It was during these times that I first met guys who little did I know then would become my friends for years to come. Terry Brien, Tony Fry, Hugh Sawyer, Selwyn Miners, Wilf Chipp. Hamish and Cloughie (God bless him) to name a few.. My brother and some of his entry again from Devonport spent time at Foxhill and played for the club late 70's - Gary was sometimes known as `Warbs`... Neil Hopkins, Keith Potter, Glen Lathem, Bob Thompson all turned out for the club.
Well as fate would have it I was promoted and posted to Foxhill Jan'79. I commuted weekends for the first 6 months or so and continued to play for PCS. It was early during this period whilst lodging in the `Della Rosa` near the Hadley Arms that I met my buddy John Cooke purely by chance, I teamed up with him and the long winter evenings wern't so bad after all...........
Rugby in Plymouth was very strong at the time when I decided to commit to BCS. John Cooke had also been playing a high standard at home in Brecon. I think it is fair to say that Bath CS were struggling on the field and also with nos at training. The fabric of the club was sound and well run and included the stalwarts such as Terry Brien, Tony Fry, Ian Burnham, Vince Philips, Duncan Spence, Barry Clough, Hugh Sawyer, Selwyn Miners etc. We needed to focus on the playing side starting with fitness, playing method and whole approach to the game on the Saturday….trying to change the Friday drinking culture was a challenge!! The club was always well led from the top and I’m not talking about Captain here. Bert Down and Wilf Chippendale were my Chairman and President during my spell as Captain and I owe much of my success to them and I am indebted to the quiet times I was able to talk, listen and learn from them. Also a mention should go the numerous woman that always supported and worked for the club especially Karen Cadywould (later Cooke). Senior players such as Roy Mc Cullough, Colin Dobson and Tom Doughty willingly assisted me and JC with coaching.
The club already had some good players who perhaps at this time were not playing to their full potential – Mike Clark, Andy Pike, Andy & Pete Burgess, Martin Benson, Roger Gould, Dave Beveridge, Malky Burns, Nick Osbourne, etc. Training and performances soon improved and the influx of new players began mostly press ganged from out of the MOD establishments and of course the pubs! Neil Pirie, Taylor Stocks, Billy Cain, Ian Lorimer, Paul Hawes, Nick Hillman, Davy Parker, Chris Kearns were all good young prospects we recruited. New more established players also joined or came back to the club and added to the strength, I’m thinking of the likes of Davy Watts, Bob Hayter, Alan Southward, Dan Doxie, Eddie Thomas, Pete Marks, Andy Pike and of course my partner in crime in the Front Row Graham Johnson. (My thoughts at this time go to Graham, Barry Clough and Dave Coad - all players and great friends whose lives were cut short shortly after I had returned to Plymouth. I enjoyed their company and friendship and will remember them forever). I was fortunate to Captain 3 very talented players during my time John Cooke was a natural in every thing he did on a rugby pitch - but he hated training !! Chris Trout (from Plymouth CS) joined towards the end of my time and improved our back line. But undoubtedly the person who had the biggest potential to play at a much higher level was Paul Kavanagh he had such an influence on any team and dragged others along with him. It speaks highly for the club that a player of his talent chose to stay at Civil/Saracens. He was a pleasure to captain and it's great to see he has put so many years into the club.
There are so many players I haven’t mentioned, for that I apologise. I have so many fond memories that I could write a book and maybe one day I will.
Many thanks to all of you who were associated with the club and helped to make the 7 years at Bath so special.
I returned to Devonport in 1987 carried on playing and coaching Civil in Plymouth until this year. Sadly the CS Club is due to close in September this year. The rugby club is in a state of uncertainty not sure where its home will now be.
I’m still married to Kath, and work in the Dockyard building lifeboats for the RNLI. We have 3 grown up children, Kelly and Dean were born in Bath, Karlie in Plymouth. Dean is a far better player than I ever was, he is a hooker and last year played for Devon U20s and Plymouth Albion’s development side.
Depending on circumstances I would love him to play in the blue, red and gold maybe guest in a Pres v Chairman’s game one day?
All the best & cheers for now
Dan A (June 2007).
Don't know how I happen to be a VP, but understand its to do with writing cheques.
17.10.04.
I left the Navy in the early 80's and set up a boat surveying business. Moved to Warminster on the Kennet & Avon canal. Not really thinking of retiring yet (now 73), but I suppose I'll have to soon in order to start spending some of the money I've made! Isn't it funny how you don't think of people for years, and then something jogs your memory and suddenly it starts pouring out reminiscences? Here are a few from me:-
Len Wilcox. We were playing Trowbridge, and the scrum was not at all in good form. In the front row Len was having a rough old time. As one scrum broke up I heard him say to his opposite number " Once more...just once more...!" As the next scrum went down there was a heave and shout and the ref. whistled up, we all stood back, and there was the Trowbridge prop opposite Len flat on his back and out cold! Sadly, they had to play with a man short - and even more sadly, they beat us!
