33. 2005 to 2008

There were a number of changes on the Committee, with Hugh Smith taking over as Chairman from John Hibben and Peter Preece succeeding Bob Howe as President. Louise Johnson headed up the Youth Section and Mike Fairbotham agreed to resume as Honorary Treasurer. There were also big changes on the playing side with Tony Smith moving to Rugby Lions and Tony Timms resigning as Rugby Chairman shortly afterwards. Alan Roberts and Tony Bristow continued as the main coaching team and Alex Carroll captained the side for a fourth time. Players on the move included fly-half James Robertson who went off to University and coming in was winger John Raby, whose grandfather had played for the club.

The league season began with an excellent 14-14 draw at Malvern with the Leamington pack dominating the game and Alex Carroll and Chris Lahey, in his final game before returning to South Africa, both scoring tries. Unlucky not to get both points, we only had to wait until the next game for our first victory when, with another powerful forward effort, we beat Stoke 21-8 with tries by Bristow, Evans and Renowden. We were drawn away at Huntingdon on the NPI Intermediate Cup and after taking an early lead with a try by scrum half Danny Keogh we were ripped apart before the break. Although we fought back hard and reduced the gap through a Marcus Pask try, we went out by 27-17.

First XV 2005-06 Dave Barry (physio), Mark Warrilow, Terry Curran, Rob Butler, Alan Roberts, Simon Brand, Scott Conduit, Neil McMillan, Andy Siddle, Kit Forrest (manager), Adam Preece, Simon David, Marcus Pask, Richie Evans, John Raby, Alex Carroll (captain) Gareth Renowden, Danny Keogh, Dorian Ward, Tony Bristow

The season went downhill from here. We lost 30-10 at Hinckley after two late tries finished us off in a game that was close until an injury to Alan Roberts caused the forwards to be re-shuffled. We then slipped to a narrow 31-23 defeat to Barkers Butts who overhauled us in the second half after we had gone ahead through a spectacular try from Raby and another from Scott Conduit when the strong wind was in our favour in the first half. A new look line-up battled out a 3-3 draw with Camp Hill. Gareth Renowden came into the centre to replace the injured Dave Smith and Matt Davies played at scrum half. Franco Gouws made his debut on the wing and Neil McMillan and Simon Brand came into the back row. Three points down to an early penalty, it took well into the second half to pull it back with an equaliser from Bristow. During a break in the league action we took on Old Leamingtonians at Moorefields in the Warwickshire Cup and went behind to a second-minute try. But Raby quickly levelled after a flowing move and we then took control, adding tries from Renowden and a second from Raby. Flanker Doz Ward and Bristow piled on the points in the second half for a 36-15 win.

It was an altogether different sort of derby experience when we went to Kenilworth for a league fixture the following week. Played in front of a large crowd, fuelled by their Vice Presidents' lunch, Kenilworth were firing on all cylinders. Two tries in the opening ten minutes set them on their way and the floodgates then opened. We had conceded 45 points by half time and were looking at a catastrophic score line when Kenilworth scored in the first minute of the second period. But our forwards rallied and as we began to match them point for point tempers started to fray, resulting in a Kenilworth player being sent off for stamping. This was followed by a red card for Fran Hemmings to even things up. 64-19 was the final result with ten tries against and Curran and Conduit both scoring for Leamington. It was much closer the following week when we entertained Newport but we lost narrowly by 29-33. First half tries from Birks and Pearl left us just behind at the break but Newport scored three times in the second period to stretch their lead and although we came back well with tries by Brand and Renowden we couldn't do enough to close the gap.

