A brilliant Ball completes our 125th Anniversary celebrations

We planned to end our special 125th anniversary season on a high and the Black Tie Ball duly delivered. The set up was brilliant and the effort put in by those who organised it made it very special indeed.

Apart from all the fun we had, dancing late into the night and everything else you do at a Ball, the true spirit of the club was described by Chairman Andy Smart in his brief speech, the full text of which is here:

"First of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all for supporting our 125th Anniversary Ball. This has been an important landmark in our history and I am delighted that you have all found the time to be with us tonight to ensure that we can see it out in real style.

These type of events don’t happen unless some people put in a huge amount of time and effort and for this it has been almost entirely two people to whom we owe our thanks. Matt Henry who has done all the organising and who we can thank for being so massively overspent………….and Annette who is the one who has chased you again and again for your money. I won’t pretend that the last few weeks haven’t been particularly stressful and expressions like “I am never doing this again” and “You’re in the spare room” have surfaced with increasing regularity…………and that’s just from Matt.

Our club was founded on Thursday 26th November 1891 at the “Kings Head” Hotel, Harrow-on The Hill with our first match against Hampstead, who we continue to play, the following Saturday. Over 125 years we have had many homes and three other names before finally settling here at Grove Field in 1953 and where we will remain.

Our 125 years have seen their fair share of achievement, successes, struggles and endeavour. We can look back with real pride to the monumental effort by club members that went into the building of our club house which with our magnificent grounds remain the envy of many. Then there is our marvellous Junior section supported by our fantastic volunteers. The sheer energy and enthusiasm that comes out of that section is always an inspiration to me and at my lowest times, and I can assure you that there have been many, many of those it always gives me the motivation I need to carry on. For me there is no finer sight than up here on a Sunday seeing Grove Field full of so many children enjoying the game we love, wearing that shirt which means so much to so many of us, with so much pride and evident pleasure. It helps to remind me that the game is not always about winning and losing. Sometimes we can forget that. It is as much about fun and playing with your mates, giving your all and coming back the following week to do it all again.

This Club can look back with pride at the sheer enjoyment and lifelong friendships that playing and being a member of Harrow has given to thousands of people, young and old over the 125 years of our existence. Who would have thought that we would have seen our flag flying so proudly above the stands at Twickenham, whilst Harrow players bestrode the hallowed turf below? Seven league titles, two Divisional Cups, level 6 rugby, two World Cup visits to Grove Field. I could go on and on. And yet on the other side of the coin we have also had more than our share of dark times as well. Those dreadful traveller invasions. That life changing injury to young Tom Somerville. A fine young man cut down before his adulthood. All those members, great servants of our club, some great characters, much missed who gave so much but are no longer with us

Through all the bad times the Club has not only endured but has always sought to come back stronger than before, ready to face that next challenge.

As we go past the first quarter of our second hundred years I would like to think that our founders and all those that followed them over so many generations would be proud of where we are today. The advent of the leagues has changed our game beyond recognition and not always for the good but I believe that this Club still retains the same values laid down by our Founders and upheld by generations of Harrow members, of friendship, hospitality, sportsmanship, of service and an ethos of providing rugby for everybody of whatever standard or ambition.

So much achieved, so much more to do, so many good people no longer with us.

125 years into our journey we can look forward with excitement and expectation but always remembering where we have come from and most importantly all those people who did so much to get us here.

I ask you to raise your glasses, not only to acknowledge the achievement of 125 years for Harrow RFC but also to remember all those who cannot be with us as our journey goes on

I give you

HARROW RFC"

Andrew Smart
Chairman Harrow RFC