2018-19: Bonus Points Vital

Summer maintenance activity was focused on improving the state of the pitches and the driveway which were both showing signs of wear and tear after 50 years of use. We finally gave up trying to fill in the potholes in the drive and decided to tear it up and re-lay a large hard-standing area as a drive and car park with the help of O’Brien’s, our main sponsor, and grants from Warwick District Council and Leamington Town Council. Meanwhile Jim Poynter took on the task of improving the pitches by scarifying, sanding and seeding and despite the hottest and driest summer since 1976, with the inevitable hose pipe bans, by the beginning of the season they had never looked better. In recognition of his work on the ground over a long period and his distinguished playing career at Leamington, Jim was made an Honorary Life Member of the club at the AGM in July 2019.

Craig Smith led the side for a third season, with Alex Carroll and Bill Unsworth again providing the coaching support and expertise. Dick Jewitt stood down after many seasons running the line and was replaced by ex-club Chairman Hugh Smith, who took his duties so seriously he would join in the backs on the overlap (as illustrated against Southam) in the hope of a scoring pass.

Because of the dry pitches, we went into the opening game, in the Warwickshire Shield, with little full-on practice together, but leading by 13 points, victory looked certain until two converted tries in injury time gave the visitors the game by 39-38. It was close again the next week as we opened our league programme at Nuneaton Old Edwardians where a late try looked as though it might have rescued us a draw, but the very kickable conversion went wide and we lost by two points. A home win against Old Coventrians got us off the mark, but we then lost at Old Laurentians in a game we dominated but newly promoted Rugby St Andrews were then brushed aside comfortably.

I

1st XV v Southam - Ali Weedon, Alex Carroll (coach), Paul Dillon (physio),Tom Lane, Mark Warrilow, Jim Robertson, Lewis Kelsey, Sam Nunn, John Brear, Rich McKowen, Patch Northover, Phil Evans – Toby Bruce, Josh Jones, Gareth Shuttleworth, Chris John, Danny Phillips, Craig Smith, Tom Jewitt, Danny Ruyssevelt, Matt Humphreys, Aled Thomas, Luca Illner

We travelled to Silhillians, bent on revenge for the Shield defeat, but lightning struck for a second time when Sils got the winning score in the final move of the match when we were down to 13 men. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory again the following week when entertaining Barkers Butts. Leading by 17 points going into the final quarter, a try out of nothing brought Barkers back into the game and two more converted scores, overhauled us at the end.

A further defeat followed at Earlsdon, but Evesham were beaten comfortably at home and we then faced league leaders Kenilworth and Kidderminster in successive games, confident that we could compete with them. Our game at Kenilworth, at the beginning of December, was very close with only three points in it at the interval, but the hosts shaded the second half to secure the victory. Kidderminster came to Leamington the following week and it was another frustrating loss as we led at half time and were pressing their line for a decisive score when they broke out from behind their posts to run the length of the field and score and go ahead for the first time.

As we moved into the Christmas period, we had 3 wins out of 10 and held 8th place, which could have been so much better, but on the plus side, the run of narrow defeats meant that we had acquired plenty of bonus points. After playing well but unsuccessfully against the top teams, we now had to meet the three bottom sides in successive matches – Southam, Old Coventrians and Rugby St Andrews - all away from home. Although we had the better of the three games, we lost them all by very narrow margins, with the lack of a confident and in-form kicker costing us dearly.

These losses dropped us right into the middle of a relegation dog-fight and next we faced Old Laurentians, who were on a run of 10 wins. The finishing power of the OL backs was again decisive as they scored three long-range tries against the run of play to win by 29-10. Confidence was now beginning to drop and in our next two games we suffered heavy losses at Barkers Butts and at home to Silhillians, sides we had let off the hook in the earlier games.

Just as we were beginning to wonder where the next win was coming from, it arrived with a victory over Earlsdon in mid-February. The game looked to be heading away from us as we went 12 points down in the first 15 minutes, but we began to turn it around and three second half tries secured our first win since November and we were back on course. Our next game was a tricky away fixture at Evesham and with the wind behind them they went 15-0 ahead early on, but our confidence was returning and we came back strongly to win by 32-25.

