2010-11: Things Can Only Get Better

Our second season after promotion proved to be the worst on record as we were battered from start to finish. Things had looked promising in pre-season when we hosted a “trials tournament”. Old Leamingtonians, Nuneaton Old Edwardians, Dunlop and Old Coventrians joined us and we played in a round-robin format with games lasting 30 minutes. Having polished off the other three sides in splendid style, the fourth game was against OLs and as they were also undefeated, it served as the final - which we won by 17-5.

Nick Maxwell continued as skipper, again supported by Alan Roberts and Alex Carroll. Changes in the squad included the loss of Tom Secher, Marcus Pask and five others, who went off to Harbury and Scott Conduit and Doz Ward who went to Claverdon as their coaching team. Although there was no change to the league structure, there was to the scoring system: with 4 points now given for a win, 2 for a draw, and a bonus point for scoring 4 tries and or losing by a margin of 7 points or less.

Pre-season training 2010

Our two opening games in Midlands 1 West were against Old Laurentians and Worcester Wanderers who had been promoted. Early alarm bells rang when both sides proved to be too good for us. To add to our problems, Lewis Kelsey and Ben Ashmore suffered injuries which were to keep them out of action until the New Year. The next game was away at Stratford, where we began well, but failed to hold our discipline and the powerful Stratford pack turned the game around. Pete Blunt and Danny Birks were added to our growing injury list and Tom Williams’ return to action was ended.

Sutton Coldfield were our next visitors and overwhelmed us 63-11, with their forwards too strong and their quick backs too hot to handle. We then took our injury ravaged pack to Walsall and went down by the almost identical score of 66-11. Things got even worse in game six, when Bourneville visited and had 50 points on the board by half-time. It was something of a relief that they only won by 74-8 as we fought valiantly to hold them out in the second period. After these three hammerings, a visit to fellow strugglers Banbury gave us our best chance of success so far, but we were undone by a bad start and went down by a modest 38 points.

By the visit of Camp Hill, our injuries had become so bad that we had to call-up 52-year-old Bob Mallinson to fill in at hooker - he had last played in our first team 18 years earlier, in the same year that back-row debutant Charlie Gray was born. Prop Nick Waters also made his debut after many years with the club and he couldn’t be shifted, either in the set-piece or in open play. Despite a valiant performance, the Birmingham outfit won comfortably. We conceded our ninth loss and another 44 points at Lichfield when 48-year-old Gareth Eastham came in at prop and stayed for the season.

Unbeaten league leaders Dudley-Kingswinford were our next visitors and against their huge pack we were down to the bare bones and had to bring wingers John Holland and Andy Siddle into the back-row. Despite a good spell after half time Dudley pulled away to win 67-12. Whitchurch piled on another 61 points the following week. Bad weather then came to our rescue at the end of November when frozen pitches caused the next two games to be postponed. The only game to be played in December was the first of the return fixtures, at Worcester, when in an even game we went down narrowly.

First XV Sep 2010 - Adam Collett, Terry Curran, Alan Roberts, Mark Baldwin, Nick Maxwell, Simon Harry, Danny Ruyssevelt, Nick Harrington, Danny Birks, Gordon Jackson, Hannah Dudley, Dick Jewitt, Kit Forrest, Peter Preece - Elliot Liebermann, Simon Dudley, Tom Williams, John Raby, Danny Phillips, Nathan Earland, Alex Carroll, Adam Preece,

Patch Northover, Alan Reeve

We resumed activities on 2 January in the Warwickshire Cup against Berkswell & Balsall. We were pegged back by the B&B forwards in the first half, but after conceding a penalty try, we developed some momentum and scored four tries: from Mark Baldwin, John Raby and Simon Magill (2) to secure our first win of the season.

It was back to reality the following week when we received a huge thumping at Sutton Coldfield, with Sutton winning 78-8 to equal the record highest score against the club. At home to Walsall the following week we were much better and with Matt Cooper back in the side, we stormed into the lead, but a disallowed try just before half-time kept Walsall in the game and they turned it around to snatch an unlikely victory in the final minutes.

Poor travelling instructions meant a late arrival at Bourneville and we were punished for not being properly warmed-up and went down to a disappointing loss. Success finally came at home to Banbury in game 16, on the last Saturday of January. Two tries by Nathan Earland and another by Adam Preece put us 17-0 up at half-time but thereafter we made hard work of it and were forced to hang on to scrape home.

