Season
2007/2008
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Overview
Hopefully you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and on
behalf of the Chairman and Officers of the Club I would like to wish you and
your family a very happy and healthy New Year.
The playing of rugby continues to impress and excite, with the Club having officially agreed to move over to the London South West (SW) leagues. Having won all our games so far, it should be SW Three. As our friends from Chichester reported in The Observer newspaper, “we should have no problem holding our own there, as shown by beating them 39-11.” For me the whole game was epitomized by the first two minutes. Un-typically, Joe Greenslade “knocks on”, scrum to Chichester and Bognor steal one against the head! Rob Parry slicing through the defence with three glorious dummies and Dave Sweeney is in for a try—two minutes gone. The whole team played with an enthusiasm that was a joy to watch. Chichester are very good in the forwards and scored an excellent pushover try, but the straight running of George Castleton, Karl Flinn and Lee Balchin, followed by quick ball from the rucks released the brilliant Billy Toone and the rest is history. The bragging rights and the O’Haggen’s Sausage Cup is ours for this season.
Your co-operation in starting a new data base and subscriptions being paid by standing order has been beyond our wildest dreams. At the time of writing we have 165 members on our data base, with 148 members in our “100 plus Club” and 85 members paying by standing orders. The players, paying by standing order, pay £15 per month over twelve months. This covers match fees and subscription and they are in the “100 plus Club” as well. (Winners for December 2007 where Brian Carman £75.00 and Mrs Lyn Matthews £25.00) Another positive decision the Club has taken to encourage playing members to train, is that any player that trains twice a week, will get two drink tokens worth £5.00. So the situation now is that if a player trains twice a week for a month he can collect £20.00 worth of drink tokens which against the £15.00 Standing Order must be good news!
In the last Newsletter we asked for help for Chris Whitemarsh, our wonderfully hard working and loyal Director of Ground. I am delighted to report that Peter Clamp and Richard Myhill have stepped forward to make a pretty impressive team. Peter is very impressed by our line marking machine (Sponsored by Roger Karn-Smith and Bob Rudd) and is looking forward to starting his training. Trevor Swann’s employment commitments has meant he is unavailable on Saturday mornings, but he will always see him helping after the game—many thanks Trevor. Always remember the doors are never closed, so if you fancy being considered for one of our excellent support teams, “Ground Support and Development”, “Surface Technicians Maintenance” or “Bar Manager”, please give me a ring (01243 821426) and I’ll put you touch with the correct person.
Congratulations to Justin Fitzpatrick who has “notched up” 51 caps in the Heineken for Ulster. The Heineken Cup is recognized as being one step above Premiership rugby and ideal preparation for international rugby. Justin, as we all know, has 26 full international caps.
Congratulations to “Baz” Mitchell who has made his 60th birthday and is still playing rugby. The incredible Barry Mitchell played in the first game in 1965 and is still playing! As Baz says, “You don’t stop playing because you are old, we grow old because we stop playing!” A great photo and article in the local Observer paper thanks to Debs Parry and Tom O’Brien.
Deb’s photographic skills have made their debut appearance at Twickenham for the Barbarians v South Africa game, which was Jason Robinson’s farewell game. The photographs can be seen on this website.
It is not unusual for the heating to break down when the weather is cold and so it happened at the Club. The Minis had a very cold Sunday morning, but our Chairman knew the man to contact. Dr Boiler, one Colin Mead, with stethoscope and flexible tube made a quick diagnoses of the problem that our, “fan assisted balanced flued pressurized boiler”, was suffering from. Spare part surgery, out of the Christen Barnard do-it-yourself transplant book was implemented and bingo—heat. It all happened so quickly that Gordon Phillips never noticed there was a problem! Many thanks Colin for saving the Club a lot of money.
Whenever the first team is doing well, it undoubtedly means we have a good “second” team and this is true this season. The inspirational Steve Worthington and Tom Spurle have imbued an attitude in the “seconds” which has seen a seamless movement of players to the senior side. Steve openly admits he will use all the psychology he has learnt from his international experience and the influence of the talented coach, Graham Richards. He further makes the point that, “If you believe in the people around you, the team will do much better.” Part of this psychology means having an identity and a purpose. Steve/Tom’s team have been challenged to come up with a name for their team—but is pointed out that this is not a “club within a club”, but an identity for those people, who are constantly changing, have when they are in the team. As Steve points out, “the second team” implies you are not the best and these guys are and I’m very comfortable in their company, a place that I am happy to be. The popular name at the moment is “The Royals”, but Bombardiers and Buccaneers have been mentioned. There will be a fund raising exercise associated with this “name change” for St Wilfred’s Hospice.”
Congratulations to Elwyn Morgan who has recently retired from the “nerve centre” of County Hall, Chichester. Jean is delighted that now all those outstanding jobs can be done! They can both be spotted in the various garden centers buying plants and by the amount of money they are spending they will be opening their garden to the public next Easter.
The Clubhouse Improvement Fund continues to grow and now has reached £7,500. Many thanks to Michael Thomas, now living in Spain for a £100.00 cheque and £50.00 received from Dr Andy Foulkes. Before Tim Dowel accepted the position of Club Doctor we enjoyed the professionalism of Andy and like Tim always had his needle and cotton at the ready. I remember Andy, whilst playing at King George Fourth playing fields, not only stitching wounded colleagues but repairing his own split eye brow with the help of someone's car wing mirror!
