Aston Old Edwardians RFC

King Edward VI Grammar School Aston was founded in 1883. The first generation of old boys established a Rugby Club in 1889. The Perry Common ground was purchased as a memorial to the 123 Aston Old Edwardians killed in the 1914-18 Great War.

In 1920 AOEFC became founder members of the North Midlands RFU. In 1922, when the North Midlands reached the final of the County Championship (losing to Gloucester) eight AOE’s won county caps.

Through the 1930’s Aston enjoyed particular fame in sevens – losing finalists in the first North Midlands competition in 1930, joint champions in 1931 and champions in 1932, ’34 and ’37.

During WW2 AOE combined with Camp Hill OE; a link recalled in the annual “Teddy Parker” Cup game. A large grandstand was built as a memorial to the 70 old boys killed. When it burned down, insurance money helped build the squash courts.

In the 1970’s, playing membership was opened to non-old boys and our first Sunday Colts sides were established. Over half the record setting sides of 1989 and 1991 came through the Colts.

1988/89, the Club’s 100th year of rugby, proved to be most successful to date, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd XV’s all setting new records.

But 2002/03 saw still greater success, as the 1st XV were champions of Midlands 3 West(N) and won the North Midlands Cup for the first time. The North Midlands Cup was retained in 2003/04. We have twice reached the final of the North Midlands Shield in the last 3 years, losing to Bournville and Old Halesonians.

Aston Old Edwardians FC 1889-1989 – A History by Brian Roberts

Chapter 1 : 1889-1914 ‘The Book of Tid’

“….early days, when we often rode to and from a match on a bicycle, fully dressed for the game & left our overcoats under a hedge. The purchase of a new ball was to strain the club’s finances to the breaking point, only to be relieved by the discovery of a new vice-president with a half-guinea subscription……..”

from ‘A Schoolmaster Looks Back’ 1949

In 1889, when the 17 year old Frank Jones wrote and stamped 25 post cards calling like-minded contemporaries to the inaugural meeting of the Aston Old Edwardians Football Club, Joseph Chamberlain’s Birmingham was celebrating its incorporation as a City, and Alexandre Gustave Eiffel has just completed a 984 foot high iron tower for the Centennial Exposition in Paris celebrating the Revolution of 100 years before. Whiskey was 18 shillings a gallon, King Edward VI Grammar School in Frederick Road, Aston was just six years old. It had 862 alumni, a third of them still at school.

There was already an energetic Old Boys’ Association: Mr Temperley, the first Headmaster, had promoted that in 1885. There was also an Aston Old Edwardians Association Football Club, but it withered away after FJ returned to the school as a master. He conspired with an Old Pauline colleague (EH Scott – also a collaborator with FJ in the writing of a very successful Latin primer) to banish football, and promote rugger as the only winter game at the school, previously ‘a hot-bed’ of soccer.

Football Clubs playing under Rugby School Rules had been in existence since the 1850s but had taken some pride in managing without a governing body. Burton (1870), the oldest Midlands club originally played both codes in alternate weeks and nearly folded when the Captain, a soccer man, resigned. The Rugby Football Union was not formed until 1871, the year of the first Rugby International, a challenge match – 20 a side – between Scotland and England which the Scots won by one goal and one try to one try.

By 1889, when AOEFC was founded, the RFU law-makers had recognised the need for change. The twenty-man side of 1871 was reduced by 4 forwards and one half-back to fifteen. The normal formation was : full back, 3 three-quarters, left and right side half-backs and 9 forwards. The game was opening up : forwards still concentrated on ‘foot-rushing’, but heeling back from the scrum, once considered illegal since it put all the pack off-side, was now accepted; and passing by hand, originally thought of as cowardly, had become important. Scoring by points replaced the earliest system that only took notice of goals (a try simply gave a chance – ‘ a try’ – at kicking a goal). Between 1887 and 1891, tries were worth 1 point and goals, including penalty goals and goals ‘from a mark’ – 3 points. In 1892 tries were revalued at 2 points, conversions and penalty goals (first allowed in Internationals in 1892) 3 points, drop goals and goals from a mark 4 points. All place kicks required a player to hold the ball: opponents could charge as soon as the ball was grounded – a system that applied to penalties until 1925 and to conversions right up to 1959. A neutral referee, whose decision was final, had replaced the earlier two umpires. However, at a pinch, and with good will, it was possible to enjoy a game without – as the law until 1893 was that the referee did not stop play until and unless an appeal was made, preferably by one of the captains.

Aston Old Edwardians Football Club was born into this world of bowler hats, telegrams, penny post, bicycles, steam trams and horse buses – no radio, no TV, no week-day licensing hours. The Barbarians were born the same year). The 26 men summoned by post-card (FJ enjoyed refusing reimbursement for the stamps for 72 years)formed their Club to play Rugby Football. Harold RC Lyster, oldest of three Aston brothers, was elected captain; FJ was Secretary. The original players, still in their teens and most of them members of the previous year’s strong school XV, included Alf C Rose, W Brockington (who became Director of Education for Leicester), TB Scattergood, Geordie Shelvoke (Secretary after FJ), Percy Brown (later Principal of the Lahore School of Art), FCH Foster, Jimmy Cope, J Marriott, Edgar Britten (eventually knighted, first captain of RMS Queen Mary), as well as FJ and the Lysters.

For £5 they rented a field to play on at Saint Paul’s Cricket Club between Fentham and Trinity Roads. The AOE originals made, erected(and took down in summer) their goal posts, and purchased a suitable Gilbert ball – leather, laced-up, 31 inches in its longest circumference, 26 inches in its shortest. The players kitted out themselves in an old pair of trousers, cut off somewhere near the knees, a strong woollen jersey with a sash, and a comfortable pair of ordinary boots, preferably fitted by the local cobbler with leather bars. Shin pads were considered cissy.

We do not know the Club record for these early seasons. Only three clubs older than AOE survive in Greater Birmingham: Moseley (founded 1873), Old Edwardians (1882) and Handsworth (1887). In time we were to play and beat them all, but in the early years had to be content with games against their 2nd XVs. In that 1889-90 season we met Coventry Harlequins, Moseley Nomads & Harlequins, Warwick Avon Rangers, Harborne, Stourbridge, Bromsgrove and the King Edwards School 1st XV captained by Joe Manton, who was to be Aston’s headmaster from 1913 to 1936. No results are recorded.

The young club prospered. In 1890-91 the earliest game traced was played on November 15th – a 22-0 victory over Five Ways Past & Present (Five Ways Old Edwardians had not yet been formed). The following week AOE lost 8-11 to Old Edwardians 2nd XV. It is possible only two other matches against opponents were played in a season of heavy frost.

For the 1891-92 season Hubert H Lyster, who had played for the Originals while still at the school, succeeded his brother as captain. A new pitch was found in Deykin Avenue, Witton on which members cut out touchlines, painted and erected goal posts and white washed a small pavilion in which the players hung their coats – they changed and washed in the stables of ‘The Yew Tree’ inn – or simply arrived at the ground in kit and cycled home muddy afterwards. For away games they took the train, sometimes changing on board to save time.

In 1891-92, as the Newport and Wales formation of full back, 4 threequarters, two halves and 8 forwards began to catch on, AOE raised a 2nd XV. It was enormously well served by a diminutive wit and enthusiast who was to devote his life wholeheartedly to AOE; and, in 1893 by a most talented and enduring player. They were WO Bailey and Howard ‘Tid’ Beasley (in turn 2nd XV Secretaries).

Our pavilion was built in memory of WO Bailey and the iron gates at the Sunnybank Avenue entrance commemorate ‘Tid’ Beasley.

In 1893-94, while the 1st XV recorded no win and often played men short, the 2nds were only beaten once. Backs Oliver Bremley, Edward Taylor, ‘Tid’ Beasley, Bill Bailey, Harry Goode; forwards Tom Allday, Roly Freeman, EW & Leonard Pratt, and Archie Saville declined promotion to the 1sts – they wanted to play together. JG Cooper, capped for England twice from Moseley in 1909, and F Shillcock, the Clubs first Midland Counties representatives, both played their earliest adult rugby in this successful side.

The struggling 1893 1st XV provided the newly formed Camp Hill with their very first match (October 1st, at Thompson’s Nurseries, Showell Green Lane) and lost by a goal and 2 tries to nil. Camp Hill’s Teddy Parker, in whose memory AOE and Camp Hill play an annual Cup game, was a member of that first CHOE XV.

The law-makers introduced modern scoring values in the 1893-94 season, did away with the system of appeals, required the referee to blow the whistle and stop play when the laws were broken, but wisely also introduced the ‘Advantage Law’.

Hubert Lyster played robustly on into his 30s – twenty seasons of Old Boys’ rugby, something of a rarity in those days – but in 1895 he yielded the captaincy to ‘Tid’ Beasley. WO Bailey was elected Secretary.

Beasley held the captaincy for a long time – probably for 13 seasons (WOB kept his records in his head, so we’re uncertain).

At the school, the enthusiasm of EH Scott and Frank Jones (who joined the staff of his old school in 1896) made rugby very important and very successful. For 16 consecutive years before the Great War, Aston won the King Edward Grammar Schools football championship, and FJ made it clear that the expected thing for a Rugby-minded boy was to continue his football with AOE. Howard Beasley sometimes turned up as the school ground in Aston Lane on Thursday afternoons to coach, and Bill Bailey took youngsters under his wing in a 3rd XV started in 1903.

AOE entered the Midland Counties Cup in 1897 and lost to Wolverhampton 19-0. The next season they drew Rugby and lost narrowly by two tries. Bailey and Beasley set about strengthening the fixture list. Five Ways OE and Camp Hill OE RFCs who had been on our list since their foundation in 1892 and 1893 were joined by Handsworth (who always had the odd Aston Old Edwardian in their ranks, to FJ’s annoyance) Nuneaton, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Burton, Wolverhampton, Cheltenham, Stroud, Rugby, Nottingham, and in 1904-05, Coventry. A Moseley fixture remained elusive till after the first War, though AOE lost to them in cup ties in 1903 (0-9) and 1907 (0-20).

Early in the 1890s the Club adopted the red, white and green jersey – a narrow red stripe separating broad white and green. Shorts were dark until 1918.

In 1899 a new ground had to be found -in Holdford Drive, ‘an excellent site’, in Witton. The Club established headquarters in ‘The Old Crown & Cushion’, Perry Barr, which also served Birchfield Harriers. A room was rented at the back, heated by a coke stove. Washing facilities consisted of two small baths holding 4 or 5 players, or a cold tap outside. Opponents often went direct to the ground ready changed. Aston walked the long mile from Perry Barr to Witton, in overcoats, or in blazers and tasselled caps if the weather was fine.

In November 1909 ‘The Birmingham Daily Post’ rebuked us:

“…..AOE are gaining notoriety – perhaps unwittingly – for the frequency with which late starts are made at Holdford Drive, and for the bad form in expecting visiting teams to await the leisurely arrival of their opponents some 30 minutes after the time appointed for the kick-off. FWOE were the victims of this experience in the raw atmosphere of Saturday, and they must have been thoroughly chilled before play commenced….”

So much time was wasted in this delay that less than half an hour was played each way, and even then the game was prolonged into a rapidly-gathering darkness. Aston were : “….superior in weight but hardly in cleverness in the scrum….” and won by two tries to nothing.

