Richard Turner

My first memory of WRFC was in 1955 when I was eleven and lived on the corner of Green Lane & Bevere Close, my friends and I would go over to the field that became the rugby club to pick up stones when they were preparing the pitches.

There are many great memories playing for the club including being in both the 1966-67 & 1967-68 record breaking Wanderers team under Dave Robins, the first time I was selected to play for the 1st team and proudly joining the "75" Club during my 1st Team days. Being asked to play in the 1971 game to celebrate the clubs Centenary as well as playing on 4th September 1975 to open Sixways which was also the day my daughter Joanne was born.

In addition:

• The Wanderers Easter tour to Dublin in, I think 1968, if you remember any of it you were not there!
• The Easter tour to Cheshire in 1972 became a legend as we kept the bar open for 3 days which made the Hotel Manager arrange for the tour party to go to another Bar to allow his staff some rest.
• Four of us being chased by a Chinese cook with a meat cleaver after doing a 'Dine & Dash" from a Chinese Restaurant in London following a day when we played in the morning and watched England at Twickenham in the afternoon, the food was terrible and over priced.
• Playing at Burton on Trent and having to wash the mud off outside in beer barrels full of warm water before going into the changing rooms, I could never understand why Burton wore white strip.when usually their field was a mud pit.
• The 1980 Tour to Canada which lead to me and my family emigrating and becoming Canadian citizens.
• The first time I took Carole to the Bevere Club was to a dance and as we pulled into the car park my headlights shone over the 1st team field and lit up Ray Dougherty running back to the clubhouse wearing just his shoes, not a pretty sight!!
• The day I walked into the 1st Team changing room before a game and came upon Dave (DIR) Robins squeezing himself into one off his mothers corsets in order to give support to his bruised ribs so that he could play.
• The many after game sessions with the opposition you were at war with a couple of hours earlier.

There were many interesting nicknames, for instance "Bomber ' Adams (he was from Northern Ireland after all), Mike "Scoop" Robins not only a great rugby reporter but the only player I know who injured himself in the warm up before a game. Clem "The Fish" Davies ( he worked for the Severn River Authority working with salmon, the Grimshaw father & son duo of 'Erik the Red' & 'John the Pink' , Ed Reed known to all as 'Big Ed'. I can't remember his name but we had a New Zealander we called 'Polish' (New Zealand to Kiwi to Polish) and my own Richard "Moby Dick" Turner started after a game report in the Evening News which said 'Turner showed great MOBILITY in scoring his third try, others say it was because I looked like a big white whale when in the after game bath!

The game has changed and I am glad I played when it was amateur and we grew up and learnt the greatest game on earth through playing with the older players who were still enjoying the game playing in the 3rd & 4th teams imparting their knowledge to a younger group who were aiming for the top.

Ours is a unique game that I was privileged to play for WRFC.

Best wishes to all my old team mates and friends, I look forward to being able to get a copy of the 150 WRFC History which will sit proudly by my copy of the WRFC Centenary History.

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