It is seventy years ago that Haslemere RFC began its life. My father travelled up on the train to London every day often with Terry Schofield, like him an accountant. Terry hearing that I was playing for my school First XV began to extol the virtues of Haslemere RFC, and would I like to play for them. However, I had arranged to play for Guildford schoolboys in the Christmas holidays which I duly did, and it was only on completion of their programme that I turned out for Haslemere aged nearly 17.

It is certainly nearly sixty years ago that I first played for Haslemere, making my debut as a wing forward, nowadays called a flanker, against whom I cannot remember, but the following week's Haslemere Herald issue of 12 Jan had something to say about a promising performance. Guy and Bunny Azis were playing, as was Ronnie Glover who also played cricket for Haslemere and I think Peter Reynolds, an Oxford friend of Guy's who later became Chairman of Rank Hovis McDougall and was later knighted.

Terry Schofield, along with Ken Baker who worked at the Haslemere branch of Lloyds Bank were the moving spirits in the early days. Terry had previously played for Warlingham, where he had been nicknamed “the flying flea” for his performances as fly half. Ken Baker claimed the West Country for his early days in rugby. Certainly, I remember exhortations from Ken on the touchline to “Give them the old West Country stuff” but was unclear as to what that meant. Commissioned in the RNVR during the war he has a more than complicated marital life which got more confused as the years went by. Our debt to Schofield and Baker is enormous for they came through some exceedingly difficult times before Haslemere RFC became fully established.

Gerry Pye, a Fernden schoolmaster who played for Guildford and once or twice for Surrey was persuaded to switch allegiance to Haslemere and was promptly made captain. Most of the rest of the side seemed to come from the Admiralty Signals office at Lythe Hill. Other stalwarts were Ted Sampson, a local truck driver and Brian Carse an RAF Cranwell cadet. Newly formed clubs had to wait a year before they were able to use the London Society of Referees, so into the breach stepped a chap called Thompson, soon to be christened “Lawnmower Thompson” because he rang at noon on a Saturday to say he could not take that afternoons match because he was mowing his lawn.

In the Easter holidays I again turned out for Haslemere, one of the opponents being HAC and both Peter and Robin Blockey, both at that time in the Cranleigh School XV and my suspicions are that apart from myself that Peter Blockey is the sole surviving member of that first year of Haslemere RFC. In 1951/2 I played for Guildford and went on the Easter tour of the West Country playing Bath United, Clifton and Chippenham. I had rather lost touch with Haslemere for two years because of National Service and had fully intended to continue with Guildford when one evening I was in the in the Green Dragon in Liphook after cricket when Ken Baker came in for a drink and persuaded me to re-join Haslemere. And so, in September 1954 I turned up at the Rec to see whether things had moved on from the less than promising state three years earlier.

A good deal of progress had been made. Firstly, we were playing on a better and bigger pitch at the Rec. There was a greater selection of local players in the side and the club had acquired as Captain, Gerry Jenkins, a Cambridge Blue of 1948. A fine back row forward, he had suffered as a POW under the Japs having been shot down whilst serving in the Fleet Air Arm and had been told he would never play rugby again. A star at Bath he was unlucky never to have been capped for Wales, but he did sit on the bench in Paris in 1949.

Another experienced player had also joined, Ronnie Birch who had played for Exeter, and Cornwall and for some years at fly half was the rock on whom Haslemere depended. These two experienced players together with the mercurial Gerry Pye and a hefty pack of forwards with Guy Azis and David Ash , at that time a wealthy young stockbroker with a succession of exotic cars, and one or two others meant Haslemere was beginning to look like a proper rugby club.

Gerry Jenkins made a huge difference to Haslemere in those early years. Guildford would have given their eye teeth for him and certainly clubs such as Richmond, Harlequins or Rosslyn Park would have been keen to have him. However, Haslemere suited Gerry Jenkins, he worked for ICI Plant Protection and did a lot of travelling, often to Africa and he was able to manage the work/sport/family life balance to his advantage. Gerry Jenkins gave us confidence and cohesion on the field and a basis from which it was possible to improve He gave credibility to the club which made it easier to attract Harlequins to visit Haslemere for Sunday matches. Starting in 1954 these Sunday matches became the envy of some of our neighbouring clubs. It came about because a Quin, John Sydney, who was in the hospitality business took over the Georgian Hotel when the owner, Bob Watts and his wife went on holiday. One thing led to another and he found himself promising to bring down a Sunday XV. It was men against boys’ stuff, the Quins contrived not to win by more than 40 points, given that there a couple of internationals and several county players in their side that took some doing. I have a distinct memory of little Denis Barker on the left wing, for which he had had an England trial, approaching Glover the full back and Jordan the winger, Barker jinked inside, Glover tackled Jordan and Barker went over the line without a hand being laid on him.

The makeup of the team was changing and improving. More local players were joining, Peter Cregeen from Harrow, John Macqueen, David Potter and John Blockey from Cranleigh. John later went on to win a gold medal in the European Bobsleigh championships. The REME base at Borden produced three excellent forwards, all from the Sergeant's Mess, Smudger Smith, Howell Jones and Jed Stone who later played for the Army at Twickenham. Another soldier was Gordon Harrison a particularly good centre who also played for Hull Kingston Rovers and appeared for them in the Rugby League Cup Final at Wembley in 1960.

