I worked with him as a Junior Coach for several years and no one could have supported me with more honesty and application when I was Chair of Betteshanger Junior and Mini Section. Bob acted as Treasurer, making sure what we had was wisely employed.

Those of you who did not know him will not be able to appreciate that his untimely death is also a blow to Deal & Betteshanger RFC, incidentally an amalgamation he fully supported and work hard to cement. Rugby clubs run on people volunteering to do the grunt work, much of it is unseen. One of those in-the-background jobs is to act as the club’s Fixture Secretary and if that sounds simple it is the exact opposite, given the task is to not only to pass on fixture arrangements from the various governing bodies but to deal with the problems of such lofty pronouncements going wrong, which they do with increasing regularity.

Teams cancelling has become endemic and over three decades, from his Betteshanger days to last week, it was Bob’s task to seek, at very short notice, really a day or two, alternative fixtures so our lads could get a game. He also dealt with and arranged the referees for all the club’s matches, ran the East Kent Fixture Exchange and most importantly acted as a point of contact for everyone in the area of our Constituent Body, the Kent RFU.

To say he was passionate would be an understatement, but Bob did not have an ounce of malice in his body, just a determination that things should be done properly and according to the laws of the game: that sometimes put him in the opposite camp to people less committed to fair play.

Once, at a D&B board meeting, we were passed a message from above, asking that Bob be “advised” to temper the tone of his communications with certain county officials, no names given; in short he was getting under their skin. Given I knew him best I volunteered to tell him of this and what I said to him was blunt.
“Keep it up Bob!”

If he was a pain to some people it was all in the cause of Rugby, the second love of his life after his wonderful family, to whom we send our deepest condolences.

Bob will be a hard act to follow and I will not be the only one to miss the big friendly grin with which he always greeted his comrades as he came into the club.

DAVID DONACHIE