If our Kenilworth experience wasn't bad enough, our next game was at league leaders Broadstreet, who went slightly better and hammered us 67-6. It was a much more resilient performance however and the score did not reflect the game. The Street pack was dominant throughout but we held out strongly for the first 25 minutes before they were able to capitalize on their advantage. We resisted well again after the break and it was only after Alan Roberts departed to the sin-bin for the last ten minutes that we were over-run with four late tries. If we needed any confirmation that our luck was out it arrived against Newbold in mid-November. On a dismal day when the fog left spectators gazing at shadows in the mist, the skippers agreed to play and Newbold took a 10-6 lead. After 55 minutes, the referee called the captains together and they all agreed to continue, but ten minutes later with things no worse and Leamington applying heavy pressure on the Newbold line, the referee abandoned the game. As it had gone past the 60 minute mark Newbold were awarded the points. We were now slipping rapidly into the relegation zone, but we managed to ease our worries somewhat with a welcome 22-0 victory over fellow strugglers Old Laurentians at Moorefields, lifting us one point above the drop zone. Hopes were high of winning the return match against Newbold, who had been hammered by 60 points against Kenilworth the week before and an early try by Renowden got us off to a good start, but the Bold were in front by half time and never looked look like losing as their forwards got on top to win 16-6.

The start to the second half of our campaign brought leaders Broadstreet to Moorefields. Although well beaten by 44-0 it was another dogged display, particularly by the forwards who stood up well to the relentless pressure from the Broadstreet pack and as in the first game, late tries with Alan Roberts off the field for a yellow card, put a gloss on the score-line. Broadstreet were our visitors again a few weeks later in the Warwickshire Cup and the game produced an almost identical score with the Street winning 40-3 on their way to lifting the trophy. We fielded an experimental line-up, including Sebastian Meurnier, a French student at Warwick University and despite the losing margin we competed well.

We failed to ease our league predicament at Stafford, where after making all the early running but failing to turn it into points, it was Stafford who broke the deadlock just before half time and went on to win 14-8. An excellent 10-8 victory at third place Newport moved us out of the bottom two and eased our relegation worries. All the points were scored in the first half and after going behind early on we came back well to score tries by Danny Keogh and Gareth Renowden for a welcome and deserved win. The Newport result proved to be no more than a flash in the pan however as Kenilworthagain proved far too strong when they visited Moorefields for the return game. Kenilworth took control early on and piled up 42 points, our only response being a try from Simon Brand after a brilliant break by the outstanding Renowden. Away at Camp Hill we started strongly with two tries from fly-half James Pearl and were looking good with our forwards pushing the Camp Hill pack all over the field. We scented victory when the home side went a man down following a sin-bin offence but this inspired a revival and tries either side of half time put Camp Hill into the lead, which they extended to win 21-14

Although a beautiful day for rugby, there was further gloom for us as we took on Barkers Butts at home. We played some magnificent rugby and scored four first half tries though Renowden (2) Pask and Blunt, to one by the Butts. Unfortunately, a succession of penalties kept them in the game and they trailed by only one point at the break. Two more kicks took Barkers into the lead but a further try by Smith levelled things up at 27-27. In the final stages a move which looked like providing a winning Leamington try ended with a breakaway score by the Butts, to which they added another in the final move of the game to win 39-27. The next week's events were overshadowed by the news that former skipper Dave Reeve, who led the club to a record 29 victories in 1982, had died following a long struggle against cancer. Another home defeat, this time by 18-10 to Hinckley, left us firmly rooted in the relegation zone. Once again we started well and scrum half Renowden intercepted and ran the length of the field to score. We increased our lead with hooker Richie Evans going over from a pushover scrum but Hinckley came back into the game with two penalties either side of half time and the game swung their way when Alan Roberts was sent off for a second yellow card and they capitalised on their numerical advantage with two tries.

Our next three games were against our main relegation rivals and the results would determine our fate. The first of these was against Stoke and again we failed to take advantage of early territory and possession and were made to pay as our opponents, fielding two imported Fijian mercenaries, raised their game and win by 17-10. Modern technology failed to come to our rescue against Malvern, when the female guest referee from Canada was wired-up to her two touch judges to trial the system to be used in the upcoming World Cup. Malvern had improved their side before the February transfer deadline by taking some Worcester academy players on loan and they made a big difference. Again we led, with Simon David and Alex Carroll both getting on the score sheet, but we couldn't maintain our advantage and three second half tries won the game for Malvern by 35-17.