Through the Bailey years and beyond each AOE XV was independent and self-sufficient. Each team had its own selection committee and its own Team Secretary who was expected to deal with cry-offs by recruiting players not already selected for another side. In the Jubilee books there is a reminiscence by AC Cleaver, 1st XV Secretary at the turn of the century and, in 1927, one of the original Memorial Ground Trustees, which indicates the problems :

“…..While I was Secretary we (sometimes)had great difficulty in raising a team of Old Edwardians……. I have walked many miles on Friday nights to fill the gaps in the team for the next day. Phones and transport were not so convenient……… One Friday night ‘Tid’ Beasley and I walked nearly to Scott Arms to see if Davenport would turn out the next day, only to learn that he wouldn’t be able to, as his father, a manager at Hamstead Colliery, was at the pit where the terrible fire that killed so many men had broken out. ‘Tid’ and I went to the pit and helped by breaking coal for the fireman of the only fire engine there, to keep up the engine’s head of steam while pumping water down the pit…”
(The Hamstead Colliery disaster in which 23 men and boys died occurred 28th February 1908).

A consequence of the independence of the XVs and of communication problems when few homes had telephones was that occasional non-old boys were roped in to play for the 1st XV. Frank Jones didn’t approve and the practice stopped soon after he became President in 1911. So the ‘Aston Old Edwardian’ in this ‘Birmingham City Gazette’ story of 1900 was not, more is the pity, a former pupil of the school:

“…. On Sunday 28th October an English XV will meet the French Rugby Union at the Paris Exhibition Grounds,

The following players representing the English Union left London last night for that purpose:

HA Loveitt (Coventry) back; HS Nicholls (Old Edwardians), L Hood (Rosslyn Park), C Wittindale (Coventry), K Wittindale (Aston Old Edwardians) threequarters, JH Birtles (Moseley), J Cantion (London Irish)half-backs; JG Wallis (Old Edwardians), CP Deykin (Moseley), V Smith (Old Edwardians), AJL Darby (Cambridge University), ML Logan (London Scottish), FH Wilson (Old Crusaders), MW Talbot (Moseley), & FC Bayliss(Moseley) forwards…..”

A Reuters report in ‘The Times’ dated 29th October 1900 attributes the defeat of the English side, 27 points to 8, before a crowd of 10,000, in part to ‘the fatigue of the journey’. The schedule of most of the players appears to have been – Saturday match in the Birmingham area, train to London, boat train and cross-channel ferry, train to Paris, arriving Sunday morning. France had already beaten Germany a fortnight before, so France are recorded in Olympic history as being Rugby Football champions for the Second Modern Olympic Games.

Other non-old boys of the years just before the Great War were : W Townend, a goal kicking forward; H Wilson, back or wing; and D Sargeant and Pedro Orbea who had seasons at half back in the inter-regum between ‘Tid’ Beasley and a brilliant successor AH Cross (of whom more below). Pedro Orbea had been sent from Spain to be educated at Malvern where he learned to play Rugby. After Malvern his family dispatched him to Birmingham to learn the gun trade in the firm of Mr O Williams, an Aston Old Edwardian. Orbea played for AOE until he left for Germany in December – according to ‘The Birmingham Post’, “….. a serious loss to the Club, who curiously enough, have always shown a little weakness at half back…..”

The AOE 60th and 75th Anniversary books give a season by season record, often sketchy, of the Club’s progress; 1897-98, 1898-99, 1899-1900 – stronger fixtures, more wins than defeats.

1900-01 Won 6, Drew 4 & Lost 6 (drew with Old Edwardians, beat Camp Hill, lost to Five Ways – all football abandoned for two Saturdays on the death of Queen Victoria).

1901-02, 1902-03 – more defeats than wins

1903-04 played 19, Won 10, Drew 1, Lost 8 (heaviest defeat was by a margin of 8 points to Camp Hill, but beat them twice in the season).

1904-05 draws with Coventry and Nuneaton, first round cup win after replay against Handsworth, second round defeat by Nottingham).

1905-06 Won 6, Lost 16 but form improves towards the end of season

1906-07 Won 8, Lost 12 – lost to Moseley in 3rd round of cup

1907-08 ‘a curious season’ – Won 8, Lost 14 – lost to FWOE 0-28, beat CHOE 29-6, beat Wolverhampton 46-0, lost to Nottingham 0-42

1908-09 Won 10, Drew 2, Lost 7 – double over Burton, JG Cooper capped by England

1910-11 Won 11, Drew 2 , Lost 13

1911-12 a fine season, probably the second under captaincy of HW ‘Jumbo’ Lewis – Won 14, Drew 2, Lost 7 – close defeats by Cheltenham, Handsworth (twice), Nuneaton & Old Edwardians,; wins against Nuneaton OE, Birmingham University (twice), Wolverhampton (twice), Nuneaton, FWOE (twice) CHOE (three times).

HW Lewis is in evidence in many of the old photographs generously restored for the Centenary by Maurice Felton and now on display. He was the first Aston schoolboy to win an English Schools Rugby Union cap. He was Club Captain in 1910-11 and , we deduce,1911-12, and again in 1919-20 season. In the 1930s he became Chairman of the AOEFC Committee.

1912-13 captained by CS Dingley, a ‘brainy forward’, a record season – the tally of 23 victories not beaten until Mike Collis’s 1975-76 twenty-four wins and Gavin Cairn’s splendid 1988-89 twenty-nine. Won 23, Drew 3, Lost 2 (to Cheltenham in the first match and then only to Westleigh in the Midlands Senior Cup).

1913-14 – success continued.

(for details of these early seasons see 60th and 75th Anniversary Books)

The time before the Great War was a splendid period for English rugger. The Rugby Union opened Twickenham in 1910 and enjoyed great luck there for a quarter of a century. A magnificent Springbok side won there in 1912; no European country won there until Scotland broke the Twickenham ‘bogy’ in 1926; Wales had to wait until 1933, when Watcyn Thomas (KEGS Aston staff 1937-71), an inspirational captain led Wales to a 7-3 victory.

Two outstanding England players, and a law reform of 1911, changed the game. Adrian Stoop (15 caps 1905-12) of Harlequins was a rare Rugby thinker who developed the art of passing the ball as distinct from throwing it, and whose aim was to keep the ball alive. As captain of Harlequins he virtually banned kicking for touch. CH Pillman (18 caps 1910-14) of Blackheath was a very fast and skilful forward, one of the first to ignore the ‘first up. first down’ principle of scummaging. He made sure that he packed at the back of the scrum on ‘the field side’, aiming to deny the opposing fly-half an inside break, or to cover across and tackle the wing. He was also a brilliant attacker capable of playing fly-half in one Test on the first Home Unions tour to South Africa in 1910, and finishing the tour as top scorer with 65 points. South Africans regard him as the father of their back-row play.

The law change that liberated wing forwards, for good or ill, made it illegal for scrummagers to pick up the ball between their legs. This countered a technique which had developed in the murky depths of the scrummage whereby a second-row forward in a skewed scrum would dip his knees, pick up the ball between them and order a wheel. All eight forwards would push. After 1911 it was no longer necessary for the back-row of a side that had lost the ball to hang on in case of a wheel, and spoiling wing forwards came to the fore.

Cyril Dingley who captained the club in those two successful seasons before the Great War was obviously a considerable leader and organiser. He moved to London between the Wars and became a well-known referee. He died, aged 99, early in the Club’s 100th year. Frank Jones and Bill Bailey were experienced, devoted, enthusiastic and benevolently despotic committee men. The club had great family strength – for years its Lysters, Dingleys, Browns, Chillingsworths, Elvins, Dallisons etc combined to form a team of ‘Brothers’ to challenge ‘The Others’ in an annual Christmas game. Geordie Shelvoke, Len Pratt, Alf Cleaver, Hubert Lyster and Jim Thompson’s father Walter – usually with umbrella – harangued, aided and abetted from the touchline. The seasons just prior to 1914 also saw the graduation from School Rugby of some considerable talents. So, in 1912, Dingley had available to him the experience of ‘Tid’ Beasley (who retired with a gold watch and illuminated address at the end of that season); a nucleus of men in their 20s, like himself – R Davis (who scored all six tries in a 32-0 win against Birmingham), HW Lewis (full-back, former schoolboy International, past and future Club Captain), DL Price who ‘The Post’ thought “an ideal forward for club Rugby” (at 12 stone and 5 feet 9 inches) “who ought to be in the Midlands side”; and teenagers like Donald Tomey who had been School Captain of Rugby, Captain of Cricket and Senior Sports Champion, and AC Cross (a schoolboy International in 1908 when 13), WE Wilkinson and ‘Tab’ Buckler, the last three of whom became Club Captains after the war, and helped North Midlands to the 1922 County Championship Final.

In 1914 Midland Counties won the County Championship for the only time, but the size of the Midland catchment area and the dominance of Leicester (who supplied eleven of the Championship side) precipitated a break-up, not finalised until the more important business of war with the Central Powers had been settled.

Chapter 2 : 1914 – 1918 ‘War’

“….The older generation of cricketers and football-players have memories of rough grounds, miserable sheds to change in, long weary tramps to distant playing fields, wearier tramps home after a hard game. Some of them remember journeys to parks in search of a cricket pitch, not always very level when found, to which they had to carry not only themselves but their bats and the rest of their paraphernalia…….. they remember too men who in spite of the disadvantages were great players. It is to those men, who, when their playing days are over, still maintained an enthusiasm for the game, & who thought that there could be no worthier way of honouring their fallen comrades, that the present generation owes the Memorial Field.

No greater gift has been given to our School…….” Joseph Manton MA, Headmaster, 1913-36

AOEFC played no Rugby 1914-18. The Annual General Meeting was scheduled for 7th September 1914 (the first Monday of the month). By then Great Britain had been at War with Germany for a month. The Battle of Mons had been fought, the Battle of the Marne was raging, and the majority of Rugby players, if they were not like Cyril Dingley already in the Yeomanry (Territorial Army), had enlisted in the ‘Pals’ City of Birmingham Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

AOEs played their rugger for service teams, rugger continued strongly at school; FJ refereed his last game in 1918, a forces Australia v New Zealand ‘International’.

By the end of that war more than 720 Aston Old Edwardians had served in the armed forces, and 123 had been killed, inevitably many rugger players among them:

Leonard Chillingworth, Ralph Davies, Howard Davis, Alfred Dingley, D Hughes, Johnny Jenkins*, E Marson*, DL Price, V Roberts*, Archie Saville, Herbert Shillcock, William Thain*, & Donald Tomey……… those starred serving with the RWR.

When peace returned, Bill Bailey and his colleagues had two great causes to organise:

the provision of a fitting memorial to the fallen;& to get Rugby Football, the best of games, back in business with Aston Old Edwardians to the fore.

Joseph Manton, now the School’s headmaster, and WO Bailey articulated and co-ordinated the determination of all who had Aston connections to pay proper and permanent respect to the dead. A crowded meeting in Big School on 31st March 1919 resolved, under their leadership , to launch a War Memorial Appeal with these three aims :

1. to put up a memorial tablet in the School recording the name, rank and regiment of the 123 who had died

2. to fund the education, in the Schools of the King Edward Foundation, of the sons and daughters of men killed or disabled

3. to purchase a playing field to be held by Trustees in perpetuity as a memorial to the Old Boys of the School fallen in the Great War.

They set a target of £2000 – difficult to compare with 1989 values, but certainly not less than £100,000 today – and they made it. In due course they raised the memorials they had proposed.

Chapter 3 : 1919-1930 ‘The Book of W.O.B’

“……. Despite all the Laws the Rugby Union can make, there is only one satisfactory method of getting the ball into the scrum, and that is ‘bore a hole in the middle & drop it in…….”

