2024-25: Point Short in Papa Final

After a short rest, following his Rugby Chairman role, Tom Chandler was back as Club Chairman, taking over from Richard Watkins. Joe Kinghorn continued as captain supported by an unchanged coaching group. There were a number of movements among the players however - notably Louis Vaughan returning to Cardiff and Jonty Duncan going home to New Zealand after all too-brief spells at the club. Simon Harry finally gave in to his injuries and retired after 19 years in the first team and other key players, including Patch Northover and Garrett Bell, semi-retired from duty. Newcomers included Sam Bond at scrum-half, Jake Dallyn in the second row, Sam Richards at prop and Ben Edwards and Charlie Main, who both came from Old Leamingtonians and strengthened the front row. In addition to these typical comings and goings, we were also to suffer considerable long-term injuries to key players, with Rich McKowen and Ed Gray both missing most of the season.

Our opening game was at home to Evesham, who had beaten us twice the previous year, but this time we won comfortably by 26-12. It was followed by a decisive win at Old Leamingtonians, where we moved the ball at every opportunity and scored three tries before half time and after surviving a period of pressure, when down to 13 men, we sealed a 27-14 win. Our second home game was against Alcester in the “car wash derby”. We pressed strongly from the start but couldn’t get the opening try and the visitors then scored twice to take the lead. Despite a wonder-try from Connor Chamberlain, Alcester controlled the second half and pulled away to win 29-12.

Ist XV 2024-25 Alex Carroll (coach) Gareth `Shuttleworth, Sam Russell, Conor Chamberlain, Danny Ruyssevelt, Jake Dallyn, Charlie Wiggin, Chris John, John Brear, Freddie Spencer, Phil Evans (Coach) – Hayley White (Physio) Sam Richards, Ben Edwards, Rich Mullis, Joe Kinghorn (Captain) Charlie Main, Charlie Harness, Ant Batchelor, Sam Bond, Zoe Cooper (Physio)

A much-changed team then travelled to struggling Barkers Butts and came away with hard-earned 19-12 win. We dominated Worcester at home, with the backs running in from long range. Wingers Chamberlain and Kofi Miller both got hat-tricks as we won 59-0. We had a much-changed backline at Berkswell & Balsall where we took control in the second half, playing up their slope, to win 29-7, Bottom side, Bromsgrove 2nds were our next visitors and we ran them off their feet in the first 10 minutes and looked to be heading for a big win, but they pulled themselves together and dominated the next half an hour, building a 9-point lead. Fortunately, we managed to turn things around again and won 38-28.

At this point, we were in third place, behind Luctonians and Alcester with 6 wins from 7 games, but in reality, we had mainly played what proved to be the lesser sides and most of the difficult games were still to come, starting with Camp Hill at home at the beginning of November. We had beaten them in the Papa John in April and were confident of doing it again, but their powerful forwards and backs combined to score 4 tries in the first quarter. At this point it looked as though we might be overrun, but we stayed in the game and gradually built up our score to go in front in the second half. Camp Hill re-took the lead with 10 minutes to go, but we won it back again, only to lose by 2 points to a converted try in the final play of injury time.

We were then away at Old Coventrians who had clearly improved. We were level at half time, but a try and two penalties by the home side early in the second half proved decisive. We came back strongly towards the end and eventually touched down for a bonus point, but from the restart a mistake set them up for an injury time winner. We were unable to stop Luctonians’ 70-game winning run the following week, but we gave them a really tough game. Late changes brought in James Dunne and Patch Northover, last seen in our veterans’ side, and they contributed to an open game. Luctonians’ slick back division punished every error after the break and went well ahead, but we upped our game and got on top to score 5 unanswered tries in the final quarter.

We reached the half-way point of the season with a trip to Droitwich and recalling our 94-3 win over them in March, this seemed like a chance to get back to winning ways. Unfortunately, storm Darragh wreaked havoc with the fixtures and Droitwich saw the bad conditions as their best chance of beating us and the game went ahead. We fielded a much-changed line-up and started well, but the conditions worsened in their favour and we conceded two tries and a penalty on the final whistle to lose by 20-10.