Relegation was finally confirmed as we slipped to the narrowest of defeats at rock-bottom Old Laurentians in the penultimate game. With the wind behind us we took lead with tries from full-back Adam Preece and Simon Brand and led 23-5 lead just after half time. Although the game seemed lost, Laurentians slowly clawed their way back into it with two tries and two penalties and in the last movement of the match they were awarded a further penalty, which was taken quickly and resulted in a try under the posts. The conversion made it 24-23. Putting the disappointment of relegation behind us, we ended our campaign with our best performance of the season, outplaying Stafford in every department to win 38-24. Skipper Alex Carroll was in inspired form, pulling the strings in midfield and setting up tries for Keogh (2), Renowden (2), Smith, Ward and Evans. So, after climbing the ladder two years before, it was back down the snake again. Apart from Broadstreet and Kenilworth, who were well ahead of the rest of the Division, there was not much between the other sides and most of our games were close and several would have been won had we been able to turn possession into points and not let vital leads slip away.

Gareth Eastham managed and captained the 2nd XV and they won just over half of their games, but like the first team their form tailed off in the second half of the season and they won only two games after January. In the Warwickshire 2nd XV Cup they defeated Shipston 61-0 and Manor Park 51-15 before going down heavily to Rugby Lions by 17-41. Bryn Evans managed the Spartans and they had a similar record, winning twelve games, including a double over Kenilworth. The Stags played only one game and all sides suffered from an unhealthy number of "free" Saturdays, with games called off or no fixtures available on those weeks allocated for cup games - only seven senior games were played in the five Saturdays in April.

The club won the plate in the inaugural Warwickshire 20-20 midweek competition, for which the club acted as one of the hosts, utilising our new floodlights. We went out to Southam in the main event. The club were also runners-up in the Warwickshire Veterans' tournament played at Southam, winning our group by beating Broadstreet with a "golden try" in extra time. We defeated Nuneaton OE in the semi final before losing 5-0 to Old Laurentians in the final. The April tour was to Denia, near Valencia, where we took part in a mini-tournament. Matches were decided on tries scored and we defeated the hosts and two other English touring sides - Blake's Bears (Bridgwater) and Old Elizabethans (Bristol) to win the event.

Bill Dalton and Mark Brown worked hard to develop a young colts side which, although it lost more than it won, showed signs of progress towards the end of the season with some very promising players coming through. They reached the semi-finals of the Warwickshire Cup before losing to Barkers Butts and in the new National Colts cup went down 5-10 to Birmingham-Solihull. Matt Timlin played for Warwickshire and he and Tom Secher, Leigh Cleary, Steve Fitzgerald, Danny Ruyssevelt, Tom Haig, Nick Hart, Gary Hales, Ryan Oliver, Danny Phillips, Patch Northover, Tom Brown and Alex Wileman all played for South Warwickshire. Alan Roberts and Gareth Renowden both played for the senior Warwickshire XV, with Alan captaining the side.

Relegation 2 to Midlands 3 resulted in an exodusof players, for different reasons: Simon Brand moved away to Banbury; Tony Bristow finally hung up his boots and went to Rugby Lions in a coaching capacity; Richie Evans returned to Nuneaton Old Eds and; Scott Conduit, Doz Ward and Fran Hemmings move en-masse to Silhillians. Nick Maxwell decided to try his luck at Rugby, but was injured for most of the season and Gareth Renowden, our player of the year went to Kenilworth, where he was an instant success. Danny Keogh our Most Improved Player and his obvious successor disappeared off the scene. Danny Birks (right), a product of our mini and junior set-up and an outstanding open-side wing forward became our new skipper, but to add to our woes he was out injured until Christmas and prop forward Terry Curran broke his leg in the opening game. Peter Blunt took over the captaincy in Danny's absence and he was supported by Alex Carroll, who replaced Bristow as backs coach alongside Alan Roberts. New players coming in included talented fly half Simon Dudley and big centre Sam Bower.

