History of LRFC 8 of 36

8. 1934 to 1935



Ron Boroughs (above) was the new captain succeeding Cliff Harrison who became his vice-captain. Ron learned his rugby at Cheltenham Grammar School and played for Bromsgrove before moving to Leamington in 1928. He was a skilled back-row forward with a good turn of speed. Cliff resigned the vice-captaincy in the February and was elected to the Committee. He was replaced by Tom Commander. Arthur Ogden had decided to call it a day at the end of the previous season and we had also lost H.J. Hooper who decided to join Coventry. With players retiring or moving on, the season saw a slight dip in our performances, although it was still a very good year. There were some good players coming through but they lacked experience. Doug Herbert came in at scrum-half with Cliff Harrison moving to the forwards for his final season, where he was joined by Jim Garrett a fleet-footed forward from Leamington College who had played the previous year during the school holidays. He was the school's 100 yards sprint record holder. Reggie Smith, a centre or full-back also came into the side.

We started well with victories over Nuneaton Old Edwardians, Birmingham and the second strings of Moseley and Rugby. Old Wheatleyans came back onto the fixture list after a gap of a year and beat us in November, but we eventually claimed their scalp for the first time in ten attempts in March, when we beat them by 8-0. For the return game against Nuneaton Old Edwardians in March, the Courier reported that "Nuneaton provided the usual weather for Leamington's visit, leaving the ground under a thick coat of mud. Apparently they don't bother to mark out the touch lines as there were none to be seen - not even the remnants of the previous week". We lost 3-6. Tom Commander and G. Price both played for Warwickshire Colts during the season. The second XV had a difficult start, winning only one game before Christmas, but picked up to win most of their games in the second half of the season.

Around this time we were looking to buy our own ground and believing that in an area of our population size the best interests of the game would be served by having one really good club fielding several sides, we wrote to both Old Warwickians and Old Leamingtonians towards the end of the season, about the possibility of amalgamating. They did not agree with the idea and so we continued along our separate ways. We were back in profit to the tune of around £1.50, including a grant of £15 from the Warwickshire RFU

Leamington in action against Moseley "A" at Victoria Park in September 1934