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OLD REIGATIANS RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
1927 - 2006
Founded in the 1927/28 Season by the Old Boys of Reigate Grammar School who
had recently been introduced to the "Game for hooligans - played by
gentlemen" when their School, along with Guildford RGS and Caterham G.S., as
well as many others, replaced soccer in favour of rugby in the School's
curriculum. This was an ingenious attempt to meet the requirements of an
Education request from the Government of the time for an increase in the
number of boys taking part in team sports. At one stroke the playing field
which had provided only 22 players with an introduction to the "beautiful
game" were utilised to give 30 boys the opportunity to legally fight with
each other. The "Think Tanks" of the 1920's had come up with another winner!
In addition an alternative to "going down the mines" was available to young
Welshmen, who now took to the role of schoolteachers and sought to introduce
running and handling skills to the foreigners on the other side of the Wye
and Severn.
The Club initially used a field adjoining the then School playing field in
St Albans Road and now occupied by the houses composing Pilgrims Place off
Brokes Road. The changing accommodation was in the Reigate Baths in
Castlefield Road. A year later a ground was secured at the top of Shepherds
Hill in Merstham and the Feathers Hotel and then the Jolliffe Arms provided
the pre-match changing facilities and the post match entertainment! I also
understand that on occasions we used the Reigate RFC ground (then somewhere
off The Clears) in the lee of Colley Hill. These rather primitive
arrangements continued until the 1939 - 1945 war brought a temporary end to
the club's progress. At the end of the war, the club was immediately
reformed by a nucleus of pre-war players amongst whom Norman Holt and
Geoffrey Knight were pre-eminent. They became Hon. Sec. and Hon. Chairman
respectively and with great support from the then Headmaster of the School
(Mr A.E.Clarke) embarked on the search for a permanent home. At first we
used the School ground at St Albans Road and then the newly acquired School
playing fields to the rear of Wallfield House in West Street. The changing
accommodation was once again the Reigate Baths with after match teas
provided by wives and girl friends in one of the Wartime Nissan Huts (still
standing) to the rear of the Town Hall, in Castlefield Road The White Hart
in Church Street provided the after match entertainment thanks to the
co-operation of the then Landlord who had played his rugby for Old
Cranleighans and allowed us to use his Lounge Bar as a club room. The search
for a permanent home was finally successful, when through the generosity of
Mr & Mrs (later Lord & Lady) Rank we were able to purchase the small plot
off Park Lane on which we built our first and to date, our only real home.
The writer remembers with relish the "away" games against Worthing,
Brighton, Lewes, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Horsham, Dorking and
Guildford. It was invariably well past 10.00pm before the last car load
arrived back at the White Hart. The "Old Boy" circuit was far more difficult
to penetrate and a 1949 fixture card reveals that only Reedonians,
Mid-Whitgiftians, Dartfordians, Croydonians and Shootershillians thought us
to be worthy opponents. In that year our record was P 26, W 17, D 3, L 6,
with victories over both the Blackheath and the Harlequin 2nd teams. By the
middle 70's we were running seven teams and in the 1986/87 season, after
beating Exeter and Saracens in earlier rounds we became the only junior Club
to ever reach the last 16 of the premier RFU Cup competition (then known as
The John Player Cup). Players and spectators alike will long remember our
game against the famous Gloucester Club at their equally famous Kingsholm
ground. I think that bookmakers would offer very generous odds against any
junior club repeating this feat. By this time our fixture card provided us
with 30 really good quality games over a full season.
In the following season, the Rugby Football Union gave us the opportunity of
either accepting their new directives as to the new League Rugby system or
withdrawing from any form of competitive rugby altogether. We chose (not
without some misgivings) to join the new League system and during the next
13 seasons Reigatians played for 8 years in London 2 and for 5 years in
London 3. A reformed League structure in the first season of the new
Millennium, caught us in a downward spiral and with the "Home & Away"
concept now accepted by a majority, a new League was created (London 4) as a
result of the reshuffle. Old Reigatians were placed into the senior County
side (Surrey 1). It took us 4 years to break out of this very competitive
County League, but only one to leave London 4, and then another year to join
London 3.
We have ended our first year in London 3 on a high, finishing in third
place. It is a well balanced League, with only bottom placed Weybridge
Vandals narrowly failing to win less than half their games. Playing to well
below our best form we lost the return games against both Effingham &
Leatherhead and Chobham, which left us with London Irish Amateurs to beat
for the opportunity to face Purley John Fisher for the vacancy in London 2.
The Irish were well deserved winners of this final match. Happily Guernsey
beat Camberley, in their final game, to stay out of the relegation zone. So
we all get another trip to this lovely Channel Island.
At this stage in the development of our Club we are proud to have at last
produced teams at every age group from Under 5/6 to Under 18 in the Junior
and Mini section. To this we can add an under 19 & under 21 team as well as
a 3rd team to support our present two senior sides, We have also anticipated
the additional facilities a new pavilion by enrolling a number of young
girls into our first Girls XV at the Under 10 level. The Club will thus have
19 teams playing in the Green & Blue colours at the commencement of our
seventy-ninth year.
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