CS Rugby 1863

Originally there was but one Civil Service Football Club, when goals were all that counted and a touch down over the goal line gained only a try at goal. The Football Association was formed in 1863, and those of the clubs players who chose to play under its rules went their own way. Those who remained, preferring to play under laws devised by Rugby School, formed what is the Rugby Club. The earliest game of which there is a record was against Blackheath in 1863. On 26th January 1871, the Club was one of those who met at the Pall Mall Restaurant to form the Rugby Football Union. Of the 20 clubs which sent delegates only 7, apart from the Club, remain, viz.Blackheath, Guys Hospital, Harlequins, Kings College, Richmond, St. Pauls School and Wellington College. Exactly 100 years later, on 26th January 1971, the Centenary of the Rugby Football Union was celebrated with a Founder Member Clubs Banquet at the Guildhall in London, at which the Lord Mayor of London and the President and Officers of the Rugby Football Union were our guests. The Club was one of the founders of the Surrey RFU in 1879, and has been a member of the Middlesex RFU since the 1880s. Early home venues were Battersea Park, Wimbledon Common, Kensal Rise and The Old Deer Park, Richmond. At Richmond the Club had a settled home for 30 years. In 1921 the Civil Service Sports Council was formed, and in 1926 the Club gave them full support by leasing the principal pitch on their new ground at Dukes Meadows, Chiswick. Among the more noteworthy events in the Clubs history was the defeat, at the Richmond Athletic Ground, on the 13th February 1893, by a penalty and a try to nil, of the first French International XV to visit England. The Club had previously played French teams, and were the hosts for this first visit of an international XV. The Club has a great touring tradition. Records show that the first tour was in 1889 to Llanelli and Gloucester, and in the following year the opposition was Penarth, Llanelli and Swansea. The West Country, particularly Devon and Cornwall, was the favourite destination for many years. In 1973 the Club made its first foreign tour to France. In Europe the Club has also played in Belgium, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. One hundred years of touring was marked in 1989 by the first trans-Atlantic trip to Canada with games in Vancouver and Edmonton. In 1992 the tour was to California playing in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Veterans had their own touring tradition with tours to Amsterdam, Galway, Paris, Cardiff and Jersey. There are many tales of their tours to Ledbury in Herefordshire and of their games in Rome on international weekends, in February 2008 featuring on Skys World of Rugby programme. The Club has always been honoured with distinguished Presidents, The first was Sir Rowland Hill who was President for 43 years, and probably the greatest administrator the game has produced. He was Honorary Secretary of the RFU from 1881 to 1904 and President of that body from 1904 to 1907. He was succeeded in 1929 as President of the Club by Sir Edward Crowe, who held that office until 1937. For the next 29 years until 1966, our President was Commander W.J.A. Davies. The Commander was, with arguably only the recent exception of Jonny Wilkinson, the greatest stand-off to have played for England: he played 22 times, 11 as captain, when the side was unbeaten. The Commander was followed as President by Sir Harvey Druitt for the next 7 years, and then Sir Louis Petch for the following 8 years until 1981. Both Sir Harvey and Sir Louis were Chairmen of the Civil Service Sports Council. Mr. Martin Creasey was our President from 1981 until 1994. He joined the Club in 1935, his greatest contribution being as Hon. Secretary from 1947 to 1964, his term of office culminating in the very successful centenary celebrations. Only our present Hon. Secretary, Nick Alway has served longer. Mr Ray Allwood succeeded Martin in 1994 and stood down at the end of the 2006/7 season. Ray joined the Club in 1949 and has the unique distinction of having played rugby at the Club in five different decades, only retiring after the Veterans match in 1982. He is a past captain who served on the committee for 30 years. He was also Treasurer of the Civil Service Sports Council for 17 years and was awarded the ISO in the New Years Honours List in 1984. Our current President is Mike, also known as Henry, Lee. A prop forward, he joined the club in 1960 and was Extra 1st XV captain in 1969 and 1st XV captain in 1971-72. He served as Fixtures Secretary in the 1970s and as Chairman, first from 1980-85. Remarkably he has also done some coaching and has a fine tactical awareness of what to do if a scrum is on the left. He is Mr Civil Service and the clubs principal sponsor. He was Chairman again from 1999-2007, a very successful period (see below!) and enjoys a very much hands-on presidential role. On the playing field the Club had memorable seasons in 1980-81 and 1981-82 when under coach Mike Gosling we reached the quarter finals and semi finals of the Middlesex Cup, losing to Wasps on each occasion. Following the introduction of leagues in 1988 we were neither promoted nor relegated for 13 seasons until 2001 when we won the Herts/Middlesex