Cliff Harrison, founder member and one-time captain, was elected President of the club for a second spell which meant that his two-year tenure would cover the Golden Jubilee in 1976/77. This season saw an overall improvement in performance with all of the sides doing better, with the exception of the first team. Off the field it was another matter, with Honorary Treasurer Dave Moffatt describing our performance as disastrous as we posted a loss of £1,299 to add to a similar figure the year before. There was no simple answer to the problem, as a combination of poor bar figures, non-payment of subscriptions and increased costs of coach hire and physiotherapy etc in an inflationary economy meant that we were living beyond our means and had to find ways of reducing our costs and increasing our income. This resulted in further increases in subscription rates for vice-presidents and other non-playing members. Players' subscriptions were £5 and match fees went up from 50p to 75p per week.

Geoff Farndon (left) became the first person to skipper the club from the wing-three-quarter position. John Faulkner was his vice captain. Terry Pugh was appointed club coach. Dave Scannell returned to the area and he lined up in the centre with either Nick Williams or Andy Shaw, otherwise the backs were more or less unchanged. Prop forward John Rawlings was the major addition to the forwards and Bill Harris converted to hooker and shared the duties with Fred Emeney. Adrian "Jed" Stone was appointed as Extras skipper but he spent most of the season occupying the No.8 position in the first XV along with Stefan Urbanski (who joined from Lockheed) and local dentist Bill Slora. It is normal for a young player to follow in his father's footsteps, but Bill brought his son Gerry along to play mini rugby, liked the look of the game, decided to play himself and worked his way up through the sides.

In September we won the Plate in the Worcester Sevens and in the third running of our own tournament, Guy Nicholls brought a strong side from Harlequins (masquerading as the Nutcrackers) who were far too good for everyone, beating holders Newbold in the semi-final and Westleigh by 28-0 in a one sided final, with Fijian international superstar Bosko Tikoisuva dominating the event with a sensational show of strength, skill and sidestepping.

The season kicked off with a heavy defeat at Solihull, but we bounced back to beat Aylesbury and overcome Broadstreet in the first round of the Warwickshire Cup in a tight game. Our next match was against Pocomo, a touring Canadian side from British Columbia. They came on the recommendation of Meraloma who had visited us two years previously and some of the Meralomians were in the party. They stayed at the Avonside Hotel and used our ground for training. We beat the tourists 32-15, but things began to fall apart from this point. We lost 6-19 to Solihull in the Warwickshire Cup and won only one more game in the next thirteen, before a 20-0 win over Stratford steadied the ship. We had three more good wins over Christmas, including Sutton Coldfield, and lost only narrowly to St Mary's Hospital in London, who claimed Bath's first team among their other victims. But then skipperGeoff Farndon had to resign due to study commitments and John Faulkner took over from him with the experienced Roger Maycock in support. Our form was in and out for the rest of the campaign with wins over Dudley-Kingswinford and Winnington Park and a good draw at Hinckley, but we lost 13-15 at home to Kenilworth, our first loss in the fixture for six years.

The side finished with 7 less wins less than the year before and were marginally in debit with 17 wins and 18 losses. 5 games drawn was an indication of how close most of the matches were and with an extra try here or there we could have ended up with a much better or worse record. The ever-improving quality of the fixture list and the change of captaincy were also significant factors. Mick Holder again topped the first team scorers with 109 points (and 178 overall) followed by Kit Forrest on 92.

The Extras had a poor start, losing 4 out of the first 5 games, not helped by the loss of their captain, Jed Stone, to the first team but Rob Hickman took over the leadership and the team thundered back to form to win 26 out of 30 games from early October with only 2 more losses. Victories against other clubs' first teams included Southam, Buckingham, Old Laurentians, Pinley and Stow-on-the-Wold. One of the highlights was a 63-4 thrashing of Stratford in February. Pat Callaghan was top scorer with 115 points and he also led the Spartans scorers and was second top for the Stags. In his first season he moved up from the Tigers to the first team setting a hugenew record of 295 pointsfor the season and unsurprisingly was awarded the most improved player trophy. Norman David led the Seconds and they had a small improvement on the previous year, winning 19 against 14 losses and scoring an impressive 712 points with a brand of entertaining rugby. The 50 point mark was achieved twice in successive days against Old Warwickians and Evesham at Christmas.