The Welsh Madmen. It was always good sport to watch Len and Geoff Davies fighting in the car park as we got onto the bus. I was never sure whether they really meant it, but I did see blood on a number of occasions!!
Mike(?) Sullivan. He was a Scottish Madman. Whenever he got plastered he insisted that we join him in acting out the Scottish Soldier, and he would lead the way wielding a broomstick or similar implement. It had to stop after he tried to march through a closed door after one game. I had to spend quite a time placating the House Committee, and contribute to the repairs! Years later I met him on Glasgow Station - he hadn't changed!
Coming Home. On our way back from an away game (I think it was Gloucester Civil Service) we stopped for a noggin or two at a pub in Stroud. There was a rush for the public bar, so one or two of us went into the lounge bar to try and get quicker service. After a short while we realised that the other bar was very quiet - the rest of the team had been thrown out by the landlord - wait for it- because the Bath team had been in the week before and torn the place to pieces!! "I'm not having any rugby players in here again" he said. "Quite right!" we agreed - and got the hell out of it as soon as we'd finished our drinks!
My regards to Ted Lambourne, Derek Morrison, Mike Beale, Johnny Maurice, etc. etc. if you see them. We had some damned good times up at the old club before they turned it into a University!!!
I arrived in Bath in 1971, on a 3 month contract at the MOD and ended up staying 9 years. I was persuaded to play for the then CSRFC by the "Barrow" Boys that included Mike Kitley, Kerry Spencer, Eddie Lavender and Alan Southward.
My first game was about October 1972, against Westland's away - I remember the helicopter on trial in the next field hovering for the entire match. We travelled, as in many cases those days, by coach, enjoying more than a few beers on the way home. First team captain was Dave Allen and second team the infamous "one step and pass" McIlhagga. After that it was more or less full time playing - at various times I was captain of the thirds (yes, we did run 3 teams for about 1 season), I ran the skittles team for many years, organised a tour of the "West Midland" was awarded Club Man for 1979-80. (Only prize ever achieved but it was very well received.)
Most vivid memories were of the social side, Super Scouse and his "Red Knobbed Reindeer", Alan Mansell with many songs, Chunky and Ginger doing the Ring a Rang a Roo plus too many more to recount here.
They were definitely good times, we often commented that no one would remember the playing side, testament to this was when I returned some years later and Wilf asked me who it was that spilled the beer, that caused his fall from the chair, that dented his tankard. The answer was of course "Evil Kenival" - don't remember his proper name but this guy used to turn up on his moped, although something of an oddity we took him under our wing and he was fully included.
Touring was another annual event. I was on first Jersey tour in 74 and witnessed McCarthy downing a pint after the rest of us had had multi coloured yawns in a force 10. Lake District and the valley of hell in Windermere - there is nowhere flat around there - Brixham when we were abandoned, Plymouth and a memorable sing song, London and the Indian Irishman and the games against London CS, Birmingham, plus a few I must have forgotten.
Great times, great company, friendships forged for life. The front row of Clough, Kernaghan, Burnham was definately a sight to behold.
Name: Andy Parry
Age: Never you mind.
I first picked up a rugby ball when I was around six years old, and boy you should have seen me run, legs pumping like mad and a knot of excitement in my tummy, sweat on the brow - well to be honest I was trying to pinch the ball from some big ten year olds at the time!! When my father picked me up from hospital he decided it would probably be best to enrol me in the local mini rugby side before I could get into any more trouble. From thereon in I played for Kircudbright Academy and Stewartry in the south west of Scotland. I was selected to appear at the Scotland U16 trials in Jedburgh at the age of 14 but was rejected due to the fact a very big 15 year old ran right over the top of me leaving nothing more than stud marks on my forehead. I was not invited the following year, I think it was because at the age of 15 I discovered the wonderful engaging powers of alcohol.