Moorefields basked in the autumn sunshine as our depleted side opened the season against a well-drilled Pershore side. The visitors started strongly and two tries before half time and two more afterwards sealed a comfortable 22-3 win. The next game was away at Stratford and after touch judge Dick Jewitt raised his flag before the ball was kicked to confirm that his son Tom had put us into the lead with a long range penalty, Stratford responded strongly and ran out easy winners by 41-12. Edwardians were our next visitors and went ahead with an early interception try. We levelled through Jon Raby but thereafter it was all about penalties and from 11-7 down the visitors kicked four to our one. A welcome first win, by 17-11, arrived against Bedworth. The omens were not good when the Extras took the match shirts away with them and then the match ball went missing, but when the game did get underway, Simon Dudley began to orchestrate things and we were rewarded with two Raby tries and another from young scrum-half Tom Secher. It was back down to earth the following week with 68-26 thumping at Nuneaton Old Edwardians and then a further defeat by 13-5 at Silhillians. At high flying Hereford we were up against a very fit and mobile side but we produced a positive performance from start to finish with Pete Blunt and Neil McMillan outstanding in the back-row. In the end, lapses in defence were punished severely and Hereford gradually pulled away to win 38-3.

In the national competitions, our lower league status relegated us to the new EDF Senior Vase in which we were drawn against Wellingborough, but they withdrew on the morning of the match, being unable to field a front row. In the next round we visited Oakham where after trading two tries apiece in the first half, some spectacular running from centres Carroll and Smith put the Rutlanders on the rack, but we were unable to turn pressure into points and in the end they got the vital score and went on to win by 25-12.

After six defeats in our opening seven league games we were deep in the relegation zone and in urgent need of points. The visit of Ledbury at the end of November put a smile back on our faces and in front of a well fed crowd, following the Vice President's lunch, we put on a very professional and well-drilled display. With the forwards dominating possession, Carroll, Secher and Raby all touched down as we piled on the pressure to win 22-7. The next game was against fellow strugglers Old Coventrians and after full-back Leigh Cleary put us ahead with a penalty from the half way line we took control of the game with tries from Raby and young No.8 Steve Hersey to go into a commanding 18-5 lead. Although the OCs came back strongly they could only add a single penalty and a second successive win was secured. If ever a game signalled a low point in the fortunes of a club it was surely the next match against Old Leamingtonians in the Warwickshire Cup. On a dark, cold, wet and blustery afternoon at Bericote Lane, the two teams both struggled badly and put on an awful display. With the wind behind them the OLs had the better of things in the first half and went ahead with a try and a penalty. Just on half time, we got back into the game through the quick thinking of scrum half Tom Secher, who took a tap penalty and darted over the line with the home defence in disarray. With conditions worsening, play became even scrappier in the second half and although we had wind advantage we couldn't score and the OLs held on to win by 11-5.

We resumed the league programme at mid-table Earlsdon and took the lead through a well worked try by Sam Bower. Earlsdon levelled just before half-time and went ahead with a try in the second period to win narrowly by 10-7. We remained perilously close to the relegation positions after another narrow defeat, this time at home to Silhillians in a game we dominated throughout. Patch Northover making his home debut at scrum-half was in sparkling form and marshalled his forwards to keep the opposition on the back-foot for most of the game. A first-half penalty was all we had to show for our dominance and a sloppy try was conceded after the break to put the visitors ahead by 7-3, which proved to be the winning score. Things were now looking really serious and a second successive relegation was a strong possibility. Our next game was at joint leaders Old Laurentians and although we came away without any points we put in a skilful and determined performance. The home side were restricted to a penalty and a drop goal in the first half and after the break we bounced back with a fine try by Mark Warrilow. Laurentians then scored two tries against the run of play before running away with the game in the final quarter to win 35-13. It was a much improved performance inspired by the performances of Patch Northover, Steve Hersey and Simon Harry, who had been promoted from the Colts at Christmas and were beginning to find their feet at senior level.

We turned the corner the following week with a 37-15 thumping of Nuneaton Old Edwardians (who had scored 68 points against us earlier in the season). Tom Secher returned from injury and moved to the wing to accommodate Northover, but it was the mercurial Alex Carroll and fit again skipper Danny Birks who stole the show. Carroll orchestrated the moves and scored a try himself, with Warrilow and Smith both grabbing a pair. A rare victory at Bedworth made it two wins in a row but it was a close run thing. Secher put us ahead in the second half, but towards the end of the game Bedworth had us under tremendous pressure and with a few minutes to go they finally managed to breach our defence following a scrum close to the line. All appeared lost, but back we came again and in an incredibly exciting finish Simon Dudley raced under the posts for a try in the last minute and the game was won by 17-14.