First XV 1975-76 Ray Ward, Mike Carding, Bill Harris, Jim Poynter, Tony Murray, Dave Scannell, Dave Green, Kit Forrest - Tony Evans, John Faulkner, Cled O'Connell, Geoff Farndon, Robin Andrews, Rob Hickman

Extras 1975-76 TerryCleaver, Bob Russell, John Lyne, Neil Hubbard, Paul Brant, Pat Callaghan, Bill Harris - Mick Holder, Tony Evans, Bob Hickman, Brian Montgomery, Phil Marsland, John Lyons - Geoff Miller, Tony Murray

Once again Tony Grimes skippered the Stags and but for a 7 match losing run in the autumn they had a good year and finished with 18 wins and 12 defeats. Wins were achieved over Coventrians (80-4) and Keresley second strings and the third teams of Camp Hill, Cirencester and Keresley. Mick Murray was top scorer with 62 points, and John Wheildon scored 6 tries against Old Edwardians in January. Mick Doak, the brother of Jim was a useful centre in the Spartans or Stags but had a volatile temper. On one occasion he was sent off and had to appear before the Warwickshire RFU disciplinary committee. He was asked whether it was true that he had run 50 yards from his position in the centre to get involved in a fracas between the forwards and throw a punch. He replied that "It was true, and I didn't half hit the f***** too!" Surprisingly he only got four weeks. Peter Payne's Tigers had a particularly frustrating season, taking some big hammerings before Christmas and then with a stronger team available, suffering 13 cancellations in the New Year. They managed only 18 games, of which they won 9 and lost 9.

After two difficult seasons the Colts showed a startling improvement and won 20 games out of 29, occasionally fielding two sides. A lot of credit must be given to Maurice Goymer and Terry Pugh who coached the team which progressed throughout the season and beat the best Colts teams in the Midlands. Captained by Alan Malin they reached the semi-final of the Warwickshire Colts Cup, where they lost to Solihull in a hard fought game with a team including future first-team players - Gary Taylor, Hugh Bevan, Simon Chandler and Bob Mallinson and with most players eligible for the next season. Another of their star payers was Phil Beck who joined the club during the season and was incredibly quick. He was soon promoted to the first team. Gary Taylor topped the scorers with 96 points followed by Simon Chandler, whose 18 touchdowns put him top of the club try scorers. They completed their season with a dazzling display in the Warwickshire Colts Sevens, beating Newbold 22-10 in the final and overall scoring 118 points and conceding only 22. Keith Ogilvie who had worked so hard for the Colts and mini-rugby and who organised the mini festival was presented with the tankard as clubman of the year.

John Hibben managed to persuade his former school friend Graham Chapman, of Monty Python's Flying Circus fame, to be the guest speaker at the club dinner, which was something of a coup and ensured a full-house. Unfortunately he turned up very late, very drunk and was a total embarrassment. Fortunately he was John's only school friend and we went back to more normal guests for subsequent dinners. Towards the end of the season we celebrated our 50th birthday on 14th April with a Stag Party at the clubhouse. Ninety people were present including five pre-war players, namely: Tom Commander, Cliff Harrison, Pip Moore, Euan Campbell and John Raby. Dave Wilkinson, who was a patisserie chef made a cake in club colours. Sadly, Dave was killed in a car accident shortly afterwards and we also lost Bill Day in similar circumstances a few weeks before. There were two other tragic events around this time, firstly the death of Reg Marshall in a climbing accident and then Richard Eliffe and Daryl Pitchford were killed in a car crash on their way back from watching the Middlesex Sevens.