The first return fixture was in December against Old Leamingtonians, who had had a terrible run since we beat them in September. They looked anything but relegation candidates as they led 10-7 at the break, but we got on top as the game wore on and were 9 points in front with 10 minutes to go. Unfortunately, we failed to manage our lead and OLs fought back to score 2 very late tries to nick the game by 1 point, on the final play. Gareth Shuttleworth and John Brear were particularly disappointed, as it was Gareth’s 250th game for the first team and John’s 100th

Our problems with availability continued for our visit to Alcester on the Saturday before Christmas. Our pre-match warm-up started with personal introductions, so depleted were we. Despite this, we took a narrow lead going into half time, but with the slope and wind to contend with, the game gradually moved away from us and Alcester won easily, by 41-15. The new year started with the visit of Barkers Butts who were in the relegation scrap. Again, we lost by a narrow margin to a team that showed much better than their usual form. We led by a penalty at half time but the visitors went ahead by two tries. Although we pulled one back with 20 minutes to go, we lost by 10-17. This was followed by another disappointing home defeat, as we lost for the 8th game in a row, against Berkswell & Balsall, who were much better than when we met earlier. Again, it was a very close thing with both sides scoring 2 tries and kicks made the difference, as we went down 20-10. Our losing run finally came to an end with a convincing win at Bromsgrove. We went ahead with 2 tries, but the spoiling tactics of the opposition, on a sticky pitch, bogged us down and kept the game close. A try by Ed Gray on his fleeting return to the side looked to be decisive, but tempers frayed and Richard Mullis was sent-off [rescinded on review]. The forwards responded magnificently and Bromsgrove failed to threaten with their numerical advantage.

Unfortunately, it was back to losing ways at Worcester, where we had to make 9 changes and were pipped by 29-22 in a game we should have won . We went ahead in the first minute and scored 3 tries with a slope in our favour but the hosts overhauled us in the second half, taking the lead for the first time with just a few minutes to go. The number of changes was up to 11 (including the whole back division) for our visit to Camp Hill In mid-February. They were proving to be formidable and had moved into promotion contention, with a strong side, well adapted to life on their muddy pitch. We suffered our heaviest defeat of the season, going down by 62-19.

There was a minute’s silence before the game against second place Old Coventrians in honour of club legend Ray Ward, who had passed away. There was a good crowd to see him off, with the club Vice Presidents out in force. We started the game well, but our in-form visitors gradually took control as a plague of yellow cards whittled us down to 12 men against 14. We went 31-12 behind and were almost out, but came back with three storming tries in the last quarter and looked to have squared the game with a conversion to come underneath the posts as the final play – but we missed it and lost 31-29. Although it was disappointing to lose again, in such circumstances, at least we gained 2 bonus points which meant that we could not be relegated. A coach ride to Luctonians completed our run of three games against the top three sides and the champions-elect won comfortably by 32-12.

It was a long time coming, but we achieved our first home win for five months when Droitwich came to Moorefields at the end of March. We tore into our visitors from the start and we were 4 tries ahead by the end of the first quarter and went on to win by 61-24. The final league game was at Evesham, who, with a strong wind in their favour, scored three times in the first quarter and although we had a number of chances, we couldn’t complete them. A late burst by Evesham clinched the match by 40-14.

Despite only winning only 2 of 15 games after October we maintained a mid-table position and only dropped to our lowest position of 8th on the final day of the season. Luctonians 2nds won the division comfortably and Old Coventrians finished second and were also promoted. Old Leamingtonians were more than 20 points behind us at one time, but after beating us before Christmas, they improved considerably and pipped us for 7th place on the final day. Barkers Butts, Berkswell and Bromsgrove were all relegated. We were worried at one time about whether we might replace one of them as the RFU decided to deduct us 5 points for fielding under-18 players, without formal approval, in a pre-season warm up game. Fortunately, we had points in hand and it was of no consequence.