WO Bailey as reported by Harold Richards AOEFC 75th Anniversary Book – 1964.

Aston Old Edwardians Football Club resumed activities on the Holdford Drive pitch at the start of the 1919-20 season. The veteran HW Lewis, released from quartermaster duties with the Warwicks, took on the captaincy again after an interval of ten years; WO Bailey was Secretary and Chairman; Frank Jones – President.

Cyril Dingley and ‘Tab’ Buckley survived wounds to play again, PJ Gething MC played when duties and the demands of the Army XV allowed. The splendid Cross returned, filled out to a solid 12 stone, and so did tall Wilkinson. The RWR released Carl Plenderleith, full-back and accurate goalkicker, who played two seasons before emigrating. Back too were N Valentine and AV Johnson, and a number of younger men, products of strong school sides of the period from 1912 when the school had almost doubled in size with the departure to Rose Hill Road of the girls : ET Morgan (third, after Lewis and Cross of the school’s four England School’s caps – the last was B Foster – Birmingham did not rejoin the England Schools RU until it was reorganised after the Second War), LJ Barrett, Harry Browne, HE Markwick, Jim Browne, Freddie Dawes, Tommy Bloxham, R Janney, HF Hill etc..

Jim Thompson, who had followed his father, Walter, into AOE in 1912, returned from the War to play on the 3rds, soon to be launched on his 40 year tenure as Match Secretary (his practical memorial is our large car park); Harold Richards joined in 1919, was elected to committee in 1920, succeeded Tommy Jenkins as 2nd XV Captain in 1921, and remained generously and influentially at the heart of Rugger Club and AOE affairs for 40 years. He died in 1968 but is remembered by the silver tankard that bears his name awarded to the Clubman of the Year.

Evening practices were held , in time under a floodlight on the school ground in Trinity Road – Floyd, the School’s second headmaster had acquired the field in 1911 and started a pavilion fund; the pavilion was built in 1916 and dedicated to his memory.

WO Bailey presided over convivial Monday Committee meetings at the AOE Club on the top floor of County Buildings, Corporation Street, and set his sights on assembling a strong fixture list for 1920-21 and welding the considerable talents at his disposal into a Rugby force to be reckoned with. He succeeded.

Meanwhile at Count level, the rift in the Midland Counties had to be repaired. In 1919 the Rugby Union created a new Midlands Group ;

1. Leicestershire (including Notts and Rutland)
2. Warwickshire (excluding Greater Birmingham)
3. North Midlands (Greater Birmingham, Derbyshire, Staffordshire & Worcestershire)
4. East Midlands (Northants & Beds, as before)

In January 1920, twenty-six clubs, of whom 12 sent delegates, were invited to a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce, in order to form the North Midlands Union. WO Bailey was elected to the provisional rule-drafting committee. This committee worked fast, and a month later, held the first formal general meeting of North Mids. WOB was elected Match Secretary. In April North Mids staged their first game : Old Edwardians Clubs v The Rest – Lou Barrett, ‘Tab’ Buckler, AV Johnson, ET Morgan and WE Wilkinson represented the combined Edwardians XV which beat The Rest 16-13.

North Midlands played their first county game against East Midlands, in the County Championship, on 8th October 1920 and, defying predictions, won. Aston were represented by AH Cross, ET Morgan, WE Wilkinson and BL Jacot (AOE, Oxford University and Harlequins), a large, fast winger who scored a famous hat-trick of tries in the 1920-21 Varsity match and played for the Barbarians in the first Hobbs Memorial match. ‘Tab’ Buckler was reserve.

1920-21 :the veteran Lewis handed over the captaincy to WE Wilkinson, a tall wing-forward, good in the chaos of the line-out – which could still, till the 5 yard line was introduced in 1925, be ‘bunched’ on the touchline. Wilkinson was a vigorous leader and a good coach : his playing career with AOE ended when he was ordained and went off to missionary work in China. He later became Canon of Wakefield.

The Club found and rented a better field nearer to HQ at ‘The Old Crown & Cushion’, at Perry Hall Farm on the Calthorpe Estate, surrounded by trees and possessing a wonderful stretch of level, forgiving turf (near where the old Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium was later built). The owners declined to sell, to everyone’s disappointment, so the Memorial Field Trustees had eventually to look elsewhere. Aston opened this new ground with a 22-0 win over Five Ways Edwardians.

Wilkinson’s three years of captaincy were famous ones. The club realised Bill Bailey’s ambition to establish itself as a power in the front rank of Midland Rugby.

1920-21 – Played 29, Won 21, Drew 2, Lost 6 – the 21 wins included victories over Coventry, Handsworth, Nuneaton, the University, Moseley (in the Cup); Birmingham, Camp Hill, and Five Ways twice each;. Cheltenham beat us, and Nuneaton and Coventry got their own back in return matches. Games with Burton and Old Edwardians were drawn.

1921-22 Won 18, Lost 7 : double over old Edwardians, Five Ways, University ; wins against Camp Hill and Wolverhampton; defeats at the hands of Coventry (twice – 12-13 in the first meeting), Nuneaton and Moseley (0-3).

1922-23 Played 31, Won 19, Drew 2, Lost 10 : wins against Coventry, Moseley, Rugby, Burton, Wolverhampton, University. This season the 1st XV made its deepest progress in the old Midlands Senior Cup – reaching the semi-final by beating Moseley in the quarter-final, but losing to Coventry in the semi; the 2nd XV reached the semi-final of the Junior Cup. And this was the season that seven AOEs (plus Russell Baker, who joined the Aston School staff in 1924 and from then on played rugger and cricket for AOE until his early death in 1936) all played for North Midlands, helping the new county to its first ever County Championship final. The Aston men were :

BL Jacot (AOE, Harlequins & Oxford University)
TA Buckler, a persevering winger with a strong hand-off and swerve (injuries denied Jacot & Buckler places in the final)
AH Cross, robust, unorthodox, opportunist, and his club partner at half-back
LJ Barrett, tall, correct, safe, elegant. (The North Midlands experimented with Cross at fly-half and Barrett at centre in the first two games), and in the pack were

HE Markwick, a strong forward and useful place-kicker, who with Russell Baker earned an England trial in 1922)
JD Browne &
WE Wilkinson (of whom ‘Tab’ wrote “Wilkie got the ball from the line-out and Jim Browne could deal with the rest of the pack on his own”).

North Mids beat Leicestershire in the first match. Jacot and Baker (2) scoring the tries in a 13-0 victory. East Midlands were seen off with a record 20-3 victory, Barrett, centre, and Cross, fly-half, (from Buckler’s pass) scoring two of the four tries. Both Leicestershire and East Midlands had fielded the briefly fashionable All-Black formation of 7 forwards and a ‘five-eighth’. To complete a clean sweep of the Midland group, North Midlands beat Warwickshire 14-3.; Cross, back at scrum-half, made a try for Barrett and cork-screwed over for one himself. In the semi-final, in snow at Moseley, and after half-time whiskies, North Mids beat Cheshire 14-10; 2 tries and a broken collar bone for Jacot.

The final at Villa Park was against a very strong Gloucestershire side, all either from the Gloucester club or from Bristol, and containing five England internationals. The lighter North Mids pack “continually broke away with the ball at their toes…… and tackled in grim fashion……short dribbling, cleverly done…….” (contemporary Press report). But North were unable to get much set-piece ball and Gloucestershire completed a hat-trick of championships 19-0.

“It was a disappointing end for the North, but in reaching the final in only their second year as a county, they had earned the respect of the Rugby world” (Barry Bowker – North Midlands Rugby – 1970).

Years later (but before 1978 when Neville Bakewell of AOE & Coventry helped North Midlands to a first ever County Championship) Frank Jones wrote disarmingly:

“In 1922 no less than eight Old Boys appeared in the North Midlands side. I have heard it hinted that the fact that Bailey and I were both on the Selection Committee may have had something to do with this preponderance. There is probably a certain amount of truth in this, but I challenge our severest critics to point to any single AOE not worthy of his cap, and after all, the team was the only one in the history of North Midlands to reach the final of the County Championship!” (AOEFC 75th Anniversary Book 1964)

Wilkinson gave up rugger for ordination and missionary work in China at the end of the 1922-23 season in which the 1st XV Played 31, Won 19, Drew 2, Lost 10, victories over all the major opponents – Coventry, Moseley, Rugby, Burton, Wolverhampton, University, and drew with Old Edwardians. WO Bailey retired as Secretary after 30 years in one office or another – he was treated to a dinner at ‘The Grand’, an illuminated address and a complete set of Kipling in an oak case; he was still Chairman of the Memorial Ground Committee, and retained the North Midlands Match Secretaryship.

From this period on, the Annual General Meeting minute books have been preserved. The 1923 AGM was held on Monday 10th September at the School. Walter Thompson took the chair; ‘Tab’ Buckler was elected captain, with AH Cross as vice; Harold Richards was elected 2nd XV captain, with Jim Thompson re-selected as Team Secretary; AC Tate would lead the ‘A’ XV (the 3rds); and Dr TC Dance and WF Brazener (eventually Chairman of the Birmingham Mint) the ‘B’ XV.

Frank Jones was re-selected to the Presidency.

The accounts showed a healthy profit that prompted Jim Browne to propose a reduction of the Senior Players’ Subscription to 15 shillings for the season (he was defeated):

From the same 1923 minutes we have this first full summary of results – 1923 season

1st XV Played 31, Won 19, Drawn 2, Lost 10, points For 449, Points Against 167
2nd XV Played 29, Won 16, Drawn 5, Lost 8, points For 291, Points Against 115
3rd XV Played 29, Won 20, Drawn 2, Lost 7, points For 572, Points Against 135
4th XV Played 25, Won 15, Drawn 2, Lost 8, points For 319, Points Against 157
Total Played 114, Won 15, Drawn 11, Lost 33, points For 1631, Points Against 574

TA Buckler captained the Club in 1923-24 – a season in which ‘inclement weather necessitated the cancelling of fixtures, this affecting the Gate Takings’ (RC Shelley, long-standing Treasurer explaining a loss of £11-11s-7d in the season’s accounts). Again all four sides won more games than they lost.

TAB was succeeded by the club’s outstanding footballer of a generation rich in talent – Arthur Cross. There are more references to his unorthodox skills in the Jubilee books than to any other player :

“….. played regularly for 25 years” (WF Brazener)
“….. on selection committee for 2nd XV during the 1912-13 season but played for the 1sts” (PJ Gething)
“….. best football brains in the Midlands and could make an opening from impossible positions” (TA Buckler)
“….. big” (RT Jenney)
“….. probably the most rugger-minded AOE ever. As scrum-half or three-quarter saw openings for himself and made them for others. Confounded all rules on smoking” (RW Blackie)
“….. the most talked-of scrum-half in the Midlands, although he had his critics owing to his unorthodox ways….. a junior international…. had he been playing for a well-known club side he would have gained his international cap…. a staunch and enthusiastic AOE, a tower of strength to the Club and one of the finest sportsmen I have ever met” (LJ Barrett).

The Memorial Fund Trustees had tried hard to purchase the ground at Perry Hall but lost out in the end to the Greyhound Racing Association. In September 1925 WO Bailey reported to the Football Club AGM that ‘there was a plot of land practically reserved for us on the old Golf Links’.

In January 1926 WO Bailey died and the worlds of Aston and Midland Rugby were devastated with grief at their loss.

