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In Our Day: A Rugby Season to Remember
A Rugby Season to Remember
Sternians Harry Ellis Peter Kelly recount the road to success for the unbeaten 1st XV Rugby Team
In 1962 Lord Wandsworth College was very different to what it is today. It had half the number of pupils, and none were girls! we were all full-time boarders and accommodated in the three houses, School, Sutton and Junior. Both Foundationers and others were drawn from all over the country. There was a wonderful range of local accents!
However, the school retained its agricultural roots. A number of boys come from farming stock and aspired to be farmers, with the estate fulfilling a central role in school life. It was impossible to go for a cross country run without either clambering over distant gates, hedges and fences, including the occasional electric stock fence or losing a plimsoll in a quagmire of organic matter.
‘The Cindy’ was a cinder track, the swimming pools at Junior and School were open-air and there were no allweather pitches. Hymns were sung in assembly every morning in what is now the library, and we all attended the village church on Sundays.
For some inexplicable reason most of the masters had acquired nicknames that were, for the most part, monosyllabic grunts: Bod, Fumph, Wig, Spoy, Geef, Goof, Chaz, Jock, Tharby, Kid, Minim, Mint, Joe etc.
All forms of sport were taken very seriously and took up most of our non-academic time, regardless of the prevailing weather. Competition to play in the 1st rugby XV was particularly strong and all home matches were played in front of School House.
A youthful Physics teacher and London Welsh RFC player Hywel Morgan took control of the 1st XV training and tactics under the watchful eye of the Headmaster, Sandy Henderson. Having selected the core fifteen players, he concentrated on getting all the team running with the ball and building fitness. This required hours of practice.
Training continued throughout the extraordinary harsh winter of 1962-3, albeit in jeans and practice reduced to touch-rugby, All games were cancelled in the Easter term due to the covering of snow and the rock-hard ground.
“The Under Sid McDouall’s astute unbeaten captaincy and leadership, season was a the formidable physique and first for the mobility of the forwards, as school” a unit, laid the foundations to the performances in every match. By the end of the season sixteen matches had been played of which we had won fifteen and drawn one, scoring 182 points and only conceding 29! The unbeaten season was a first for the school and would have been elevated even higher having reached the final at Oxford Sevens, only to lose in the last game, though we did score 67 points and only conceded 8 points. These efforts were rewarded with a short article in Rugby World about the school’s success, and to show our appreciation to Hywel for all his hard work we gave him a pewter tankard engraved with words to the effect ‘From a great team to a great trainer’.
Success continued at the Easter holiday tour in Wimborne, Dorset, when the team reconvened to play in a local tournament under the appropriately named “Sub Sapiens”. Here we were out of the jurisdiction of school rules and were able to enjoy the rough and tumble of club rugby, washed down with a few beers and a hearty rendition of the traditionally risqué rugby songs, while proudly wearing our Sub Sapiens tie embroidered with its neanderthal style skull.
The school gave us all such wonderful opportunities and with them came the memories that have lasted a lifetime, memories for which we are both grateful and truly indebted to LWC for the education we were all so fortunate to receive.