We ended the season for a third year in the Papa John competition, starting in mid-April. We were drawn away against Bugbrooke from Northamptonshire in the first round and the game was played at Northampton Men’s Own as the Bugbrooke pitch was out of commission. They dominated the first half and led 31-0 at one stage. With the slope in our favour we regrouped, brought on our subs, got an early score and started to whittle away at their lead. We scored a try to draw level at 39-39 in the last minute and James Dunne kicked the conversion to seal our comeback and put us through. Our next opponents were to be Stockwood Park from Luton, but they cancelled giving us a bye into the 3rd round at home to Towcestrians of Northamptonshire. Both sides played open rugby but we moved ahead by 17-5 at half-time and although Towcestrians had the better of the second period and with five minutes to go had pegged us back to o 3 points, we finished them off with two late tries, to win 39-24.

Loughborough should have been our semi-final opponents, but they also withdrew, leaving us to go through to the national finals, played at Doncaster on May 17. Our opponents were Peterlee & Hordern from County Durham, who had come through the northern half of the draw. The teams proved to be very evenly matched. We went ahead with an early try, only to be pinned back by a penalty-try for collapsing a ruck. Further tries were exchanged and we were 20-12 down at the break. Both sides scored again before tries from Connor Chamberlain and Jake Dallyn got us back to 24-25 with five minutes to go and when a touchline sprint by Louis Harvey was stopped with a desperate high tackle that did not result in a penalty-try, our final chance disappeared and we lost by a point.

Papa John Final - Ben Edwards, Louis Harvey, Alex Johnston, Kofi miller, Cam Dewey, Jamie Loffman, Charlie Wiggin, Jake Dallyn, Brandon Kellett, John Brear, Sam Bond, Isaac Ward, Josh Tockley – Freddie Spencer, Heera Johal, Chris John, Charlie Main, Charlie Harness, Joe Kinghorn, Louis Dunbavin, Sam Richards, Connor Chamberlain, Brad James, Sam Russell

Overall, we won 10 of 25 games which was well down on the previous year, reflecting that we were usually short of some of our best players and we had to make multiple changes every week. Skipper Joe Kinghorn and Gareth Shuttleworth both played in 23 games and Freddie Spencer was top points scorer with 75, including 9 tries. Connor Chamberlain was top try scorer with 11 – most of which were spectacular long-range efforts. Player of the Year (for the second time) was Louis Dunbavin and Freddie Spencer was Players’ Player. Sam Russell was Most Improved Player and Charlie Main was Young Player. It was good to see some external recognition of our players’ efforts with Louis Dunbavin selected for the full Warwickshire side and Jake Dallyn played for the Midlands Under 20s.

Apart from our core business of promoting the 1st team, the club’s ambition continued to expand, in order to widen our playing base, get more people involved in the various forms of the game and thereby maximise the use of our facilities – Touch Rugby and Walking Rugby continued to be popular for those wanting to play a social form of the game and we continued our good record by retaining the Warwickshire Cup . After being involved in the formation of Leamington Royals RLFC around 10 years ago and having provided them with a base to play from for the past 3 years, we were pleased to take the important step of integrating them fully into Leamington RFC, using a similar model to Netball, who have been part of the club for over 30 years.

One of our key objectives this season was to restore the participation level and number of games played by the 2nd team, who had played only 14 times in 2023-24, after 25 times the year before. Sorting this out was seen as vital to the underpinning of the 1st team and ensuring that anyone who couldn’t get a game in the first side, could still play regularly at a good standard. Jake Andrews continued to manage the side but despite his great efforts it proved difficult, with the high player turnover in the first team weakening the second squad and often leaving them short. Our experiences were shared by other local clubs who found it equally difficult to field two senior sides on a regular basis. We played only 8 games over the season and won 4. Games were mainly played in the Warwickshire merit league, but some clubs preferred to register their second team in the national leagues instead which damaged participation in the Warwickshire structure

2nd XV – January 2025 v Barkers Butts. Dan Arnold, Harry Gooch, Brandon Kellett Victor Lazarov, Danny Russyvelt, Harry Harness, Henry Mendez, James Winnett, Harry Vaughan-Phillips, Cameron Dewey, Haydon Waller, Jake Andrews, Alex Winkless, – Zoe Cooper, John Tinning, Ciaran Flynn, Sam Richards, Ant Batchelor, Owen Treanor, Sam Russell, Craig Smith, Josh Tokley, Libby Curtis, Kevin Barkway.