By conveyances of April and July 1927 Leonard Pratt, Bank Manager, and Thomas Bernard Scattergood, Chartered Accountant, purchased from Augustine Lewis Wells two adjoining parcels of land at Perry Barr in the County of Stafford; by a declaration of trust dated 21st September 1927 these five-and-a-half acres plus three acres, eleven perches and seven square yards were placed in the care of 17 Trustees ‘to manage lease or let’. The Trustees, who ‘shall never be less than twelve in number’ and who must be past pupils or Governors or teaching staff of the King Edward Foundation were (and are) to permit the Aston Old Edwardian Rugby Football Club and other past pupils of the school to use the land in perpetuity as Playing Fields at a fair and reasonable rent….. subject to such Rules & Regulations as the Trustees shall from time to time prescribe.

The photograph on Page 20 of the Centenary History book shows The First Trustees Aston Old Edwardians Memorial Ground 1927 – the names of the 17 ( RT Janney, their Hon Secretary)

Back : G Couch, TG Scattergood, TA Buckler, GE Shelvoke, W Turner
Middle : RT Janney, W Thompson, WH Castle, AC Cleaver, F Wheatley, F Jones, AH Cross, WJ Thompson,
Front : L Pratt, FS Saville, J Manton, HW Richards, HW Lewis

The 1926 AGM appointed a sub-committee of six Trustees and the Football Club Treasurer AG Moreton, to ‘go thoroughly into the question of raising a fitting memorial as a tribute to WO Bailey’s unfailing loyalty’.

By October 1927, AOEFC was in possession of its own headquarters at Perry Common, and a substantial brick-built pavilion had been raised in Bailey’s memory.

The ground and pavilion were ceremonially opened by the Lord Mayor. The Bishop of Birmingham read prayers, buglers of the 8th Royal Warwickshire Regiment sounded the ‘Last Post’, one minutes silence was observed, Frank Jones as President of the Aston Old Edwardians Football Club proposed votes of thanks, a flag was hoisted, and everyone sang ‘God Save the King’. Then Aston Old Edwardians 1st XV played the strong London Hospital team.

The programme (reproduced on Page 22 of the Centenary History) shows the pre-1960 numberings of the teams from full-back – the eccentric Aston numbers bearing witness to members buying their own jerseys and retaining a club number (not a team position number) for the season).

London Hospital

1 ADD Broughton Full Back

2 JV O’Sullivan Three-quarters
3 RG Stanley
4 GV Stephenson
5 RE Barrett

6 CJ Waring Half-backs
7 JW Bromley

8 AE Kendall Forwards
9 LJ Rae
10 RE Holmes
11 JK Munro
12 JGA David
13 WV Howells
14 TFB Noble
15 FR Glover

Aston Old Edwardians

1 CHE Lyster

3 R Baker
4 AH Cross
7 HM Browne
6 N Flavell

29 H Hill
2 JC Hill

9 RT Janney
10 ET Morgan
11 H Taylor
12 R Saxton
13 TA Buckler
14 W Gray
15 J Gwynn
24 H Fleming

Referee – MR FF Gething – North Midlands RFU

Items of Interest : The London Hospital Team includes GV Stephenson who was chosen as Captain of the Irish XV in their recent match against the Waratahs. Beside being one of the finest three-quarters in the four countries, GGV Stephenson is a renowned goalkicker.

RG Stanley who is co-centre three-quarter to GV Stephenson is an Old Waratah having played for New South Wales until he came over to this country last year.

The London Hospital record up to the present in 10 matches played is :-
Won 7, Drawn 1, Lost 2. The games won include those with the United Services and Rosslyn Park.

Aston narrowly lost that game 0-6(and the following week’s advertised game against St Dunstan’s was cancelled because of frost).

That same year, Birmingham RFC lost their King’s Heath ground to the Greyhound Racing Association, so the Trustees bought their stand and had it re-erected beside a hedge that ran between what are now the first and second pitches. The field beyond the hedge, where our first team pitch used to lie, was later purchased with the aid of a Rugby Union loan.

Finally, when Frank Jones and Joseph Manton retired from the School in 1936, they let it be known that their testimonial should be improvement to the Memorial Ground. The strip of land to College Road on which Sunnybank Avenue stands was sold for building, and Manton House was put up to house our groundsman, Steve Thorpe.

1st XVs

1924-25 Played 28, Won 17, Drawn 2, Lost 9, points For 354, Points Against 272
1925-26 Played 27, Won 17, Drawn 1, Lost 9, points For not recorded, Points Against not recorded
1926-27 Played 29, Won 19, Drawn 1, Lost 9, points For 277, Points Against 196
1927-28 Played 31, Won 18, Drawn 2, Lost 11, points For 338, Points Against 183
1928-29 Played 30, Won 19, Drawn 1, Lost 10, points For 301, Points Against 189
1929-30 Played 30, Won 22, Drawn 0, Lost 8, points For 420, Points Against 207

Arthur Cross held the captaincy for these six successful seasons. He played more matches than anyone else and scored more tries. During his years, facing strong opponents,(including an expansive but expensive couple of seasons when the side travelled to London to take on clubs there – Old Paulines, beaten 23-11 in 1926-27; St Thomas’s Hospital, 13-5 & London Hospital 10-6 in 1927-28) the 1sts won exactly twice as many games as they lost.

During the Cross years Aston enjoyed continuing representation in North Midlands sides :

Russell Baker, a winger capable of running the length of the field, selected for North Midlands against Nepia’s all conquering All Blacks in 1924, held his county place until 1926;

Harry Browne, a fine orthodox centre despite poor eyesight, Cross’s successor as Club captain was first capped in 1928 (his brother Jim had been in the 1922 championship final side);

‘Tab’ Buckler made a return as a wing forward for two games in 1927;

Arthur Cross returned twice, in 1925 and 1928 (at the age of 35);

Norman Flavell had two games on the wing in 1929;

Jack Gwynn made the first of 10 appearances in the county pack in 1928 – he moved out to Hereford and became a distinguished administrator – Secretary of North Midlands 1948-57, the year of his death, Vice President and RFU Committee Member;

HF ‘Tich’ Hill, who played for the county once in 1926, was a scrum-half (school partner of Percy Janner) good enough to shift Cross to centre to allow both to play;

PS Janney played through the 1925-26 season at fly-half- the year North Midlands had to play Leicestershire three times (the first match was nullified because Leicestershire played HLV Day, an England three-quarter, without proper qualification). Percy Janney was killed driving a tank in the Western Desert in the Second War;

Bob Janney, Percy’s brother, made the county pack, also in 1926 – ‘he played the game as he ran the mile at School – he put all he had into it’ (RW Blackie);

and HE Markwick finished his 18-match county career in 1927, having captained North Mids from hooker in 1925-26.

Chapter 4 : 1930-1939 ‘The First Book of Jim’

“….The unexpected (and often entirely undeserved) success at Matriculation of a couple of good backs …. will often ruin your next year’s team. What is wanted at Aston today is a larger proportion of genial and muscular block-heads…..” ‘The School Record’ Jubilee Number 1933

Cross retired as captain and player in 1930, and took on the Treasurership. His team-mates formed a VII for the first ever North Midlands 7-a-side Competition and worked their way past 47 other entries to a thrilling final – losing to Kings Norton in a ding-dong 11-14 – but starting a formidable 7-a-side tradition. In the first eight North Midlands competitions before the Second War, Aston reached the semi-final seven times, contested five finals and won three. Their only defeat in a final was that first time to Kings Norton ; the 1931 final was abandoned, in extra time and in a down-pour, as ‘both teams were in a state of exhaustion’. Burton were our opponents who shared the title with us.

Norman ‘Pinkie’ Green (eventually Mayor of Solihull) appeared in all the Aston Championship VIIs; he went to Moseley before the War, and in middle age always carried his kit to games, and often played. He played for North Midlands 18 times between 1931-32 and 1946-47 (when he was 34) and was an England Trial reserve in 1938. A fit, opportunist forward and expert dribbler, he ‘was capable of touching International standard, yet on occasions liable to faults usually associated with a mere novice'(1949 – Gerald Holmes – ‘Midland Rugby Football’)

The Aston Record in North Mids 7s Finals

1930 Kings Norton 14 Aston Old Edwardians 11 (at Kings Norton)
1931 Burton 3 Aston Old Edwardians 3 (at Kings Norton)
1932 Aston Old Edwardians 5 Moseley 0(at Kings Norton)
1934 Aston Old Edwardians 5 Moseley 0(at Kings Norton)
In 1935, when the finals were played at the Perry Barr Dog Track, Aston lost in the semi-final, Jack Lawrence breaking an ankle
1937 Aston Old Edwardians 8 Worcester 3(at Yardley)

Barry Browne captained the club in 1930-31, 31-32 and 33-34. For the 32-33 season, Harry Browne being injured, a gifted all-rounder, Seth Arrowsmith was elected captain but suffered injury in the second game and a career move to London, so his vice-captain HE ‘Tommy’ Bloxham took over the captaincy. He too, late in the season, suffered a serious injury that ended his playing career. He and Dr Dance then took on refereeing of junior games.

Frank Jones, still a committee member of North Mids and appointed to its Selection Committee when that was constituted in 1932, was annually (and sometimes protesting) re-elected President. HW Lewis, Captain in 1910 and 1919 was Chairman. Jim Thompson was Secretary to the 1st XV and Club Secretary (and became Match Secretary for all teams in 1936 when the cumbersome team secretaries system was revised). Harold Richards was Treasurer to the Trustees.

The young Reg Rodaway was playing in the scrum in the junior sides – vice-captain of the Extra ‘A’ 1929-30, much loved President of Aston Edwardian Association in the 1980s, and till his death in the Rugby Club’s 100th year, a devoted sticker-in-of-flags and supporter.

CF Armishaw, captain of the School side of 1928-29 (26 wins, 3 defeats – only one by another school side; 714 points for, 129 against) appeared in vacation sides, then had seasons in the 1st XV scrum; his successors as School rugger captains, Charles Gilbert and Jim Connor, made Old Boys debuts, launching well over 100 years (between them !) of service to AOE – both Association Presidents in due course; Charles – long-serving Secretary of the Aston Edwardian Association, and Jim – Rugby Club Treasurer, best ever hounder of subscriptions, quiet and generous giver, retriever of Rugby balls, and rowdy tourist whose 50 years of touring we acknowledged in 1989. In 1931-32 along with theirs the name crops up in the team lists for the first time of Viv Woodward. By the end of the decade FJ was referring to him in the same breath as Beasley, Cross, Harry Browne, and Philips as ‘a player capable of lifting a side by leadership and power of attack’. A splendid small all-rounder, Viv is remembered by AOE cricketers as a startling septuagenarian wicket keeper who always stood up to the stumps.

In 1932, a tall goal-kicking winger arrived in the junior sides. He was RWG Harpur, a nephew of the Bramley who was one of Bill Bailey’s 1891 2nd XV that refused promotion. Dick (or Polly) Harpur became ‘A’ XV Captain in 1937-38 & 39; with Jim Thompson he sustained AOEFC through the Second World War, served as Club Captain in the first half of the 1945-46 season, was Fixture Secretary for years, Chairman, Match Secretary during Jim’s last illness, and was elected Rugby Club President in 1984-85. He served his turn as President of the Aston Edwardian Association, was one of the Memorial Ground Trustees, and was honoured (with Eric Collis and Dennis Walker) as Honorary Life Vice-Presidents of the Rugby Club in 1983. He stands beside FJ, WOB, H Beasley, Jim Thompson and Eric Collis as one of the great Club servants.

The 1930s were years of mixed fortune – fine success at Sevens, much strength in depth, but harder going for the 1st XVs.

