Wednesday 12 April 2023

 Lawrie Stirling XV

1971

In late 197 I was invited to play for a Lawrie Stirling XV at the Stairfoot ground against Barnsley. Lawrie had a long association with Barnsley Rugby Club and the majority of the players invited by Lawrie had some connection with Barnsley. I had played for Barnsley from  January 1970 until the beginning of December 1973 when I left the club to concentrate solely on rugby league.

Over the past few years I have attempted to find out why the game was played, but with no success. However, I managed to discover that the game took place on 29th December 1971. Surprisingly, the photograph below that confirmed who played was sent from San Diego by Martin Lodge, one of the players invited to play in the game. Martin had been in contact with Duncan Gawthorpe in order to buy a copy of Changing Times - Grassroots rugby in Yorkshire 1987-2022 the book that Duncan and I recently published.

The photograph gives the names of the players but no information on why it took place.