The club had achieved much to be proud of in its first half century. We had built up a strong and improving fixture list, whilst retaining some of our original opponents, but the problem for Leamington, as for all clubs in the friendly era, was that it was hard to make progress as everyone was in the "Catch 22" situation of wanting to play stronger or more prestigious opponents, who in turn wanted to play stronger or more prestigious opponents, not the lesser clubs that were looking to play them. In Leamington's case there was a feeling of frustration that we were unable to get regular fixtures against all the best town clubs in the Midlands, so to obtain comparable games we had to travel further and further afield and trips to Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire and south Wales were regular features of our season. The only short-cut to improved fixtures at this time was through having good facilities and being able to demonstrate success in County Cup competitions. Winning the Warwickshire Cup was therefore to become our top priority in the immediate years ahead.

The summer of 1976 was one of the hottest on record, and with no rain throughout June, July or August, the pitches were rock hard by the start of the season. Consequently the cancellation of all the September games was considered. However, the government came to the rescue by appointing Birmingham MP, and ex-football referee, Denis Howell as Minister for Drought. This did the trick and ten days of torrential rain, beginning over the August bank holiday, softened things up and we were able to get underway by mid-September with two Saturdays lost and the Leamington Sevens tournament cancelled.

This was our Golden Jubilee season and the jubilee celebrations were the focal point of activity, both on and off the field. 300 copies of Cliff Harrison's club history were produced in September and these were sold at £1 per copy. There was a display in the window of the Leamington Building Society showing the club jersey and Keith Savage's international jerseys. 200 copies of the book sold quickly, but the rest went slowly (a few are still available) A special club tie was also produced. A number of special events were held, starting with the visit of a Caribbean XV on September 9. They were on their first trip to Britain, coincidentally celebrating the golden jubilee of Caribbean rugby. The tour was seen as a step towards developing a West Indies side, comprising all the islands, along the same lines as the cricket team. In this first match of our second fifty years, in wet conditions that did not suit our visitors, we won 19-0.

The second major Jubilee fixture was on 14th November against the famous invitation side, Public School Wanderers. The visitors included a core of players from first-class clubs with a strong contingent of London Irish. Leamington managed to keep in the game through the hard work of the forwards and strong tackling in the backs, particularly by full back Kit Forrest who was outstanding. PSW played their Joker by bringing in Leamington's own Steve Whitby as a substitute winger, but we kept going to the end and a late John Lyne try secured a 13-9 victory. The Leamington side was -K. Forrest, G. Farndon, D. Scannell, J. Poynter, N. Williams, M. Carding, A. Evans, C. O'Connell, F. Emeney, J. Rawlings, J. Lyne, R. Andrews, B. Montgomery, D. Reeve, D. Billington

To complete the celebrations, the Golden Jubilee dinner was held on 29th October at the Regent Hotel and was attended by 144 people, including 6 founder members and 60 to 70 past members. This was followed by a Gala Ball on 15th April at the Royal Spa Centre, which was a great success, so much so that the 1st XV suffered their worst loss of the season the next day.

A new innovation in the game was the introduction of substitutes for the first time and it was agreed that we should use them for cup or midweek games, but not for normal Saturday fixtures. The Warwickshire Cup started early and after a comfortable victory over Standard from Coventry, we came up against Old Warwickians, who hadn't beaten us for 20 years. The old boys were in a determined mood and dominated the first half, building up a 12-0 lead. We gradually pulled things back in the second half and when Geoff Farndon scored a try under the posts in the final minute it looked as though we had snatched the game, with only the conversion needed to win. Up stepped Kit Forrest, who missed the kick and out we went.

Terry Pugh resigned as club coach prior to the season, so Dave Scannell both captained and coached the first team, supported by vice-captain Dave Reeve. In the regular season we began well with four straight victories, before losing narrowly to Lichfield, despite having been 12-0 up with 20 minutes to go. Highlights of the season were wins over Wigan, Reading and Sutton Coldfield and our revenge over Old Warwickians in the Boxing Day fixture, but overall it was an uneven season with a poor finish, although of our sixteen defeats only two were by more than one score. We lost narrowly by 10-13 at Kenilworth and drew the return game 6-6. Action from the game at Moorefields is shown below. Dave Billington, a powerful No8 from Manchester, joined us and formed a back row trio with Dave Reeve and Brian Montgomery which played almost unchanged throughout the season. Nick Williams, a centre or wing three-quarter was another newcomer and Mick Holder established himself at fly-half and was club top points scorer with 212. Second row Robin Andrews won the first Player of the Year award.