Notwithstanding the problems of the 2nd team, a welcome innovation was the re-establishment of a Veterans team for the first time since 2002. They played a game every month under lights on Friday nights. The first fixture was in October against Chipping Norton when they were very flush for players and spectators numbered around 200. A photo of the team is below. The Veterans proved to be a popular way of offering occasional games to former and casual players, alongside old friends and teammates without any pressure to play every week. As the playing base developed it had the added advantage of being able to pool resources when the Seconds and Colts when they were short and a couple of game were played on a mixed basis. They won 5 of their 6 games.

Our promising Under-18 group played their second year as Colts and hopes were high that they would progress from last season. It didn’t really happen for them, particularly as there was no first-year feed coming through and together with the usual losses due to higher education, general availability and injuries they were often scratching around for a full side when their opponents were dripping with reserves. They played in the Warwickshire Colts League and their highlight was a win over Barkers Butts in the quarter-finals of the Cup, before losing to Old Leamingtonians in the semis. Shaun Smith managed the side supported by Mark Baldwin, Harry Gooch and others and the team won 3 of their 15 games. Louis Erinmez skippered for a second year but unfortunately, he was injured for much of the season. As with the 2nds, regular fixtures were hard to arrange but when there was no game, players would slot into the senior sides and Owen Treanor, Archie Thompson, Jamie Loffman and Isaac Ward all made their 1st XV debuts. Jamie was Colts’ Player of the year. Tom Vander Hoven was the Players’ Player and Gabe Stoneman was the Most Improved Player.

Colts 2024-25 - Harry Gooch, Mark Baldwin, Shaun Smith, Jamie Loffman, Adam Houghton, Isaac Ward, Arseni Kelbas, Lachlan Davies, Kobi Tisdale, Gabe Stoneman, Luis Erinmez, Hayley White (physio) - Owen Treanor, Archie Thompson, Tom Van der Hoven, Tommy Holland, Syd Harvey, Alex Burbidge, Olly Spearman, Kyne Milbourne, Findlay Cassidy

History was made in October when the Club fielded a Ladies’ team for the first time. It had been a while in planning and despite strong competition for players from other local clubs, we built up a squad over the summer and autumn, led by coach Adam Clifford and captain Helen McKinty. Due to the general shortage of players the emerging teams in the area including Leamington, KE Five Ways, Worcester, Bourneville, Hereford and Birmingham University got together and played a series of combined, festival type games in the Inner Warrior tournament. Due to flooding in Hereford, the first official game was moved to Leamington so we were able to mark our start with two home fixtures, against Worcester and Bourneville, both of which we won. Overall, the Ladies played 9 games over 7 match days and they won 7 with 1 draw. 18 ladies represented the club over the season, with Kate Lawlor playing in all the games. Sophie Henry was top try scorer with 5 and Helen McKinty converted 5. The Leamington players who played in the opening games, merged with a few guests, were Natasha McCrae, Emma Spencer, Saskia Pickard, Abbie Howe, Helen Brown (c), Katrina Ho, Heather Sturgess, Cath Lyon, Kate Lawlor, Joanna Clifford (vc), Rachael Brough. Libby Curtiss

The Walking Rugby squad that won the Warwickshire Cup in April is pictured opposite. The successful players were - Ian Gascoyne, Toni Rezska, Richard Watkins, Malcolm Doody, Murray Powell – Gareth Wilkinson, Steve Harris – Dave Ward, Simon David, Ian Thompson-McFarlane, Marie O’Riley and Mel Harvey

Jim’ Poynter’s s work over recent seasons, in improving quality of our pitches, was recognised by Warwickshire RFU when he was elected club groundsman of the year. The Kitchen Cabinet, our core of volunteers who undertake ground and clubhouse maintenance every week, took a moment off for the photo below. Those present on the day were Nick Harrington, John Lyons, Peter Wadsworth, Charlie Sparkes, John Hodgetts, Val Griffin, John Wilkinson – Charlie Gardner, Bill Dalton, Tony Sparkes, Dave Limmer, Andy McKowen (who made the tea) and James Howarth. Other regulars, not there, included Simon Greenway, Mark Brown and Graham Messenger.