A disappointing defeat at fellow strugglers Edwardians then put us back into the relegation zone once more. The home team's powerful forwards dominated throughout on a very wet pitch and our swifter backs got bogged down in the mud. A Raby try and a Cleary penalty were all we had to show for our afternoon's work as we lost 18-8. Fortunately it was back to winning ways the next week, with a fine display at home against Earlsdon. It was not without a scare as the visitors led after half an hour with two tries, but we were not to be denied and ran in scores through Secher, Melville, Raby and the outstanding Leigh Cleary to win 26-10. Matt Timlin, another of our Colts, came in at hooker and had a fine game.

First XV 2006-07 Dick Jewitt (linesman), Alan Roberts, Alex Carroll, Steve Hersey, Rob Butler, Simon Harry, Neil McMillan, James Pearl, Gareth Eastham, Matt Timlin, John Cooper, Kit Forrest (manager), Dave Smith, John Raby, Mark Warrilow, Danny Birks (captain), Leigh Cleary, Patrick Northover, Danny Phillips, Simon Dudley, Bill Unsworth

There was a strong breeze blowing through the Vale of Evesham when we visited Pershore and like most teams we left pointless. Playing into the wind things were looking good when a Steve Hersey try on half time levelled at 5-5, but with the breeze behind us we messed things up by conceding three breakaway tries and lost 29-17. Fortunately all our relegation rivals lost too. We then lost a high scoring local derby at home to Stratford. The visitors got off to a good start with three converted tries in the first half but we matched them score for score through Raby, Dudley and Carroll (2) to nose ahead by 22-21 at the break. With the forwards in control we applied strong pressure but disaster struck ten minutes from time when an interception enabled the visitors' wing to run the length of the field to put them ahead and the same player scored his fourth try from the restart to wind up the match at 33-22.

Safety was finally secured against bottom side Old Coventrians when we achieved our biggest win of the season, by 57-12. With the forwards again outstanding the game was effectively over by half-time with tries from Blunt, Raby, Secher and Smith (2). Although we eased up in the second half we added further scores through Hersey, Northover and Siddle. The final game against strugglers Ledbury had been seen as a potentially difficult final obstacle as their side had been stiffened since Christmas by players hired from Oxford University in an attempt to avoid the drop and they had improved enormously. However with our relegation fears removed the previous week the side travelled in a relaxed mood and tries by Secher, Hersey and Smith had our hosts on tenterhooks before they scored the decisive try to win the game by 27-17 - only to receive the news that Bedworth had won and they were relegated anyway.

So after a nightmare start with a depleted team, when it looked like we might be heading for relegation again, we picked up strongly after Christmas and finished four places above the bottom - but only by one point above relegation. The improvement was particularly due to the performances of a number of young players who came into the side through the Colts, including - Tom Secher, Matt Timlin, Leigh Cleary, Patch Northover, Steve Hersey Simon Harry, Rob Butler, Danny Phillips and Andy Siddle. They gave the side a new look, a new spirit and above all the hope of better times ahead if they could stay together. Prop forward/hooker Mark Warrilow was voted most improved player of the year and the Young Player award went to Steve Hersey. The Player of the Year was Neil McMillan who had an outstanding season in the back row, particularly in the first half of the season when the side was struggling. Leigh Cleary topped the league points scorers with 48 closely followed by top try scorer John Raby with 8 tries On the representative front, Alan Roberts continued to play for the Warwickshire senior side.

Gez Robinson and Matt Dale led the 2nd XV, supported by Bryn Evans and they won just under half of their games. The Spartans' team of "golden oldies", led by Dave Ward, had an excellent season winning 17 out of 21 and were unbeaten from the end of November. They were awarded the South Warwickshire "tail-enders" trophy as the top third team in the area. Among the highlights were an 89-0 victory over Broadstreet and a 94-0 win over Edwardians, with Simon David bagging six tries. Overall, Simon was top scorer with 35 tries.

