Shortly after the war the parents of two former players who had lost their sons made presentations to the club in their memory. One was a beautiful silver Rose Bowl to commemorate the life of David Evans and has been keenly pursued by those who also play golf ever since. The other was to remember Simon Kerfoot-Roberts who had been killed in Italy on active service. His father said that his boy had spent some of his happiest moments at the rugby club where he had made so many friends. We know our forebears played a different game in primitive conditions but they did it because they enjoyed themselves and being together.

The fifties and sixties were the transition years when the club and its members wanted to become a force to be reckoned with. They wanted to be successful on the field and off.

At the 1948 AGM in the Blossoms Hotel, the treasurer reported a bank balance of £84 4 shillings and 2 pence. Even allowing for the time lapse, it wasn’t a lot. However, the club also had a deposit account totalling £150. Discussion centred on building a more lasting war memorial to the seven members who had lost their lives in the conflict. Jack Barber, the former New Zealand born, fighter pilot, took a more far-sighted view. He proposed that the money should be ‘ring-fenced’ with the aim of acquiring land, building a proper clubhouse and eventually creating a rugby club which could compete on equal terms with the best in the county. The motion was carried, a sub-committee was formed and the seeds had been sown. It took thirteen years to achieve the first part; it would take a lot longer to achieve the second. But that outcome, seemed to Jack, a much better way to remember the fallen than another stone cross in ‘the corner of a foreign field’.

The teams of the mid 50’s may have looked the part but the records show that their success rate was deteriorating. In 1953/54 they played 32 games and won 14 of them- 44 per cent success rate. The following season they won only 7 out of 35 or 20 per cent. They had a mountain to climb and they were still languishing in the foothills. Chester had the reputation of a nice crowd of guys, not much training, good nights out on the town but no real home or focus. Meanwhile, our traditional foes such as Old Birkonians, Davenport (now Stockport), Wilmslow, Wrexham and Old Caldeans were leaving us behind to struggle against Hoylake, Crewe and Nantwich and Port Sunlight. We were in danger of drifting into a downward and maybe an irreversible spiral.

A familiar saying is ‘the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn’. For the playing side of our club, the 1959/60 team photograph includes four new faces who were to become major rugby icons of our club in the sixties and well beyond. They were not just good players their influence and leadership were fundamental in moving the club forward towards Jack Barber’s dream of what might be possible.

Top left is Ted Charlesworth, a sporting mad Yorkshireman. He moved to Chester as a lecturer at the College having graduated from Loughborough, played rugby at centre for Waterloo and for his native county in the late fifties. When he arrived at Chester his senior rugby career was nearing the end so he took over the second team to lead them to unbeaten records. By now he was head of his PE Department and for many years encouraged some of his best students to join our club. He was appointed the first Chester club coach and his influence was focussed on transforming the first team into a skilful and ambitious squad who were keen to win matches.

George Cox, Denis Diamond and Mike Lord were also influential players in their respective positions of lock forward, wing three-quarter and Number 8. In later years they all served as Presidents of the Club and Cheshire County in addition to becoming the County Representative on the main RFU Committee, each for a ten-year term. But their commitment to our club and its progress to what it has now become is the main legacy that they have left behind.

Another vital role which Mike Lord filled was a new appointment as 1st XV Fixture Secretary which he took on in 1969 well after the club had moved on to its present location at Hare Lane. Referred to in an earlier article this had been more of a poisoned chalice than a means of furthering the clubs progress towards better fixtures and a reputation of a club worth joining for those in search of furthering their playing careers. Mike was well respected, had an impressive playing career (354 1ST XV appearances) and the personality to make things happen. He knew the key movers and shakers and did this job for 18 years. Before the professional era we were already playing teams we could only have dreamed about in the 50’s.