‘60s rugby reappraised

The 1963/64 first fifteen

I think I may have been doing the rugby players who pulled on the purple and white hoops in the 1960s a disservice.

I’m probably guilty of thinking rugby didn’t really get going until Rod Turner arrived in 1970. In retrospect this is unfair as the school was clearly starting to punch above its weight during the sixties and there were some fine players.

One of the leading pioneers of rugby at St Mary’s is Dick Henderson who skippered the first fifteen in the mid sixties. Dick has politely taken issue with me and says that during he 1960s, the school was not the rugby ‘also-ran’ that I may have depicted.

In an email to me, Dick writes: “If I may be so bold, I might take issue with the assertion that St. Mary's didn't pull up trees on the rugby pitch in the 60s. Within five years of starting from scratch, we had fixtures against virtually all the Grammar Schools in West Kent (except Chislehurst and Sidcup) and several in South-East London.

“In 64/65 the School won 18 out of 26 and the following season 14 out of 25 with a stronger list. I recall there were victories in that time over Erith GS, Beckenham and Penge GS, Dartford GS, St Joseph's Academy, Gillingham GS and Cray Valley THS (who were a seriously good rugby school at the time). There may have been others I forget about. Thanks to John McKeown we had come a long way in a short time.

“I agree that the 66/67 record doesn't look good. As a lot of a side that had been together for some years left together, it must have been a very inexperienced team which had to be chosen from a two form entry school. School rugby tends to work in cycles anyway. I'm not suggesting that we were better, simply that we had been around longer.”

Dick also provided more background into some of the schools which used to be on the fixture card back then, reminding me that some still exist but under different names and with a different status: “Bromley THS and Beckenham and Penge GS became all-ability schools, Ravenswood and Langley Park respectively; both of which continue to be serious rugby schools. Selhurst GS was a very good Croydon rugby school but it sank when it ceased to be a Grammar School. Beulah Hill was actually St Joseph's College in Beulah Hill, Norwood- I think it was, and still is, fee paying. Quernmore was a Secondary Modern in Bromley. We played them in the early days along with Forest Hill and Sedge Hill (both South-East London Comprehensives) and a Sunday fixture against Mayfield College in Sussex. This still exists. Christ's College was a small independent school in Blackheath. I imagine it folded many years ago.”

I’m very happy to put the record straight and would still love to hear more from those old boys who played rugby in the 1960s. I’m always interested in hearing about particular matches or incidents. I’ve recently been communicating with Peter ‘Little Yeti’ Firth so maybe some old rugby tales can be teased out of Peter.