When Rugby football started at the school of the same name, many decades ago, those involved probably never considered the concept or rugby as interpreted by the Sinners. It is only relatively recently (circa 1983 or so) since veterans rugby exploded on the scene via such worldwide tournaments as the “Golden Oldies” yet this concept was probably unofficially started by the Sinners.

The Sinners have been described in many ways (some printable, some no so!) but the phrase used that comes closest is that of the “poor man’s Barbarians”. Most rugby enthusiasts know the Ba-Ba’s as a traveling, fun-loving invitation group of players from clubs far and wide. In the Sinners we represent the same concept but at a far more junior level (of club – not age!). We are composed of players many of whom have retired from the regular game, and only turn out on a select few occasions invited (or cajoled) to do so.

The Sinners were formed in 1965 with the amalgamation of two “senior” London rugby clubs, the “Sun in Splendour” and the “Ledbury Stragglers”. At the time, this amalgamation went virtually unnoticed (even to the people involved in it), but it was as important a milestone in rugby history as the first international contest.

One of the principal reasons that the Sinners still exist was the dedication and enthusiasm that the original president, John Harris, injected into the club. John died tragically in 1978 at the age of 38. He was not a rugby player (a title subsequently bestowed on many a Sinner), but it was his sense of occasion that helped generate the unique spirit that now typifies the Sinners.

A quote from an early John Harris letter sums up the spirit of the times:

“Well, I have brought a book for the players to sign on, and we have had a marvelous response. To date the supporters outnumber the players 20-1, so I won’t be alone on the touchline. We have four touch judges, one referee, and Mad Fred has offered to erect a tent on the touchline so that we can brew toddies.

From behind the bar Glyn Jones, who had a Welsh trial in 1920, has offered to coach the team. My main worry, however, is the team. We have two who play regularly, Messrs. Saunders and Graham. Steve never stops chatting up the barmaid and Dougal is 5’4”, weighs 18 stone, and has no front teeth when playing or pissed, but I hear he signs well. These two play for Harrodians which I suppose means they are ex-Harrow.

I enclose our team so that you can print the programme and confirm that our morale, at least amongst the spectators, is high. We shall arrive as soon after opening time as possible.

Oh by the way, our touch judge says could you supply him with a flag. Our ref wants a whistle, and for God’s sake don’t forget the ball!”.

We do not claim to be great rugby players, although due to inadequacies of our selection committee, some of our second team players have come close to international recognition! The Sinners play rugby for fun. In the early days there were some problems in raising the necessary number of players as the original Rule 3 states that membership shall be limited to 12 people. Now with members all over the world, we are more fortunate.

As a touring team – many new frontiers of rugby have been broken; Italy where we toured in 1975 and Holland in 1974. In both of these countries rugby has now become a major sport. Our reputation has grown, and is born out of love of fun indeed, one time we received a standing ovation from the crowd before the start of a Sunday game. We had been badly beaten on Saturday, but excelled ourselves to such and extent in the clubhouse that night that our audience was attracted to watch the following day.

Reminiscing is supposed to show that old age is fast approaching. Maybe in our case this is justified, but a few highlights are worth remembering like facing a team of internationals in front of a packed stadium in Ireland – it was only the refereeing that kept the score down to reasonable proportions……kicking for touch when fast approaching the try line with nobody in front……playing boulle to the massed bands of the local French Legions in Saumar – we seriously thought the band was for us……….the 1973 tour to France where the gastronomique aspects sapped our strength and we were soundly beaten 49-12……..our golden years of 1971 and’72 when in four matches we scored 168 points against 28………meeting the President of Cyprus who truly could not believe what he saw!

Our first major “long distance” overseas tour was to the United States in 1981, where we played in the Fort Lauderdale Rugby Festival. The only problem about playing in the States is that, as the game there is relatively new, there is no such thing as Veterans Rugby! This fact accounted for our defeat at the hands of Miami University, but we soon learnt to slow the game down to our level, and won the plate competition, thanks to Bill’s offside decision in injury time (always bring your own ref to foreign parts. Out of politeness he will be asked to do one game – never two!).

