And so, after promising beginnings, Rugby Football in Leamington sank without a trace at the end of 1897 and did not resurface until the modern Leamington Rugby Club was established in 1926. The Coventry, Nuneaton, Rugby and Stratford clubs managed to carry on, with Stratford almost reaching first class standard and winning the Midlands Counties Cup in 1908. In the villages, Southam continued to do well, playing mostly against junior sides from Coventry and Rugby. They won the Coventry Junior Cup for a second time in 1900. Napton also had a good side and were their fierce rivals. Stockton and Bishops Itchington also continued to play. Southam appear to have gone into decline from around 1905, when an Association club was formed in the village, with the same impact as in Leamington.

There are probably several reasons for the demise of the game in the Leamington area. In the case of the Rovers and the attempts to re-start a town club later, the problems of financial mismanagement, apathy and in-fighting were reported by the Courier and personal comments by a correspondent added that “trams were missed, matches began or ended in semi-darkness, teams did not turn up and consequently the public began to get disgusted……..whilst many tried to keep things going there was no outstanding personality to follow on from H.C. King to drive the club forward’. King (pictured) went on to become a leading figure in the Madras Cricket Club in India and his law firm (King and Partridge) drew up the constitution of the Indian Cricket Board in 1920. He received a knighthood in 1906 in reward for organising the Prince of Wales’ Royal visit to Madras that year.

Hal King

Leamington’s problems do not explain why the other clubs in the area disappeared. The split between rugby union and rugby league in 1895 may have had some impact, if local players felt the same as their northern equivalents about “broken time payments”, but this is not known. Schools no longer playing the game, or providing a player feed; an economic down-turn and a changing social profile in the town may have been contributing factors, but their significance is not clear. The most likely explanation is that Association Rules replaced Rugby Rules as the popular football code, for players and spectators alike, with large crowds attracted to watching the free-flowing Association game rather than the endless close-quarter play of Rugby.

From the early 1900s until after the First World War, Warwick School had the only active rugby team in the immediate area. The Rugby code was first played at the School during the mid-1800s and the game developed there over the next 20 years, coinciding with the hey-day of the local club sides. The school fell on hard times in the late-1890s and the impact on their Rugby Football was immediate and dramatic – in the period 1899-1906 they played 62 games and lost 60. The public school merged with the local grammar school in 1906 and both Association and Rugby rules were played for a while. Gradually however, efforts were directed towards the oval ball game, including the launching of a “club” side which comprised a mixture of staff and boys. In the season before the Great War they had a fixture list which included Cheltenham and Reading schools and clubs sides such as Camp Hill, Aston, Nuneaton Old Edwardians, Wolverhampton, Earlsdon and Moseley 2nd XV. Although the RFU suspended club fixtures on the outbreak of the War, Warwick School continued to play when they could. Between 1917 and 1919, there was some local competition when Dover College decamped to Leamington in order to escape the risk of air attacks on the south coast. They brought a useful rugby team with them and occupied the former Leamington College building in Binswood Avenue. After they returned home, the new Leamington College moved in to the building in 1922, and although they initially played both Association and Rugby football, like most of their rival schools they dropped Association around 1923-24 and played only Rugby from then on.

It seems that interest in resurrecting club rugby in the Leamington area grew slowly and gradually after the War. The first sign was an advertisement in the Courier in 1920-21 seeking recruits to form a new club, but this appears to have come to nothing. A Leamington and Warwick public school old-boys side was formed and played 5 games during the Christmas break of 1923-24 - against Wednesbury, Warwickshire Yeomanry, Stratford, BTH Rugby and Old Laurentians “A” - and beat them all. This team was organized by C.E. Burridge and it was seen as a first step to forming a permanent club. In 1924-25 they called themselves Leamington Spartans and two of their results have been traced – against Coventrians and Old Edwardians, both of which were lost.

Letters to the Courier indicate that Warwickshire RFU were willing to cover the initial costs of setting up a new club in the district. It is not known whether anything came directly as a result of this, but a club was formed in Kenilworth at the beginning of 1924-25, to be followed by one in Warwick which began playing in November that same season - their first match being a 35-0 defeat at Kenilworth. Warwick School old boys were instrumental in setting up both clubs and they played a regular challenge match against the School. Having played Union for three years, Leamington College was also producing an expanding number of graduates with knowledge of the game and was able to assemble an old boys’ side to play the College.

Many of the Kenilworth club members were resident in the Leamington area, so they appointed a team secretary to cover the town. This was Merrick Dyson and he was assisted by Bernard Barr. They were aware that around 15 to 20 players were travelling from Leamington to play in the neighboring towns and therefore there was the potential to have a club in the Spa. Barr, Dyson and Bernard Price, who were all old-boys of Warwick School, got together with Fred Barr (Bernard’s father) to plan the setting up of the club. They began to canvas for players and potential Vice Presidents to provide funding. A public notice was placed in the Courier on 9th April 1926 inviting interested persons to a meeting at the Town Hall to consider the possibility of establishing a club. This came about on 22nd April 1926 under the chairmanship of G.W. Hawkins, the Deputy Mayor. Some 70 people attended and the new Leamington RFC came into being.

Councillor Hawkins was elected as the first President and a Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Fred Barr. Detailed preparations then began to enable the club to begin playing at the start of the forthcoming season. A tentative fixture list was compiled, a pitch was made available on the Campion Hills and Mrs Dowding allowed the use of the Bath Hotel as a headquarters. The annual subscription was set at half a guinea (52.5p) which was to remain unchanged for 20 years. About thirty to forty potential players came forward, including some ex-Rugby League men and in defiance of the Rugby Football Union’s strictures on associating with these outlaws, the club turned a blind eye and they were welcomed into the fold. There is no suggestion that they tried to introduce the sins of professionalism into the club (then as now we could not have afforded it) but their influence was felt in the design of the club jerseys which used the town colours of blue with single red and gold hoops. This was the pattern favoured by many rugby league clubs. The cost of jerseys was £5.50 for a set of 15 and shorts (or knickers as they were then called) were just over 20p a pair. So, with these arrangements in place, we were ready to go.

Fred Barr, Founder Chairman of Leamington RFC

Fred Barr, Founder Chairman of the Club