This first article looks back to the beginning of our journey through the years from October 1925 when CRUFC was launched following an open meeting in a City pub, organised by the local branch of the YMCA.

Apparently, some of their members thought a rugby club might also attract new, young Christians to their ranks. In the event the meeting was attended by a sizeable contingent of soldiers stationed at the Castle who were also keen to form a local rugby club but drew the line at having to belong to the YMCA as well. The outcome was the launch of Chester Rugby Union Football Club and the soldiers’ colonel became their club chairman for the next fourteen years. Unsurprisingly the YMCA must have quickly realised that their search for new recruits might be more successful in other sections of the local community.
It was not until the season 1926/27 that the new club’s first team photograph appeared in the records. It provides an opportunity to observe the players, their chairman and the heavy leather ball they chased about the field. It doesn’t reveal anything about where they played or changed. Neither can it give any indication as to the political and social climate of the times, a period in our history almost as unpredictable as that of today.
So, what was it like in those days, often described as the ‘Roaring Twenties? Where did they play, who did they play, why did they play and most of all did they enjoy it?

Seventeen people appear on the photograph, two of them dressed formally and the fifteen players in what must have been their team kit. One might assume the shirts to be red with a light collar and the ‘knee-length’ shorts black or dark blue. Socks are rather variable in the front row and boots no doubt with lethal leather studs often with sharp protruding nails. The ball, wedged firmly between the captain’s legs, would have been leather and contain a rubber bladder inside which had to be pumped up regularly. A tube attached to the bladder was accessible via a small slit in one side of the leather for the pump connection and once blown up would be squeezed back inside the ball. Finally, the slit was laced up tightly and the ball was ready for action. These balls were very different to the ones used today. They were invariably misshapen, heavy and very slippery in wet weather. The resulting game often became a war of attrition between the opposing packs up and down the touch line and eventually culminating in a push over try. The score then was three points plus two more for the conversion and for some reason four for a dropped goal. Sitting up straight next to the captain and dressed smartly with formal hat, regimental tie, cane, gloves and spats to the fore is club chairman Colonel C E Bromley, a professional soldier and moving force behind the initiative to establish the club. He was a strict disciplinarian and insisted on high standards of behaviour both on and off the field. According to Talbot Ratcliffe (top left in a smart suit, collar and tie) who wrote detailed letters about the club’s activities, the Colonel was a tremendous enthusiast. He always met the visiting team, usually at the railway station and escorted them through the town to the City Arms where they could change for the game. Then they would walk on down to the Roodee for the match. Meanwhile most of the home side had to carry two sets of goal posts from their storage point under the grandstand to the pitch near the Castle Steps and erect them. After the game the whole performance was repeated in the opposite direction. Someone would have to paint some lines and eventually play could commence. Back at the pub the teams could wash at the zinc basins in the yard and then snatch a few beers before the visitors had to catch the train home.
Ratcliffe recalls the captain was another professional soldier- Captain R Morton. He had a fearsome reputation, one eye, keen as mustard and played scrum half. The photograph includes another officer, a corporal and a private. Note the other ranks were not credited with their initials. The remainder were mostly in professions rather than trades so the collective accolade of ‘Officers and Gentlemen’ seems to have chimed with rugger players of the time. However, when they were short, a reliable source could apparently be found at the barracks with the choice of playing or ‘put on a charge’. So, I think we may conclude that the commitment these men applied to their game included a lot more than ‘just turn up and play’. Their facilities and travel were fairly basic. The demand for sophisticated skills came second to basic power and stamina. Did they enjoy it? I’m sure they did or it wouldn’t have survived. It reminds us all that our game is much more than a game, it is an attitude to life.

Next time I will try and cover the progress of our club and its leading lights up to the outbreak of the second world war.