Later additions were the Coghlan cousins, Willie a scrum half and Tim a full back with cricketers hands, he did after all get a Cambridge Blue for cricket, the Sinclair brother, Ron a centre, Mike a lock forward who famously outjumped the great David Marques when he came down with a Harlequin Sunday XV. David Pow from Radley and then the Royal Marines, was a famously combative hooker who became just a little combative after a dust up with the same Harlequin side. David Brooks the Harlequin captain, later manager of the British Lions 1968 tour of South Africa and President of the RFU, tried to quieten things down in the front row, only to be met by a remark from Denis Pack, the East Midlands prop, out of the side of his mouth, “Fuck off Brookie I am going to sort this stroppy sod out.”

Later Brookie was the guest speaker at the Annual Dinner at the Georgian Hotel when as part of the revelries, Pat Cooper did what all lock forwards want to do, he swung from the chandelier. The result was predictable, down came the chandelier. In rushed Bob Watts as angry as I have ever seen him. David Brooks at once took charge of the situation “You, he said could be sued for having chandeliers that we can't swing on”. Later someone said that the police had been called. Brookie's response was “will there be many of them? It predates Willie John McBride's remark by at least ten years.

In the first year or two of the club's existence we used the White Horse as our headquarters, but quite soon the Three Counties Club became our base which was almost as good as having our own clubhouse. The ladies could not join us until 6pm so had to wait patiently in the lounge reading worn out copies of the Tatler, but to all intents and purposes it was just like any other Rugby club In the mid to late fifties we travelled to away matches in an old bus owned by Sid Jeffries of Grayshott. He had a partiality for Whisky Macs and would join in the singing as we made our way back to Haslemere. Jeremy Walker was one who did not travel to away matches by coach. Tall, blonde good looking with a red MG he was an attractive figure, not least to the fairer sex who attracted the attention of Harlequins at one of our Sunday games and had a couple of successful seasons with them.

One of our former players, Dick Liesching attended to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and helped them become one of the most successful rugby sides in the United States. In 1958 he contacted me and said he would bring a Dartmouth rugby side over to England over the Xmas and New Year period, could I fix up a tour for him. The trip was confirmed only at the last minute. We picked up these big fellows at Heathrow early on a Saturday morning, we then beat Old Guildfordians in the afternoon and all met up again for a Dinner at the Huts Hotel, Hindhead, all paid for by Dick's father. Dartmouth were amazed at the hospitality they received both at the Huts and in the private homes where they boarded for the next three days. Some 500 spectators turned up at the Rec together with reporters from the Times, Telegraph and Express. Haslemere were beaten 12-0, but the tour engendered great publicity not only for Dartmouth but Haslemere as well. Dartmouth went on to beat Old Millhillians, who had two England internationals in the side, Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, Harlequin Wanderers and a composite Richmond/London Scottish side also containing internationals in fact they were only beaten by a strong Wasps Vandals XV.

Dartmouth were incredibly grateful for Haslemere to have organised the tour and “to have shown them the true rugby spirit”. It was a pleasure for me to captain Haslemere in that match, which in my view at least, was a significant moment in the club's history.

Haslemere were now firmly established and at the end of their first decade were playing a regular Boxing Day fixture with Guildford, Blackheath then a formidable first-class club were also bringing a Sunday XV, as did London Welsh. The improved calibre of the side brought other growing pains, such as more players but not quite enough to field a second XV.

Our local rivals, Petersfield had the same problem. The solution was to have a joint second team. The experiment lasted for a couple of seasons until in the early sixties Haslemere was able to field a regular second XV. Meanwhile the First XV was now a young and competent side with such rising stars as Barry Whitaker and David Dingledine, an outstanding centre, Pat Luard, and Robin Widdows, another Olympic bob-sleigher.

The tradition of Sunday rugby continued with Tim Coghlan bringing a Cambridge side including Gordon Waddell and Ken Scotland, both Scottish internationals and British Lions This side morphed into the Bosuns, started by Simon Nicholls who years before had promised me he would bring a side to Haslemere and such internationals as Frans ten Bos of Scotland and Simon Clarke of England were happy to come and play rugby at Haslemere for the Bosuns.

By the end of the sixties Haslemere were firmly established with two teams, each playing with a fair degree of success. Playing in the A XV had its bizarre moments. Setting off on a warm April day to play Old Azurians at Hove, two players failed to complete the journey. Accompanied by their girlfriends they stopped halfway, found a green field, and forgot about the rugby.

A fixture against the Surrey Constabulary found Team Secretary Bran Marr three short at 12.30pm on the Saturday. A young man of great resource, he went to the Fox & Pelican at Grayshott, the pub of choice for local villains. Three of them needed little persuasion to square up to the police. By half time, all three had been sent off for violent play, but as three of the constabulary were off injured, things had evened up. The final game of my rugby career was at Armoury House in the City against HAC where I witnessed the novelty of the opposition skipper sending off one of his own players.