Diary Dates - Pre-Match Luncheons 2007/08
Sat 9th February 2008 v Bromley 1200hrs for 12.30pm (VPs)
Sat 22nd March 2008 v Chichester 1230hrs for 1.00pm
Sat 12th April 2008 v Hastings & Bexhill 1230hrs for 1.00pm
Please contact Chris Woodhead, 01243 261166 if you would like to attend any of the above.
The 2nd Vice Presidents’ Annual Lunch
The second Annual Vice Presidents’ lunch is on Saturday 9th February 2008, when we play Bromley. The Bar will be open from 1200 noon for a lunch start at 1230hrs. We are inviting the VPs to make a donations to help cover the food (£300) and I have already received support from Dennis Peerman, Gordon Phillips and Wendy Mead’s husband.
Last year was a great occasion when were able to welcome John Norris from Hull. It was great to welcome Bob Rudd and Linda and to see them enjoying the company of Cloddy. We have already heard that Mike Thomas is coming over from Spain and David Fleetwood hopes to travel up from Bournemouth. Syd and Jan Carter are returning from Spain so that they can be re-united with Adrian Dew, who has recently rejoined the Club and become a VP. And on top of all that we are hoping to attract Chris Geoghegan from Eastergate and Mic Trenchard from Follet Close!
Remember, it's people who make this club so special and your attendance is very welcome!
Minutes of a Meeting of the FULL COMMITTEE held at the LONDON HILTON HOTEL, Park Lane, W1 on Friday, 5th July 1968, at 12 noon.
There were 49 people attending and that was the day that this Club was elected to membership of the RFU from 1st September 1968, together with another Sussex Club—Uckfield.
Major “Nelson” Vincent, ex 47 Royal Marine Commando
When I joined the Club in 1968 there was always a very vocal supporter at Nyewood Lane, what ever team was playing at home and what ever the weather— there he was, Major “Nelson” Vincent. Because he wore a patch, where his left eye used to be, he was affectionately know as “Nelson”. He loved his rugby and his cricket and when you spoke to him you were left in no doubt by his conversation that he had been a military man; his flat he described as his “billet” (accommodation for soldiers) and if he had any washing of clothes to do, he described this as “dhobing” (Hindu word for laundry man).
When I was elected as coach of the Club, I was very keen to get the players as fit as possible. There came on the market a “multifunctional weights station”, a piece of equipment that allowed several people to use weights for different exercises at the same time but in a relatively small space. The cost was about £600 and Major Vincent, through his brother who was still associated with the Army, could buy this equipment and pass on the discount to the Club, a saving of about 40%. We didn’t buy it because the Sports Club couldn’t allocate a space to install this equipment!
The Major followed us to Hampshire Avenue in 1994 and was ever present for the 5 or 6 years, and then slipped off the “Richter scale”. About five years ago we received a letter from a solicitor advising us that sadly Major Vincent had died, but he had left the Club £2,500—God Bless Him!
If you visit Bognor Regis Library, it is not unusual to find our members there researching various topics, but not always in the sports section. Stan Jonas, a very successful third team captain in the late 1960s and early 1970s has an interest in military history and took out a book about the 47 Royal Marine Commandos—a well known war-time “crack” regiment and who did he find in their ranks, but our own and much missed Major Vincent.
One story tells how J T E Vincent as a 21 year old lieutenant in the Royal Marines survived when the battle ship HMS Royal Oak, lying at anchor in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands was torpedoed. In less then two minutes the Royal Oak capsized and sunk killing 834 officers and men—Lt Vincent was thrown into the water. Years later when Major Vincent was enjoying a visit to his “local”, (which could have been that pink public house called the “Royal Oak”) when he got into conversation with a man who was a farmer and revealed he was a German Prisoner of War. It further transpired he was a member of the crew of the submarine when she sank the Royal Oak. Major Vincent reaction was, “Well Hun you can buy me a drink!”
There is a description of the battle for “Port-en-Bessin” (2nd November 1944). The then Captain Vincent lead an assault party of four officers and 24 other ranks, out numbered four to one, without artillery or air support, up a steep sloop at night, through mine fields and barbed wire, they succeeded against all odds in capturing the German position. This was due to determined, courageous action and superior will power of dedicated men.
Having taken the German hill placement the battle continued to its successful conclusion. However it became clear that Major Vincent was missing and it was known, that although he was wounded, he had gone ahead. The Major was found lying face downwards. He had been shot in the head. The bullet had struck the bridge of his nose, passed through his left eye and emerged above his left ear. Whilst taking the Major to safety on a stretcher one of the bearer was shot and killed. When he recovered obviously months later, he claimed to remember very little, but he did remember someone saying, “It doesn’t look as if Vince will last very long” - happily he proved that person wrong as he lived for another 55 years.
Being a man dedicated to service life, despite having only one eye and being partially deaf, he accepted a commission in the Royal Army Catering Corp, a position he held for the next 15 years before being demobbed and moving to Bognor Regis.
(Ed. Oh how I wished I had know all this when he was alive!)