Papa John post-final – May 2025. Phil Evans, Tom Lane, Josh Tokley, John Brear, Sam Bond, Charlie Wiggin, Louis Harvey, Kofi Miller, Chris John, Jake Dallyn, Cam Dewey, Brandon Kellett, Johal Heera, Charlie Main Alex Johnston, Jamie Loffman. Isaac Ward, Alex Carroll, Dave Ward – Kevin Barkway, Jake Andrews, Gareth Shuttleworth, Sam Richards, Freddie Spencer, Charlie Harness, Joe Kinghorn, Lous Dunbavin, Ben Edwards, Connor Chamberlain, Brad James, Sam Russell,

Sadly, as in so many seasons, several former players passed-on during the season including two excellent centre threequarters from the 1970s in Mick Bruton and Neil Waterfall and forward legend Ray Ward, our all-time most “capped” 1st team player.

Veterans v Chipping Norton – Oct 2024 Danny Ruyssevelt, Tom van der Hoven (snr), Phil Evans, John Wheelhouse, Richard Blunt, Gez Robinson, James Winnett, Lewis Kelsey, Mick Maxwell, Chris Murphy, Ian Gascoine, Paddy Creevy, Mark Baldwin, John Raby, Ben Pithouse – Jason Tilling, Ant Batchelor, Tom Jewitt, Bill Unsworth, Chris Morris, Danny Phillips (plus Dylan) Patch Northover Tom Brown, Leigh Cleary – plus Tom Daplyn, Tom Van der Hoven and others not in picture

2025-26: One Hundred!!!!

This year was the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Club, on the 22 April 1926. Playing arrangements for the season were mostly unchanged with the main variation being the move of Phil Evans into the Director of Rugby role and the engagement of Josh Loach to bolster the coaching support. We got underway with a comfortable 36-14 league win at Droitwich, followed by a 36-24 home win against new opponents from Bromyard, in Northamptonshire. Our visitors went ahead by two tries in the first half before we got into gear and won fairly comfortably.

After three-years of the Papa John competition, it was terminated by the RFU, who replaced it with its own competition, which looked remarkably like the old Intermediate Cup – with the removal of the things we liked about the Papa John, such as the end of season knock-out games and the chance to play clubs not on our regular fixture-list. Our first game was in September and couldn’t have been more local, as we were drawn away at Old Leamingtonians. We were much the better side and went through by 41-10. The second round was due to be played against Newbold in mid-March but as we were by then into postponements, due to wet pitches, we conceded the game in favour of our other priorities.

1st XV v Kidderminster – Jack Tripp- Smith, Sam Richards, Chris John, Cameron Dewey, Tom Van der Hoven - Josh Loach, Hayley White, Ben Keeshan, Jimmy Creith, Luke Groves, Jim Reed, John Brear, Rich McKowen, Sam Nunn, Phil Evans, Alex Carroll – Ethan Roberts, Rich Mullis, Joe Kinghorn, Louis Dunbavin, Sam Russell, Gareth Shuttleworth

Back to league business - a third-straight win came at Earlsdon but it was very close and we looked to have blown it when Earlsdon went ahead in injury time with a penalty. Fortunately, there was just enough time for us to get a kick ourselves and Jack Tripp-Smith coolly slotted the ball over to achieve a 24-22 win. Our next game, against Worcester, was anything but close, as they hammered us by 61-17. Having beaten them by 59 points the previous season, their improvement was quite remarkable, but they were a much-changed outfit and went on to win all their games, and promotion. We managed to put this behind us with a 38-33 win at Ledbury, where the lead changed hands throughout. We entered injury time ahead only to be penalised and go 2 points behind. But just as against Earlsdon, we had one more chance and in a final attack Tripp-Smith went over for the winner.