Five years later in 1982, I was sitting very quietly, minding my own business in a corner of a pub which was known then as the Beau Nash Tavern in Bath. It was a quite autumnal Saturday evening, I had just arrived in Bath from Sheffield so I was reading some leaflets that were trying valiantly to exite me into the history and culture of my new adopted home town. When in through the door crashed these big, loud apeths demanding several beers from the poor slight figure of the landlord. It became quite quickly apparent that the newly aquired refreshments were to top off the many they had already consumed at other establishments. Mainly due to fear of their size, number and many facial disfigurements I pretended not to notice them but as sure as drizzle in Scotland they sat on the surrounding tables where they continued to exhault the heroic exploits from earlier that day. Oh the tales of tries, tackles and sneaky punches in the rucks and mauls were flowing thick and fast, then a song about a rolling silver something or the other, I couldn't quite make it out. Spurred on by the conquest on the field of play and several more beers this group of gladiators, who had now increased in number, were extending their recently found testerone fuelled confidence into the arena of all things nocturnal. I then assumed that the female species of Bath were not that fussy which was good news for me!! And then it happened, I don't know why I did it but I guess it is what they now call a blonde moment I uttered the astonishing question: "So you lot are rugby players then?" Well done Bamber Gasgoine nothing gets past you I think was the general response. Trying to retrieve the situation I said "I used to play a little rugby" which illicited the right response especially when they found out I had just hit town. Before I knew it a beer had been placed in front of me with instructions on who I should contact to join in this group of hellraisers. My decision to join was hastened by my introduction to the Bath CSRFC lady followers who joined us later in the same establishment. "My" I said how they can talk, and in most cases I don't believe they have ever stopped!
Any old boys reading the above you know who you were!!!
And the rest as they say is history.
Played for Bath CSRFC between 1982 and 1987 when I had an unfortunate injury that meant the very last game I would ever play was for that side. In the intervening 5 years I joined the committee as the social secretary and instigated the 'Gentleman's Smoking Evenings' (which I am not proud of) which was one of the biggest fund raisers in the year, funnily enough. Of course the wives and girlfriends were outraged and stood up to me saying "this is disgraceful when will we get the chance to feel some prime rib" so along came the "Ladies Night" which by all accounts were even wilder and looking at the state of the acts when I had to pay them afterwards I believe it. (Poor devils).
When I left Bath I used to be a regular tourer in the social capacity of course, but due to my job taking me to the USA for long periods of time I have not been able to join the lads for many years. I hope to rectify that soon by joining you once again in the next few years.
Finally I wish Bath Saracens all the best in the coming seasons.
I’d finished my technician apprenticeship at Rosyth Dockyard and fancied a change for a couple of years so I volunteered to go to “MoD Headquarters” in Bath. I walked into the T23 design office at Foxhill and was confronted by a certain Mr Danny Avery. For those of you who don’t know this man, he was probably the best captain this club has ever had, and a more committed rugby player you’ll never meet. He asked if I played rugby, and did I want to join Bath Civil Service? I said I wasn’t sure, so he invited me to watch a cup match on the Sunday at Walcot. I duly turned up at Lambridge for the first round of the Somerset Cup and watched as this group of what could only be described as a band of ragamuffins, trooped out. Most of them in the dirty kit that they’d played in the day before and last two guys even limped out of the changing room, one of whom, I think it was Malky Burns could hardly walk!
Nevertheless it was a promising start and within a minute Civil Service took an early lead with a John Cooke penalty. (He wasn’t a bad kicker I suppose!). I was impressed. However that lead was to be short lived. Remember it was 4 points a try in those days, - the final score? 104 – 3!!!!! I’ll never forget it. But I have to say, The Civil Service never gave up and that spirit was the one thing that convinced me to join. That and the fact that I thought – even I could do better!
My first game was an away game playing for Bath Civil Service II versus Birmingham CS III. We’d taken a coach up with two teams and I remember meeting Tom Doughty for the first time. I think he was probably 40+ at the time, but he was a still a class player and he was still turning out when he was 50. I think we lost, but the comraderary and the piss-up afterwards was brilliant.
I have many great memories and I have met some brilliant people over the years and remain great friends with them and hope that I always will. People who stood out were many, but I’ll mention a few. There was Terry Brien, another great ex-Captain and stalwart of the team, who taught me the song “The Holy Ground” and was renowned for his rendition of the “Shaggy Baggy Arabs”. John Cooke (JC – “Has anybody seen JC”?) known for his speciality tackles and his outrageous dummy whilst having his back to the opposition! Cloughy, a front row specialist who was known to play a mean game at scrum half on toor (Isle of Man – mid eighties). John Carling, who I remember for running on to the pitch still wearing his glasses and smoking his pipe, oblivious to both! Lastly, there was Merve the Swerve – our very own bus driver, who lived up to his name, and when on toor used to drink a concoction of raw egg and milk whilst the rest of us tried to keep down a cooked breakfast after a heavy night.
