Leeds Chirons v Northallerton 14th October 1972

Leeds Who?

Three extracts from Leeds Who? now appear on the excellent new Leeds website http://www.thecitytalking.com

Leeds Chirons 2012

 Leeds Chirons 1st XV in 1966

Five of this team will be attending the 2012 Reunion to be held at The Whitehouse, in Roundhay, on Wednesday 16th May

Rugby Union Characters - Charles Waller

Charles Waller, who joined Leeds Chirons in 1967, never played a game for the club, as when he first became involved he was past the state retirement age. His role was to look after the dressing rooms, run the bath, make the after match cups of tea and clean up after everyone had gone. Mr Waller was encouraged to take on the role of dressing room attendant by his daughter, who wanted him to have a 'hobby' that got him out of the house. The reality was that the hobby practically became a full-time job. Never addressed as Charles, Mr Waller took the role on from John Mason the former caretaker and groundsman at Roundhay School. John Mason had looked after the dressing rooms for a number of years until he retired in 1965. There was a gap of a year or so between John Mason retiring and Mr Waller starting as dressing room attendant. During this period players and club officials took on the role with very mixed results. Often the dressing room boiler would not be lit in time and so the water in the bath would be cold. The tea would not be ready after the game and the dressing rooms would often not be cleaned from one week to the next. When Mr Waller, who lived in a cottage in the school grounds, took on the role, apart from a few early teething troubles, things ran very smoothly. The early teething troubles were mainly to do with the temperature of the bath water. It took a while for Mr Waller to get used to the eccentricities of the coke boiler. After one week, when he had complaints about the water being cold, Mr Waller put the boiler on very early and so the bath water was scalding when the first Chirons player jumped in. He soon jumped out again, uttering expletives! After a few weeks Mr Waller got to grips with the ancient boiler and things began to run smoothly.

Mr Waller spent many hours in the dressing rooms every week, tidying and cleaning, and remained with Chirons until the club went out of existence. His role on match day increased over the years as he became responsible for preparing the after match food, which was usually pie and beans. His after match food became legendary, as did his tea. People would often wonder whether the fact that the tea was so strong was because he started brewing it on the Thursday before a game. I believe Mr Waller never watched the games, but he was always interested in the results. In the 1st World War Mr Waller was a horse handler and if asked he would, on occasions, talk about his experiences. Many former Chirons players and officials have very fond memories of Mr Waller. Over the years he became something of an 'institution', and opposition players often went out of their way to chat to him before and after the game. I am sure many clubs had people like Mr Waller, but the difference probably being that they were former players. To my knowledge Mr Waller, who was quite a small man, had never played rugby, he just enjoyed his 'hobby' and the people he got to know through the rugby club.

There are more stories about rugby union characters in Leeds Who? Available from ypdbooks.com

Joining a rugby club

I wonder if joining a rugby club is as easy, these days, as it was in the 1960s.

I was encouraged to join Leeds Chirons by Cliff Bent, a teacher from my school who was the 'A' team hooker. The 'A' team at that time was mainly made up of men coming to the end of their playing careers. Results for the 'A' team were very poor and I imagine that by recruiting a number of young players from his school, Cliff was attempting to lower the age profile of the team and provide Chirons with some potential first teamers. I particularly remember three other boys from Matthew Murray School who joined Chirons, Chris Wingfield, Andrew Newton and Barry Stones. Chris Wingfield joined Chirons at the same time as I did, but didn't stay very long. Andy was the first of us to break into the first team and he looked to have a very promising future as a rugby player. He was selected for a Yorkshire Colts trial and established himself as a first team regular. However, Andy got the 'travel bug' and so, as a teenager, he set off to see the world. Although he returned to Chirons in later life he never really made the impact on the Yorkshire rugby scene that he might have done in different circumstances. Barry Stones was a tough wing forward who became a first team regular and stayed with the club for a number of seasons. For my part I made my first team debut at the end of my first season with Chirons and stayed with the club until 1969. I returned in 1979 and played a few games in the 1979/80 season. In all I played over 150 games for Chirons and scored 30 tries.

An anecdote from Leeds Who?

Leeds Who? contains many anecdotes from former Chirons players. This is an incident from the 1980s recalled by Ian Benn.

Ian was a very hard working forward who was missed whenever he was unable to play. He remained committed to the club right up to the 'dark days' of the 1980s. He has a particularly fond memory of that period about a player called Dave Barker who had a pet python that he always took to games in a pillow case. Dave left the snake in the dressing room for a particular game at Burley. A thief broke into the clubhouse and ransacked the home dressing room, but hardly touched Chirons valuables. When the thefts were discovered after the game, it was assumed that the Chirons players' valuables were largely untouched because the thief had opened the pillow case, found the python and beat a hasty retreat.