With four games to go, we were back up to 8th place with a gap of 7 points to the sides below us. Kenilworth were our next visitors and they had gone from strength to strength since we met them earlier and were on a long winning run. Our early dominance was undone by two interception tries and the champions-elect then pulled away to win comfortably by 36-0. Our final away game was at Kidderminster who were heading for the runners-up spot and their outstanding backs ran riot. The penultimate game was at home to Southam and it was bizarre, punctuated by long stoppages and yellow card fever. 15-0 ahead early on, we were threatening a big win, but endless disruptions allowed Southam back into it and a penalty-try right on half time, when we were two men down, brought things level. Another yellow-card required uncontested scrums and we had to take off yet another player, taking us down to 11 at one point. Amazingly we held out and in the end the game was decided by us missing two penalties in front of the posts and Southam then kicking one from just inside our half. The final match was against a much-improved Nuneaton Old Eds and they came out on top in an open game.

In the end we finished in 9th place with only 5 wins and 34 points, our worst record since we came into Midlands 2 West South. This was the same win-loss record as the two relegated teams and we were kept up by the 14 bonus points earned in the close games. Kenilworth won the league comfortably from Kidderminster.

The team was largely the same as the previous season. Aled Thomas missed most of the campaign with injury and Nick Maxwell, Mark Warrilow and Matt Humphreys all played alongside Dan Barber and Danny Phillips. Ali Weedon and Joe Kinghorn added to our second and back-row options and along with John Brear, Simon Harry, Luca Illing, Tom Lane and Craig Smith formed a flexible and effective unit. Wing forwards Gareth Shuttleworth and Lewis Kelsey were among the leading try scorers again, with Lewis grabbing 11 from 11 games. In the backs, Chris John made his debut and Rich McKowen moved up from full back and became our main play-maker, either at fly-half or centre and scored 10 tries. Jim Robertson, Toby Bruce, Tom Jewitt and Sam Nunn all played regularly. Winger Garrett Bell moved to Kenilworth in September which left a gap that was initially covered by Tom Daplyn, until his season ended in injury, as did that of his replacement Dave Morris, a 6ft 8 inches tall newcomer. Danny Ruyssevelt had his injury problems on the other wing (often as early as in the pre-match warm-up) and Kenny Kwok, Josh Jones and Ross Waterhouse were called up to cover the flanks. Luca Illing was the Player of the Year, Rich McKowen (pictured at speed) was the Players’ Player and Chris john was the Most Improved Player.

2nd XV (pre-Christmas at Barkers Butts including three Sinnott brothers) - Drew Sinnott, Greg Atherton, Blu Wilson, Victor Lazarov, Kurt Allright, Joe Goodwin, Nathan Batchelor, Scott Peters – Rory Sinnott, Alex Maginty, George Harding, Dave Cotton, George Jacobs, Alex Sturrock, Joel Sinnott

The Seconds were managed by Bryn Evans and Dave Cotton and were led on the field by Nathan Batchelor. As had been the case for some years, the turnover of players was high and over 70 were called on, with the strength of the side varying considerably from week to week. On a good day we were a match for anyone and we achieved steady results in Warwickshire 1, finishing a creditable 3rd behind Old Laurentians and Barkers Butts. We beat Coventry Welsh, Shipston and Silhillians to reach the Warwickshire Shield final against Kenilworth. The match was played at Barkers Butts in awful weather in March. Both clubs fielded strong sides and played with great skill and determination in the difficult conditions. The younger Leamington side ran the ball and scored three tries via Nathan Batchelor and Connor Chamberlain (2) but we struggled to hold the heavier Kenilworth set scrum and conceded three times at close range before losing to a good try late on in the game, the only time Kenilworth broke the Leamington line. The starting line-up was - Connor Chamberlain, Josh Jones, Mark Baldwin, John Cooper, Kenny Kwok, Andy Allen, George Jacobs, Chris Morris, Matt Humphreys, Malachi Jones, Greg Atherton, Joe Kinghorn Kurt Allright, Matt Cooper and Nathan Batchelor - with Ali Keen, Matt Patching, Stuart Campbell, Simon Harry, George Harding, Dave Cotton and Jack Robinson as replacements