The success of this tour led to our embarking on the even more ambitious tour to Hong Kong, where, much to the disgust of the locals, we were undefeated! Unfortunately, we had to stop off on the way back in Bangkok, which most of the members found very dull and boring. Despite this, there was a move to tour Bangkok in 1983, but this was turned down by the S.L.A.G.s (Sinners Ladies Action Group), so we had a quiet affair in Copenhagen. The Danes know very little about rugby, so again, we were undefeated.

By now the Sinners are an ageing band of rugby tourists, intriguing inter politics involve: Which new members should we elect to do the running and tackling? Where should we go next year? Which poor unfortunate to appoint as skipper? All this generates enormous fun, hot-air, threatened resignations and general hilarity.

Miraculously it seems to work to such an extent that the following year the Sinners went on two simultaneous tours. We held our own in Barcelona – won one lost one. Our otherwise passive advertising manager Tom had to be physically restrained from executing the Spanish ref who had trouble finding offside in his paella. Stoker lost heavily in Las Ramblas. Meanwhile the “down under” team led exclusively by Ron fryer were avoiding tough duty in Fiji, and we put that one down as a draw!

The pressure for exotic tours was hotting up, and in ’85 Sinners took on Africa’s two oldest clubs and were not disgraced – at any rate in the first game. Now for the West Indies. Barbados ’86 saw Tom Rodwell’s cricket team armed with golf clubs and cricket boxes – alias Sinners R.F.C – fly in to inflict more damage on Ian Botham’s tour bed. The rugby was hot, and the rum punch free. At cricket against a Barbados XI we thankfully borrowed their sub, a Joel Garner lookalike who opened our bowling and was top scorer – anyway we did as well as England!

During this phase in our history, post-tour tours became increasingly in vogue with Boyd taking off on Safari – minus pork pies, and Maxwell’s “Great White Hope” trip to Florida. Steve’s grin was a wide as ever. Next year ’87 PK’s travel agent must have gone bust - so the international brotherhood ventured East to Yugoslavia where the secret police impressed by our first win, quickly produced the national squad.

Europe – America – Asia – Africa, where next? For 200 years since the first convict ships, our Aussie friends have been waiting to lay into the second bunch. Ron, Cattle and Seeb all received a decent education at the end of the swinging sixties in the Sun in Splendour; so we were off to Oz to return the compliment, 23,000 miles for 69 hours in Sydney! Two internationals, two Sinners matches and a memorable operatic performance, not to mention a host of individual memories. Ron picked up the whistle and got his revenge for Fiji. Walker picked up everything. Dougal threw up. Stockton appeared from NZ looking for the ten shillings Dave borrowed in ’69 and bits of Laurence fell out. PK had certainly done his stuff, and so had the Aussie Sinners.

To great delight, the tour to Portugal did not entail enormous fund raising activities, for the Sinners to following the footsteps of Vaco de Gama and other worthier from our oldest Ally. Finding the pitch stretched our navigation, as we nervously inspected an enormous stadium (well, we played in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona!). We took a young enough team to record two good wins (get it!), even though 51 year old Larkie made his tour debut. Laurence got a slight sprain, and a severe case of histrionics. Ashley nearly got beheaded and Copp came out of retirement – yet again. If the air traffic men did their best to prevent our arrival – an 8 pint delay – the tropical cloudburst almost stopped our return.