Our first league meeting against Old Leamingtonians was a lot more difficult for us than the Cup game in September and our noisy neighbours edged the lead for most of the game. It could have gone either way, but OLs took the spoils late on with an interception-try and although we pulled back a bonus-point, we lost by 27-20. Manor Park were our visitors towards the end of November and they played much better than their league position suggested, but we won 35-22. This was to be our last win for a while. As usual, we had a testing time at Evesham, who were three tries ahead by the end of the first quarter and although we improved as the game went on, we never looked like winning and lost 35-14.

In another entertaining match at Moorefields, we put in a solid performance against Alcester, who were looking like promotion prospects. We were unlucky to lose by 27-33 although we left it late to secure two bonus points. Although we went into a 10-0 lead and scored 6 tries against Kidderminster, we failed to take other chances and ended up losing 36-49 in a high scoring game we should have won comfortably. Our final game of 2025 was another very determined display, at home to second in the league, Camp Hill. We lost 24-7 in what was a much tighter game than the score suggests.

Due to wet weather, there was no game for a month around Christmas, but we eventually dried-off and emerged to play a key game against Earlsdon. They played well, as they had done earlier in the season and we appeared to be out of it at half-time, only for Jim Reed and Freddie Spencer to take them on in the backs and power us to a 38-29 win. We were not expecting a win against runaway leaders at Worcester but we put up a strong performance in losing 14-38. In our next home game, against Ledbury, in mid-February, the outcome was settled early in the second half, when the visitors produced some high-octane attacking play and although we pulled a couple of tries back, we came up short by 41-34

Our away fixture at Bromyard was twice-postponed due to a wet pitch. When it was eventually played, we suffered an agonising defeat in the last minute. The home side had gone ahead, but we recovered well to dominate the second-half and took the lead by 15-14 with tries from Cameron Dewey and Jim Reed, only to concede a penalty in injury time and lose 17-15. We were now slipping down the table and were in close proximity to Old Leamingtonians, when we played the return fixture at the end of February. Although it was a low-scoring game, with no points in the first half, there was plenty of skill and effort on display. Both sides slotted penalties after the break and when OL’s potted another in the final minute it looked as though they would win. But, in the remaining seconds, the home pack made a series of drives at the OL’s try line and John Brear crashed over the line for a spectacular 8-6 winner.

Manor Park was another side we had hopes of beating, but after putting in a very workmanlike performance and leading at half time, with the slope in our favour for the second period, we had the game in our grasp, but a succession of yellow cards disrupted our play and Park took a 2-try lead and we needed a late effort from Gareth Shuttleworth to at least gain a bonus point at 27-21. The run of close games continued at home to Evesham. After a close first-half, Evesham got on top and pummelled our line as we fell victim to a succession of penalties and a yellow card, but we held out and eventually hit back with an opportunistic try in the final minutes to take a narrow lead. The visitors still had time to relaunch their attacks however and declined a penally that would have given them a 20-20 draw. Instead, they opted for a line-out from which they scored the winning try. Alcester had had a great season and finished in second place. The return fixture over there, was with a much-changed side, but the pack played superbly and we scored two spectacular tries in the final minutes, to secure a valuable and much deserved bonus point, as we narrowly lost by 27-20.

With three games to go, we were due to play Camp Hill plus the bottom sides, Kidderminster and Droitwich, both of whom were certain to be relegated. Kidderminster’s win over us in December was one of their few successes and on a beautiful day with, with the winter rain a distant memory, we had most of our strongest backs available. Rich McKowen scored in the first minute and tries kept on coming (14 in all) throughout the game as we romped to a 92-26 win. Rich scored 4 and Jim Reed 5, to equal the club record for a first-team player. For our final away match, we faced strong opposition at Camp Hill. There was a number of changes from the previous week, including our main try scorers, but this gave the chance to others to show what they could do and we scored 5 times in a 33-43 defeat, with Freddie Spencer notching 2. The last game was against bottom team, Droitwich. This was nominated as our Centennial game, taking place three days after our official anniversary. The club was in holiday mood in bright sunshine with lots of events going on, including a Vice Presidents’ lunch with many veterans in attendance. The game was closer than expected but Rich McKowen was in top form and scored a hat-trick in a 36-14 win.