This was not to be the start of a winning run however and things continued downhill as the season wore on. A heavy defeat at Camp Hill followed and our injury jinx continued as ex-colt Adam Woodfield, returning to the club from Nuneaton, injured his knee in the first move of the game and he never played for us again. We were away again the following week for a Warwickshire Cup game against Nuneaton OE and as we had to rearrange a postponed league game with them, it was agreed to play double or nothing – we got nothing and the Old Eds got the points and knocked us out of the Cup, winning 33-18.

Lichfield beat us in a close-fought match, in which Danny Birks made a welcome come-back, but it was short lived and a knee injury ended his season and effectively his rugby career. We played Halesonians on the third team pitch, due to water- logged conditions lower down the field. Ironically, we were now struggling for backs and 48-year-old Simon David was called into service on the wing, but he lasted only a few minutes before getting injured and was replaced by Matt Dale. Two bulldozing tries from new flanker Alex Sharman put us level at half time, but our lack of defensive strength in the three-quarters was spotted and ruthlessly exposed as the visitors piled up 50 points.

After so many hammerings the away trip to Dudley-Kingswinford was always going to be an ordeal. The Birmingham side were unbeaten and they had been running up big scores against everyone. We were completely overpowered and conceded a club record defeat of 85-0, although the players kept fighting hard until the end of the game. This defeat condemned us to relegation with five games to go

Losses to Whitchurch, Stratford and Nuneaton Old Eds followed - the Stratford game by 54-18, which was a record for the fixture. In a rare friendly, we took on a strong and well drilled Bromsgrove 2nd XV in a pool fixture and ran out winners by 39-13, with Simon Tyler creating havoc in midfield and scoring 4 tries. The final away trip to Old Halesonians was something of an end of season party as copious quantities of alcohol were loaded on to the coach. Our hosts were not in party mood until after the game and inflicted another heavy defeat, by 50-12. The final game proved to be one too many, as fellow strugglers Old Laurentians tore into us from the start and inflicted a huge 71-5 defeat. Despite this, with Nuneaton winning their final game, the Laurentians joined us in the drop zone, along with Banbury.

There is not a lot of good that can be said about a season in which we lost 25 out of 26 league games and conceded 1,202 points at an average of 46 - with 8 scores over 60 points, including a record 85-point defeat. However, to put these high scores into context, they were increasingly common throughout the leagues and at least we did not fare quite as badly as neighbors’ Kenilworth, who lost by 99 points to Bromsgrove in March. In total, 50 different players turned out for the first team which meant that players had to be brought in with little or no experience, or in some cases with plenty of experience but expired sell-by dates.

Spartans v Bedworth Sept 2010 - Hugh Smith (ref) Oliver Hunt, Matt Hunt, Ian Gascoigne, Shaun Smith, Richard Watkins (captain), Kieran Harris, Amir Saei, Aaron Hunt, Tom Jewitt, - Simon David, Matt Archer, Mark Jones,

Andy Knight, Matt Davis, Steve Murphy.

Despite the terrible time we were having, the players maintained a good spirit and kept on turning out and fighting hard. In the forwards, Danny Phillips played throughout, but Nick Maxwell struggled with injury and Terry Curran was out for most the season, requiring Extras skipper Gareth Eastham to step up. Simon Harry was a stalwart in the second-row and deservedly won the player of the year trophy. Ben Ashmore was his main partner although he was out injured until just before Christmas, requiring Alan Roberts to fill in. Kieran Martin and Adam Collett were new recruits in the front five, but they moved on during the season. It was the back row that gave us most difficulty - Ben Pirie, Matt Cooper and Neil McMillan were all out for the season and with early injuries to Pete Blunt, Danny Ruyssevelt, Danny Birks and Lewis Kelsey we had to find a new unit. Mark Roden, Barry Gordon, Elliot Liebermann or Mark Baldwin played for most of the season. Alex Sharman arrived for the last few games and showed a lot of promise, along with Andy Hart, who won the Young Player award. Mark Roden was Most Improved Player

In the backs, apart from the loss of the silky skills of Tom Secher and Tom Williams we were at full strength for most of the season with Adam Preece his usual reliable self at fullback, Simon Magill and John Raby on the wings with Alex Carroll in the centre along with Gordon Jackson, or Simon Tyler. Simon showed a lot of potential with his powerful running and was top try scorer in the club with 15. Simon Dudley took over the fly-half position and partnered Patch Northover who was top scorer for the 1st XV with 94 points. There were a number of promising newcomers who also played their parts, including - Ross Bayston, John Holland, Tom Daplyn, Nathan Earland and Nick Molesworth.

