We had restarted our activity, but we suffered a financial loss of £44 on a turnover of £102 in the first season. Not surprisingly at the summer AGM the subscriptions were increased for the first time ever: in fact they were doubled to 1 guinea. On the Committee, Cliff Harrison took on the roll of Chairman; Tim Shaw became Honorary Secretary, replacing Jim Garrett who later had to fill in as Honorary Treasurer when Les Coles resigned for business reasons. Fred Thacker became Match Secretary, a job he was to fill for the next twenty years. Hitherto, selection had been carried out by the general committee, but it was decided that the committee was now too big for the task and a selection sub-committee was appointed.

We had new neighbours on the Victoria Park, with Old Leamingtonians moving in to play on the pitch next to ours, but our attention was now focused on obtaining our own ground, with changing and clubhouse facilities. There was discussion with Leamington Cricket Club during the summer about us using their ground in Lillington Avenue, but it appears that the cricketers had some objection to us using their pavilion and although the details are not recorded it seems that their suggestions for alternative ground sharing arrangements were unacceptable to us, so we decided to stay where we were and look for other options.

During the season we were able to identify a suitable site on the Old Warwick Road, alongside the canal, on land which was owned by the King Henry VIII charity and leased to a local farmer. The ground had previously been used by Leamington College as their playing field and we had used it briefly for pre-season training in 1927, whilst the Victoria Park pitch was being prepared. It is not known whether it was the same ground used by the original Leamington club in the 1890s. Although the farmer had only an annual tenancy we were able to negotiate a 10-year sub-lease with him for £1 week, covering September to April. Work then began on preparing the pitch for the following season. This area was completely redeveloped in the 1980s with the construction of Europa Way and the diversion of the canal, but for reference, the ground was opposite where Homebase now stands (see map).

R.F. Bell was elected as captain but shortly before the start of the season his job took him to London and he resigned to be replaced by Des Cooke (left), with Bob Hordern becoming vice-captain. We recruited some very useful new members, including among the backs, E. Herrod-Taylor and Peter O'Shea who had played for Wasps. Peter Winters rejoined the club on demobilisation at Christmas and came into the side at scrum-half. We also recruited some good forwards in Stan Griffiths, Jim Wilkinson and Geoff Booth, who played for Warwickshire Colts in his first year with us. Apart from their exploits on the field, some of the newer players were to become key members on the club in the years to come including - Tim Shaw, a useful full back who became President and Hon. Treasurer for many years; Colin Carter, a centre three-quarter who played mainly in the 2nd XV and also filled the Hon Treasurer role; and Jack Devis, a prop or hooker who played continuously until 1974, by which time he was well into his fifties and had captained all the teams except the first team. At one time he was Honorary Secretary and when he retired he was elected club President. Jack was the nephew of Mrs E. Devis who ran the Bath Hotel and was one of our main patrons in the early years. They owned several businesses in the old town and Jack ran the bakery there, which supplied the club with post-match meals.

The start of the season was delayed due to hard grounds and after defeats in our opening two games we won seven in a row and looked to be on course for a good season. It wasn't to last however and we won only three more games all season as the points for column dried up. Most games were closely fought but we went down heavily to Kenilworth and Coventry Extras. The second XV had an even record with 13 wins and 13 losses, including wins against all our local rivals. There was one 3rd team fixture but neither the opponents nor the result are recorded. It was probably against Old Wheatleyans. We entered the Lockheed sevens for a second year and lost in the first round to BTH (Rugby).

Some other points of interest were that we produced a monthly newsletter for the first time, edited by Arthur Ogden, who had retired from playing before the war. Some copies of this have survived and there are references to matters such as a reduction in the petrol ration and how we might go about fulfilling our away fixtures; our inability to provide player insurance due to the high cost and the question of whether players should make themselves available for the Leamington and Warwick District XV, or put the club's games first. On the social front, Ladies' evenings were organised at various local hotels and an informal ladies committee was formed shortly afterwards. The committee contributed to both the social and the general wellbeing of the club. Jack Devis's mother organised Bridge and Whist drives in aid of club funds, which contributed to a profit of £133 on the season and helped turn our finances around in time for us to be able to take on responsibility for our new ground. Captain W.E. Foss, our long serving honorary Secretary of pre-war days was made an Honorary Life member in recognition of his services to the club - the first person to be so honoured.