We were now ready to return to the New World and the cultured shores of Boston, Mass. Franck Manville’s mate lived in the perfect beach residence for a Sinners day out – bowls, beach, booze, an unattainable bird – and death in the rose garden! Quincey Market was the evening delight, and we just lost the Saturday game. On Sunday due to a pitch cock-up, Sinner shared a boulder-strewn pitch with a soft ball game! The highlight was undoubtedly the Barbados drugs squad – alias Doonan and his mate, hitching two bikes to the crossbar to prevent serious injury. When we saw two large Americans returning for their bikes, the boys in blue had become scarce and players pretended to be involved in a line out. Suffice to say we easily out played our hosts – but managed to lose. Boston harbour and the Sail Loft got us smiling again – but our singing only managed to raise the local cops.

The second Sinners tour to Africa was to Kenya, It started off with a day on safari (or was it “A Month in the Country”?) during which we saw all mannor of wild life including Thompson Gazelles, Moylus Gigantis and Barry Williams’ androgynous elephants. All three official sporting contests were won despite being down 0-18 and 0-12 at half time in the two rugby games and 23-8 chasing 46 in the cricket match. The fourth and unofficial sporting contest involved the hunting down of the “Londonderry Pair”. This involved many of the younger Sinners for a week or so, a veritable marathon. Other highlights: Kinsley’s water chute and the delirious Irishman.

In 1993 the remaining outpost of Sinners adventurism was reached by our visit to Argentina. As we stumbled off the plane expecting a welcoming committee of a heavily armed escort we were in fact met by “Welcome to Bwanas Ayrees” from Edwardo our tour guide. Whilst not expecting to encounter too much wildlife here, a number of badgers were spotted in the Black Penguin where some interesting forms of payment were requested for rounds of drinks. Mike Whitfield peaked somewhat later than most and single handedly demolished Estudiantes FC’s chances of avoiding relegation by his rampaging rhino impersonation and the Tango that will never be the same without the enthusiastic support of Dicky Coury and Neil Hill.

Unfortunately, there was some rugby played and the first game was won despite kicking off at 1.30am UK time. The last game was somewhat different with most players hallucinating, thus making tackling a “tad” confusing. Nobody remembers the score, but we lost!

The 1994 tour, for some, was a case of déjà vu as we returned to Bangkok. The British Club and Guy Hollis were amazing hosts and a blend of old and young tourists captured the essence of the Sinners. Memories of the floods, bar diving, our President Sumo wrestling and Singing in the Rain will be remembered for as long as the rugby – which for the record was played two, won one, lost one.

The 1995 tour was another African adventure – this time Zimbabwe. It was once again a first for the club, not content with staying in one place we had two base camps. Harare was the first stop where within hours of landing we were on a golf course but no-one posted a pros score, I’m sure it was the jet lag! The following day brought us to Harare Sports Club to play what we thought were the Golden Oldies; but no, we had been stitched up in good touring tradition and played the Harare 1st team and were duly beaten 44-0. It was then tie for a short flight to Vic Falls to see one of the most amazing sights, no not Peter Winterbottom pissed in a local night club but Rhino bungy jumping from Livingstone Bridge. After 15 had jumped the following day we white water rafted where everyone thought the President and Doc Ebola had died from heart attacks on the climb out of the ravine, it was back to base camp 1 where we beat Old Georgians 10-8.

1995-1996 was a sad year for the club, it was only the second time they have not managed a tour, but not all was lost. The home games finished half and half, we won some cricket and we had a ball where the President made a speech which some believe is still going on.

In 1997 we ventured back to Cape Town where some had been before in ’85. This time we were also there to support the British Lions. We set off on Tuesday to Wellington to see the Lions beat the Emerging Springboks and then Wednesday saw us beat Vilagers 55-20. In the second game against the oldest club in SA we played and epic battle watched by 400 odd. Hamiltons narrowly won 35-30 with a try in the corner in the last minute. The highlight came on the Saturday where the Sinners joined a few thousand other to watch the start of what turned out to be an historic Lions series win.

