seasons at Amersham & Chiltern RFC A HISTORY OF THE CLUB 1924-2004 seasons at Amersham & Chiltern RFC WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED BY ROGER COOK © Roger Cook 2004. Interviews, named articles and illustrations are copyright to the several contributors. 1 Eighty seasons at Amersham & Chiltern RFC Dedication Author’s introduction and acknowledgments n 1992, on a Saturday evening at the Chiltern clubhouse bar, his condensed history of Chiltern as in many previous seasons past Griff Griffiths was holding Rugby Football Club is dedicated to Icourt. He would have then been seventy seven years of age. “Someone in the club has to write down the club's history and I Arthur Gerald ‘Griff’ Griffiths who T am too old”. Several people had started, John Carpenter and Colin passed away in 1995. Maloney were names that Griff mentioned. From somewhere Griff fortunately had the opportunity to within, I suddenly heard myself volunteering for yet another job at the club. Roger Cook edit the initial collected stories and I feel Of the many varied tasks I have carried out around the club over the past thirty years, confident that his fear of losing the several have been very rewarding. But the satisfaction gained over the last twelve years spent connections with bygone days of the club in researching the first years of the club's history has surpassed all others by far. to which he was so devoted are My first box of information was passed down from John Carpenter. John when Chairman of the club in the 1980s had put together a brief history for a 65th anniversary appeal. eliminated. Material gathered at that time introduced me to several well-known public figures. Research Griff would relate the following quote, started at Amersham Library with “Who’s Who”. The process then snowballed. Club reports were found in the Bucks Examiner and the passed on to him by ‘Khaki’ Roberts. It summarises Griff’s attitude towards Advertiser in Chesham Library, the majority recorded on microfilm. Dusty old rugby books rugby and how Chiltern players should benefit from the game. were found in the Union Reserve of Hammersmith Library, my lunchtime refuge from the During his speech to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rosslyn Park FC, world of oil and gas projects. The RFU library at Twickenham also provided a valuable source of reference and, of course, there were the first-hand accounts from old club members. C.C.Hoyer-Miller stated that: Several members who had played at The Pineapple ground were rediscovered, Dick “The three greatest influences since the Christian Era were to be found in Wheeler and A.G.L.‘Larry’ Harding were still alive and living in Beaconsfield in 1994. They were most useful with their reminiscences of the club and early members. Jim Randall, a pre- the work of the Salvation Army, secondly in the institution of the Boy Scouts, WW2 player from Chesham, and post-WW2 players such as Griff Griffiths and Alistair Fordyce and thirdly in the spread of outdoor games, particularly rugby football. My gave great encouragement to continue. Happily, Griff had tucked away in his loft the original belief in the importance of rugby football in the formation both of individual club minutes of meetings. and national character is increasingly profound”. Within the club's original constitution, Rule 10 required a match report to be sent to the local papers each week. Future officers of the club may well take particular note of this duty as the gaps that appear in these records are due to a lack of information from that invaluable source. I am confident that the detail collected is as authentic as it can be. It was a clear objective of this book to record particularly the earlier years in full detail. It had never been done before and best to do it whilst many early stalwarts are still fit and healthy. The most recent, and arguably most successful years have been dealt with quite briefly. But Amersham & Chiltern RFC appears to be in very rude health, so I trust we can continue making history. My apologies for the inevitable omissions. It takes so many people year in year out to run a successful club that it would be impossible to mention them all. However, there is a time when you have to let go. I trust that when you have digested this brief history, it will allow you to associate more closely with the club and its members past and present. 