1st XV against Old Leamingtonians, on 6 December 1947, which was drawn 0-0. - F.R. Thacker, S. Wood, R. Hordern, M. Harbage, T. Commander, P. Cook, J. Garrett, P. O'Shea, J. Cawthorne, T. Shaw (Secretary) - W. Reading, S.W. Griffiths, J.D. Cooke (Captain) G. Williams, D. Davies, G. Booth

After completing all the preparatory work on the new ground at Old Warwick Road, we started to use the new pitch from the beginning of this season. Taking on our own ground meant taking on new responsibilities and new costs. Much of the equipment we today take for granted was not available. We had no machine for marking pitches, so all the players had to get together with spades and cut 2 inch wide strips of turf and turn them over. This had to be done two or three times a season. Tubular steel goal posts were unknown and we had to buy wooden scaffolding poles, remove the bark, paint them and creosote the base. A weekly task was to go round the pitch with a bucket and hand shovel and pick up the droppings from the farmer's cows. A speaker at one of our annual dinners remarked that he had refereed Leamington and was surprised that they shared their field with a herd of cattle. He said "they didn't play well that day, they just went through the motions! "

Having a ground was a big improvement but we still had to change at The Cricketer's Arms and bath at the Pump Rooms. The next step was to build a clubhouse but it was to take until Easter 1950 before we could get all the necessary permissions, organise the supply of water, electricity and sewage and complete the construction. It was estimated that all this was going to cost in the region of £500, so fund raising efforts and appeals were made. Warwickshire RFU gave us a grant of £25 and our early benefactor Mrs E Devis, of the Bath Hotel, kindly gave us £100. There was a formal opening of the ground on 11 September 1948 by Mr S.G. Gibson, President of Warwickshire RFU which was followed by a game against Old Warwickians. This unfortunately was lost 3-12. Cliff Carr scored our first points on the ground with a try, in the following line-up - F Thacker, A. Hobley, D. Johnson, E. Herrod-Taylor, C. Carr, P. O'Shea, P. Winters, J. Devis, R. Hordern, F. Martin, S.W. Griffiths (Captain), J. Wilkinson, S. Duce, M. Harbage, G. DelaMare.

Stan Griffiths (left) was appointed captain with Peter Winter his vice-captain. This was another year with a good intake of players. In the three-quarters, A. Hobley and Dennis Johnson, were two fast wingers and Cecil Bryer was an outstanding fly-half and a future captain. In the forwards there was John Moreton, George DelaMare, who had the most disarming habit of laughing in the face of anyone who struck him, and Fred Martin a prop or hooker, who joined just at the right moment to become our club architect. Pat Noble was an outstanding flanker but he injured his shoulder in January which ended his career with us. In addition, a very young Peter Jones played in the school holidays. After he left school he soon found a regular place in the first team and then became a very good captain. He left to play for Northampton where he was understudy to England star Dickie Jeeps, and consequently played a lot for their first team.

We had an improving fixture list with the addition of Coventry Extras, Kidderminster, Kenilworth and Sutton Coldfield to the opposition. Unfortunately our new ground did nothing for our results and the opening defeat against Old Warwickians was the first of eight on the trot from the start of the season. Our first win came against Stratford on 30th October and we picked up around Christmas with wins over Banbury and old Laurentians (twice) and an excellent draw against Coventry Extras. We also reversed the Old Warwickians defeat with a 12-3 win on Boxing Day. After that we won only two more games all season, finishing with 7 victories and 23 defeats. The programme for the game against Kenilworth in February is reproduced on the right - we went down 17-3. Towards the end of the season an Easter Festival was held at Old Warwick Road, with Mill Hill, Beckenham and the Westminster Bank all playing us over the three days of the bank holiday.

Apart from the difficulties of what was a very wet winter, this appears to have been a time when rugby union was not at its most attractive as a spectacle. We scored a total of only 133 points from 35 games. Our 12 points against Old Warwickians was our highest score all season and we only reached double figures 4 times. We failed to score in 10 games and got only 3 points in a further 14 matches. One of our problems appears to have been the lack of a reliable kicker, but tries were hard to come by with A. Hobley topping the scorers with 4 and fellow wingers Peter O'Shea and Dennis Brooke getting only 3 apiece.

Scrum-half Don Wakefield captained the 2nd XV. His side did much better than the Firsts', winning 15 and drawing 5 of their 30 games and scoring 254 points. They didn't have the same problem in scoring tries as their seniors with winger Dennis Brooke bagging 19 (including 4 against Erdington) and Dennis Johnson 10. With over 70 playing members, we were able to achieve another milestone this year by starting a more regular third XV, which played 7 games. Tom Commander skippered the side in its first match.

The photographs on this page are undated but they are of the 2nd XV in action in the late 1940's or 1950 The picture above shows skipper Don Wakefield slicing the ball into touch

Second XV - circa 1950. Players include Jack Devis, Jim Wilkinson, Tim Drew and Don Wakefield