The Extras and Spartans were both badly hit by the knock-on effect of the first team’s injury problems and the retirement of a number of their long serving regulars. This was not helped by the defection of a number of useful players to Harbury and Claverdon. All these factors affected our traditional strength in depth. Although, on paper, we still had a lot of players, in reality we found it increasingly difficult to field three senior sides as the season progressed. In the end we alternated the Extras and Spartans’ fixtures, particularly to ensure that there was a game at home.

With Gareth Eastham in the first team, Spartans skipper Richard Watkins kept things going. Apart from the reduced number of games played, the results were also poor with the Extras winning only 5 of 17 and the Spartans 5 of 16, with 1 drawn. Speedy winger Stuart Hollins was voted the Extras’ player of the season. Our problems were not unique and it was a disturbing feature of local rugby that this season most local first teams were doing badly and all clubs were finding it difficult to field more than two teams. Consequently, the fledgling Warwickshire Leagues became more or less defunct.

Spot the ball - the Spartans v Spartans RFC – a tribute to Spartan living.

Bill Dalton, Paul Ford and Tony Timms continued to turn out a Colts side through most of the season and when they couldn’t raise a side or an opposition, their players gained valuable experience in the Spartans or Extras. The team won 4 of 19 games, the highlight being a 23-22 win against Southam. Connor Chamberlain was Colt of the Year and Ed McKewan took the Young Colt and Players’ Player awards. Jordan Riggon won the Fire in the Belly trophy and Mike Arrowsmith was the Newcomer of the Year. Mike was instrumental in helping to build up a strong link with Warwick University Freshers’.

The club was sorry to say goodbye to Paul Ford (pictured) who moved away from the area at the end of the season. In addition to his work with the Colts, Paul, together with Tony Timms, had run the Schools Programme for a dozen years and their work was rewarded with the runners-up prize in the RFU President’s annual awards. Tony Timms also received a gold award from Warwickshire County Council for services to schools’ sport, in connection with this and other work. A late season highlight was a charity game organised in favour of Help for Heroes by Kevin Barkway (a member of the Household Cavalry and a parent in the Youth Section) The Cavalry visited us in early March to play an Extras side and raised £992. In April the club hosted its first ever rugby league game when Leamington Royals took on Coventry Bears. In a game that was reminiscent of some of our own matches, they were overpowered by the score of 71-6.

Colts Nov 2010 George Robinson, James Phipps, Simon Finn, Reece Jones, Joe Talamini, Ed McKewan, Josh Boyce - Sam Russell, Rich Carter, Jordan Riggon, Sam Nunn, Brad James, Dan Arnold, John Wilson

Sadly, two former club captains, Robin Andrews and Brian White passed away at the end of the season. Robin was a regular first team player during the 1970s and club captain in 1978/79. Although not particularly tall for a second-row forward he more than compensated for this through his mobility, strength and controlled aggression, which belied his mild manner off the field. Brian played in the back row from the 1960s through to the 1980s and was an outstanding captain, leading the first XV in 1977/78. He was a President and Chairman of the Club and was made an Honorary Life Member in 2004. He died of a heart attack whilst on the club golf tour.

2011-12: World Record Scrum

The disastrous results of 2010-11 and our relegation to Midlands 2 prompted a review of how we might revitalise our playing strength. Alan Roberts retired from playing to concentrate on his coaching duties and Nick Maxwell continued as Captain. Tony Timms was elected as Director of Rugby, with overall responsibility for playing matters. We also set about the task of raising the profile of the club in the community and ex-first team prop Phil McGaffin took on the press, publicity and website roles. The other major action was to strengthen links between the junior and senior clubs to improve the flow through into colts and senior rugby. Former club captain Roger Crockford took over as Youth Chairman, supported by Natasha Yurkevic-Ell for the mini age groups.

In September, an early sign of new enthusiasm in the club was the setting of a world record for the largest ever scrum, verified by the Guinness Book of Recrds. 361 people, of all shapes and sizes, including parents, friends, coaches and youngsters, packed down, with Alan Wilkinson, the Mayor of Leamington acting as scrum half. The record has since been broken several times. The club was also pleased to receive the RFU Whole Club Seal of Approval - a validation of its organisation and operations.

In the second running of our pre-season trials tournament, we retained the trophy without conceding a point. The opening game of the season proper was a friendly at home to Earlsdon which was won comfortably, with the highlight being a hat-trick by Adam Preece.

