Old Tyleryan
We had a bit of a set-back there as they only granted us use of the field for six games per season , which was a start but hardly a basis on which to run a full time rugby football club . However , I managed to get some fixtures , home and away , so that gave us a dozen games .
Then we managed to get one or two games with local teams who were prepared to give us just one game on their grounds , Cwm and Blaenau Gwent for instance . And then , once I explained to some of the Cardiff clubs ( we played a lot of the Old Boys down there ) our predicament they offered us two fixtures , as long as we were prepared to travel twice , because they had unlimited use of grounds in their area . So that was the basis on which we started .
It was a bit of struggle to start with because we could hardly get 15 together ; we rarely had a full side , we often travelled and had to use a couple of the opposition . We used the bus driver , and often went around the town on the Saturday morning on route , trying to pick people up just to make up the numbers . This often made us late for matches so we got used to changing in the bus , which enabled us not to be too late getting there and we could go straight onto the field and play .
We went a complete season without scoring a single point to the best of my recollection - not even a kick ! First point we scored was in our second season . The first try was scored by Islywn James , our hooker . The rare occasion when we got the ball and it was kicked forward , it struck the upright of the opposition posts , ricocheted back straight into his arms and he collapsed over the line and scored a try . I don ’ t know whether we converted it , although it was under the sticks , but it was an important point . We didn ’ t score much after that again .
Financing things was a little bit sticky , but fortunately Ivor Evans , who was in charge of the local bus department , at least the office in town , was a member of the club and I knew him , and he was
able to do us a special deal whereby the buses weren ’ t terribly expensive so we managed it .
From time to time we tried other forms of transport – a bread van on one occasion which was illegal , but as long as you kept the shutter down at the back and lay on the bread shelves ( you got covered in flour of course ) it was OK but that wasn ’ t too successful , we were in no shape to play anything when we got out of that . And one or two occasions as cars were becoming more and more available we did a little bit using public transport and motor cars , but that wasn ’ t too clever either .
But that ’ s how it all started . We used the pit head baths ; we didn ’ t have any trouble getting permission to use Rose
Heyworth baths . The only stipulation was that we tipped the bath attendant , E B Jones . He lived near me so that was very easy , I knew him . And of course we had to tip the school Groundsman , Mr Hardwick , for unlocking the field for us to use . It used to cost us half a crown for a ball boy to retrieve the ball from going down the bank on the other side because only the one field was there in those days .
Now of course , finally arrived a time when , for the first time ever , we actually knew we had 15 men before the game started . We were playing at home and , as usual , as we were trotting down towards the field I was shouting out to various people where they were supposed to be playing . It was not unusual , once we got on the field , for people to be not too sure which positions they were in and it used to be sorted out as we made a start .
On one occasion , as I say , we actually had 15 men to start , or so we thought , and we must have been playing for at least 10 minutes , we survived several line-outs and we came to the first scrum . And they seemed to be having a bit of difficulty forming the scrum , and then it became obvious that there were too many men trying to pack down . And once we looked around the backs were full and , absolutely true story , we had 16 men on the field !
Well we couldn ’ t continue like that . Now , several of those that we had roped in , if we had told them not to bother before the game started , they would have been delighted . But once we had got them on the field , nobody was prepared to leave . So the only way we solved the problem was that the captain left . That caused another delay while we picked another captain for the match . But it actually happened , that ’ s the kind of way the whole thing began in the early days .
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