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The first club was formed at Longton High School under the guidance of
one of the teachers, Mr. Hirons and took the name of Old Longtonians.
It was in the mid nineteen thirties when the club played its first games
in a field off Cocknage Road in Dresden, a suburb of Longton. Not a lot
is known of these early years, they played some other Old Boys sides and
clubs such as Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford.
When the War came all rugby activity ceased as most of the players were
drafted into the forces. The club was not revived until around nineteen
forty seven when Alan Hammersley was the secretary and as far as I remember
was the only club official apart from the President, Mr. M.V. Gregory
who was the Headmaster. It was at this time when I had my first involvement
with the club, having been invited to play against Stoke Technical College.
One other player from this era was the legendary Stan Clews; he used to
arrive at the venue on a pretty lethal looking motorbike. It was not long
before the club folded again. Most of the players of that era were dispersed
among other local clubs.
It was in nineteen fifty-two when the present club was formed. It was
through the work of Tom Spencer and Bill Chadwick, both PE teachers at
the school, and a properly organised committee was formed. Once more Stan
Clews appears. He was the first captain and fly half of the club. Other
notable names from that era were John Thomas, a flying winger and Peter
Davies, a fly half who had played for the Barbarians. Space does not allow
a fuller listing but there were several players who went on to greater
things with other clubs and won representative honours with Staffordshire.
Ron Morris, a lock forward moved to Moseley and gained reserve cards for
the England side. From the very modest beginnings, using the facilities
of the School initially and through the use of pitches on the old aerodrome
at Meir, taking our after-match teas in a number of local pubs, in Caverswall
Cricket Club and Weston Coyney Social Club, we finally arrived at our
new ground and clubhouse at Roughcote. We started with only one team and
a few reserves and by the time the move to Roughcote came, we were putting
out three regular sides, plus occasional youth and veteran's sides. Most
of the credit for this move was due to the efforts of a small development
committee headed by Martin Hamer and ably supported by Mick Wheat, Tony
Smith, and Chris Boardman. Soon after the purchase was made there were
frantic efforts made to get the site up and running. Six months of hard
work by most of the club members saw the transformation of cow sheds,
pig sties and other farm buildings into a two roomed clubhouse, with bar,
kitchen and four changing rooms with a shower facility. Most of us forgot
we had wives and girlfriends and it was to our credit that our Ladies
stood by us and put up with our absences from home (of course they knew
where we were). It was through the skill of the likes of Alan Lockett,
our sparks in chief, Trevor Barber and his gang of brick layers the demolition
gang led by Chris Boardman and a host of others, mainly the players, who
gave up their weekends, first to play a game and then to work on the project
that we were able to open our doors and serve our first pint just before
Christmas of 1975.
The move to Roughcote was a great leap of faith. If my memory serves me
right, we had total assets of something in the order of £1100 and
a load of enthusiasm and this enabled us to obtain loans from the Rugby
Football Union, the Staffordshire R.U. and from Marston's Brewery.
The more recent history of the Club is well known and it is with a sense
of pride that I look back and see what has been achieved both on the field
and in the Clubhouse and I am thankful to have played but some small part
in the development of this fine club and I look forward to greater things
in the future.
David Bourne
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