Winning runs
The best winning run for any of the club’s sides is 31 games by the Seconds (3rdXV) between October 1970 and October 1971. The run was broken with a draw against Stratford but the team went on to win a further 17 games on the trot before losing to Westleigh Extras in March 1972 which halted their run of 49 unbeaten games. The best winning run by the first team is 14 games, between February and October 1990. Their best run during a single season is 11 which was achieved as long ago as 1931-32.

Biggest Wins
For many years the first team’s record win was 51-6, achieved against Old Coventrians in October 1931. This was not broken until October 1978 when we beat Southam 61-6 in the Warwickshire Cup. It was increased against Kings Norton (65-4) in 1981, Rugby Welsh (65-0) in 1982 and Standard (87-0) in 1991. The first team topped 100 points in 1993/94 with a 103-0 win against Bletchley and their highest score in a league game is 94-3 against Kings Norton in December 2000.

The third XV broke the overall club record with a 78-0 win over CAD Kineton in 1953 and this total was passed by the Stags (83-0) against Banbury in 1970, the Tigers (89-0) against Southam in 1973 and the Stags (90-0) against Chipping Norton in 1977. The first side to top the 100 point mark was the Colts in October 1977 when they clocked up 112 without reply against Stoneygate, but this mark was passed by the Spartans in March 1980 when they won 122-0 against Stratford. This included 24 tries and the referee stopped the game well before the 80 minute mark, once he knew we had beaten the previous record.

Other sides to top the 100 mark include the Under-17s (100-0) against Eemland, on tour in Holland in 1990, the Spartans (102-0) against Shottery in 1990-91 and the Extras (100-5 against Stratford) in 1993/94. The last team to reach the ton was the Spartans against Old Coventrians 2008, when they won 117-0. It is difficult to judge which was the best performance as the referee will sometimes call full-time once 100 points has been reached and scores have gradually increased since the 1960’s through a combination of new laws to encourage open play and increases in the value of a try. The Spartans’ record of 122 would be worth an extra 24 points today.

Worst defeats
The club’s worst recorded pre-war defeats were at second team level against Leamington College (0-46) in 1928 and Sutton Coldfield (0-55) in 1934. The first team’s worst defeats before the war were against Rugby BTH (13-36) and Aston Old Edwardians (0-34) in 1928-29. The newly formed Colts had a record loss of 69-0 to Newbold in 1959 and after they and the Tigers leaked over 70 points on a few occasions in the 1970s, the Stags suffered the ignominy of incurring our worst ever defeat when they lost 104-0 to Berry Hill in 1987. The first team’s worst defeat was against Dudley Kingswinford in March 2011 when we lost by 85-0.

Best Season’s Record
The best season’s record for the first team was achieved in 1935/36, when Ron Boroughs’ side won 21 and lost 5 of their 26 games (81%). The best record of recent times was Peter Gray’s side of 1989/90 which won 25 of 33 games (76%). The best records for the other sides are as follows –

Extras 1979-80 W26 D1 L3 (88%)
Extras 1983-84 W31 D1 L4 (87%)
Seconds (3rd) 1970-71 W27 D0 L3 (90%)
Spartans (3rd) 1979-80 W31 D0 L4 (89%)
Stags 1980-81 W30 D1 L3 (90%)
Tigers 1970-71 W20 D1 L6 (76%)
Colts 1981-82 W30 D0 L3 (91%)

The most wins in a season by the first team is 29 (from 42 games) in 1980/81, although the previous record of 28 (from 38) was arguably superior. The Spartans won 31 (from 35) in 1979/80 and the Extras twice won 31, from 36 games in 1983/84 and from 38 games in 1980/81. The Spartans of 1988/89 won 29 of the 31 games of which the results are recorded and it may be that this was both the best season (93% plus) and the most wins in a season.