Leeds Who? The story of a forgotten rugby union club is available from:

YPD Books - see the link from this site.

Philip Howard Books, Street Lane, Leeds

Amazon

Waterstone's

Leeds Chirons biggest game?

On 21st November 1953 Leeds Chirons played at Selby in the 4th Round of the Yorkshire Cup. The game ended in a 6-6 draw. This was a surprising result as Selby had a better fixture list than Chirons and were therefore, in theory, a stronger club than Chirons.

The replay took place on 28th November, at Chirons home ground on Soldiers Field. The game attracted possibly the largest crowd that had ever watched a Chirons home game. Contemporary sources reporting that spectators lined both sides of the pitch. Selby won the game by 6-0 and progressed in the competition finally losing 9-3 to Wakefield in the 6th Round.

I doubt that there was ever a crowd at a Chirons home game to match the one that lined the pitch on 28th November 1953. Also Chirons never reached the 4th Round of the Yorkshire Cup again, most seasons a defeat in the first or second round was the usual outcome. In my view this was Chirons biggest game.

The report below was published in the Skyrack Express on the 4th December 1953.



First game nerves!

Can you remember your first game of rugby?

My first game for Leeds Chirons was expected to take place on Saturday 7th November 1964 against Bradford Nomads. Unfortunately, Bradford could not find enough players for their 'A' team and so the game had to be cancelled. This was very disappointing but we had a fixture arranged for the following Saturday and so a week later than anticipated I was contemplating playing my first proper game of rugby. I was an excited and apprehensive seventeen year old whose only experience was one game of rugby league at Liversedge School and a few house matches at Matthew Murray School.

On Saturday 14th November 1964, with a great deal of trepidation, I walked from Roundhay School to Soldiers Field to make my 'A' team debut against Leeds YMCA. We did not use the main Chirons pitch because the first team was also at home that afternoon. The pitch we played on was the one normally used by Leeds Telephones. I was selected on the wing and was very fortunate that the YMCA winger, I played opposite, was a really decent bloke. He did not take advantage of my inexperience and talked me through the game. By the end of the eighty minutes my first game nerves had gone and I felt much more confident. We lost that game and the one the following week against Leeds University 'B' The first victory I played in was on Saturday 28th November 1964 when Chirons 'A' beat York RI 'A' by 16-11.

A number of former players recall their memories of playing for Leeds Chirons in Chapters 9 and 10 of Leeds Who?

Leeds Chirons 1973

Leeds Chirons 24th February 1973

This is another photograph I was unable to use in Leeds Who? The team is pictured before a home game against Moortown Stags. This is one of the few Chirons photographs I have managed to find that has all the players names listed on the back.

The team is:

Back Row Left to Right: Frank Cawood, Alan Flint, Andy Midgley, Geoff Harrold, Andrew Newton, Angus Ross, Stewart Collins, Mike Illingworth

Front Row Left to Right: Malcolm Gosling, Neil Ashton, Peter Birdsall, Ian Moore, Bill Oldroyd, Dave Illingworth, Roger Harris

The 1972/73 season was a successful one, Ian Moore captained a team that won the majority of its games in a fixture list that included clubs such as Bridlington, North Ribblesdale, Skipton and Ripon. Five of the players in the photograph are featured in Leeds Who? including Stewart Collins and Ian Moore whose memories of playing for Leeds Chirons are in Chapter 10 of the book.

Leeds Chirons - a unique club?

This article appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post in 1980. I used the picture in Leeds Who? but didn't include the article and the names of the players. In many respects Leeds Chirons was a unique club in that all the players were teachers and many of them continued to play for Chirons right through the 1930s. I am sure there were some of the more senior Leeds clubs that would have been delighted to have players such as Bob Presswood and Arthur Mallinson in their ranks as both men had played for Yorkshire. However, it is obvious that cameraderie, team spirit and friendship were the most important factors for the men in the photograph when they chose which Rugby club to play for.

Leeds Chirons Golden Jubilee 1980/81

An action shot from the Golden Jubilee game held on 15th November 1980 between Chirons past and Chirons present players. The present team won the game by 13-0. I was hoping to include this picture in Leeds Who? but ran out of space.

Drop Kick Books - Poster

Leeds Chirons Reunion- Book Launch

This photo was taken at the White House, in Leeds, on 4th May 2011. All the 'old guys' in the photo are former Chirons players who met up mainly because of the publication of the book about Chirons called Leeds Who? The Reunion was a great success and will be repeated next year when it is hoped more former Chirons will have been located