The memories go on and on, especially all the toors that I went on. My first was Plymouth 1980-81, others were Jersey, Isle of Man, Leeds, Edinburgh and Morecombe, Amsterdam (twice), Brecon, and I’m sure there were more that was just a blur from start to finish. I must give a special mention to Andy Pike, who had an even weaker bladder than me. We hadn’t even left Bath on the coach going somewhere on toor when Andy was first to christen The Piss Bucket.
For anybody who’s reading this and doesn’t know who I am, and is perhaps starting playing for Bath Saracens, remember the rich history of the club and the tremendous spirit in which rugby has always been played. When your playing days are over hopefully you’ll have as many warm and cherished memories as I have.
And lastly…..do you still sing the club anthem – “Oh we have a reputation ,,,,,,,,,,” Alas, probably not in these days of political correctness!!
Will try and make more of the VP days, good luck.
I was introduced to the Bath Civil Service Club by John Carling in 1968, when I was 21 - membership was 10 shillings (50p) and match fee was 4 shillings (20p). At that time, the Civil Service Club was at the top of Bathwick Hill, where the University now is. Originally I played on the wing for the seconds, but I worked my way into the firsts and along to centre, and then back row and second row. Funnily enough, as time passed I reversed this progression, and ended up back on the wing for the seconds!
I joined the committee in 1970, and have been on it just about ever since - taking on such crucial roles as "pontoon organiser" in 1974/75 and "bulletin editor" in 1980/81! I was Club Captain in 1977/78, when we were running three sides. I was made VP in 1982 when I left for a tour of duty with NATO in Germany, where I played for Munich RFC (and even sat on their committee too!). On my return in 1986 I was asked to be Treasurer, which I eventually gave up in 2007 - equalling Wilf Chippendale's record of 21 years! (Sorry, Wilf!). In 2003 I took on the responsibility of Webmaster, so if you've got any problems with the website you know who to blame!
I carried on playing until 1989, and the other day I came across the match sheet when I scored what was probably my last try ever, against Colerne 2nds that year - aged 42.
My very last game was on tour in Jersey on the Club's 50th anniversary in 1998. As I was also 50, it seemed so appropriate to don my boots, but unfortunately when I tackled their chunky fly half he fell on me - popping one of my ribs. This was absolutely the worst injury in my playing career (especially when I developed a cold soon after - coughing when you have a rib problem is NOT recommended), so I took the hint and have stayed on the touchline ever since.
At the 2006 Annual Dinner, I was surprised by an award of Life Vice President - one which I hope will last a very long time!
| This photo is Glenys and I at the 1969 Club dance at the old ground (and, yes, I truly am as pissed as I look). | ....and 37 years later - us at the 2006 dinner (slightly less inebriated!) |
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I joined what was then the Bath Civil Service RFC in the mid sixties. Not quite sure what prompted the switch from soccer (goalkeeper) to rugby but I'm pretty certain that the post match revelry had a lot to do with it. My soccer career included spells with local clubs Larkhall Athletic, Bath City and finally the Bath Civil Service. In fact one of my first games for the CS Rugby Club was particularly memorable because the kick off was delayed until the soccer game in which I was playing on an adjacent pitch had finished so that I could quickly swap goalkeeping sweater for rugby shirt and take my place at full back.
I was lucky to be playing rugby at the time I did because during the sixties the CSRFC were without doubt one of the strongest clubs in the Bath area and the fixture list (all so-called friendlies in those pre-league days) reflected that. I personally believe that the peak was reached during the Captaincy period of Peter Coombes (1965-67). In those years we would regularly beat sides such as Oldfield, Old Culverhaysians, Avonvale, Stotherts, etc.
One aspect of my rugby career that I do remember was the law change that banned the direct kick to touch from outside of the 22 yard line as it was in those days. This law adjustment dramatically changed playing tactics overnight, particularly so for full backs who could until then seek the haven of touch from anywhere thus avoiding incoming attackers at will. Of all the law changes there have been over the years this one did more to open the game up than any I believe.
Although my playing days were cut short by a chronic back condition I always kept in contact with the Club but more recently the fact that my daughter married Mark Button prompted me to take an even closer interest and join the Committee. As a result I have been Secretary for a number of years now and have even started "tooring" again.
At my age I certainly find the toors demanding, and I'm only running the line. However I often wonder just how I managed the "Easter Tours" of the sixties. Three full blown games on Friday, Saturday and Monday, and one year (Blackpool) a sevens tournament thrown in for good measure on the Sunday. Now that was knackering.
But finally, the Club may have changed its name but at heart it remains very similar to the one I joined in the sixties, and long may it remain so.