions. A number of the junior players received county honours with Adam Woodfield, Eliot Liebermann and Will Godwin all playing for Warwickshire under-17s and along with Ollie Parkes they all played for Warwickshire in the National Colts Sevens competition. The Colts again took part in the Carrickfergus sevens in Northern Ireland and the seniors had a successful overseas tour at the end of the season, this time to Bahia in Majorca.

As always, putting teams out on the pitch requires the support and effort of lot of people, in addition to the coaching team. The role of fixture secretary was now undertaken by Bryn Evans and Jane Reeve was the match secretary. These traditional jobs were changing, with the fixtures now largely determined by the league programme and cups draws and the notification of selection done by email. An increasingly important task was the registration of players, which was strictly controlled and although simple in theory, the consequences of a single administrative error could wreck a season if points were deducted for fielding an unregistered player. Another trend was to support the teams with a team manager whose job it was to ensure that match day arrangements were taken care of. Kit Forrest supported the first team and Bryn Evans looked after the Extras and Spartans. Other important characters were Dick Jewitt, who ran the touchline and Roger Copping, Dave Barry, Monica Costello and Tilly Pimlott, who ensured that physiotherapy support was available for all the sides. After years of providing this support, Roger Copping gave up his couch of pain at the end of the season and in recognition of his contribution he was elected as clubman of the year.

Sadly, John Oxenbould and David Glasborrow, former stalwarts and honorary life members of the club, died during the season. Both had held most of the key offices during their time, with John’s particular forte being press and public relations. He was the club historian for many years and produced wonderful statistical analyses of team and individual records, without which this history would not be so comprehensive. He could also drink a bit. David was a useful player for the club and on retiring he became an excellent administrator. He was a stickler for procedure and protocol and sadly fell out of love with the game with the introduction of professionalism.

2007-08: No Smokes but More Fire

There was a healthy atmosphere in the club during the summer of 2008. Firstly, the government introduced a smoking ban in all public and work places, including sports clubs, which meant no more smoking in the clubhouse, a ban that was accepted readily by the members. Also, we entered into an agreement with Mercury Health Ltd for them to use the ground to locate mobile scanners, as part of an NHS scheme to make health services more accessible. This would have provided significant income over several years, but unfortunately the government had a change of heart about the project and they pulled the funding, which brought our contract to a premature end, although it did bring in significant one-off money.

After the previous year’s close encounter with relegation, we were optimistic that our young side would improve and compete at the other end of the table. The player/coaching team of Alan Roberts and Alex Carroll remained in place and Danny Birks continued as captain. Among the team changes - John Raby moved to Kenilworth and Leigh Caddy to Australia, but Scott Conduit and Doz Ward came back after a year with Silhillians and Nick Maxwell returned from Rugby Lions, although he was still injured for the first part of the season.

We faced Nuneaton Old Edwardians in the opening fixture. Always a tricky one against their powerful forwards, we put in a confident display to win 26-20. Former colts, John Robertson, Alex Wileman and Danny Ruyssevelt all made their debuts in the backs, with Danny scoring two tries. Our promotion prospects were tested in game two, when we entertained Sutton Coldfield and despite having the better of the forward exchanges, with the back row of Blunt, Birks and Hersey outstanding, Sutton just had the edge in the contest between two very good back divisions and with both sides scoring three tries, the visitors edged home.

First XV 2007-08 Kit Forrest (manager), Pete Blunt, Terry Curran, Steve Hersey, Neil McMillan, Alan Roberts (player/coach), Simon Harry, Rob Butler, Scott Conduit, Greg Melville, Dick Jewitt (linesman), Adam Preece,

Simon Dudley, Nick Maxwell, Patch Northover, Alex Carroll (player/coach) Derek Jones, Danny Birks (captain)

Simon Magill, Marcus Pask, Tom Williams, Danny Phillips, Dave Barry (physio)

A second away win, at struggling Edwardians, was achieved comfortably, but thereafter, the autumn, results settled into a pattern of winning at home and losing away. Impressive home victories were achieved over Stourbridge Lions, Silhillians, Berkswell & Balsall and Kidderminster, but on the road our form deserted us and we suffered disappointing losses at Bedworth, Old Laurentians and Earlsdon. A one-point defeat at second-placed Droitwich at the end of November indicated better things to come and debuts were given to two significant new recruits: Simon Magill, a barnstorming winger from Old Leamingtonians, and Tom Williams a sublime full back or centre from Wallingford. Williams made his debut against Kidderminster and marked it with a try. The versatile Tom Secher added another as he settled into the fly-half role. In the final game before Christmas, we scored a solid away win at Balsall & Berkswell to achieve a double over our near neighbours, who were above us in the table at the time.

In the EDF Vase, we crossed two bridges, with comfortable home wins against West Bridgford and Bridgnorth and in the fourth round we could have done with another one to take us across the swampy pitch at Northampton Old Scouts, but we got bogged down and went out by 6-21. In the Warwickshire Cup we drew Barkers Butts and travelled with an experimental pack. Barkers were having a poor season and were there for the taking, but disappointingly we went down 15-0. One bright spark to come out of the day was the return of Adam Preece, who came into the side at full-back, after two years away and played outstandingly well for the remainder of the season. Another welcome comeback was by winger Derek Jones, who, after several years out of the team, was given a surprise promotion and played so well that he held his place. Rob Butler, who had played the first half of the season with Bridgnorth, also came back to us.

