Rugby Union in Coventry

Harry Prosser was another from Coventry's glory days. Both he and Keith Fairbrother were former pupils of Stoke Heath Junior Mixed. During the few home matches which I attended the young Harry was always provided with almost paternal encouragement by Phil Judd.

Both John Barton and Keith Fairbrother went to Caludon Castle, also both lived in Wyken, not far from one another. John, opposite us in Sewall Highway. Keith, my year and class at Caludon, lived in Blackberry Lane.

Very sad news today is the passing of George Cole, Cov's renowned scrum-half and prolific goal kicker from the glory days of Coventry and Warwickshire rugby union, at the age of 87. RIP George, "The Boot"

Whilst 'Cov' was the shop window, virtually all the big firms had very active rugby clubs. The driving forces were the Welsh. I was training with Rootes (the 'Humber') from 1949-52 and Ken James was the very good and active chairman - he was also head of inspections in the gearbox machine shop. Our match pitch was out at Ryton on the north side of the factory and was later turned into a car park. Ivor Preece, who was the England and Cov fly half, also worked in the labour office and still found time to come out to Ryton and take part in a practice game. He had a long raking stride and his speciality was the short punt ahead which landed between the other side's backs and in front of their full back - I was on the other side and he was nigh impossible to tackle. I'm sure all the other works sides were the same thanks to the Welsh who really put the effort in to run the clubs. One kind committee member used to phone me every Monday morning and tell me where and when I would be playing next Saturday. Then the Coventry Evening Telegraph published the details of all the teams playing the next Saturday. Then in about 1951/52 the 'Springboks came to play a Warwickshire side (Don Sproul of Nuneaton played) - far too many for Coundon Road, so the game was played at the City's ground at Highfield Road. Those were the days.

Belatedly, I have only just come across this sad news I always thought George was a `Rugby Genius` in the way he used to marshall the Coventry and Warwickshire pack in front of him (perhaps the `threes` got a bit starved sometimes). But he was a great entertainer and it wasn`t just with his boot that he starred, although that was phenomenal. I had a photo at home of him at one time posing wearing his schoolboy England cap. My father taught him as a schoolboy (not sure if it was rugby) at Hen Lane School (Whitemoor). His name was G W (George) Turner. I can only remember one other teacher`s name there of that period, he was called Wilf Harris. RIP George, you left many happy memories.

When I was 25, I stopped playing local football and joined Earlsdon Rugby Club. My transition was more by accident than intentional. My Saturday game for Wickman in the Works League was called off at the very last minute, my pal invited me to go and watch him play in Earlsdon’s 2nd team at Kirby Corner. At that time, Earlsdon ran 4 teams, that Saturday the 2nd's and 4th's were playing at home. As it got nearer kick off time, the call went out of "anyone got any boots with them?". My pal piped up and I was enrolled in the 4th team at fullback. There is more to the story, but I never went back to Saturday football after that. There were lots of local teams with Broad Street probably being amongst the best. Others were Trinity Guild, Barkers, Coventrians and many more. Any stories from anyone?

I'm the same era as you Mick. I played rugby at school, but they wanted me to play on a Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to watch the City! We compromised - I played hockey for the school in the morning, then went up Highfield Road in the afternoon. I took up rugby again when I went to university, and when I returned to Coventry in 1975 I joined my local team, Jaguar Daimler. A couple of years later the club folded, and Coventry Welsh took over the club's fixtures for their third XV. Coventry Welsh first XV were probably the best junior club in Warwickshire at that time - I played in the second and third XVs. If only I had bothered to turn up to training! Don't think I ever played against Earlsdon, though.

My lads both played for Earlsdon, Mick. Eldest still does with the senior 1st and 2nd XV's though took the second half of last season out to concentrate on work (his apprenticeship ended early as secured a full time role!). He made it to the Warwickshire U17s. My youngest played junior rugby with them too but they had to disband his side last year due to dwindling numbers. I'm still an ERFC social member. Fortunately he's at Bablake and the now mixed Bablake and King Henry's schools have had a terrific season, losing only twice. Everyone thought it was all going to be a bit 'us and them' at the start but they gelled really quickly and played some great rugby. He also made the Wasps academy but it was just as the Covid lockdown hit so that all stopped for a while and he's now busy with mock exams. Think I have mentioned before, Neil Back was in my school year at Woodlands and after being steam-rollered by him a few times I decided I preferred the round ball!

Hi belushi, forgot about the Welsh. It was not very often the 4th's had a full team and one week we got given a "pool" game against Newbold Colts. Very quiet dressing room and no one told me about Newbold. Needless to say we got hammered! As I was quite fast in those days, I also got picked to play in the Earlsdon 7's tournament.

Pool fixtures, they could be interesting. Once Coventry Welsh second XV were given one against Lucas firsts from Birmingham. They refused to play us as they said they only played against other first teams. So we went over and said we were the first team, and we thrashed them. They weren't happy, either, when we confessed to being only the second team! Apart from cup games, and only first teams played those, all games were friendlies. Well, they might have been in the bar afterwards!

The bar afterwards? Now I remember why I never went back to Saturday football!!!!!!

It is reported that Coventry, England and British Lions legend David Duckham has passed away at the age of 76 RIP "Flopsy"

Very sad to hear that! As I and both Duckhams were in Hales House, I played sevens rugby alongside them - also Bob Long, later to be England RFU's team Doctor, I believe. We had so many fast runners that we often scored 70 points plus in the 2x7 minutes of the games - and that was when a try was only worth three points! Each time we scored a try, the poor suckers in the other team had to kick it back to us, and whoever received it would simply score another one! Dave was an inspiration! I believe that the England teams of the day were so "forwards-oriented" that he rarely got the ball, but if he did it was odds on that he would score a try. I've read somewhere he had the highest "try per possession" ratio in rugby history!

Brother Phil was a schoolboy international and expectations of him were higher at once stage than Dave.

For anyone interested, there is a YouTube video of David Duckham.