Brian White captained the Extras, who had an outstanding season, losing only 7 games and scoring 500 points. They played fast open rugby with victories over four first teams and outstanding wins against Kenilworth, Kidderminster and the otherwise unbeaten Reading (twice). The back row of White, Paddy Healy and Malcolm Bell dominated the opposition, Phil Marsland kicked the goals and Ges Townsend and John Lyons topped the club's try-scorers with 15 and 14 touchdowns respectively. The Seconds under John Hibben, had an uneven year, but after a mid-season slump they finished strongly with 8 wins from their last 10 matches. Malcolm Barnett kicked the goals and was top scorer with 106 points. The Stags also had a mixed season and lost more than they won, but they had fine 53-0 and 76-0 victories over Barkers Butts and Kidderminster respectively, playing free-running rugby.Andy Gardner captained the Tigers and after an excellent start with 6 wins out of 7 they hit serous cancellation problems which restricted them to only twenty games. Amongst the new players were Richard Armitage, who was to become club solicitor, and Bill Dalton, a convert from the round ball code, who began the season in the Tigers and steadily worked his way up through the Stags to the Seconds by the end of the season, and won the Most Improved Player award.

The Colts won just under half of their games and led by Brett Gubbins they defeated Trinity Guild and Rugby to reach the semi-final of the Warwickshire Colts Cup for the second year in succession, where they again went down to Solihull, by 6-13. Stars of the side were half-backs Gary Taylor, who captained Warwickshire Colts and made his first team debut in March, and Huw Bevan who topped the scorers with 111 points. The line-up below is - Mark Owen, Richard Hewser, Ian McKowen, Paul Mullis, Martin Forsythe, Andy Hickman, Dale Rawlings, Mick White, Steve McGee, Mark Cantlin, Huw Lewis, Gary Taylor, Huw Bevan, Brett Gubbins, Bob Mallinson, Rob Blundell, Dave Townsend.

The Easter tour was to Hull, where we fielded two sides against Beverley on Good Friday, with the second string achieving the only win of the tour. This was followed by fixtures against Old Hymerians and Bridlington and we played in the Bridlington Sevens. The Old Hymerians game was notable for the introduction of the Norman David side-footed pass from scrum half to fly-half, aimed at reaching the recipient at ground level at the same time as the boots of the opposition back row. Dave Scannell was the lucky recipient and never played outside Norman again. There is a saying that "what happens on tour, stays on tour", but tours are such a rich source of anecdotes and say so much about the character of the club, that this would be a shame. It is difficult to know where to start with the Hull tour, as so much happened. Poor results on the field contrasted with numerous highlights off it. The tour is probably best summed up in an exchange of letters with our hotel manager when we sought a reduction in the bill. His classic reply referred to: naked lift attendants scaring the guests; raids on the kitchen; ice cream bombs being dropped from the fifth floor onto the street; the Chairman's underpants being thrown about the bar; furniture being moved around the hotel in the early hours; TV star Janet Mullan having to vacate because she was fed up of people knocking on her door telling her that "Dr Findlay would like a nice cup of tea"; etc, etc. On balance, the manager thought he club probably owed him money, but for all our faults he achieved record bar profits over the weekend and welcomed us back any time.

In the end of season sevens, we got thorough to the final day of the Oxfordshire tournament and lost to Bedford. Later the same day the side got back in time to play in the Lockheed event and finished as runners-up. The Club hosted the Warwickshire Sevens on 1 May, organised by John de Morgan, but we didn't shine. At the mini festival Chris Tarrant, then star of the ITV cult Saturday show Tiswas attended for the day and presented the prizes. Chris was given a club shirt and wore it on the show the following week. After the loss of £1,200 on the previous season, there was a big turnaround, with a £2,500 profit made. Club finances were sound for first time in several years, due mainly to a strong social programme managed by Fred Emeny and good bar profit levels. We took out a loan of £1,600 with Whitbread in October to meet the costs of alterations and an extension to the bar. There was a crisis in February when the police made three separate visits in plain clothes and were served at the bar. Individuals concerned with organising the bar were threatened with prosecution for contravention of our licence in selling drinks to non-members. This hung over the club for several months and it seemed to be a concerted campaign against us which continued through to the following season.