1st XVs

1930-31 Played 28, Won 17, Drawn 2, Lost 9, points For 254, Points Against 173
1931-32 Played 28, Won 13, Drawn 3, Lost 12, points For 261, Points Against 204
1932-33 Played 28, Won 10, Drawn 2, Lost 16, points For 176, Points Against 251
1933-34* Played 30, Won 17, Drawn 2, Lost 11, points For 373, Points Against 233

* in which season B Martin’s 2nd XV had this good record
Played 26, Won 21, Drawn 2, Lost 3, points For 348, Points Against 133

The Club was now running five, on occasions six teams and was unique in the Midlands in this strength in depth. However, there were fewer players of the very top flight, the forwards were generally light, and judging by the AGM minutes, there was an obdurate, amateur spirit that caused the majority to neglect training – despite excellent facilities (including training floodlights and dressing room heaters, installed in 1932). The Club had a habit, hard to break of losing early season games because of lack of fitness.

One of a remarkable group of Aston men of letters of this period, Reggie Smith, got up am occasional side of AOEs at the University. Walter Allen, novelist, academic critic, literary journalist and Aston old Edwardian, reports that the mighty poet, Louis MacNeice, once played for this side (‘As I Walked Down New Grub Street’ – p46). And another enviable all-rounder, Norman Hicken – scientist, author, illustrator, conservationist – was a regular member of the 1st XV scrum.

Freddie Phillips, a sparkling, original half-back, took over the captaincy for 1934-35 and 1935-36. He was the inspirer of Aston’s 7-a-side successes. Frank Jones devoted a paragraph to him in his memoirs :

“I well remember the first time Phillips kicked a Rugby football. As usual I was taking the new boys for a first game. Phillips picked up the ball, swerved, side-stepped, ran like a hare and, I verily believe, ‘sold the dummy’. When the game was over I asked him hi name and told him to make a note of the following dates: 1924 – member of the 1st School team, 1929 – AOE 1st XV; 1931 – North Midlands. he told me afterwards that every date came true…..” (‘A Schoolmaster Looks Back’ 1949).

Despite Phillips’ individual brilliance, lack of weight and of years made the three 1st XV seasons 1934-35-36-37 ones of fewer wins; in total 30 as against 46 defeats and 5 draws.

Jack Lawrence captained the 1936-37 side with Phillips as his vice. For five of the last six games of 1936-37 the side enjoyed an addition to its weight and years in the person of Watcyn Thomas (Wales, Lancashire, Barbarians) appointed to the staff of the School as Manton’s last act before retiring. In Watcyn’s last game, he helped AOE to an 11-6 victory against Camp Hill.

1937-38 with Jack Lawrence again captaining the side from centre, and Norman Green as vice, saw the youngsters come good; the 1sts played 26, won 16, drew 1. lost 9 scoring 263 points against 173 – and the previous year’s School XV held together in the ‘B’ XV (the 5ths) to win 19 out of 24 games, for 359 points against 138. Their captain was Alan Wilcox, Club Captain 12 years and a second was later.

CG Rhodes, after several seasons on the second row, moved into the back-row and the captaincy for the 1938-39 season.

In Jim Thompson’s match book the names appear of Ron ‘Pop’ Avery, Club Secretary in the 1960s, AF ‘Tiny’ Winton (an immensely tall master at the School) and Alf Allen (try-scorer in the first ‘Teddy Parker’ Cup game, large, jolly, builder of the new club-house in 1962, and cheerfully static 3rd team referee eventually)In the last couple of games of the last season before the long war-time interruptions, Eric Collis turned out for the ‘A’ XV.

The record for all teams for 1938-39 is :

1st XV Played 26, Won 14, Drew 3, Lost 9, Points For 169, Points Against 172
2nd XV Played 24, Won 15, Drew 3, Lost 6, Points For 250, Points Against 90
‘A’ XV Played 26, Won 15, Drew 3, Lost 8, Points For 196, Points Against 120
Extra ‘A’ XV Played 21, Won 14, Drew 2, Lost 5, Points For 302, Points Against 111
‘B’ XV Played 21, Won 9, Drew 1, Lost 11, Points For 107, Points Against 200

This was the first season in which opponents were required to retire 10 yards at a penalty, though the greater ease of scoring from a penalty is not apparent from the figures.

1938-39 was also the first occasion on which the Club went on Easter Tour: a joint Camp Hill-Aston OE XV
beat Kingsbridge 16-3
beat Bideford 25-11
and lost to Cheltenham 10-11

Between 1930 and 1939 these AOEs played for North Midlands:

TH Bloxham 1931 & 1932 : four times, as hooker; Club Captain 1932-33, referee, still full of fun and interest – our senior member (at the time of publication in 1989)

Harry Browne 8th appearance in centre, 1931; Club Captain 1930-31-32 & 1933-34

RG Fellows 1931 v Notts, Lincs & Derby

W Gray 1932 v Warwickshire

NL Green 14 times pre-war (& four after)

JM Gwynn having moved to Hereford, played nine further times 1930-32

FT Phillips 1932-34 ; 8 times; Club Captain 1932-1934

Chapter 5 : 1939-1945 ‘The Second War’

“The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever,
But if you break the bloody glass, you won’t hold up the weather” Louise MacNeice

The 1939 Annual General Meeting of the Football Club was held in the (evacuated) School on Monday 7th September. Harold Richards presided.

Jim Holland was already in uniform – he never returned – one of 70 Aston Old Edwardians to die on war service. His accounts showed a profit of £8 – 12s.

Jim Thompson reported on a successful 1938-39 season, five teams turning out each week.

In view of the fact that many members were already in the Forces, no election of officers was made. The Hon. Secretary was asked to carry on. It was hoped to field one or two teams each week, and a provisional fixture list for two sides had been arranged.

The minutes of a short and sad meeting were eventually signed by Frank Jones seven years and two days later, at the next AGM in 1946.

1939-40 : Jim Thompson’s match book indicates that teams were raised for 24 matches for 1st and 2nd XVs. The book shows a lot of cry-offs and team changes. Opponents included Old Centrals four times, Walsall four times, Camp Hill OE four times. Travel being discouraged and difficult, all the opponents (apart from Walsall)were Birmingham clubs.

The composition of the teams changed weekly as war service called men away.

At the end of the season(in the ‘phony war’ period) Aston again joined Camp Hill on an Easter tour to Devon – the last for six years.

The fixtures were arranged and all the Club’s administration done by Jim Thompson and Dick Harpur. Part of the ground by Sunnybank Avenue was requisitioned and a hutted War-Time Nursery built, where the 1st Team touch in goal now lies (as at 1989-90)

1940-41 : Jim and Dick, with a nucleus of 13 players arranged a couple of dozen matches – all local – 4 with Walsall, 4 with Camp Hill; 3 each with Old Centrals , Old Dixonians, Old Moselians and Bournville.

Aston combined with CHOE to beat the University, and then, on Easter Monday to travel to Kingsholm to play a strong Gloucester side, packed with Internationals. Norman ‘Pinkie’ Green, Mark Binnie who scored the winning try, and a young airman called Dennis Walker were among Aston’s representatives in a memorable 14-13 victory.

1941-42 : by divining when men were on leave Jim Thompson and Dick Harpur improvised a thoroughly successful season of 10 victories and just 3 defeats – 229 points for and 81 against. The outstanding player was Leslie Greenfield, moving from fly-half to centre in his second and last season with the Club. In the Club’s last match for nearly four years – 4th April 1942 – Greenfield scored three tries in a fine win over Camp Hill. That last war-time XV was :

Full Back : Dave Morren
3/4s : Dick Harpur, Leslie Greenfield, R Hale, Eric Williams
Half Backs : K Durnell, K Jenkins
Forwards : J Duff, G Pittaway, G Sanders, Dennis Walker, Norman Green, F Howe, B Barton, & ANO

From 1942 to 1945 AOES played their rugby, by welcome invitation, with Camp Hill OE and AOEFC suspended activities. Frank Jones kept in touch with AOEs in the Forces in a cyclo-styled newsletter, and fulminated at the Ministry of Works whose War-Time Nursery (which cost £3500 and was used for a few months for a handful of children) fell vacant, but was not dismantled until long after the war.

The School, the unevacuated half of which remained at Aston, and shared the building with Central Grammar School, made use of the Memorial Ground, as Trinity Road became a barrage balloon site and suffered bomb damage. Steve Thorpe, our groundsman, stubbornly and obscenely protected the field, but the old Birmingham RFC grandstand collapsed.

Chapter 6 : 1945-1949 ‘The Book of Polly’

“…. one of the most precious aspects of Rugby Football is its symmetry. Rugby, like no other, is a game that offers itself to all known specimens of two-legged men & it has specific positions for all of them.

It was probably accidentally so but it has worked out perfectly as an enormously enjoyable pastime for short fat men, big fast men, little lean men and big lean men.

It is for near static labourers & it is for athletes…” Michael Blair 1987

The War ended in August. Jim Thompson and Dick Harpur had AOE Rugby back in action after the three lost seasons by November. This combination of veterans, school leavers and men on leave, captained by Dick Harpur, won 8-0 at Dunlop on 3rd November 1945 :

Full-back : L Homer
3/4s : R Watson, R Harpur, N Griffith, R Neighbour
Half-backs : A Smith, B Taylor
Forwards : A Bloomer, S Pimley, D Walker, L Addicott, E Fell, R Rush, C Arthurs & T Adams

Dick Harpur organised fixtures where he could and yielded the captaincy to Reg White in the New Year. Jim Thompson roped in men on leave – Jim Connor and Eric Collis played in the first game of 1946 (a 0-14 defeat by Old Dixonians) and Viv Woodward and Eric Collis helped the team to its first win of the new year 24-0 against Walsall at Perry Common on 26th January.

By the end of the 1945-46 season, dspite mid-winter frosts, the Club had played 20 games; won 6, lost 14, scoring 190 points against 249. And Aston had joined Camp Hill for an Easter Tour, enormously enjoyed.

Frank Jones presided at the 1946 AGM. The pace of demobilisation was quickening, so Dick Harpur had had the confidence to draw up fixtures for two XVs (against Burton, Old Dixonians, Old Yardleians, Old Veseyans, Five Ways OE, Camp Hill OE, Moseley United, Handsworth, Walsall, Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, Stoke-On-Trent & Old Centrals).

Jim Connor presented accounts for the war years showing an excess of expenditure over income of £4-15s-5d, and cash at the bank amounting to £133-9s.

Jim Thompson was asked to contact Mr Brandon, Headmaster of the School since 1937, and Mr Cyril Sharp, PE Master for permission to start a Tuesday evening Physical Training class in the school gym.

Frank Jones reported on the second war memorial appeal – the two wars cost Aston 193 lives and FJ had known them all.

Inevitably FJ was re-elected President, Harold Richards Chairman of the Committee, Jim Thompson Secretary and Match Secretary, and Dick Harpur Fixture Secretary : Jim Connor was elected Treasurer.

Colin Arthurs, briefly back at the School as a master was elected Club Captain, with Alan Wilcox as vice. Horace Wall took on the 2nd XV.

A cruel winter prevented rugby from 25th January till 2nd March.

Nevertheless, by the end of this first, full post-war season, the Club had organised 44 matches for three sides and had won 34 of them. Frank Jones, now 73, was rewarded for his 26 years of service since its inception, with the Presidency of the North Midlands Rugby Football Union. Colin Arthurs played for the county against Leicestershire, and Norman Green completed a 15 year, 18 appearance county career at the age of 34. Halfway through the season a 3rd XV was raised, but 10 of its matches were called off by opponents.

