Memory Lane 02

John Rosser came across this article:

In the summer of 1976, John Hawley took his First Form rugby squad to Satterthwaite in the Lake District (the scene of Mr Cahill's Deep Heat experience ). The team had made a fair start in the 1975-76 season for, although three games had been won to six lost, the points were only marginally against them (130 to 128 scored). Furthermore, the team had won the Hillingdon Borough U'12 Championship.

This was the first time St Nick's had entered the competition, and in it the team scored 124 points to only 8 against. Dave Josey at fly-half scored ten of the tries, including the winning one against Bishopshalt. The pre-season training camp, staying in the church hall, must have worked wonders for male-bonding, for the following season 16 games were played with 14 won, 1 drawn and only 1 lost (away to Reigate)! In total 576 points were scored and 102 conceded. Stephen Chung scored 144 points, Stuart Beck 124, Dave Josey 80 and Andrew Neal 50.

The team picked up a further trophy in the Borough 7's with 92 points scored against 12 conceded. John Hawley recalls how hard the team trained, even in the semi-dark, on frozen surfaces, and the fantastic team spirit. He would love to hold a reunion and urges ex-team members to contact him via the staff list on the SNOBS site.

For the record the team (6 or more first team games) were: Robert Anderson (Captain), Stuart Beck, Stephen Chung, Chris Hardy, Alistair Hardwick, Michael Hennessy, Guy Horchover, Adrian Hopson, Dave Josey (Captain v Ricky), Robin Jones, Gary Keegan (Captain), Andrew Neal (Captain v Northwood), Colin Reap (Captain), Tony Wood, Neil Wray, Ian Mitchell, Paul Maynard, Michael Gislingham.