Happy Birthday to Leamington Rugby Club – 100 today! For some ,hopefully, interesting trivia please see below on how the club was formed and the Moorefields Miscellany attached

In the late 1890s most of the rugby clubs in the area disappeared There are several possible reasons - the split between rugby union and rugby league in 1895; schools were no longer playing the game; changing social conditions; but 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. Interest in resurrecting club rugby in the Leamington area grew slowly and gradually after the War. A Leamington and Warwick public school old-boys side was formed and played a few games in the early 1920,s . They called themselves Leamington Spartans and they were seen as a first step to forming a permanent club. 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 in November that same season. Warwick School old boys were instrumental in setting up both clubs.

Many of the Kenilworth club members were resident in Leamington, so they appointed a team secretary to cover the town. 15 to 20 players were travelling from Leamington to play in the neighbouring towns and therefore there was the potential to have a club in the Spa. A group got together and began to canvas for players and funders. A public notice was placed, 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. Detailed preparations then began to enable the club to begin playing at the start of the forthcoming season.

As you will have seen in previous editions of in-Touch, we have a programme of celebration events starting this Saturday (25 April) with a fun day at the club. Details are provided below. Come along and have a great time

1100 hrs – Mini and Junior Presentations
1230/1300 hrs – M&J BBQ and inflatable fun.
1230 for 1300 VP lunch and arrivals
1330 – Charity Game : Second team v Adens Army (M&J guard of honour)
1500 – 1st XV v Kidderminster (M&J guard of honour)
1600 – Malakas Greek Food truck starts serving
1700 – DJ start and continue throughout the evening with singers and karaoke
Raffle tickets available all day to win over 40 fantastic prizes including :

* 2 × Eurostar tickets to Paris, Brussels or Lille
* A spa day for two at Pennyhill Park (including lunch and a massage)
* Dinner for two at Oscars French Bistro
* An overnight stay at the Crowne Plaza in Stratford
* A £50 M&S voucher
* Signed Leicester Tigers Ball
* Signed Coventry Rugby Shirt
* Leisure passes and an overnight stay at Chesford Grange
* …and many more

Saturday is still a working day as we have the final match of the league programme to complete and it is important to end on a winning note against Droitwich. They have a had a poor season but we know them of old and they are always difficult to beat and I am sure that they will be keen to spoil our party. The VP lunch at 1300 hrs is a sell-out at £25 per seat. Applications for tickets are still coming in but we have no more space so if you want to check whether you are included, please check with Dave Ward or me

Also this week………………..

• The Seconds are playing at home as above – KO 1.30
• The Colts are at Old Laurentians – KO 3.00
• The U 7,8.9.10 and 11are playing at Moorefields in the 12.30 curtain raiser
• On Sunday the U13 and 16 are at Harbury

After the romp against Kidderminster, we faced stronger opposition, away at Camp Hill, who are in strong contention for promotion. There were a number of changes from last week, not least our main try scorers, but this gave the chance to others to show what they could do and we scored 5 tries in a 33-43 defeat with Harry Stanton opened the scoring and further efforts from Ethan Roberts, Luke Groves and Freddie Spencer (2). Jack Tripp-Smith kicked the conversions as usual and at least we got a bonus point. Gareth Shuttleworth missed his first game of the season, an event so rare he must have had a great excuse, like becoming a father for the first time – Congratulations Gareth and Harriet. See John Warner’s full report on the website and the video of the game is attached below

https://app.veo.co/matches/20260418-camp-hill-1sts-vs-leamington-1st-team-18042026-v000436c

On Friday night the Veterans played a three-way game with Stratford and Evesham. We lost 15-0 to Stratford but played really well against a good team. We had 4 new vets making their debuts, some who haven’t played since school, however you wouldn’t have known it. After a break which did our bodies no favours, we struggled to get going again against Evesham who included a group of fresh and fit Colts and we ran out of puff. We lost about 30-5 but we did get score of our own by George Walsh on debut.

The ladies played their last game of the season against Northampton Casuals over at Daventry. They lost 34-21in a tough and enjoyable game and scored tries via Sophie Henry, Jess Johnson (2) all 3 converted by Becky Moss. Charlotte Clarke was player of the match. The ladies will now convert to Rugby League for the summer with the Royals but will be saying goodbye e to their coach Adam Clifford and their thanks go to him for getting their team off the ground

We will be featuring the Leamington Royals games during the summer season and the club will of course be open for their games on Saturdays. Please note

• Senior men training every Wednesday 7pm
• U13'S training every Wednesday from 6.30pm
• Ladies training every Wednesday from 29th April
• Juniors training Sundays from 10th May 10.30a
Johnlizlyons@btopenworld.com