Results for 1946-47 :

1st XV Played 19 Won 13 Drew 2 Lost 4 Points For 212 Points Against 93

2nd XV Played 20 Won 17 Drew 0 Lost 3 Points For 402 Points Against 67

3rd XV Played 5 Won 4 Drew 0 Lost 1 Points For 85 Points Against 28

At the 1947 AGM, held at the School on 1st September, Jim Connor’s accounts showed a record £93 excess of Income over Expenditure – Jim was thanked and £50 was sent to the Trustees by way of rent. The Tuesday evening gym classes run at the school by veteran PE master Sharp were voted a success – in order to enhance attendance, the club decided to pay all expenses. Cyril Sharp served on the rugger committee through the 50s, steered members of School XVs to Perry Common, as well as exercising the more dedicated players each Tuesday evening in the School’s antiquated gym upstairs in the old building in Frederick Road.

Ken Topping was elected Captain and held office for two seasons of cheerful leadership in dour post-war times of rationing and restriction. The Board of Trade would not allow the manufacture of inessentials like striped rugger jerseys, so the players turned out in white for 1st XV games; 2nd, 3rd and when revived in 1949, 4th XV games were motley affairs, with part of the referee’s tasks being to arrange the swaps of shirts between opponents to achieve the most uniform effect. As they were to do right up to the 1970s, players purchased their own jerseys. Petrol was in limited supply for private motoring, and indeed only about half a dozen players owned cars; so away teams met at Stephenson Place or the Hall of Memory to travel by train or tram or bus, or hired motor coach for the more distant away games. Team travel expenses and teas accounted for a third of the Club’s out-goings ; £52-7s-3d in the 1948 Accounts – four times greater than ‘Ground Expenses’, and more than the £50 rent paid to the Trustees, (the Club’s income of £182-2s-10d came from Jim Connor’s tireless badgering of Vice Presidents who subscribed £101-15s, from playing members’ subs of £59-18s-0d, + £8-19s-6d profit on a dance + £4-0s-4d Bank Interest + £7-10s from renting a pitch to the School.

Injuries, the continued demands of military service, the retirement of pre-war stalwarts, and strong fixture lists made for uphill work : in 1947-48 the 1st XV played 32, won 11 drew 1. lost 20 (and the Club’s three other teams as a whole played 77 games, winning 31 of them). For the last time the Club had the low satisfaction of winning a game with a 4-point drop goal (4-3 against Five Ways OE, on 25th October 1947).: the RFU revalued the drop goal to 3 points, the same as a try, the following season.

In 1948-49, the 1sts had another tough and injury-ridden season, winning only 8 of 31 games and drawing 4. The 2nd XV won 11, drew 2 and lost 14. The 3rds, captained by Horace Wall, alone won more than half their games. But things were looking up : the Trustees allowed the opening of the old cricket pavilion for teas after the game : plans were laid to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee in 1949-50; and Miss Bertha Pepper, fiancee of the late WO Bailey, a most generous supporter of Old Boys’ and School rugger, was unanimously elected Life Vice-President. (For years Miss Pepper had funded the Bailey Memorial Tea, an annual and joyful bun-fight for all the School’s rugger players, and the inter-house Rugby Shield is her gift.)

Diamond Jubilee Season 1949-50

At the School two flanking bronze panels were added to the War Memorial recording the names of the 70 old boys, the majority RAF aircrew, killed in the Second World War. Building restrictions, the only-just-ended requisition of the piece of land by Sunnybank Avenue, and the pervading austerity of the post-war years delayed the erection of the Aston Old Edwardian Memorial stand till 1956.

Alan Wilcox took over the captaincy. The 1st XV for the first game of the Diamond Jubilee season (a 6-19 defeat at Old Centrals – who then played at Metchley Lane) :

Full-back – Dick Phillips – a fine ball player & accurate place kicker, successful competitions in the 1950s

3/4s – TM Dillon – very fast. Now Q.C.

RH Mousley – slight and gifted player, , superb when a schoolboy

CM Stanway – marvellously robust back. As goal-kicker through the 50s, he won many games on his own. Memorable cricketer too.

E Williams – enduring fast winger; vice-captain 59-60; jeered at by Coventry crowd when discovered wearing vest under jersey

Half-backs – A Wilcox – captain and goal-kicker

– DB Wright – took over captaincy from AW in 50 and held it for five good years. Atomic Weapons Research scientist who organised AWRE Aldermaston sides to play us on London International trips.

Forwards – J Hughes

– B Martin

– H Barton

– B Quinn

– B Taylor – most taciturn of all AOEs

– N Frenzell – long serving committee-man in various offices – Fixtures, Team Treasurer – through 50s and 60s.

– Eric Collis – patriarch of distinguished AOE clan – sons Mike and Jon both Club captains of Rugby and cricket , Chairman AOE since 81. President AEA ; captain of record setting 2nd XV; golfer

– K Topping – vice-captain; captain 47-49.

The Diamond Jubilee season officers were led by the enduring and devoted quintet of :

Frank Jones – President (his 39th year in that office)

Jim Thompson – Secretary (24th year)

Dick Harpur – Fixture Secretary

Jim Connor – Treasurer

& Harold Richards – Chairman of Committee (& member since 1921)

Ron Avery captained the 2nd XV (and was to become Club Secretary from 1956 to 1966). Horace Wall captained the 3rds, and Gordon Pursall undertook the non-playing captaincy of the first 4th XV raised since the war.

The 60th (Diamond) Jubilee of the Club was celebrated on 8th October 1949 with a drawn game between AOE and a Past & Future XV. The photograph on page 38 (of the Centenary book) shows many of the faces that have sustained the Club through 100 years. It also betrays the jersey problems of those austere days; the long demolished cricket pavilion is in the background.

The Jubilee Dinner at the School was attended by nearly 300 old boys and guests, and John Bate organised a team of researchers to trawl the newspapers file sin the splendid old Reference Library (with its high, leaky, domed roof) and produced the Souvenir Book which was up-dated for the 75th Anniversary and on which I have drawn heavily in writing this for the Centenary.

National Service, and university education were still interfering with playing strength, and the town sides that provided a third of our fixture list were entering a period of growth and ambition – recruiting men introduced to Rugby Football in the services, and youngsters from schools which were taking up rugger for the first time and had no Old Boy’s organisations. AOEFC took Cyril Sharp and Ted Pickering (masters at the School) onto committee, sent the Club Captain to the Bailey Tea, and contacted school leavers. Bob Simpson, captain of the Club 1959-62 and Charlie Sitch, the School’s first post-war English Schools cap, were among the recruits, and soon playing 1st XV football until called up for National Service.

For the first season since the war the Club raised a 4th XV. In its 60th Anniversary season AOEFC played 96 matches, won 38, drew 8, lost 50, scoring 785 points and conceding 931.

The season by season records of all teams 1949-64 are to be found in the souvenir book published for the 75th Anniversary season in 1965.

Chapter 7 : 1949-1959 ‘The Second Book of Jim’

“…… On a day of much sporting activity, Perry Common had its own major occasion in the 100th recorded match between Aston & Camp Hill OE ………CHOE was much the more polished side & …………contrived to win with something to spare.

Prospects of individuality in the home team, inspired by an impressive Bohemianism in dress were not fulfilled. Aston was sadly impoverished outside although the centres Stanway & Belcher might have been satisfied in better company. ***** at scrum half-back perpetrated several burlesque passes which ******, who played badly, tried to receive in the spirit in which they were sent. The Aston forwards had their share of the set scrums & gave nothing away…… but useful work was frittered away by the passengers at the back…….”

By Our Own Correspondent – The Birmingham Post 21st March 1949

(Note of explanation – the 103rd Aston-Camp Hill encounter in 1951, was the first ‘Teddy Parker’ Cup. And for the record, the April 1989 match was the 161st between the clubs and the 39th Cup game.

The 1949 AGM had been held in June: the 1950 meeting was held in May (breaking with the old inefficiency of meeting in the first week of the season and only then selecting the captain). The 1950 meeting was the last to be held at the School : Alan Wilcox was re-elected captain: Jim Thompson was relieved of some of his long-held responsibilities by the election of Gil Rush as Secretary, Jim retaining the Match Secretaryship, of course.

Dick Harpur, Jim Connor and Jim Thompson again took office. Frank Jones made a further attempt to retire from the presidency : much discussion ensued and he was persuaded to serve for one more year (in fact he served till his death in 1961, and the question of his retirement was not allowed to recur). So long had been the debate that the meeting had to be adjourned and re-convened on 12th September in the tea pavilion at Perry Common : at that meeting, David Wright, youngest and longest-serving of the post-war captains, was elected to the Club Captaincy in place of Wilcox who had unexpectedly moved away.

Dave Wright, a post-graduate student at Birmingham University, brought to the captaincy ; versatile playing ability; ingenuity, imagination and clarity of Rugby thinking; great determination; and a huge, sometimes mordant, sense of fun. The Club’s most distinguished player of the four decades following the war is Brian Collinson, who played 15 times at second-row for North Midlands between 1952 and 1959 – a period when the County Championship was very important and when players from unfashionable or junior clubs hardly got a look-in. Brian Collinson played for AOE, RAF service apart, from 1946 till he moved to Scarborough in 1961, and was Dave Wright’s vice captain 1951-54. He was characteristically generous in what he wrote for the 75th Anniversary book :

“…….. I personally learned more Rugby from Dave than anyone……….The period under his captaincy was most enjoyable. He was a great leader on the field and socially in the fun and games that followed. No matter how late the Saturday night revels kept us up, he was there again on Sunday mornings driving us on in the practices………. I can remember now what a relief it was to crawl exhausted into bed on Sunday afternoons………….”

The Wright seasons coincided with all manner of wider change. The 1951 ‘Festival of Britain’ signalled the end of the post-war period of austerity. Queen Elizabeth II succeeded George VI. Television arrived in the Midlands in time for the Coronation. Quite soon, International Rugby was televised. Rugger jerseys in the Club stripes of red, white and green became available again, at last, @ 14/11d from Rowan’s Gents’ Outfitters at the top of New Street ( a great man of Rugby, Jas.Birkmyre Rowan TD, JP – an immaculately turned out referee who arrived at matches in a limousine, ready changed; Secretary (1950-1952) and Chairman (1953-54) to the North Midlands Society of Referees; his firm printed valued little yellow Midland Rugby Hand-books and gave them away).

Public house licensing laws, imposed under the Defence of the Realm Act of the First World War and not repealed, were restrictive – in Birmingham, evening pub opening was 6 to 10.30pm on Saturdays, 7 to 10pm on Sundays. However, Clubs enjoyed greater freedom. Some, but by no means all, of the clubs we played had licensed bars; at others, in the early dusk of mid-season, there was a long and thirsty wait between ‘no-side’ and pub-opening, which brought singing in the communal bath to a high point. Alf Allen organised the circumvention of the licensing laws : Secretary Gil Rush collected the match fees before the game and used part of the proceeds to buy a crate of Nut Brown Ale from the ‘Crossways’ before they closed at 2.30pm. The beers were given away in the cricket pavilion after the game. The old pavilion, where tea and after-the-game sausage, mash and beans were served, was decorated, licensed as a bar in Coronation Year, and refurbished in 1956 by the AOE Association.