Most Points in a Season
Peter Payne’s Stags of 1980/81 scored a record total of 1,044 points and conceded only 181 in winning 30 of 34 games. The first team to score 1,000 points was Maurice Goymer’s Stags of 1971/72 who scored 1,006 points in 36 games, in the season in which a try was increased from 3 to 4 points. The only other side to top 1,000 points was the Colts in 1990-91, who scored 1,014 in 35 games. The highest total for the first XV is 831 in 32 games by Guy Stanton’s team of 1993-94

The most points against is 1225, which were conceded by the first team in 28 games in 2010/11

Most Tries
Records do not confirm the record try scorer with any certainty as match reports are patchy, but early pacesetters included Dr David Parfitt who scored 24 tries in 20 games during 1931-32 and Pip Moore who scored 22 in 1936-37. D. Brook got 22 in 1948/49, mostly for the 2nd XV.

Colin Barker set a new mark of 29 tries in 1996/97 and this was beaten by Vic Barber with 32, one ahead of Geoff Miller on 31, in 1970/71. This was not beaten until Chris Murphy scored an estimated 45 times in 2002-03. Alan Rowland scored 59 for the under-12 junior side in 1981/82, with Guy Stanton adding another 40.

It is not possible to say with certainty who has scored the most tries in total, but this must surely be Simon David, who played regularly on the wing for 30 years and was a prolific try scorer throughout that time. He scored 35 tries in 2006/07, when 43 years of age

The most tries by an individual in a game is 8, which was first achieved by Dave Thomas playing for the Stags against Banbury in 1970-71. Andy Shaw equalled this against Southam in 1973/74 as did Andy Davies in his first game for the club, against Lockheed in 1983/84.
As far as we know, the most tries for the first team is 5 - first achieved by G Price against Old Warwickians in April 1934 and since equalled by Archie Banks, John Williamson, Peter Preece, Jean Inchauspe, Rob Rennel and Simon David.

Most points in a Season
Again, records do not confirm the most individual points in a season with any certainty, but it seems that Dr David Parfitt’s 24 tries in 1931-32 (which yielded 72 points) was the pre-war record. Alan Hogge set a new mark with 87 points in 1952/53 and John Shurvinton was the first to achieve a century with 103 in 1958/59. He did even better the following season with 112. From the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s the record increased regularly as a consequence of more and higher scoring games. The record gradually increased as a result -

Guy Nicholls – 148 (1966-67)
John Quick – 177 (1969-70)
Lol Smith – 210 (1970-71)
Mick Holder – 226 (1974-75)
Pat Callaghan – 295 (1975-76)

Pat Callaghan’s record still stands, but Alan Newbold set a record for first team top scorer with 241 points in 1980/81. Tom Secher came close to this with 231 points in 2008/09 including a record 201 points in league games

Most games played
By his own calculation Jack Devis played 637 games for the club, from the resumption of activities after the war until 1973, when he was well into his fifties. Ray Ward had played over 600 games when he announced his first team retirement in 1974 but he played on for another decade and exceeded Jack’s record. Norman David played at every opportunity from 1952, when he was 16, until 1999 when he was 64 and although there is no record of his appearances it is likely that he played well over 1,000 games for the club.

International Players
The club claims four senior internationals – Kelso Fulton played a few early season games for us in 1950/51 and 1951/52 and then went on to play twice for Scotland (1952 and 1954). Keith Savage joined the club from Leamington College in 1959 and after four seasons moved to Northampton in 1963/64, from where he was capped 13 times by England and 4 times by the British Lions. Peter Preece came to the club from Coventry in 1968 having completed his England career with 12 caps. Frank Wilson played twice for Ireland 1977 and played for the club in 1987 and 88.