Bill Dalton and Mark Brown continued to develop the Colts and were able to see the fruits of their labour with so many players graduating to the first XV. This weakened the Colts side, but they still managed to improve their record from the previous season. Matt Blay was Colt of the Year and Aaron Liebermann won the Junior Colt award. In the national cup they beat Sutton Coldfield before going out to Worcester. They then went into the plate competition where they had to concede to Walsall who had earlier postponed the game (contrary to the rules) because they couldn't field a team, only for us to then be required to play it on a date when we couldn't field a side! In the Warwickshire Cup we dispatched Old Coventrians before losing heavily to Rugby Lions. A number of the junior players received county honours with Adam Woodfield, Eliot Liebermann and Will Godwin all playing for Warwickshire under-17s and along with Ollie Parkes they all played for Warwickshire in the National Colts Sevens competition. The Colts again also took part in the Carrickfergus sevens in Northern Ireland and the seniors had a successful overseas tour at the end of the season, this time to Bahia in Majorca.

As always, putting teams out on the pitch requires the support and effort of lot of people, in addition to the coaching team. The role of fixture secretary was now undertaken by Bryn Evans and Jane Reeve was the match secretary. These traditional jobs were changing, with the fixtures now largely determined by the league programme and cups draws and the notification of selection done by email. An increasingly important task was the registration of players which was strictly controlled and although simple in theory the consequences of a single administrative error could wreck a season if points were deducted for fielding an unregistered player. Another trend was to support the teams with a team manager whose job it was to ensure that match day arrangements were taken care of and playing kit was available. Kit Forrest was supporting the first team and Bryn Evans looked after the Extras and Spartans. Other important characters were Dick Jewitt, who ran the touchline and Roger Copping, Dave Barry, Monica Costello and Tilly Philpott who ensured that there was physiotherapy support for all the sides. After years of providing this support, Roger Copping gave up his couch at the end of the season and in recognition of his contribution was elected as clubman of the year.

Sadly John Oxenbould and David Glasborrow, former stalwarts and honorary life members of the club died during the season. Both had held most of the key offices during their time, with John's particular forte being press and public relations. He was the club historian for many years and produced wonderful statistical analyses of team and individual records, without which this history would not be so comprehensive. He could also drink a bit. David was a useful player for the club and on retiring he became an excellent administrator. He was a bit of a stickler for procedure and protocol and fell out of love with the game with the introduction of professionalism.

There was a healthy atmosphere in the club during the summer of 2008. Firstly the government introduced a smoking ban in all public and work places, including sports clubs, which meant no more smoking in the clubhouse, a ban which was accepted readily by the members. Also, we entered into an agreement with Mercury Health Ltd for them to use the ground to locate mobile screening units, used as part of a an NHS scheme to make health services more accessible to the public. This would have provided significant income to the club over several years, but unfortunately the government had a change of heart about the scheme and they pulled the funding which brought our contract to a premature end, although it did bring in significant one-off money.

After the previous year's close encounter with relegation, we were optimistic that our young side would make further improvement and compete at the other end of the table. The player/coaching team of Alan Roberts and Alex Carroll remained in place and Danny Birks continued as captain. Among the team changes - John Raby moved to Kenilworth and Leigh Caddy to Australia, but Scott Conduit and Doz Ward came back after a year with Silhillians and Nick Maxwell returned from Rugby Lions, although he was injured for the first part of the season.

We faced Nuneaton Old Edwardians in the opening fixture. Always a tricky one against their powerful forwards, we put in a confident display to win 26-20, a score-line which flattered our hosts. Former colts John Robertson, Alex Wileman and Danny Ruyssevelt all made their debuts in the back three positions, with Danny scoring two tries and a third coming from scrum-half Patch Northover. Our promotion prospects were tested in game two, when we entertained Sutton Coldfield and despite having the better of the forward exchanges, with the back row of Blunt, Birks and Hersey outstanding, Sutton just had the edge in the contest between two very good back divisions and in an entertaining game, with both sides scoring three tries, the visitors edged home by 23-17.