League 2 (Level 10) title. The following season we won all our games and were chosen Rugby World Team of the Year. Two more promotions as league champions followed in 2003 and 2004, making four successive promotions in all. In 2006 we were runners up in what was then London 2 North (Level 6) but lost the play-off game for promotion. We did, however, reach our first ever Middlesex Cup Final, losing 23-36 to Ealing in a game, the outcome of which was in the balance until the last few minutes.2006/7 was a particularly dramatic one. Tony Chapman, coach throughout this successful run, might have been forgiven the odd doubt when, after 8 league matches, we had won only 4 and stood seventh in the London 2 North table, 8 points behind the unbeaten leaders. A run of 13 wins followed to secure a fifth promotion in seven seasons, all as champions. The consequences of our rapid rise up through the leagues were apparent from the 2007/8 London 1 (Level 5) fixture list. First-up was Richmond at the Athletic Ground! We struggled initially to find our feet at that level and, despite some gritty performances, particularly in the home fixture against Richmond, were relegated after finishing 10th out of 12. We did however carry off the Middlesex Cup for the first time in our history with a win against Enfield Ignatians. A season of consolidation back in London 2 North then followed. The announcement in 2009 that the Civil Service Sports Council was closing the bar and catering facilities at its erstwhile jewel in the crown Chiswick facility might have been expected to dampen club morale. Instead adversity off the pitch was to breed triumph on it. In April 2010 we secured promotion to that oxymoron of a league: National 3 London & South East - a level (5) we had attained only once before (see above) and then only fleetingly, this time by beating Dover 31-14 in the play-off at Chiswick. Our first team squad, under then coach for his second season, Nigel Rosser, had shown great resilience and very considerable flair: including the play-offs we scored over 1,000 points (145 tries) in Competition games that season. As pre-seasons go, 2010 was certainly an eventful one and the full story is probably best left to a future chronicler to relate, remembering emotion perhaps in tranquillity. Suffice it to say that our first league game away to Havant was also new coach, Stefan Smiths first competitive game in charge. No friendlies had been played at least you avoid injuries that way(!) and no-one really knew what to expect. Well, the 4 try bonus point had been secured by half time; the Stags (for the origins of this nickname you must research the recent history of Southland Rugby, NZ) had been born and a hugely entertaining roller-coaster of a season was underway. At its conclusion we could boast our highest ever league finish, a highly respectable mid-table 7th! That 2010 -11season will also be remembered for the organisation of a charity ball which raised a total of £24,000 for the Pike River and Christchurch Earthquake Appeal funds. The main plaudits for this must go to our then captain, Darryl Gore, his wife Isobel and to Gareth Cox, Hayden Roche and Phil OLeary. At the end of the day, some things are much more important than rugby but being able to harness the games great legitimate freemasonry helps. In the meantime, Kings House School had taken over the lease of the old ground and we now again had the support of rugby friendly landlords and a fully open club house again selling draught beer! Although there was nothing quite like the drama of the season before for the Stags last season, there was still plenty to ponder on as they finished 6th, one place higher, thereby delivering another all-time high. With competitive performances in all 26 league games even in their biggest defeat away at league winners Canterbury there was only a score between the sides at half time, and in the home fixture against them we had sucked our oranges with our noses in front that sixth place could easily have been better. But the side, if always entertaining, could be erratic and, just as we were capable of taking points off the teams above us, so we could leak points against those closer to the bottom. Thus we only beat three of our opponents twice, failing likewise to beat only three at least once. Still, coaches Stefan Smith, Tom Sincock and Mike Drayson, the two last mentioned also filling in occasionally from the bench, had every reason to be happy with their seasons work. Player of the season was Cameron Reed with Sam Glasson allegedly most valued player. Top try scorer was a rejuvenated Ross Yiend with 14, with James Houston pressing him hard and Cameron, remarkably for a second row, also getting into double figures. Top points scorer in, for him, an injury affected season, was Scott Hadden with 149. In 2011 this old club implicitly recognising that our Civil Service association now has its roots more in history than current circumstances changed its name to CS Rugby 1863. The coming season, our 150th, promises to be a particularly exciting challenge: one we are looking forward to immensely. As our actual birthday does not fall until November 2013, that is the season when we will celebrate our jubilee properly and plans for this are now in hand. Stags rugby: this is living!