This completed the season, which had started well with early thoughts of promotion, but fell away during the autumn and winter as we moved down the table. This had a lot to do with injuries, availability, and our failure to win narrow games, of which there were many. A number of key players were missing for most of the season due, but as it turned out we won 10 of 22 league games and finished 8th of 12 - the same as the previous year.

Apart from those nursing injuries etc, Connor Chamberlain retired early in the season, but fortunately some of our younger players such as Jamie Loffman and Gabe Stoneman started to come through and get game-time. New players on the scene included Harry Healy and Ethan Roberts on the wings and Jack Tripp-Smith in the centre, who proved to be a great goal kicker. Lachlan McKenzie was new at hooker and Luke Groves came into the side in the second-row. The team tended to rely on a core of regulars, with Gareth Shuttleworth, Joe Kinghorn , John Brear, Louis Dunbavin, Luke Groves and Richard Mullis in the forwards, and Jack Tripp-Smith, Sam Russell, Freddie Spencer and Chris John in the backs all starting 15 or more games. Gareth would have been ever-present, had he not prioritised the arrival of his first-born instead of playing against Kidderminster! Jack (son of Shaun Smith) was available to us for the season, due to being on a year’s University placement and he proved to be our most reliable kicker for many years, totalling 161 points. He was chosen as Player of the Year and Players’ Player, only the second person to achieve that particular double. Other scorers of note were Jim Reed with 15 tries from only 9 games, followed by Gareth Shuttleworth and Freddie Spencer on 13 each and John Brear on 10. Luke Groves was the Most Improved Player and Gabe Stoneman was the best Young Player. Our qualities were recognised by Warwickshire in their end of season games, when 4 of our players played for the County – Luke Groves, Louis Dunbavin, John Brear, and Rich McKowen – shown with Warwickshire (and Leamington) coach Josh Loach.

One of our objectives for the season had been to halt the decline in second team rugby, in order to provide better support to the first team and give regular playing opportunities to everyone. This proved difficult and various things were tried, including Friday night veterans’ matches, along with Saturday second team games. The Saturday sides were variously known as the Seconds, Extras or Lions but in the event were about who was available, what the weather was like and whether we could get opponents to cover cancellations. Other clubs were having the same problems. The second team was nominally playing in Warwickshire 1 but in reality, there were so many cancellations the league awarded more points for defaults than for actual wins and was generally disregarded. The team management worked hard to keep things going and particular thanks must go to Jake Andrews, Tom Lane, John Cooper and John Raby for their efforts.

The Veterans were usually able to field a side of ex-superstars and they won 3 and lost 2 games. As for the Seconds, they were about who was available and the two sides tended to get mixed together and under their various guises they played a total of 18 games and won 7 The Second team Player of the Year was James Winnett and the Veterans award went to Ant Batchelor, with Rich Blunt taking Players’ Player title.

The Colts were managed by Mark Baldwin and Harry Gooch and they won 3 and drew 1 of their 17 games. Although they found it hard going against mainly older and more experienced teams, they maintained great commitment and spirit with the promise of better times next year with a strong contingent coming through from under 17 and 18. Tom Field was chosen as Player of the Year, with Joe Blackwood the Players’ Player and James Delahaye the Most Improved Player.