2 3 Eighty seasons at Amersham & Chiltern RFC contents Chapter 1 FOODNET The beginning at The Pineapple 7 Import/Export Office: Chapter 2 The Old Grammar School, 3-7 Market Square, Copperkins Lane 1929-1939 15 Amersham, Bucks. Chapter 3 Telephone: (01494) 434600 Fax: (01494) 434435 The War Years 1939-1945 25 E-mail: [email protected] www.foodnet.ltd.uk Chapter 4 Weedon Lane 1945-1960 28 Harvesting the fields & orchards of the world to Chapter 5 bring our young rugby players the finest frozen Ash Grove 1960-1987 45 vegetables & fruits. Chapter 6 The man from FOODNET “he say yes”, Ash Grove 1987-2004 67 the week before the other guy, when the Chapter 7 product is really fresh. Distinguished Players 80 The famous British art of the merchant venturer Chapter 8 lives on at FOODNET, here in Amersham, Distinguished Members 92 and we are proud to support Chapter 9 Amersham & Chiltern R.F.C. Club Records 1924-2004 108 CONTACT: RODDY or RHYS OWEN 4 5 Eighty seasons at Amersham & Chiltern RFC The beginning at The Pineapple Chapter 1 hiltern Rugby Football Club was formed in 1924, principally by the Halton family of Copperkins Lane, and well supported by rugby enthusiasts living in and around CAmersham, Chesham, Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield. The club grew rapidly, running three regular senior sides and a schoolboy fifteen before 1928. The enthusiasm for rugby was surprising as local sports in the Chiltern area were very active and well organised. Football and cricket were the major seasonal sports and, with respect to clubs past and present, the pecking order was the same then as now, with Wycombe Wanderers of the Isthmian League as the premier club of the area, followed by Amersham and Chesham of the Spartan League. In fact, Chesham was so well supported it started a third eleven for the first time. The village sides of Holmer Green, Seer Green, Missenden and Kingshill, Ley Hill, Chalfont Wasps, Coleshill and many others were well established in the local Chesham league. The order within the cricket clubs was very much the same, with the town sides of Amersham and Chesham leading the way. The village sides were well organised in the Chesham Cricket League, formed in 1911, during which year Ley Hill won the first division. Amersham Athletic CC, formed in 1919, and now called Amersham Hill CC was under threat of losing its ground to building speculators, unless £1000 could be raised to purchase the ground from Hyrons Farm. It survived, thanks to generous donations from the local community. Other sports in the area, such as athletics, cycling, bowls and tennis were prospering. With an expanding population of ‘middle-class’ commuters, Amersham residents were looking for suitable sport and leisure at weekends. The time and the area were ready to accept a permanent rugby club. The idea of a local rugby club to serve mainly the communities of Amersham, Chesham Bois and Chesham had originally been the plan of Ernest Gladstone Halton. He was born in Stockport but moved to London at the turn of the century. Ernest was a former rugby player himself and was involved in the historic meeting of 1895 when the Rugby Football Union was in conflict with the Association of Northern Clubs. But no-one knows, or will tell, which way he voted. Ernest Halton had three sons, Ken, Hugh and Geoff, all former captains of school rugby at Sutton Valance. So, together with his friend Eric Ainsworth Redfern, the experienced secretary of Chesham Bois Lawn Tennis Club, and his London commuting partners Dennis Richardson, Charles Penny and Bertie Side, they set about arranging a game over the Christmas holidays against old boys from the local Berkhamsted school. The initial response by the local public was rewarding and a meeting was arranged at 6 7 Chapter 1 – The beginning at The Pineapple Eighty seasons at Amersham & Chiltern RFC Eric Redfern's house, 'By the Way', Clifton Road, Chesham Bois on 20 December 1924 with Halton, H.W.Halton, D.S.Richardson, A.W.W.Side and E.A.Redfern were elected as the general the purpose of forming a permanent rugby club. and selection committee, with D.S.Richardson elected as honorary treasurer and E.A.Redfern A provisional committee was formed consisting of K.E.Halton, D.S.Richardson, H.W. Halton, as honorary secretary. A.W.W.Side and E.A.Redfern. Playing member subscriptions were fixed for the rest of the season at ten shillings and Eric Redfern was directed to approach Mr Nunn with an offer of between seven and ten sixpence for full members, ten shillings and sixpence for honorary members and five shillings pounds to secure the use of the Amersham Athletic ground at Woodside Road, for the rest for holiday members. of the season and to arrange a match against Old Berkhamstedians. He failed with regards to Each of the twenty members that attended the meeting were instructed to arrange a the former, but was was successful with the latter. game against a club previously known to themselves and to co-ordinate the fixture with Eric Redfern strategically positioned a hand written poster to catch the eye of Eric Redfern.