Newbold, were our first league opponents and despite us dominating the game, our visitors nicked a win with a late score. A visit to Old Laurentians followed and with the score even at 12-12 going into injury time, substitute Pete Blunt, on his return after a year out injured, crashed over in the corner to secure victory. Unfortunately, he was injured in doing so and put himself out of action for another year. After wins over Silhillians and Upton-on-Severn we had hopes of extending our run against early leaders Barkers Butts. Things were looking good when we went two tries ahead, but a breakaway turned the game around and Barkers secured the win.

A crushing win at Banbury followed, with scrum-half Patch Northover in top form to notch a hat-trick of tries. Berkswell & Balsall were suffering from a 15 points deduction from the previous season, but this was not affecting their form, and they proved to be the strongest side to visit us in the league, running in three tries in the final quarter to cap fine display. At Droitwich, the lead changed hands several times and in the tightest of games, we slipped to a second successive defeat. A high-scoring win over Pershore put us back on track but we made hard work of it and were hanging on at the end. Kidderminster visited the next week and we won by 50 points with all 7 backs scoring. We rounded off the first half of the season with a win at rock-bottom Cheltenham North, leaving us only two points off second place.

The first game of the New Year was the return against Old Laurentians. After a blistering first half we were 18 points ahead, but the game turned around completely and the OLs hit back with three tries to take the lead, before conceding it again as we forced them into conceding a penalty-try in injury time. This made Leamington inaugural winners of the Brian White Cup. The visit to Silhillians was another game of two halves and this time it was Leamington fighting back from a 17-0 half time deficit, but although we got within 3 points, the Sills managed to ride the storm and clinch the game with a try at the end. Sadly, Darren Fowler, who was beginning to produce a string of excellent performances in the Spa pack, broke his leg, which ended his career with the club. The return game with Upton-on-Severn was a routine win, although the score-line didn’t reflect our superiority.

First XV 2011-12 - Johnny Holland, Mark Warrilow, Simon Harry, Craig Smith, Jonathan Winser, Darren Fowler, Nick Maxwell (Captain) Danny Ruyssevelt, Nathan Earland, Dave Barry (physio) Kit Forrest (Manager) – Tom Daplyn, Alex Carroll, Danny Phillips, Patrick Northover, Mike Kelly, Richard Staff, Gareth Eastham, Chris Dixon, Adam Preece

Following a two week break due to bad weather we were back in action at home to Banbury and after weathering an early storm won comfortably. This put us right back in the promotion picture prior to our fixture at leaders Barkers Butts. Although we were level going into the break, we couldn’t keep it going and fell away badly in the second half. Another hard fixture followed at Berkswell & Balsall and we had no answer to the driving maul of their powerful forwards and conceded four tries without reply. A home game against Droitwich was an opportunity to get back on the winning track and to impress our Warwickshire Cup winning side of 1992 (who were on the touchline having enjoyed a 20th anniversary reunion of their triumph) but our in-form visitors won narrowly.

After three successive defeats, to our main rivals, promotion was now impossible, but we still had the chance of making a strong finish with some comfortable looking fixtures to come. Things did not go to plan however as our form dipped and further defeats followed at Pershore and Kidderminster, teams we had beaten comfortably before Christmas. We just managed to overcome bottom side Cheltenham North in our final home game, the highlight of which was probably the best try of the season, as Tom Daplyn tore through the centre at great speed and slipped the ball to John Holland, who streaked over the line. The final fixture was lost in an open game at Newbold.

Overall, it had been a season that started with a lot of promise but ultimately ended in disappointment. For most of the campaign we were just off the promotion places and in contention, until a combination of injuries, non-availability and loss of form resulted in a late season slump and a mid-table finish. Barkers Butts led throughout and Berkswell & Balsall overcame their 15-point deduction to gain promotion through the play-offs.

After a two-year absence from the Intermediate Cup, we went through the opening rounds against Wellingborough and Old Saltleians before we were drawn against Stoke-on-Trent, who had won the national final at TwIckenham the year before. They were in no mood to give up their trophy and dismissed us by 48-10. In the Warwickshire Cup we were given a walkover in the first round when Dunlop cried off and we overcame Newbold 18-17 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals we drew Sutton Coldfield, the holders, who were unbeaten and top of Midlands 1 West. Injuries stretched us to the limit and we were unable to field a front row which sadly required uncontested scrums to be played which made the result was a forgone conclusion. The 76-10 score-line was about typical of Sutton’s results for the season. Despite the hammering, our understrength side played with great heart and Craig Smith scored a late try to give us some respectability.