In 1998 the club missed a tour again, but 1999 made up for that. We went to Hungary to visit Neil Hempsall. The locals made us feel welcome and that included the rugby. We won both games comfortably even after the late nights in the casino. Beaver danced on the stage for the Hungarian mafia in a pair of dog slippers, and Jed did commando rolls throughout the casino before riding the hotel doorman down the street.

In 2000 it was thought that we should not tour and save up for a trip of a lifetime. 2001 saw us re-visit Australia, again we were there to support the Lions. We arrive in Melbourne just before the second test and the city was a wash of red. Then flew onto Sydney where the bridge was climbed, we lost our game and then saw the Lions lose in Stadium Australia. It all finished rather nicely with a great final supper on a gin palace in the harbour. Oh and a new award for the club was found……..Spider!!!!

In 2002 it was decided we would get back to basics and we headed for Estonia. We played against the only team in the country and the final score does them no justice at all, we won 69-5. The second game saw a win in a close encounter against a Brussels team who were also on tour. The best part of it all was having a hotel that was no more than five minutes walk from the best nightclub, bar and all the action, it certainly made “Gun Dogs” job a lot easier!!! It was rumored that one person even we back for a second look two months later!!

2003 Saw us visit another beautiful city, Prague, this time we were visiting another long lost brother Gary Mazzotti. The rugby was tough we lost heavily to a team after a four hour coach trip, and finished 2nd in a four way tournament to a bunch of “Spooners”. Kenny got off his death bed to drink through the virus and the Mitchell brothers toured for the first time. K5 seemed to be the most popular bar in town and I understand that a couple of Sinners put enough money over the bar to be awarded life membership.

2004 took the Sinners to the Basque region of northern Spain. San Sebastian was the destination, supposedly a posh holiday area for the wealthy Spaniards. We arrived and found ourselves in a fine hotel overlooking a very picturesque bay. We set about exploring the old town full of taps bars. After a few bottles of wine, DJP thought he was fluent in the local lingo and tried to get us into a club. This club ended up being in the back of beyond and may thought that ETA would be there to welcome us!! The trip saw us play two games against good opposition (much better than we were hoping for) and we returned with a draw and a win. The court session on the Friday was something to behold. Two hours of comedy from Goodwin (defense council) and Clapp (prosecution) which ended up in Barney passing out, the judge in tears and the skipper face down on the carpet having knocked over a table of drinks inquiring “what have I done!”

In 2005 the Sinners did not tour but held a ball to celebrate the clubs 40th anniversary in style. This was a great evening held at the Berrysteade Hotel in Sunningdale. There were 120 new and old Sinners in attendance and the evening went on long into the night with Rhino and Hay propping up the bar until 5am. Nockles was summoned to bed by his wife in the early hours and plenty of singing and story telling was had. A great night and let’s now aim to bring up the half century.

2006 Saw us back on the road again to the Baltic States. This time we ended up in Vilnius, Lithuania. There were 3 brothers on tour for the first time and some young blood for a change to do the running around! The games were harder than we were expecting but we beat Vilnius heavily and lost, heavily, to Sialila. We all believed that 4 days on the source could have had something to do with the result! We introduced a number of new tourists, who all fitted in well, one possible random exception, especially one Kiwi who ensured he got the top tourists within a few hours of arrival, outstanding behaviour and one of the best after game celebrations ever seen! New nicknames were awarded, new friends made and a government official still wandering what time of day it is!!

In one of the most transitional periods of the modern day Sinners RFC, it is important to see how history has viewed the Gillespie tenure. Unsurpassable success, or miserable failure?

The following extracts from Wikipaedia may leave you in no or considerable doubt, depending on whether you even listen.

The 2006-7 Season

An era of Grand expansion plans

The 06/07 season began with grand plans for Sunday rugby domination, with the full intention of playing weekly league fixtures. Gillespie, using his international rugby credentials and connections, sought to recruit heavily, with a number of ex and current internationals targeted. However, in a world cup year, he found himself unable to secure them on long term contracts, so reverted to plan B, which was to see if Nick Goodwin was around and if McFilthy had sobered up.

