Rugby in the ‘60s

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that St Mary’s didn’t enjoy a huge amount of success on the rugby field in the 1960s.

Despite the best efforts of Fr John McKeown and the sports master Peter Lawson, we were also-rans on the local circuit and it was not until Rod Turned joined in 1970 that things started to improve.

That is not to disparage the efforts of fine rugby players from this era like Terry Ryall, Patrick Demwell and the brilliant Kevin ‘Chopper’ Foreman.

This fixture card from season 1966/67 is interesting as it shows a few curios and some schools which disappeared from the fixture cards of the 70s.

The likes of Erith GS, Bromley Tech, Beulah Hill, Selhurst GS and Beckenham and Penge are all unfamiliar names to those of us who played in the 70s.

In October the school travelled to Downing College, Cambridge for a fixture which was an annual tradition for a few years.

Another regular opponent was HMS Worcester which was the Thames Nautical Training College moored off Greenhithe.

One completely unfamiliar name on here is Quernmore who played against our Colts and the Junior XV early in the season.

There are some great memories of rugby during this period in We Did Our Homework On the Bus from Terry Ryall who started as a second former at St Mary’s in 1964 and played possibly more first team matches than anyone else.