Overall, we won 15 of 26 games, although the number of cancellations by clubs unable to field a second team was disappointing: including Kenilworth, Rugby Lions, Stratford and Old Coventrians, which meant that the Warwickshire League was decided as much by points forfeited as points won on the field. Player of the Year was Kurt Allright and Most Improved Player was Jack Robinson – both graduates from the Colts. Connor Chamberlain was outstanding at full-back and scored 16 tries in only 10 games. Alex MacGinty was a regular scorer throughout the season and finished with 12 and Andy Allen, Nathan Batchelor, George Jacobs and Drew Sinnott all bagged 6. Tom Hyam kicked 22 conversions before getting injured at the end of October.

Seconds (Jan 2019) Connor Chamberlain, Jack Robinson, Chris Morris, Lewis Kelsey, Matt Humphreys, Chris John, Dave Cotton, Kurt Allright, Ali Keen, Steve Alford (Harbury) – Josh Jones, Connor Keyte, Peter Gatenby, Tom Jewitt,

Nathan Batchelor, Joe Kinghorn, Tommaso Romita, Kevin Batchelor

The writing was on the wall for the Spartans the previous season when we were rarely able to field a team after Xmas and although there was a clear priority to reverse the decline and try and play more games, it became obvious early on that this was unlikely to happen and even if we could have fielded a side, we would have had no-one to play, as few clubs could provide an opposition. As it was the Spartans played twice, losing to Shottery 1st team and then Broadstreet, who, instead of fielding their veterans as expected, came over with a development team of strapping young athletes against our mainly veterans/colts combination. They swamped us in the first half but then lent us their two best players and we won the second half. Kevin Batchelor was made Spartans’ player of the year.

The Colts were again a young side, having lost all the previous year’s crop of players to further education or weekend employment. They therefore had to start again with a relatively small and inexperienced squad and had a tough time. Although they only won 1 and drew 1 of their 21 games, they kept going despite the difficult results and were rarely hammered and never failed to fulfil a fixture. Some of our under-16s stepped up a year early and added to the size and skills of the group. Lee Foster and Andy Milner joined Kevin Barkway in coaching the team which was captained by Robbie Foster. Some promising players formed the backbone of the side, including: Jack Beasley, who was the coaches’ player of the year; Charlie Wiggin who was the players’ player; and Sam Biggs who was the most improved player. Drew Sinnott was a good prospect in the backs scoring 12 tries and Oli Milner and Ben Leahy were reliable place kickers. Drew and Charlie were selected for County honours with Drew also achieving a place at Coventry RFC academy. The players enjoyed an end of season tour to Palma, Majorca, taking part in a beach rugby tournament. Although it was first experience of playing rugby on sand they did well and finished in second place. Some other good news on the representative was that Ellen Ramsbottom, who began her rugby career here at Leamington, before moving to Loughborough Lightning, was capped by England Women’s Under-20 team playing against the Army and France.

Colts (Oct 2018) Samuel Bland, Kleem Cox, Jake Harwood, Archie Newbery, Charlie Wiggin, George Timms, James Coveney, Pauli Tritter  - Tom Yates, Oli Milner, Robbie Foster, Frazer Knowles, Jack Beasley, Milan Shrestha, Xavier Adkins.

The demise of the Spartans was a sad development and reflected a number of trends including: a smaller population of under-18s, less rugby in schools, the growth in university attendance, weekend working etc. The days when clubs could field five sides were long gone and some were now finding it difficult to turn out a second team. Dunlop and Trinity Guild stopped playing altogether during the season as they couldn’t fulfil their fixtures and at semi-professional level, two of our ex-opponents - Birmingham-Solihull and South Leicester dropped out of the leagues completely, due to increasing financial losses and player defections making them uncompetitive.