John Shurvinton was the club’s first junior international when he played for England Schools U-19 side in 1953-54. Since then many of our mini-junior and youth graduates have represented, South Warwickshire, Warwickshire and the Midlands in the various age groups and the following have gone all the way through to international selection -

Arne Suggett - England U-16 (1979)
Simon Boyle - England U-16s (1985)
Laurence Boyle - England U-16 (1986) and U-21 (1991)
Nial Griffiths - England U-16 (1986), U-18 (1988), Colts (1989) and Scotland U-21 (1991)
Dicky Davies - England Colts (1986)

Derby Games
The first Derby against Kenilworth was on Boxing Day 1926, in our first season which finished as a 6-6 draw. We met three more times before the Second World War and only occasionally in the immediate years afterwards, with Kenilworth establishing an 11-0 lead in the series. We achieved our first win in 1956 and regular games then took place, with Kenilworth initially continuing to hold the advantage. The tide turned in our favour in the mid-sixties and from 1967 we won 14 out of 15 games, including 11 in a row. Leamington remained generally in the ascendancy until the mid 1990s, but then our relegation from Midlands 1 coincided with Kenilworth’s promotion. Our paths have not crossed very often since and the Midlands Oak Trophy, which was presented for the fixture, has been largely uncontested, although when we did meet during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons when Kenilworth won all 4 games and inflicted some heavy defeats on us. The overall record is 39 wins to 37 in favour of Kenilworth, with 4 games drawn.

Warwick School were on our first fixture list in 1926/27 but the Old Warwickians club was not formed until five years later, in 1931. For a while we played both the school and the club and the tradition of playing the old boys on Boxing Day was established in 1931 and continued until 1985, when the fixture was dropped due to it becoming uncompetitive. The overall record is that Leamington won 58 games to the OW’s 11, with 4 drawn and one result not known. The last OW win on Boxing Day was in 1955 and their only win after that was in the Warwickshire Cup in 1976. The last game between the clubs was in the Warwickshire Cup in January 1990 (37-0) and the old boys amalgamated with Warwick RFC in 2004 to form Warwickians RFC.

Although the Old Leamingtonians was formed in 1931 and we competed regularly at second and third team level during the 1930s, the first senior fixture between the clubs was not until Easter Monday 1940 when a rather depleted Leamington side went down by 11-0. Regular fixtures were introduced in the immediate post-war years but we dropped the fixture in 1950 and the clubs did not play again until they were brought together in the Warwickshire Cup in 1986, when the OLs triumphed by 12-6, at Moorefields. Since then we have played on a fairly regular basis in league, cup and friendly games with the overall score standing at 18 wins for Leamington against 8 for Old Leamingtonians with 3 games drawn. Since the 1986 game, results are 14-7 in favour of Leamington, with 1 drawn.

Stratford is the oldest of the south Warwickshire clubs, dating back to 1877. The original Leamington Rovers club might well have played them, but we have no record of this. The first recorded fixture was in December 1935 when we won 18-3. Stratford was the dominant side in the area after the war and was particularly strong in the 1960s. Around this time games became rather “tasty” and the committees of the two clubs came under considerable pressure to restrain their players’ behaviour to enable the fixture to survive. Leamington dominated the fixture from the mid-seventies to the mid-nineties but since then results have been pretty even. The overall record (including 2010-11) is 44 wins to Leamington and 32 to Stratford, with 2 drawn and 1 result missing.

Warwickshire Cup
The Warwickshire Cup was introduced in 1971-72. We made our first impact on the tournament when we reached the semi-final in 1974-75, but lost to Solihull, who dominated the Cup in its early years. We reached our first final in 1980 but lost 14-6 to Coventry Welsh. We got there again in 1982 but this time lost to Stoke Old Boys after a replay. Although we had a number of epic campaigns we had to wait ten years for another final chance and this time we won the trophy, defeating Broadstreet 10-4 in 1992. We were back at Coundon Road for our fourth final in 1996 and although hot favourites went down by 15-8 to Sutton Coldfield. We have not been close since.

Warwickshire Colts Cup
Surprising, considering how rare drawn games are in rugby, the Colts have drawn 3 cup finals - 1979 and 1980, when we shared the trophy with Rugby and 1991 when we shared it with Barkers Butts. In between we won the trophy outright twice – in 1982 and 1987. Since then we lost in the final to Barkers Butts in 1999 and with a joint-Old Leamingtonians side to Rugby in 2004.