Overall, we won 15 of 28 games. Although we again suffered badly from injuries, we did have more strength in depth – in total 61 players turned out. The pack was relatively settled throughout the campaign with Craig Smith adding strength and mobility to the second row. Other new recruits included Mike Kelly, at No 6 and Darren Fowler who played second or back row before his injury. The backs suffered constant changes, with long term injuries to Simon Magill, John Raby and Gordon Jackson - and Simon Tyler moving to Kenilworth. Alex Carroll switched to fly-half and Tom Daplyn became the key man in the centre, alongside several partners. We were able to give debuts to a number of promising players, including Chris Dixon, Richard Staff, Tarquin Snell, Simon Mallard, Ben Kingsworth and Sam Nunn.

Patch Northover was top scorer with 213 points, including 13 tries for the first XV. Andy Ruyssevelt was Player of the Year and his mum and dad (Andy and Gina) made it a family double by scooping up the Clubman of the Year trophy for their joint efforts. Mike Kelly was Most Improved Player and Craig Smith the best Young Player. Craig Smith, Danny Phillips, Adam Preece and Mark Warrilow all played for Warwickshire and Dyneal Fessal played for the county under-20 side.

Seconds Nov 2011 John Robertson, Chris Dixon, Charlie Gray, Mark Baldwin, James Gaynor, Mike Kelly, Serj Padden, Connor Chamberlain, Sam Russell – Ed Slegg, Richard Staff, Ali McKee, Ben Pithouse (captain), Andy Hart, Barry Gordon, Tom Daplyn

Ben Pithouse took over the captaincy of the Second XV but he was off the scene for most of the season and no fewer than 10 players led out the side. They were inconsistent, but they posted some very good scores, including – 58 against Stratford; 78 against Old Coventrians; and 65 against Bromsgrove 3rd XV, with Nick Molesworth touching down 5 times. This feat was equalled by John Holland in an 80-11 win against the Sutton Coldfield 3rd string. The powerful Sutton club gained their revenge in the semi-final of the Warwickshire Second Team Cup when they inflicted a 115-0 defeat on us - the all-time record score conceded by a Leamington side. The bad weather then arrived and after that we struggled to field three sides and the Seconds threw in their resources with the Spartans. Sam Nunn was top scorer for the Seconds with 125 points (all with the boot) and Nick Molesworth led the try scorers with 16 (21 overall). Shaky Archer won the newly introduced Second XV Player of the Year trophy.

Wiggy’s Wonders (aka The Spartans) were also inconsistent, due mainly to injuries up the sides, but they ended up with an even record. Highlights included big wins over Old Leamingtonians and Kenilworth, with Tarquin Snell scoring 6 tries against Kenilworth. Pete Davis led the scorers with 107 points, including 13 tries and was the Spartans Player of the Year.

With a lack of under-17s coming through from the Juniors, the Colts struggled to field a side and after two early season games, in which we beat Rugby St Andrews and lost to Warwick University Freshers’, we joined forces with Old Leamingtonians, who were similarly depleted, to field a joint side. This commenced at the end of November and in the new guise we played a further 15 games, winning 8. Our own Colts, supplemented by a few returning students, took on Kenilworth under 23’s (and guests) for the Dave Reeve trophy game at Easter and lost an exciting game by 42-7. The Colts Player of the Year was Brad James with Jake Ross taking both the Junior Colt and Players’ Player awards. Joe Talamini won the “Fire in the Belly” trophy.

Other points of note in a busy season were that we agreed with Leamington Hockey Club that they would use our club facilities after games, thereby expanding our community base, as well as increasing our bar takings and social activities. The club adopted Prostate Cancer as its charitable focus for the year and among our fund-raising efforts was the Ball Boys calendar. The players in “skins” are John Raby, Mark Roden, Keiron Martin, Serj Padden, Gordon Jackson, Barry Gordon, Ben Pirie and Jonathan Williams. Ben was fined for being inappropriately dressed, as he didn’t pull his socks up.

We ended the season with an informal lunch in honour of John Richardson, who was standing down as President of England Students and on the 50th anniversary of him leading the club as captain. Many of his former playing colleagues were able to attend from all over the country. The picture below shows John Hibben, Maurice Goymer, Peter Jones, Hugh Smith and Ken Hitchman making a presentation to John and Diane.