The league idea had to be shelved when it was realised that there wasn’t one, and occasional fixtures proved hard to come by as the professional game decimated the Sunday kickabout. A considered decision was made not to make hasty decisions, and jump into a fixture list that might find us struggling with injuries, so no occasional games were arranged for this period.

Tour plans were not made for this season, as it was regarded as a transition period between captains, and therefore disrespectful of the service given to Sinners RFC by David Leigh.

Heady discussions were had, however, about the potential for a serious tour the following season.

Season record: Played 0, Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 0

2007-8

The austerity years

A period of gentle retrenchment was to follow, with the recognition that the Sinners needed to play less games, in order to ensure freshness and everyone’s continued commitment. The professional game continued to play havoc with the fixture list, with a potential playing window being reduced to just 24 identified weekends.

In an attempt to break the monotony of excuses, Gillespie met with Charlie Curtis, captain and manager of the Media Nomads, to discuss a round robin tournament of two teams, with all the one fixture being played on the same day. Winners of each group would meet in a final that would not be played because they had already met.

Plans for this were shelved when Gillespie lost Curtis’s email address and found him slightly irritating anyway, because he kept trying to sell him his recruitment services. Pleas for Brookie to return to Nomads managership & help arrange the fixture were met with silence, much to the gratitude of Gillespie and Graham who could not have sat through yet another Brookie commentary on life & the rule changes surrounding the tackle area.

With an inability to cut through the complicated procedural rules of organising a Sunday game, negotiations petered out and the Sinners were left with just an annual tour.

The need to never repeat a destination, whilst also crossing water,complicated the best laid plans. The insatiable desire for all things Eastern European hence left the administrators with no choice but to plan a jaunt to the lawless hinterlands of Chechnya. Uptake amongst the committee members was fitfully, and the plan shelved.

Heady discussions were had, however, about the potential for a serious tour the following season.

Season record: Played 0, Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 0

2008-9

The Crunch years.

After flirting with acquisition debt, whereby Angus Graham purchased the Sinners and leveraged the debt back on to them, through so called Skimming loans, the Sinners fixture list was much disrupted, resulting in no actual fixtures being planned or played.

Annual tour was planned for the Bahamas, but with the credit crunch unfolding, and Barney shagging everyone but his wife, plans were put on hold and eventually dropped when Gus realised that the dates clashed with the Reloaders weekend, and his loyalties lay elsewhere

Gillespie fared much better. He was married to the lovely Toni in June of that year, and celebrated with an excessive 3 day wedding in Ireland, to which many Sinners players were invited. Attempts to pass this trip off as a Sinners tour were scotched from the record books, when it was realised that the Sinners shark had not been included in the wedding luggage, and that no members of an opposition could be found in the church congregation.

On the 3rd night of celebrations, (as tough as any tour before or,well obviously not since, and over a Guinness or nine, heady discussions were had about the potential for a serious tour the following season.

Season record: Played 0, Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 0

2009-10

The Breakthrough Years

A season of not many ups and downs continued for the Sinners, as the fixture list was decimated by poor weather. The longest winter on record resulted in no actual games being played, when history will recognise that Gillespie was now beginning to show real promise from his early captaincy period.

This had a knock on impact on plans for the annual tour. With the non fixture pile up taking no games into late spring, it was difficult to identify a free weekend when a serious tour could be held

Heady discussions were had, however, about the potential for a serious tour the following season, with the potential for inclusion at an international tournament as the priority agenda point at the Sinners Executive management meeting held at Secrets in Hammersmith. Plans for this were put on hold when Dougal and Angus Graham were temporarily distracted by Madame Sin and Fifi the Ginger Dwarf.

The stained minutes of the meeting were later recovered, and pointed to a (not very well ) hung jury. The result - Decision postponed.

