The first pitch was on “the Hedges” and the former stables of the Green Dragon Hotel were converted into changing rooms.  Visiting teams were given their after match teas in a café in College Street before partaking of Rushden & Higham’s hospitality in the Green Dragon.

There was no shortage of forwards in that first season.  In fact they had the heaviest and most knowledgeable pack in the area, but undoubtedly they were the slowest.  The team was often made up of 13 forwards and 2 backs.  Wins were hard to come by to start with, five games were played without a single try being scored, but then a breakthrough came against Biggleswade when they romped away with five.

After the first full season Bob Marriott, the club captain, was called back into the navy and Bert Catlin took over.  Before the club was formed he was forced, against his will, to play in goal for a local soccer team to keep his hand in.  Bert recalled some of the problems caused by lack of money in those early days.

“The first set of shirts comprised eleven acquired from a local soccer team which were the old fashioned lace up collar type plus four odd ones.  Dick Falkner bought a ball from an auction sale and financial backing was supplied from a local bookmaker, Mr Partridge, who loaned £20”.

Administration was sometimes a little vague in those days.  At the first club outing to Twickenham, dick Falkner was supposed to order the coach.  As he was somewhat forgetful Jack Wilce decided to make sure by reserving the coach himself.  The result was that two 38‑seater coaches arrived at the Green Dragon to collect 13 men.

At the time of the first club dinner, meat was still being rationed throughout the country.  Peter Moody, a prop forward and member of the local constabulary, had relations in the butchery business and managed to get a side of beef for the event.  Dick Falkner traded this for a more seasonal joint of pork.  Fortunately the local Inspector in charge of rationing from the Ministry of Food must have been uninterested in rugby and there were no repercussions or perhaps pork was on quota that week and it could have been acquired from a more regular source.

Dick Falkner suffered from a bad back and used to wear his wife’s roll‑on to play in when it plagued him more than usual.  This caused some very strange looks and comments from visiting teams.

In 1959 the club, not regularly fielding three teams, moved to Rushden on John White’s sports ground on the Bedford Road.  Here for the first time in their short history they had the luxury of two adjacent pitches.

Eager members, under the direction of George Fairbrass, spent the summer months erecting a wooden changing room block.  The pride and joy of the changing rooms was a large circular zinc bath that was religiously filled with piping hot water every Saturday afternoon by groundsman Charlie Jones.

The bath was held in such esteem by the members that when the club moved to its present site at Manor Park and the bath became redundant it was agreed that there should a ceremonial end to its years of service.  The bath was wheeled to Wills’ Corner in Rushden for a “Big Bath In” where the public were invited to guess the total number of baths that would be taken by club members between 9am and 6pm.

In the second year at John White’s found a clubhouse was erected, albeit, from a builder’s site hut.  The bar was furnished, a dart board and skittle table were installed and for the first time in its ten-year history Rushden & Higham Rugby Club had its own “home”.

The bar, managed so ably by Mike Drage, gave the club an income that had been missing in the early years, providing a period of consolidation.  Membership increased to such an extent that at one point in the mid‑sixties we boasted 200 members and were able to field five senior teams plus a colts.

The Saxby Cup

This was the time when the only leagues games were played by teams of 13 a-side in Lancashire and Yorkshire.  All Union games were of the “friendly” variety.

In 1961 the annual local derby game between Rushden & Higham and Wellingborough was given a more competitive edge when the Saxby family donated a cup that was to be “fought” for on an annual basis.

Wellingborough’s vastly experienced team dominated the early cup games against a very youthful Rushden and Higham team for the first four years.

But then, in 1965, youth overcame experience and the cup was secured for the first time.  It was now Rushden & Higham’s turn to dominate, which they managed to do for something like the next twenty years.

During the last decade Wellingborough have redressed the balance with Rushden & Higham only winning the cup on one occasion.

The Search for Larger Premises

Towards the end of the sixties the club began to look for larger premises and after many years of searching they were offered the chance to lease the ground that had held most of Rushden’s former treasures – on the site of the town’s former rubbish tip. [Manor Park]

Funds were raised and work began on the present clubhouse under the direct of Brian Greaves.  Members were organised to dig trenches, unload lorries, stack bricks, paint walls and generally turn their hand to any task that could be done on an unpaid basis.  The pitches were seeded and volunteers cleared stones from the surface on their hands and knees.

Official Opening of the Clubhouse

Thursday 30^th April 1970 saw the official opening of the new clubhouse by L.G.Carr, President of the East Midlands Rugby Union.  Don White, at that time coach to the England team, assembled a star-studded side to play against the Chairman’s XV.  Ten England Internationals turned out in the two teams including the legendary David Duckham and Bob Taylor the present chairman of the East Midlands Rugby Union.