The Christmas break provided the opportunity to play some local friendlies and though it is questionable whether these could still be regarded as genuine first team fixtures, given the level of availability, experimentation and substitutions involved, it was still good to achieve wins over Old Leamingtonians and Kenilworth. We scored a second friendly win over Kenilworth in March, which demonstrated that we were becoming more competitive with our Midlands 1 neighbours.

The league programme resumed in January with a comfortable win against Earlsdon, followed by a hard-won victory at Silhillians. With four straight wins behind us, our climb up the table was put to the test with a visit from third placed Old Laurentians who took the lead in the first half, but after the interval it was all Leamington and three blistering tries took us clear.

Further wins, over Stourbridge, Bedworth and Edwardians made it eight in a row and took us into third place and still with an outside chance of promotion, with games against the top two sides to come. Sutton Coldfield had led the division all season and were racking up big scores every week, but they found Leamington a tough nut to crack. With the wind in our favour, we dominated the first half, but our powerful play was undone by lapses in concentration and the dangerous Sutton backs scored two tries against the run of play and they managed to hold their lead in the second period. This just about ended our promotion hopes.

Nuneaton Old Eds provided stiff opposition in our next home game, which appeared to be all over half way through the second period when a devastating break out of defence by Secher was finished off in style by Dudley and winger Robertson, for the try of the season. But the powerful Nuneaton forwards camped on our line, resulting in two scores, the second as we entered injury time, to snatch the lead. There was just time to recover the situation but a try by Doz Ward was ruled out and then, right on the final whistle, we were awarded a penalty and up stepped Tom Secher to put it over and take the points. We went off the boil in the last two games, losing at Kidderminster after holding a two-try lead and then going down at home to Droitwich in the final game.

Sutton Coldfield were worthy champions, having led all season from Droitwich. We finished a creditable third with 14 wins and 8 losses: double our points in the previous season. The team had a settled look in the second half of the season - Preece, Jones, Carroll, Ward (or Smith) Magill, Secher, Northover, Pask, Maxwell, Curran, Roberts (or Butler) Harry, Birks, Hersey and Blunt (or Conduit). Others to play an important role were Neil McMillan, Danny Phillips, Gareth Eastham, Simon Dudley and Greg Melville. Player of year was Tom Secher and most improved player was Simon Harry. Patch Northover was the most promising player. Harry, Hersey and Warrilow were selected for Warwickshire Development XV

The Second XV opened with a big win over Nuneaton Old Eds but their early season form was inconsistent and they didn’t get into their stride until early December when they embarked on a run of 8 wins in eleven matches before falling away again in the final few weeks. Overall, they won 12 and lost 14 games. In the Warwickshire Cup they negotiated a tricky opening tie against Earlsdon, winning 17-7, before going down to a good Stratford side. Matt Dale led the team which included a strong core of regulars including: Tony Benyon, Richard Blunt, Alistair Speight, Matt Davies, Ben Pithouse, Mark Baldwin, Peter Davis, Chris Timms, Ryan Oliver, John Wheelhouse, John Cooper, Gez Robinson and Nick Waters. Danny Phillips, Anthony Rose and Matt Blay all made occasional appearances for the first XV.

Dave Ward continued to lead the Spartans with its usual complement of veterans and newcomers. Fixtures were hard to come by at times and they were often frustrated by late opposition cry-offs. Increasingly, fixtures were becoming focused on Warwickshire opposition with teams rarely going out of the county to play. This inevitably meant an over-familiarity with some opponents - Old Coventrians and Broadstreet becoming regular opposition. The Spartans played 23 games, winning 12. Some were beginning to think the team was a dynasty, with players such as Dave Ward, Stuart Chamberlain, Peter Gray and Simon David having played for so long and this was given extra credence around Christmas when Max David and Charlie Gray lined up with their fathers to give a preview of the next generation.

The end of season tour was to Villajoyosa in Spain, to play in a local tournament which unfortunately was cancelled. An impromptu game of beach rugby was the nearest our tourists got to playing a match. The Colts tour to the Carrickfergus Sevens also took place, for a sixth year in a row, and socially was a great success, although we didn’t do too well on the pitch.

Colts coach Bill Dalton made himself scarce for the early part of the season when, with his wife Kath, they travelled to France for the duration of the Rugby World Cup and achieved their ambition of covering all of the venues and seeing 15 of the 16 sides play (the exception being Scotland, who failed to venture beyond Hadrian’s Wall). In all, they watched 23 games, drove 7,670 miles and made many journeys on French buses. For their efforts, they were chosen as the RFU supporters of the month for October.

Mark Brown held the fort for the Colts in Bill’s absence and having seen so many players graduate into the senior sides, it was back to the drawing board, fielding a very young and inexperienced team. Teething problems were experienced in melding together the 18 and 19-year-old age groups but some recruits from Warwickshire College helped. An early season highlight was the visit of Katkati from New Zealand which provided a good game and an even better social event afterwards. After losing their opening seven games without over-troubling the scorer, they got off the mark against Rugby St Andrews at the end of October, but wins were hard to come by all season.