First XV - 1976-77 Cliff Harrison, Nick Williams, Kit Forrest, Brian White, Dave Billington, Robin Andrews, John Lyne, John Rawlings, Dick Luckman, Jim Poynter, John Oxenbould - Geoff Farndon, Fred Emeney, Dave Reeve, Dave Scannell (captain) Cled O'Connell, Tony Evans, Brian Montgomery, Mike Carding

1977-78

Visitors over the summer would, for the first time, have seen a fleet of caravans on Moorefields. This was an initiative to boost funds by using our facilities to hold caravan rallies. The venture proved so popular that we soon became an official overflow site for the Royal Show and over the next 20 years this was to be a major income source for the club, at its peak regularly making around £3,000. It didn't come for nothing however and hosting the rallies put considerable pressure on the club facilities. The showers and toilets had to be upgraded to cope, and restaurant and bar facilities had to be provided in the evenings. Keith and Jill Ogilvie organised these events and built up strong relationships with the campers, many of whom came back time and again. A decline in Royal Show attendances during the 1990s led to a reduction in the official off-site parking and although many of our regulars stayed loyal to us, numbers dropped of and the rallies eventually petered out.

It was all change behind the scenes. Jack Devis became President of the club. Ianto Moody stood down as Honorary Secretary after 10 years in the job and was replaced by David Glasborrow. Ianto was elected as an Honorary Life Member in recognition of his outstanding contribution. One of the unfortunate consequences of the changes was that our Warwickshire Cup application was not submitted and we were excluded from the competition.

A number of players moved on during the summer - Archie Banks and Dave Billington went to the Middle East; Nick Williams moved to Kettering; Malcolm Bell to Banbury; and Mike Bruton to Cardiff. This and long term injuries to a number of key players left us seriously under-strength in the opening weeks of the season. Things could not have started worse than on the opening day when we played four sides against Lichfield and were stuffed by over 30 points in each match. After a successful spell as Extras captain, back- row forward Brian White (left) took over the 1st XV captaincy. The team won only one of its first six games, although a draw against Bridgnorth and successive single-point defeats against Stoneygate and Banbury made the situation look worse than it was and as the side settled down things turned around with a run of four straight wins. Although we held our own through the middle part of the season and had impressive victories against Hertford, Derby, Aylesbury, Woodford and Cwmbran, we failed to string two wins together. After a 19-10 defeat by Warwickshire Cup finalists Kenilworth in January (with Alan Newbold scoring all their points) we won only 3 of our 14 remaining matches, as the season tailed off with a three week interruption for bad weather. The Birmingham Argus had started to run an unofficial merit table of the leading junior clubs in the Midlands and we managed to come 15th out of 16.

First XV 1977-78 John Oxenbould, Kit Forrest, Mike Carding, Neil Hubbard, Paul Brant, Fred Blunsden, John Kane, Dave Reeve, Robin Andrews - Geoff Farndon, Mick Holder, Tony Evans, Brian White, Alan Malin, Jim Poynter, Bill Harris

Ken "Casualty" Kelly joined the club in November and became the regular full back and an equally regular outpatient at the local A&E departments on away trips, as he invariably failed to finish a game. The usual three-quarters were Geoff Farndon (top try-scorer with 13), Phil Marsland, Dick Luckman and Fred Blunsden. Kit Forrest reverted to fly-half and topped the first XV point scorers with 134, partnering Tony Evans at half-back. Tony broke his thumb against Kenilworth and missed the rest of the season, with newcomer Richard Cooke coming into the side. Stalwarts Cled O'Connell and Ray Ward were the props, with Bill Harris hooking. Robin Andrews, John Kane and John Faulkner shared the second row duties and the back row of Brian White, Paddy Healy and Dave Reeve played all season. Other newcomers were centre-three-quarter Mark Partington from Coventry and Ralph Chandler a hard tackling centre/wing-forward. Alan Reeve made his first team debut towards the end of the season.