The need had been seen to rationalise AOE affairs and to improve the loose and increasingly under-funded structure whereby Trustees provided the Memorial Ground on which Rugby and Cricket Clubs ran separate organisations, not always paying their way. The Trustees derived income from something over 100 Ground Members, from investments, and from erratic rents paid to them by the two sports clubs in good years. The wobbly financial position can be read in the Rugby Club

Income & Expenditure Account for the Year ended 26th May 1952

Debit To

Rent £50 – 0 – 0

Light & Heat £23 – 18 – 0

Printing etc £18 – 17 – 0

Postages £19 – 12 – 6

Ground Expenses £12 – 18 – 2

Travel & Teas £53 – 8 – 11

Subscriptions £4 – 2 – 0

Gymnasium Exes £14 – 0 – 0

Decoration of Pavilion £12 – 17 – 7

Sundry Exes £5 – 0 – 10

Excess of Income over Expenditure £1 – 13 – 1

£216 – 8s – 7d

Credit From

Presidents & Vice-Presidents Subs £138 – 19 – 6

Playing Members Subscriptions £58 – 13 – 6

Profit on Dance £2 – 10 – 6

Bank Interest £6 – 15 – 4

Ground Collections from Spectators £9 – 9 – 9

£216 – 8s – 7d

Jim Connor, RFC Treasurer from Jim Holland’s death until the office disappeared after the formation of the Aston Old Edwardians’ Association in 1966, recruited and reminded the Ground members and the RFC Vice-Presidents whose gifts accounted for three-quarters of the income in which the Club depended.

Among those who threw themselves into re-organisation unstintingly, argumentively but united in their enthusiasm for AOE were three then young men of a new post-war generation. All were good rugger men, as well as forceful proponents of new ideas.

Charles Thackery, latterly Headmaster North Leamington School, a serious, large and able second-row, Dave Wright’s successor as Club Captain, was chosen to chair the amalgamated Aston Old Edwardians’ Association. That association became the umbrella organisation, answerable to the Trustees, which administers all social and financial affairs.

Bob Simpson, captain of Industry, another second-row, Club Captain after Charlie Thackery (and his antithesis), master of all revels, lent his name to the appeal that funded the building of the new club-house, and prodded the Rugby Club to expand its vision to match the Elizabethan Age. He once played rugger for Peru against Ecuador, and says he intends to turn out in Centenary season to make good a boast of playing for AOE in six decades – the 1940s to 1990s.

Alan Haynes TD, JP (The General) was generously and influentially in the middle of all AOE affairs throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s and early 80s, and at the same time making a successful career as Estate Agent & Auctioneer, another in the Territorial Army and a theirs as an A1 referee with the Warwickshire Society – capped by them, awarded the running of a line at an Arms Park international, but denied by illness and injury the referring of an International game which he well deserved. AAH was behind the building schemes for the new 1962 Squash Courts, and the Jim Thompson car park. He organises rugger tours, end of season suppers, Boxing Day parties, AOE Dinners, served the Association as Secretary; when recovered in health, refereed junior games; has been Secretary to the Trustees for 30 years; played cricket elegantly if creakily in the field for AOE and organised an annual ‘Cardinals’ game of huge cheerfulness.

Whilst constitutional reform was being painstakingly implemented, the Rugby Club, sustained as ever by Jim Thompson, Dick Harpur and Harold Richards, played on – short of sparkling talent in the backs, usually effective up front.

Results for 1950-51
Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1st XV 28 11 4 13 169 207
2nd XV 26 10 4 12 131 138
3rd XV 23 4 1 18 111 293
4th XV 4 1 0 3 22 53

In Dave Wright’s first season as captaincy : FJ celebrated 40 years in office, WJT 25. Camp Hill’s Teddy Parker was commemorated by the ‘Teddy Parker’ Cup first contested in 1951 and held for 6 months by each side after a drawn game.

At the AGM cautious support was given to the idea of a Combined Old Boys’ representative XV.

There followed a run of good seasons. Rugby at School was enjoying a period of success under the benign guidance of Watcyn Thomas, with a startling climax in the famous 1952-53 John Murray-Barry Mordike side, which lost only one of 30 games (to an AOE XV), scored 769 points and conceded just 46. John Murray captained the England Schools \Under 19 XV that year and Barry Mordike and GC Carter were capped alongside him. (John Murray played little AOE rugger in his prime as work soon took him away; Barry Mordike played less for similar reasons. They were selected for North Midlands in 1954 – Murray from AOE and Mordike from the university XV: they were the last AOEs for more than 30 years to win selection for North Mids direct from the Club.

David Wright decreed a policy of youth, so Eric Collis, a mighty and canny second row forward and still in his prime, took on the captaincy of the 2nd XV and retained it for 9 seasons, two of them record-setters. And a number of players made youthful 1st XV debuts : Colin Hadley (Club Captain 1965-76), Brian Roberts (Match Secretary 1973-84) in 1952; John Murray, Barry Mordike and Maurice Whitehouse (Club Captain 1962-65) in 1953 ; Gerry Manders (Chairman of the Aston Old Edwardians Association in the 70s) and Jim Hullah – both Schoolboy caps – in 1954 etc..

For the first time since the war, and in the face of difficulties caused an old boys’ club by new discontinuities that saw almost all school-leavers called for national Service, and a far larger number than before go on to universities, the 1st XV, still finding half its fixtures with town sides getting stronger each season, achieved more wins than defeats.

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1951-52 29 14 2 13 235 206
1952-53 27 13 4 10 162 167
1953-54 26 12 5 9 182 144
1954-55 27 11 5 11 205 163

Eric Collis’s 2nd XV made a habit of doing even better :

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1951-52 30 24 2 4 253 99

The 3rd XV, variously captained through the 1950s by Ron Avery, Dick Phillips(with Alf Allen as his vice) and by Alf himself, set about going one better than the 2nds eg

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1952-53 26 20 2 4 356 122

In an effort to improve finances, a weekly match fee of 2/- (or 1/6d for games below 1st XV or players under 21) replaced the 30 year old £1-1s (or 15/-) seasonal subscription. (As a rough guide – in Coronation Year 1953 1/6d would buy a pint of mild, or ten of the cheaper cigarettes)

In 1953-54 it was necessary to raise the subs to 2/- plus 2/- for an away game buy coach or train: the formation of the AOE Association had pointed to the rugger club’s obligation to cover its travel expenses from players subs.

In 1952 Brian Collinson was awarded the first of his county caps : the season after his last, in 1959, his brother, Roy, vey like him in appearance, took over in the county second row. Roy had not played rugger at his school (Handsworth) but had developed a taste for it training with Brian under Dave Wright’s tutelage. Unable to play 1st XV rugger with AOE because of an unwritten but absolute membership rule, not relaxed until 1971, that non-old boys might not play above 3rd XV, Roy went to Moseley. That old boy-only rule did mean that we had from time to time some formidable players in our 3rds. Best remembered are John Waterstreet, the local curate, a Cambridge LX Club and Old Edwardian forward, who would arrive over the Hawthorn Road fence in a cassock, having conducted a Saturday morning wedding, with his football kit on underneath; Ken Johnston, a superb Cumbrian forward who led the 3rds, playing there by choice, for two successful seasons in the mid-70s. On his appointment to a headship in the New Forest, he presented our ‘Young Player of the Year’ trophy.

The 1954-55 season was marred by the death of Colin Follis. A splendid half-back in the mould of Cross and Phillips, he suffered from an enlarged heart, quite undetected in dozen sparkling seasons at School, RAF and Old Boys’ Rugby, That large heart stopped one sad autumn Saturday afternoon. His photograph hangs at Perry Common.

At the 1955 AGM the Club celebrated Steve Thorpe’s retirement after 46 years of loyal and linguistically colourful service with gifts of a cheque and a pair of silver mounted pipes. Dave Wright, who had taken up an appointment at AWRE Aldermaston, resigned as Captain. He was able to play irregularly thereafter, but served as vice-captain in 1956-57 and stood again, in absentio, as captain in 1958-59 when there were four candidates and postal votes were accepted. His successor as Club Captain for the difficult seasons 1955-56 through to 1958-59 was Charles Thackery. The ups and downs of his years show in the results :

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1955-56 27 5 2 20 155 306
1956-57 28 14 4 10 206 162
1957-58 30 8 5 17 155 255
1958-59 28 8 – 20 130 376

The second half of the 1950s saw the beginning of 25 years of law changes from which Rugby Football eventually emerged as the fast, open, strenuous game seen in all AOE sides in the 100th year of the Club. However, the early years of the revision were painful and some of the consequences dire.

The law-makers did away with the goal-kicker’s placer, and a quaint skill disappeared (but more conversions were made); the law requiring that the ball be played with the foot after tackle was abolished – and rugger in the Northern Hemisphere entered a long and sour period in which the maul, sluggish and macho, and ground wrestling for possession, became the chief sources of the now admired ‘second-phase ball’. Dribbling and foot-rushing disappeared and the ‘pile-up ‘ blighted the game.

In the words of John Reason and Caerwen James :
“….. well-intentioned but misguided law changes devalued the low tackle round the legs, one of the classic fundamentals of the game, to the point where its very existence was threatened. The same thing happened to the ruck or running scrum which has been the one classic development of the game in modern times and which therefore should be treasured and preserved……”

The World of Rugby (1979) Chapter 18

On the credit side, the off-side line, except for scrum-halves, became the rear of the scrum (not the ball); the line-out (where British Lions had unforgivably instituted the notion of ‘getting your retaliation in first’) was eventually successfully codified and encouraged to develop – mindful that the line-out is a unique feature of our game.

Minor change in the shape fo the ball (making it less round) and major changes in the texture of the outer cas3e enabled the adoption of the torpedo throw from American Grid-Iron Football for line-outs, and eventually, by the inspiration of Chris Laidlaw (the All Black scrum-half of the 1960s), the development of spin-passing.

Short penalties were allowed (the ball having originally to travel 5 yards before it could be played again) ; the ‘Australian dispensation’ – first tried 50 years before in new Zealand and Queensland –was adopted, allowing the ball to be gainfully kicked direct to touch only from inside one’s own half, later one’s ‘22’. The goal from a mark disappeared, and the differential penalty – the ‘free kick’ – came in. And to the irritation of many, rugger went metric, so that the 25 yard line became the ‘22’.

Prompted by South Africa (who toured the British Isles in 1951-52 and lost only once) the realisation dawned that Rugby needed coaches. The Club sent Ron Davie, now Professor Davie and a leader in the field of child development, on the first CCPR Coaching Course at Lilleshall in 1957 and appointed him vice-captain and coach. However, the players by and large preferred neither to train nor to be coached, despite urgings and warnings and demotions.

Ron Avery, a cheerful, optimistic man by temperament, who succeeded Gil Rush as Secretary in 1956, sounded an untypically gloomy note in his report on the 1958-59 season:

“Despite the fact that the 1st XV defeated teams of the calibre of Burton…. and Stoke-on-Trent, the team had a most disappointing season. The new laws which place the emphasis on speed, stamina and quick thinking underlined all too clearly that the majority of our players were lacking in these essentials and unless there is a real effort on the part of all Club members to improve their physical fitness and playing ability the outlook for the Club is a poor one…..”

Nevertheless the 1956-57 season had been the best since the war : Old Yardleians (3 times), Old Veseyans (twice), Old Nottinghamians, FWOE, Wolverhampton, Newbold-on-Avon, Nuneaton OE and Derby being the scalps.

The new Combined Birmingham Old Boys recognised with representative games the talents of Brian Collison, captain Charlie Thackery and ‘Spanner’ Stanway- redoubtable full back and vice-captain 1956-57.
By 1957 the Ministry of Supply had at last released the requisitioned land, and the 1st XV pitch was moved to the present position; a very grand War Memorial stand had been ceremoniously opened on the bottom touchline. New floodlights had been installed at a cost of £66-15s.