The reduced player pool impacted on everything - less players meant fewer people in the bar or able to help behind the scenes. Overheads were not correspondingly reduced and clubs were having to find ways of filling funding shortfalls through grants, sponsorship and other means. Locally, Kenilworth had ambitious plans to sell their ground for housing, but for clubs situated in the Green Belt who could not get planning permission for housing, other ways had to be found. Old Leamingtonians announced that they were planning to go into partnership with Wasps, who wanted to establish their training headquarters on an expanded site on Bericote Lane, but this fell through. In our case, we opened talks with a company wanting to set up a car wash on our ground. Planning permission was obtained and discussions were ongoing.

Sadly, John Richardson, our former Captain and President and President of the RFU in 1996/97 passed-on during the season There were still sufficient former players, relatives and friends to give him a good send-off, including five former captains - Ray Ward, Maurice Goymer, Paul Brant, Tim Drew and John Shurvinton. Peter Gray was also there but was shy about being photographed in such illustrious company. Sadly, both Tim and Maurice also passed away shortly afterwards.

2019-20: Rain and Pestilence Stop Play

The Club’s 50th season at Moorefields turned out to be the most disrupted one since we moved to the ground in 1970. The wettest winter on record caused waterlogged pitches and the widespread postponement of fixtures. But this was nothing compared to what happened in March, when, with five games to go and the end of the season in sight, the Covid-19 virus spread from the East, resulting in a worldwide pandemic and, in the case of Rugby Union and some other sports, the abandonment of all fixtures, training and gatherings.

This was all so different from the start of the season when, after a long hot summer, the opening two months were played in good weather, alongside the major distraction of the Rugby World Cup in Japan. There was a Leamington presence in the Land of the Rising Sun, with Dave Ward (our President) and others there to support England and, for the semi-final game against the All Blacks, our under-10s player, Freya Berry led England out as team mascot, alongside Billy Vunipola and she managed to show her Leamington socks to the world. Freya got there by winning a competition run by the JLR car company as a part of their sponsorship of the event.

Craig Smith stepped down after three years as captain and was succeeded by Lewis Kelsey, who was supported by Patch Northover and Danny Ruyssevelt as vice-captains. All three were products of Princethorpe College and had played for us since juniors. Phil Evans took over from Bill Unsworth as forwards’ coach, assisting Alex Carroll. We said goodbye to two of the stalwarts of the pack, with prop forward Aled Thomas returning to the Valleys and Luca Illing leaving the area, having completed his PhD at Warwick University. In their places we recruited Paddy Tolan, a hooker from Abbey and James Twist a prop from Rugby League. We also welcomed back Ed Gray, who returned to the club after mis-spending his late junior career with Old Leamingtonians. In the backs, Callum Merrett joined us from the Coventry Bears rugby league side; James Dunne, from Chobham, was a good recruit at fly-half and Jacob Cole from Bath University, played wing or centre.

After promising trial games against Old Coventrians and Old Northamptonians, we started the season proper with a Warwickshire Shield game against Earlsdon, who had won the trophy for the previous three seasons. In a see-sawing game, three tries from Calum Merrett, all converted by James Dunne saw us through. In the second round (in November) we played Rugby St Andrews and although we won the game 27-10, we had no reserve front-row and when James Twist dislocated his shoulder, we were required to play uncontested scrums and concede the tie. In the Intermediate Cup it was a similar story. We had a comfortable win over Northampton Casuals, but were then were drawn away at Malvern and being unable to field a front row and replacement we had to scratch and so went out of both competitions without losing a game.

The league season started against Silhillians and we were 18 points ahead going into the final quarter, but then conceded three converted tries to fall behind. A spectacular run by Dan Barber restored our lead but a very late try stole the game for the visitors, just as it had on their visit 12 months before. Southam looked to be struggling for players as we beat them comfortably, with winger James Prince scoring the “try of the season”, as he ran the length of the field beating player after player. Six tries were then scored in a confident win at home to Spartans and we then visited early pace-setters Barkers Butts where we just lost. Earlsdon paid their second visit of the season at the end of October and again the contribution of Merrett was decisive as he scored the winning try in injury time. The weather changed for our away game at Evesham and playing in wet and miserable conditions and fielding a much-changed side we went down narrowly in a low-scoring game.