Season record: Played 0, Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 0

2010-2010

The mutiny years

With an unbeaten record going into a fifth season, there was little reason for Gillespie to expect anything but unyielding support from the Executive management team.

He had now proved so successful that the records started to tumble. By the beginning of the 2010 season he had overseen the longest unbeaten period for a Sinners side, surpassing the 1969-72 sides under Jim Connolly, Bill Rodwell & Wally freeman; and the 1997-2000 sides under Richard Coyningham-Greene and Nick deScossa

Additionally, as autumn turned to winter he basked in the glory of becoming the longest serving single Sinners captain of all time.

In October of that year he attended the annual Sinners dinner, an event he had been unable to help organise in the past due to Sinners playing commitments. At that event he surprised and dismayed his rapt audience by announcing that all good things come to an end, and that he would not be seeking re-election to the captaincy.

History will always hold a candle to Gillespie’s achievements. Burdened by a tortuous administration, and a needy playing staff he put together an overall unbeaten record.

Season Record: Played 0, Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 0

They say that history is written by the victors, but of course whoever wrote that was not a Sinner. History is in fact written by the non-winners, non-drawers, and non-losers

2011-2012

The Post Gillespie Era

2011 saw a new, young, if slightly slow second row take over the Sinners Captaincy. The thought process behind this was that the club would continue and start a period of regeneration as we are all getting on. Whilst Dizzy had been useless in providing any direction or organisation in getting a tour off the ground, even in a global down turn, the New Captain, only the second son of a Sinner to be given the honour, Duncan MacIver was surely built of better stuff and would not fail. The Committee were not over confident about this and decided to meet in a Surrey pub to discuss the club’s future. The decision was taken that we would tour but we would invite a selective number of younger tourists to do all the running around on the pitch whilst the older generation sat, watched and enjoyed while drinking their ale. It was also decided that we would return to a Country, although different venue, that we had not been to since 1977 and play only one game on a shorter tour in order to keep costs down. The planning worked and 25 happy Sinners flew off to Cork to enjoy the late spring sunshine. Friday saw a record of the longest Sinners lunch as all 25 boarded a boat and set out to Cobh in Cork Harbour where we sat at the lunch table for 6 hours before returning to the hotel for the court session. There were one or two casualties who did not venture out that night but all were present the next day for the game against Middleton RFC. Game day came and we set off, nervous and keen to keep Gillespie’s 5 year unbeaten record in tack. This was managed a little easier that had been anticipated, we won by a staggering 74-10 against what we all felt would be a tough game especially after 2 days on the lash! The evening was very enjoyable in Cork and the bonding that you can only get from playing a match in a different Country ensured that new friends were made. The trip was such a success that it is rumoured that our Captain will organise a trip next year and let the long suffering Hon Sec have a year off!

Enough of tours – at home the Sinners thrive and continue to elect new members each year. Sunday rugby is occasionally played, and the Annual Dinner, Christmas Party, Cricket and Ball fill the fixture list. Stag evenings come and go, golf is played, Jim is even older and grayer and rumoured to be still somewhere in West London.

So from Mr McGoo, The Jersey Cow, Remember Chloet; Yarpies Carrot; Nockles USS America; Brummie John’s Rose of England; Butcher’s Ho Crone, Wynn’s Sunshine Mountain; Wally’s Tidley-um-de-dum-de; Bonny Lad’s Crucifixion (he’s the one with the wellies); Richard the Lionhunt; Copp’s I believe; Chopper and Kingsley – the worlds heaviest second row; Kelly’s Kidney Wiper cum Toreador; TJ’s What Kind of Fool; Michels Oui, Oui, Oui; Gary’s Singing in the Rain; Ben’s fully clothed swim; Kenny’s performance in the shower (the Virgin stewardess’s still want to know what the shower cap was for); The Whack a Mole world Championships and the Spider Shirt; etc. etc. etc.

Thanks lads for great memories – Here’s to the next tour……………