The Trustees had put up new gates at Sunnybank Avenue in memory of ‘Tid’ Beasley’, and the Aston Old Edwardians’ Association (Thackery, Connor, Haynes and Simpson to the fore) had raised the funds to enable Alf Allen to erect a fine new club-house. The Club learned to refer to the ground as being situate in Sunnybank Avenue and the of Hawthorn Road entrance was closed.

Playing subscriptions went up again- this time a new formula wa tried : 50 shillings, or half a crown per match until the £2-10s had been reached –students and members of the forces allowed ad-hoc reduced rates.

The veteran Dick Phillips and a tall, slender young full-back, Peter Wood, came third in the Greater Birmingham place Kicking competition. In 1958-59 Dick Phillips, this time paired with Don Muray, won the competition.

‘Spanner’ ventured to suggest that, to improve the look of the teams, the Club should pay for an own the jerseys, but AOE was no readier for this than it was to be coached.

Chapter 8 : 1959-62 – ‘The Book of Frank’

[b]“…… in those days I always travelled with a clarinet mouth-piece & rugger boots………My most vivid memories of the game were the dozen or so fire engines which hosed the ground during play to soften up the sun-baked pitch. Also the fact that as the last new arrival to the team I was obliged ot play on the wing, a position not entirely consistent with my shape and prowess. I don’t remember receiving a pass but do remember being injured by skidding on a wet patch and colliding with a fire engine……”

Bob Simpson, in the 1974 AOE Magazine, recalling an invitation to play for Trinidad.[/b]

Charlie Thackery relinquished the captaincy at Easter 1959 and the committee, now under the chairmanship of Dr Harry Rowan, invited Bob Simpson to take over as Club Captain for the rest of the season; the AGM endorsed the good sense of that decision by electing him for 1959-60.

An ebullient, witty, friend of all the world (and traveller over almost all of it in a successful business career), Bob Simpson held the captaincy for three entertaining seasons, which he then followed by captaining the 2nd XV 1962-70, and by becoming vice-captain (under Ernie Smith) of the Extra ‘A’ XV (4ths) 1973-76.

Eric Collis led the 2nd XV for nine seasons 1951-60 and, in the last established a record – Played 30, Won 26, Drew 3, lost 1 Points For 397, Points Against 71.

He stood down in favour of John Lake and was persuaded to take on the Extra ‘A’ XV,. He set a new record for the 4ths in 1961-62 of played 26, Won 21, Drew 2, Lost 3 – scoring 391 points against 86 – by releasing a lively set of backs among whom was a young Carl Savage (Club Captain 1969-72).

The Simpson seasons reflected the gusto of the Captain : 1959-60 in particular saw a big swing in fortunes, with the best tally of wins since the war. Maurice Whitehouse, a most thorough and whole-hearted player and club-man, took on the supervision of training (though not yet styled ‘coach’) and in 1961 the vice-captaincy. He was to follow Bob as Club Captain.

The 1st XV tie was instigated and the very first was presented to Frank Jones at what was to be his last AGM. His 50 years as president were feted at a dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel, and he died at the grand age of 87 in April 1961. Leonard Brandon MA, succeeded him as president to establish the tradition of the not looking beyond the Head of the School. A single departure from that rule gave the Presidency, deservedly, to Dick Harpur for 1984-85 in the inter-regum between Dennis Hawley MA and our Centenary president Neil Gamble BA M Ed.

A Cocktail party was instituted to fortify the revived Boxing Day Game – cocktails were actually served at the first. The cocktails disappeared (not quite the Aston thing) but the party remains, and the game. In Centenary Season we hope to make it ‘Brothers against others as it used to be 8 years ago.

The Haynes-Simpson-Denis Walker combination inaugurated another permanent festival in our calendar by organising an End of Season Supper that now follows the always splendid match between AOE and the Watcyn Thomas XV. (Watcyn raised the first side against us in 1965 – that game was drawn).

In 1961-62, a poor season for the 1sts though the other three sides all did well, Aston drew the 12th ‘Teddy parker’ Cup game against Camp Hill (the 124th game between the two clubs ; the 1st Cup game in 1951 – the 103rd in the series – the 7/114th, the 8/11th, the 12/124th, the 1/133rd were all drawn ; Aston’s 7 wins in the 39 Cup games up to 1989 have come in the 14/128th, 15, 130th, 21/141st, 22/143rd, 23/145th, 26/148th and 35/157th).

The Simpson seasons :

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1959-60 ** 31 15 3 13 202 240
1960-61 33 14 5 14 195 241
1961-62 31 8 5 18 205 286

** improved the post-war record. One of the defeats – but a well-fought one – was by Nuneaton whose ground we had opened between the wars and with whom we picked up a game through the admirable North Midlands Fixture Pool.

Bill Booth (photo above) was for years 1st XV touch-judge, collector of ‘gate’ money, and president AOE Cricket Club. Alf Allen & Dennis Walker cheerfully shared the refereeing of our Junior games at Perry Common.

Chapter 9 – 1962-95 ‘Jubilee’

“…..In my pre-game pep talk in the dressing room, I did not tell my team, as reported in one English newspaper, “If you see a dark object on the ground, kick it, it might be the ball; or tread on it, and if it squeals say “sorry old chap” and carry on”. What I did say, was for all to prepare to inure themselves to the ….Twickenham roar… to regard the game as a hotted up version of a South Wales club derby game like Llanelli v Swansea… to heel from loose mauls, not to hack the ball as was te old tradition, and above all not to get offside; self-discipline was essential…………. from ‘Rugby Paying Man’ (1977) Watcyn Thomas

The 1962 AGM thanked Rob Simpson, John Lake and Eric Collis, who all announced their decisions to step down from their captaincies, and unanimously elected Maurice Whitehead Club Captain for 1962-63, a position he held with thoroughness and distinction until his work in approved schools took him away after the 1964-65 season. His vice-captains were two of the Club’s outstanding long-serving forwards – Vic Lilley, a hard, massive prop, and Colin Hadley, Captain after Maurice, a hooker of superb skill.

The 1962-63 season was over-shadowed by the severest of weather of the century which cancelled all rugby on eleven successive Saturdays.
‘Moss’ Whitehouse’s skill and determination as a trainer and organiser paid off in 1963-64 when AOE at last defeated Camp Hill in the 14th ‘Teddy Parker’ Cup match to take the trophy for the first time.
The winning side, with the trophy is shown below.

The Records for 1962-63-64

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1962-63 23 8 3 12 107 155
1963-64 ** 32 10 1 21 203 287
** does not include (since not on official fixture list) additional wins 22-3 v AWRE Aldermaston and 14-5 v the School)

In celebration of a life-time’s devotion and (Jim Connor’s proposing words) “… a a mark of our esteem and as a token of our gratitude for all of the hard work he has put in fr 40 years….” W. Jim Thompson was, by acclamation, elected Honorary Life Vice-President of Aston Old Edwardians Football Club. (Jim shared this honour briefly with Bertha pepper, who died that year. The Club elected no more honorary life vice-presidents till 1983 when it recognised the services of Dick Harpur, Eric Collis and Dennis Walker).

The 1964-65 season marked the celebration of the Club’s 75th Anniversary. Ron Avery’s last report as Secretary (he moved to Leicestershire at the end of 1965 with our profound thanks and a silver tankard) sums up a happy year, also captured by the photograph below.
“Altogether a most eventful season, the highlight being November 21st 1964 when we celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the foundation of the Club in defeating a Combined Birmingham Old Boys side by 23 points to 6 before a large crowd which included our Guest of Honour, Mr DH Harrison, Vice-President of the Rugby Football Union. At the same time, our Second and Third XVs were playing AOE ‘Exiles’ XVs- so that in one afternoon we fielded five teams comprising entirely of Aston Old Edwardians – not a bad record for these days.

Our thanks are due to Colin Hadley for al of the work he put into organising the Commemoration Dinner which followed and which was attended by more than 200 Old Boys – to Bob Simpson and George Beale for their efforts in raising the two ‘Exiles’ teams and to John Bate for producing the souvenir record of events in the club’s 75 years history.

The 75th Anniversary closed with a match against a representative side raised by our good friend Watcyn Thomas, which included England International RE Rowell and which comprised almost entirely County players – the game fittingly enough, ended in an 8 point draw. We would like to express our thanks to Watcyn Thomas for his efforts on our behalf and to Bob Simpson, Alan Haynes and all their helpers for the highly successful End of Season Supper which followed.

After an indifferent start to the season, the first XV began to improve, finishing up with the best record for some years.
We completed the double over Camp Hill OE and in doing so, retained the ‘Teddy Parker’ Trophy. Five Ways OE who were having a very good season, were also defeated twice.

The remaining teams, whilst not equalling the previous season’s records, played some good football and had some good wins – the Extra ‘A’, under Eric Collis, who took over the captaincy when it was found that Peter Sneade was not available, appeared to play Old Coventrians every other week (four times in the season to be precise) the result of the series was in favour of Aston by two wins, one draw and one lost.

We again fielded an old Boys XV against the School, the School reversed last year’s result and deservedly ran out winners of a first rate game – our congratulations to the School, incidentally, on having their best season since the Mordike – Murray era.”

The Club record for the 1964-65 (75th Jubilee) season :-

Played Won Drew Lost For Against
1st XV 32 14 3 15 274 331
2nd XV 29 10 2 17 232 303
‘A’ XV 27 11 – 16 222 298
Extra ‘A’ XV 18 9 2 7 200 204

Chapter 10 – 1965-89 ‘The Book of the Collises’

“….on 6th September 1981 I saw the New York Giants lose their opening game of the American NFL season to the Philadelphia Eagles. NY fans jeered their team’s feeble performance yet no-one suggested that remaining home fixtures would fail to fill the 77,000 seater Meadowland Stadium.
Six days later I played for AOEFC 3rd XV against Old Saltelians on the top pitch at Perry Common. The game was watched by something approaching a dozen people, though never the full twelve at any one time. ….. No-one bothered to speculate whether our remaining home fixtures would be so well attended…… American pro football is a spectacular and splendid affair….but that is all it s – there are no overweight fumblers playing the same code in the parks of NY or LA. What you see from the luxury of your seat in the stadium is, effectively, all there is – a game with an impressively muscled top but no bottom……compare this to the situation of a rugby player in Britain…. he will almost certainly find that someone can accommodate him. That is a splendid thing to be able to say about our game…..My father holds that “if a game is worth playing, it’s worth playing badly”..I think I’m beginning to understand what he means…” DH Roberts in the 1982 Aston Edwardian Association Magazine.

Here are the facts for the seasons between the 75th Anniversary and the Centenary. First the officers :-

President Chair Secretary Match Sec Fix Sec
(since) 1961 1962 1956 1924 1958
1964-65 L Brandon RWG Harpur R Avery J Thompson J Lake
1965-69 “ “ E Collis “ “
1969-70 “ “ “ “ V Lilley
1970-71 D Hawley “ “ “ “
1971-72 “ “ “ “ B Roberts
1972-73 “ “ “ RWG Harpur “
1973-75 “ “ “ B Roberts A Corner
1975-79 “ D Walker “ “ C Hadley
1979-80 “ “ C Savage “ “
1980-81 “ “ JP Wood “ “
1981-84 “ E Collis “ “ D Roberts
1984-85 RWG Harpur “ “ K Furlong “
1985-86 N Gamble “ “ “ “
1986-87 “ “ J Silverwood “ “
1987-90 “ “ “ “ A Stafford