Colts - Harry Gooch (Coach), James Delahaye, Tom Field, Jacob Hacklow, Dougie Smith, Leo Graham, George Hatley, Dan Griffiths, Harry Blunt, Mark Baldwin (coach), Callum Manley (coach) – John Crossland, Luke. Stephenson, Ewan Mort, Toby Ventress, Billy Calder, Jamie Birks, Luke Taylor, Marcus Russel

The Ladies team continued to make excellent progress, in their second season, competing in the Inner Warrior League, which helped developing clubs to gain valuable match experience as they grew their numbers. The squad played 12 matches, winning 8, and showed significant improvement in confidence and performance. Sophie Henry finished as the team's top try scorer with 9, closely followed by Cath Lyon with 8. Becky Moss was the top points scorer overall, contributing an impressive 25 conversions. The season saw an increase in playing numbers and Laurie-Ann Anderson, Zoe Clark, Jess Johnson, Allison Sartori, and Claire Haynes made their rugby union debuts. Sadly, we saw the departure of coach Adam Clifford, who had played a key role in establishing the Ladies section. Kate Lawlor was Player of the Year, Tash McCrae was the Players’ Player and Josie Richards was the Most Improved Player.

Walking Rugby continued to be popular social game and we maintained our good record by retaining the Warwickshire Cup, making it 3 wins in the 4 years of the competition. We hosted the tournament as part of our Centenary activity and 8 clubs took part. We beat Old Leamingtonians by 4 tries to 2 in the final. The team is pictured.

Leamington Royals rugby league side completed their first season as an integral part of the club, when they played over the summer months of 2025, in between the traditional summer and winter seasons. After an opening win against Staffordshire Quantums, they lost 9 games and drew 1 of their other games. Having been one of the top League sides in the Midlands, a number of key players were coming to the end of their careers and it was time to step down a level and regroup for 2026. The Ladies team was the same core of players as for Union side and they won 6 of their 10 games.

An end of season celebration on 25 April commenced the festivities for our Centenary, going over the summer of 2026 and into the 2026-27 season. The list of events included a Vice Presidents’ lunch, Warwickshire Walking Rugby, a golf tournament and an Autumn ball at the beginning of September. There was also a lot of merchandise available, including new ties, retro kit and we produced and we produced a 100-year history board that went on dis[play in the clubhouse, showing the development of the club over the first 100 years of its existence. This is shown below.

As in every year, a number of former players passed-on and was particularly sad that some did so this season, including Peter Gray right at the start of the season and later, Tony Evans, Dick Jewitt, Tony Grimes. Neil Hubbard, John Wheildon and Dave Deakin. Two members were chosen as Honorary Life Members in recognition of their service to the club – Charlie Gardner and John Warner

In the 1976 section of this history, the half- way point, our progress was summarised by Cliff Harrison who said that we had achieved much to be proud of in our first 50 years. We had built up a strong first XV and a deep player base, but it was proving difficult to progress, as everyone wanted to play more prestigious opponents, who in turn wanted to play more prestigious opponents than themselves, not the “lesser” clubs that were aspiring to play them. The only short-cut to improving fixtures at this time was having good facilities and being able to demonstrate success in County Cups. Winning the Warwickshire Cup was therefore to become our top priority in the immediate years ahead.

Off the field, our performance at the time was not so good and we posted significant losses due to a combination of poor bar figures, non-payment of subscriptions and the increased cost of match expenses etc., in an inflationary economy. We were living beyond our means. We finally achieved our Warwickshire Cup ambition in 1992 but by then the game had changed enormously, with friendly fixtures replaced by a comprehensive league structure. The game was opened up to sponsorship and other such “commercial” activities and clubs were allowed to play players, if they could afford it, or find someone to help them afford it

Although, in recent years, we have made considerable progress in improving our finances, by making better use of our improved facilities and we now have a healthy bank balance, we have generally not been in a position to (or wanted to) pay players, which is the now the key to progress and we are at a relatively lower level that before.

Other changes over the last 50 years include, a huge drop in playing numbers throughout the game and clubs like Leamington have gone from fielding 5 teams every Saturday (plus a colts’ side) to 2. There are several reasons for this, including a drop in the number of potential players in the population and the pressure on jobs, increased university attendance and so on. Although numbers are lower, we have tried to address the problems and provide more opportunities, by diversification into women’s rugby, mini and junior rugby, walking rugby, summer touch rugby as well as admitting Rugby League and Netball formally into the club. Our aim is to incorporate these additional activities, within an overall framework whilst maintaining our focus on promoting the game of rugby. We will no doubt report on how we have done in another 50 years.