A second away win at struggling Edwardians was achieved comfortably, but thereafter throughout the autumn, results settled into a regular pattern of winning at home and losing away. Impressive home victories were achieved over Stourbridge Lions, Silhillians, Balsall & Berkswell and Kidderminster, but on the road our form deserted us and we suffered disappointing losses at Bedworth, Old Laurentians and Earlsdon - teams we were capable of beating. A narrow 14-15 defeat at second-placed Droitwich at the end of November indicated better things to come and but for a series of injuries during the game we might easily have secured the points. First team debuts were given to new recruits Simon Magill, a barnstorming winger from Old Leamingtonians, and Tom Williams a sublime full back or centre from Wallingford. Tom marked his debut with a try and the versatile Tom Secher added another, as he settled into the fly-half role. Kidderminster were beaten 25-20 and in the final game before the Christmas break we scored a solid away win at Balsall & Berkswell to achieve a double over our neighbours, who were above us in the table at the time.

First XV - 2007-08 Kit Forrest (team manager), Pete Blunt, Terry Curran, Steve Hersey, Neil McMillan, Alan Roberts (player/coach), Simon Harry, Rob Butler, Scott Conduit, Greg Melville, Dick Jewitt (linesman), Adam Preece,Simon Dudley, Nick Maxwell, Patch Northover, Alex Carroll (player/coach0 Derek Jones, Danny Birks (captain) Simon Magill, Marcus Pask, Tom Williams, Danny Phillips, Dave Barry (physio)

In the EDF Vase, after a first round bye, we crossed two bridges with comfortable home wins against West Bridgford and Bridgnorth and in the fourth round we could have done with another one to take us across the swampy pitch at Northampton Old Scouts, but in conditions which did not suit our open style of play we got bogged down and went out by 6-21. In the Warwickshire Cup we drew Barkers Butts away from home and travelled with an experimental pack. Barkers were having a poor season and were there for the taking but disappointingly we went down 15-0. One bright spark to come out of the day was the return of Adam Preece, who came into the side at full-back, after two years away and played outstandingly well for the remainder of the season. Another welcome comeback was by winger Derek Jones, who after several years out of the team was given a surprise promotion and played so well that he held his place. Rob Butler, who had played the first half of the season with Bridgnorth, also came back to us.

The Christmas break provided the opportunity to play some local friendlies and though it is questionable whether these could still be regarded as genuine first team fixtures, given the level of availability, experimentation and substitutions involved, it was still good to achieve wins over Old Leamingtonians by 35-11 and Kenilworth by 17-15. We scored a second win over Kenilworth in March, which demonstrated that we were becoming more competitive with our Midlands 1 neighbours.

The league programme resumed in January with a comfortable win against Earlsdon, followed by a hard won victory at Silhillians. With four straight wins behind us, our climb up the table was put to the test with a visit from third placed Old Laurentians, whose Vice Presidents joined ours in a joint lunch before the game and were very confident of success. This looked to be with good reason as they tore into a 13-0 lead in the first 15 minutes of the game. But we came back with tries from Doz Ward and Mark Warrilow to make the score 13-12, before Laurentians went ahead again before the break. After the interval it was all Leamington and three blistering tries from Alex Carroll, Tom Secher and Carroll again took us clear to win 36-27.

Further wins over Stourbridge, Bedworth and Edwardians made it eight in a row and took us into third place and still with an outside chance of promotion, with games against the top two sides to come. Sutton Coldfield had led the division all season and were racking up big scores every week, but they found Leamington a tough nut to crack. With a strong wind in our favour we dominated the first half but were held out by strong defence and our powerful play was undone by two lapses in concentration and the dangerous Sutton backs scored two tries against the run of play. Into the wind, we continued to press and scored tries through Secher and Birks, but another home score ensured that Sutton took the points with a 22-13 win, which just about ended our hopes.

Nuneaton Old Edwardians provided stiff opposition in our next home game, which appeared to be all but over half way through the second period when a devastating break out of defence by Tom Secher was finished off in style by Simon Dudley and winger John Robertson, for the try of the season. But Nuneaton had other ideas and their powerful forwards took control and camped on our line, exerting tremendous pressure which eventually resulted in two scores, the second as we entered injury time, to snatch the lead. There was just time to try and recover the situation but a try by substitute Doz Ward was ruled out for a forward pass and the chance seemed to have gone. Then, right on the final whistle we were awarded a penalty near the ten yard line and up stepped Tom Secher to put it over and take the points.