Stratford, who had been relegated from Midlands 1 were our next visitors and they put on a very polished performance. Callum Merrett played his last game before moving away and on the other flank we introduced Drew Sinnott, one of our most promising Colts. Malvern, who had also been relegated were the league leaders at this point and they beat us quite easily at Moorefields. An away game at much improved Nuneaton Old Edwardians was our third game in a row against the leading sides and they beat us comfortably

Ist XV 2019-20 Alex Carroll(coach) Dan Barber, James Dunne, Gareth Shuttleworth, Jim Robertson, Sam Nunn, Jacob Cole, Tom Lane, Patch Northover, Drew Sinnott, Lewis Kelsey (Captain). Mark Warrilow, Paddy Tolan, Danny Ruyssevelt, Matt Patching, Calum Merrett, Ed Gray, Lauren Grant (physio) John Brear, Ross Waterhouse

Old Laurentians visited us in mid-December and although they hadn’t been playing well, they were in top form against us and had a 4-try bonus point in the bag after 20 minutes. Our own performance was poor, reflecting 10 changes in our starting line-up and we had now lost five games in a row. Fortunately, our early wins and a good haul of bonus points meant that we were still hanging on to 7th place, although our injury list was growing. For our away game at Pinley, we had to make another nine changes, including the introduction of Harry Johnson on the wing. On a very wet pitch, against a big and confidant pack, we were forced to hang on for most of the first half, but tries by Ed Gray, Drew Sinnott and Sam Nunn secured a well-deserved win.

We began the post-Christmas programme with the visit of Southam who looked doomed to relegation having lost all their games. Although their forwards caused us difficulties, they were swept away out wide as we scored 8 tries and 61 points. We built on this with a very close win at Spartans on anther cold, wet and windy day, to make it three in a row and up to 5th in the table

Barkers Butts brought our mini-run to an end in an open game on a surprisingly firm Moorefields pitch, but we got back on the winning trail at Earlsdon for our third win of the season against the Coventry side. It was another close game and another late winning score as Jim Robertson burst through with a couple of minutes to go, to snatch a 22-15 win.

As we moved into February, the season began to lose its continuity, as free weeks and postponed games due to wet pitches caused gaps in the programme. The rain was so bad that some weeks the whole Midlands programme was more or less wiped out. Our own pitches suffered more than most due to flooding from the higher ground above our field. Stratford were one of the few clubs to keep their pitch playable and they were running away with the league and clinched their 16th game in a row and ran in 62 points against us as our numbers reduced to 12 due to yellow cards.

We had another two more weeks off before we entertained Evesham on 7 March and with our main pitch waterlogged, we moved the game to the second pitch. We were ahead at the break but the visitors upped their game and dominated possession in the last quarter to make for a nervous finish, but we got there by two points. The Evesham game was to be our last of the season. Dire warnings about the impact of Covid-19 caused the cancellation of the finale to the Six Nations championship the next weekend, quickly followed by the RFU suspending all rugby activities in order to comply with the Government’s guidance on reducing the spread of the pandemic. The RFU then declared the season over for the community game, with league and Cup competitions to be uncompleted. In April they announced final placings based on a formula which averaged the number of points gained for each game played and applying this number to the unplayed games. In our case an additional 11.94 points were added to the 40 points we had earned and this confirmed our position in 5th place, well behind the top 4 but at the head of the mid table sides. The formula more or less replicated the position as it was after 17 games and it confirmed Stratford as the league winners and they were promoted along with Malvern. Southam were bottom and were relegated, although Evesham who filled the other relegation slot, were reprieved.

With 5 games scratched, we played only 20 times, but did finish in credit, winning 11 and losing 9. In total, 47 players were used with Gareth Shuttleworth the only ever-present. The top points’ scorer was James Dunne with 117, mainly from the boot. Lewis Kelsey was next highest scorer on 50, with his 10 tries making him the top 1stXV try scorer, yet again.

