I started with St Austell Rugby Club as a 14 year old, playing with the Colts that were then U18's. The photo you see above is the Colts in the 69-70 season where I am sat between Geoff Coombe & Roger Hawke. Really good memories playing with this team, especially in 71/72 where we lost only 2 games in the whole season.

I captained the Colts for two season then graduated to the seniors. St Austell RFC ran four senior sides at that time at Cromwell rd (where ASDA is now in town). Back then the 1st team was well established and you had a job to make inroads into it as a youngster.

At age 17 & playing for St Austell College V Truro College away at an evening fixture, carrying the ball and got hit on the hip and knee (2 thugs!!), seriously damaging the knee, this ended my career at age 21 as there was no knee reconstruction back then!

This left me with a gap in my life where rugby had always been so I decided to get involved in rugby in another way. Bill Wagstaff (Waggie) was at that time the Groundsman and he had to step down so I stepped up. Having a back ground in fishing (Mevagissey), firefighting and gig racing I wasn’t ideally qualified to tend to the huge amount of real estate that our club owns but when the opportunity arose I thought ‘why not?’

Waggie was and still is active at the club so I was able to ask questions and learn. Over time I began to really enjoy the volunteer role and I’m really proud of what I achieved season on season right to this day. Considering my lack of experience in the early days the crowning moment came last season when I was invited to Twickenham to attend the Presidents Luncheon, nominated by Twickenham's Head Groundman, Keith Kent. The 3 course Lunch (very posh) was followed by a guest speaker & a tour of the stadium.

I feel part of a great team here at St Austell Rugby Club. As volunteers we are an eclectic mix of young and old, experienced and inexperienced, ex-rugby and some not. It doesn’t matter what your background is, if you’re willing to lend a hand you’ll fit right in and have a good laugh with the rest of us.

I have some unforgettable memories of St Austell RFC from way back, it was a sport my school (Penrice) didn't patronise for more than a term and I wanted involvement, I had older friends that were playing and this drew me in as a young'un.

I still have many great friends from 47 odd years ago and it's great to see some of them up the club during the season.

That’s my story. I hope you found it interesting and I hope you can see that it doesn’t matter about your background; it just matters that you care enough to help.

Webmasters Note: Thanks Tich! We need volunteers now and helping Tich with the grounds and facilities is one of the areas we are keen to recruit in. It’s interesting, fulfilling and fun. Depending on your situation it might be something you can add to your CV. Also if you need a reference for your volunteer efforts for a new role elsewhere there are a number of us at St Austell RFC can do that for you. There is more information on the help we need HERE. Think it over....