We went off the boil in the last two games, losing at Kidderminster after holding a two-try lead and then going down at home to Droitwich in a battle of the Spas in the final game. Sutton Coldfield were worthy champions having led all season from Droitwich, who went into the play-offs. We finished a creditable third with 14 wins and 8 losses: double our points in the previous season. The team had a settled look in the second half of the season - Adam Preece, Derek Jones, Alex Carroll, Doz Ward (or Dave Smith) Simon Magill, Tom Secher, Patch Northover, Marcus Pask, Nick Maxwell (or Mark Warrilow) Terry Curran, Alan Roberts (or Rob Butler) Simon Harry, Danny Birks, Steve Hersey and Pete Blunt (or Scott Conduit) Others to play an important role were Neil McMillan, Danny Phillips, Gareth Eastham, Simon Dudley and Greg Melville. Player of year was Tom Secher and most improved player was Simon Harry. Patch Northover was the most promising young player. Harry, Hersey and Warrilow were selected for Warwickshire Development XV

The Second XV opened with a 51-12 win over Nuneaton Old Eds but their early season form was inconsistent and they didn't get into their stride until early December when they embarked on a run of 8 wins in eleven matches before falling away again in the final few weeks. Overall they won 12 and lost 14 games. In the Warwickshire Cup they negotiated a tricky opening tie against Earlsdon, winning by 17-7 before going down to a good Stratford side. Matt Dale led the team which included a strong core of regulars including Tony Benyon, Richard Blunt, Alistair Speight, Matty Davies, Ben Pitthouse, Mark Baldwin, Peter Davies, Chris Timms, Ryan Oliver, John Wheelhouse, John Cooper, Gez Robinson and Nick Waters. Danny Phillips, Anthony Rose and Matt Blay all made occasional appearances for the first XV.

Dave Ward continued to lead the Spartans with his usual complement of veterans and newcomers. Fixtures were hard to come by at times and they were often frustrated by late opposition cry-offs when they had a full side ready to play. Increasingly, the Spartans (and Seconds') fixtures were becoming focused on Warwickshire opposition with teams rarely going out of the county to play. This inevitably meant an over-familiarity with some opponents - Old Coventrians and Broadstreet becoming regular opposition. They played 23 games in total winning 12 and losing 11. Some were beginning to think the team was a dynasty with players such as Dave Ward, Stuart Chamberlain, Peter Gray and Simon David having played for so long and this was given extra credence around Christmas when Max David and Charlie Gray lined up with their fathers to give a preview of the next generation.

The end of season tour was to Villajoyosa in Spain, to play in a local tournament which unfortunately was cancelled. An impromptu game of beach rugby was the nearest the tourists got to playing a match. The Colts tour to the Carrickfergus sevens also took place, for a sixth year in a row and socially was a great success, although we didn't do too well on the pitch.

Colts coach Bill Dalton made himself scarce for the early part of the season when, with his wife Kath, they travelled to France for the duration of the Rugby World Cup and achieved their ambition of covering all of the venues and seeing 15 of the 16 sides play (the exception being Scotland who failed to venture beyond Hadrian's Wall). In all they watched 23 games including all of England's matches, including the final. They drove 7,670 miles and made many journeys on French buses. On their travels they met up with an assorted bunch of travelling supporters including Pete Gray, Dave Ward, Simon David and others from the veterans' gang and Pete Elliot, Tony Bobath and Gary Ackers, plus others, from the youth section. For their efforts they were chosen as the RFU supporters of the month for October.

Mark Brown held the fort for the Colts in Bill's absence and having seen so many of their players graduate into the senior sides it was back to the drawing board, fielding a very young and inexperienced team. Teething problems were experienced in melding together the 18 and 19 year old age groups and some recruits from Warwickshire College helped. An early season highlight was the visit of Katkati from New Zealand which provided a good game and an even better social event afterwards. After losing their opening seven games without over-troubling the scorer, they got off the mark against Rugby St Andrews at the end of October but wins were hard to come by all season.