Danny Phillips and Dan Barber played in the front row with others filling in, including newcomers James Twist and Paddy Toland. Tom Lane was injured in November and along with John Brear missed most of the season, Craig Smith and Simon Harry reunited in the second-row and were well supported by Ali Weedon, Joe Kinghorn and Matt Patching. The back-row was constant, with Shuttleworth and Kelsey joined by Ed Gray

In the backs, Patch Northover played just under half of the games and Chris John and George Jacobs both had opportunities to impress at scrum-half. James Dunne proved to be a calming influence at fly-half and formed a strong midfield with Jim Robertson and Rich McKowen. Danny Ruyssevelt and Calum Merrett started on the wings, but Calum moved away, after scoring 6 tries in 5 games, and after his departure Lee Sinnott moved up from the Colts and showed great promise. Jacob Cole took over on the other wing and Sam Nunn was the regular full back until moving to cover for injuries when Connor Chamberlain took over the job.

The players’ awards were not made until September because of the cancellation of the club dinner. Sam Nunn was chosen as Player of the Year and Ed Gray was the Players’ Player, in his first season in the senior side. Drew Sinnott was Young Player and was top try scorer in the club. Stu Campbell won the Most Improved Player award.

Scott Peters took on the 2nd XV captaincy and worked alongside Bryn Evans, Dave Cotton, Kevin Barkway and vice-captain Kenny Kwok. They had to contend with lots of player changes, but were one of the best sides around and won Warwickshire League 1 (comprising all the best second teams) at the end of the abbreviated season and they reached the semi-final of the Shield before losing narrowly to Stratford. They fielded 70 players in their 24 matches, of which they won 15. Josh Jones made the most appearances with 16 and he was also top scorer with 111 points, including 14 tries. Connor Chamberlain was second on the scorers list with 92 points from only 9 games up to Christmas, including 12 tries. Scott Peters and Anthony Batchelor both played 15 times. Cousins Josh Jones and Anthony Batchelor shared the Player of the Year trophy.

Seconds (opening day at Old Coventrians) Mark Warrilow, Ian Gascoigne, Scott Peters, Greg Atherton, Chris John, Matt Patching, Rich McKowen, David Morris, Ed Gray – Conor Keyte, Jon Vaughan, Drew Sinnott, Jack Robinson, Dave Cotton, Stuart Campbell, Chris Morris, James Prince, Alex Maginty

The Colts were managed by Mark Baldwin and Harry Gooch and for the first time in some years they had the benefit of a strong core from the previous year, supplemented by a talented group of players coming through from the under-16s. The balance between the two groups was excellent and results were much improved. Unfortunately, they were only able to play 14 games, due mainly to difficulties in finding opposition and late cancellations against us and, like everyone else, the early end to the season. Their last game was on 22 February when they lost 14-15 to Earlsdon, having led until the final play of the game. A win would have given the team a 50% record, but they had to settle for 5 wins and 7 losses with 1 draw and another game, against Southam, abandoned due to a serious injury to one of their players when we were leading. Full appearance statistics are not available, but Ben Leahy led the scorers with 86 points and proved himself to be a quality kicker and Drew Sinnott scored 12 tries, prior to his promotion the 1st and 2nd XVs, where he added another 13 for a total of 25 at over a try a game. Charlie Wiggin won Colt of the Year trophy.

The Under 14s were the last team to play prior to the lock-down when they took on Silhilians in their Warwickshire Cup semi-final, to conclude a season in which they showed great promise, winning 12 of their 15 games whilst playing free flowing and committed Rugby.

Under 14’s 2019-20 Luis Facchino, Jai Bahia, Harry Stanton, Charlie Main, William Osbourne, Ben Keeshan, Finn Forty, Nathan Green, Dominic Simon, Ralph Ireland - Harry Freeman, Archie Thompson, Felix Malia, Oliver Melville, Osian Catlin, James Tomlinson, Enzo Aguilar-Griffiths, Joel Hewett. Players missing included Charlie Whorrod, Ashton Phazey, Shingai Choto, Ben Cole, Dylan Evans and James Griffiths