Sevens
The club’s first involvement in competitive rugby was when we entered the Rugby & District sevens just before the War. The Lockheed sevens, which were inaugurated in 1945, was the main local tournament in the post-war years which we won for the first time in 1959 and on a further five occasions thereafter. The Warwickshire RFU tournament was first held in 1976 and became the most important event and we won this seven times before it was abandoned. The Colts also won their county title seven times. We have won the following events -

Lockheed - 1959, 1960, 1962, 1974, 1975, 1978 (by Colts)
Coventry Cathedral - 1962
Warwickshire - 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1991, 1994
Warwickshire Colts - 1976, 1978, 1980, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994
Loughborough Colts – 1979
Alcester – 1988, 1995, 2011

There was a proliferation of tournaments in the sixties and seventies and we held our own event for three years from 1973-75. Cheltenham were the inaugural winners in September 1973, beating Newbold 24-4 in the final. Newbold took the trophy the following year beating Old Leamingtonians and the Nutcrackers (Harlequins) defeated Westleigh in 1975.

Under21 Tournament
During the 1980s, the club ran an under-21 invitation tournament under our new floodlights, sponsored by Pottertons. The competition attracted an outstanding entry and Leamington were the first winners in 1984/5 and the last winners in 1988/89, by which time interest in the competition had declined due mainly to the introduction of league rugby.

1984/85 - Leamington 7 Walsall 3
1985/86 - Northampton 16 Nottingham 4
1986/87 - Nottingham 9 Coventry 4
1987/88 - Northampton bt Lichfield
1988/89 - Leamington 23 Northampton 19

Mini and Junior Rugby
The Club has been at the forefront in the development of youth rugby. In 1952 we began to organise Saturday morning training sessions for youngsters who were not playing at, or had recently left school. This led to the formation of our first Colts team in 1958. When the club moved to Moorefields in 1970, a group of players began coaching the basics of rugby to younger schoolboys on Sunday mornings. This was the beginning of mini rugby at Leamington. The mini-rugby section was formed in December 1972 and junior rugby (under-14s to under-17s) was added in 1974. In recent years, Tony Timms and Paul Ford have coaching rugby in local junior and secondary schools in and in 2000 we began to host an annual schools' tag tournament which 16 primary schools attend.

Guinness Record Breakers
Our under-10 side of 1979/80 began one of rugby’s most successful winning streaks. As under-12s they completed their three years in mini-rugby with a record of 80 wins, 4 draws and only 1 defeat in 85 games (2,444 points for and only 68 against) and in doing so established themselves as the best mini-rugby team in England and Wales. On graduating to the junior age-groups they continued their dominance and as under-14s reached the milestone of 92 games without defeat (from October 1980 to April 1984) a record for any rugby team. For this they were formally recorded as world record holders in the Guinness Book of Records (1985).

The team completed its progress through the junior ranks as under-17s and in their eight year career they won 147 of their 155 games with 5 draws and only 3 defeats (4820 points for and 224 against) and won every tournament they entered. As under-17s, eight of the squad played for the Colts in the 1987 Warwickshire Colts Cup final against Barkers Butts. Guy Stanton, Laurence Boyle and Neill Griffiths all went on to play for the first XV and Guy captained the club. The success of the team was also recognised at international level with Lawrence Boyle and Neil Griffiths both chosen to play for England under-16 schoolboys. The team was coached by former player, Terry Liggins, assisted at first by Glyn Pitchford and later by Phil Jackson.

Veterans
Leamington were runners-up in the inaugural Old Warwickians Veterans tournament in 1986 and then won the trophy in 1987, 1988, 1999 and 1993. The Warwickshire Veterans tournament was introduced in 1898/99, when we won the plate competition. We lost to Rugby in the final the flowing year. A South Warwickshire tournament was introduced in 2003/04 which we won and were finalists in the flowing two seasons.