Captain Bob Russell and his Extras had a frustrating start, losing 9 of their first 11 games, but the team started to improve in mid-November and went on an 8 match winning. They eventually rattled up 20 victories by the end of the season, including the 1st XV scalps of Warwickshire Police, Belgrave, Ashbourne, Cirencester, Buckingham and South Leicester. Mike Carding, Mick White and flying winger Phil Beck led the point scorers. Suffering from changes higher up the club, the Seconds also started badly and during October had a run of 6 defeats without scoring a single point and only 3 wins in their first 13 games. But from the beginning of December they hit top form to win 13 of their last 17 games, with Pat Callaghan returning from a season's injury to top the point scorers.

The Stags had a poor season by their own standards. After the opening day loss to Lichfield they had a club record 90-0 win over Chipping Norton before going on a six match losing streak, which ended with an 18-15 win at Aylesbury. Fred Emeney, returning from injury showed everyone how to score, as a hooker playing on the wing, with [reportedly] two long distance tries. Things weren't helped by a change of captaincy mid way through the season with Tony Grimes standing down for farming reasons and Norman David taking over to see the season out. The Tigers once again had a very mixed year. Twelve games cancelled proved frustrating for Brian Badger and his core of regulars. Among his special guest stars was John Bolton (right), the former first team centre, who spent a few weeks here, on holiday from Zambia.

The Colts had the best year, winning 26 games out of 35, including impressive victories over Broadstreet, Barkers Butts, Stourbridge, Kenilwoth, Walsall and Northampton. In October, they beat Stoneygate by 112-0, to eclipse the Stags record set earlier in the season. In the Warwickshire Colts Cup they went out in the semi-final for the third year running, this time to Bedworth, who snatched a win with the last kick of the game. Neil Turvey touched down 15 times during the season and was the club's leading try scorer. Mick White led the club points' scorers with 198 as well as making his first team debut. We also fielded a junior Colts team, known as the Gazelles, who won five of their six games.

The Leamington Sevens in September were cancelled for the second year in a row; this time due to lack of support and the event fizzled out. Whilst the senior players showed a disinterest in Sevens, this was not the case with the Colts who took the seniors' place in the Lockheed tournament and won the main event, knocking six bells out of Six Bells from Abertillery in the final. The following week they played in the Warwickshire Colts sevens and won that too - beating Rugby by 12-6 in the final. The team was - Russell King, Bob Mallinson, Dave Bull, Andy Poole, Robin Blundell, Tony Philpott, Mick White, Mick Cantin and Ian McKowen.

News of former players included Paul Lea, who was playing for the Royal Navy and touring America with the Senior Service team. We also heard of the sudden death of Pete Abel who played for the club in the early 1970s and was our coach in 1974. Our Annual Dinner became even more of an Oscar Night with the addition of trophies for clubman of the year (presented by Bill Barber) and player of the year (presented by Gill Eliffe, in memory of Richard) Keith Ogilvie received the clubman award and Bill Harris the player trophy, having successfully converted from full-back to hooker. Another award was to John Oxenbould who was made an Honorary Life Member on standing down as Chairman, having filled this role for 6 of the last 8 years as well as acting as club statistician/historian.

Colts 1977-78 Gordon Mallinson (coach), Mark Owen, Huw Lewis, Nigel Spooner, Dave McGee, xxxxxx, Andy Poole, Jim Jordan, Ian McKowen, Mark Cantin, Mick White, Steve McGee, Nigel Handy, Maurice Goymer (coach) - Chris Ward, Dave Bull, Bob Mallinson, Robin Blundell, Paul Mullis (captain) Russell King, Kevin Boiles, Huw Bevan