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THE OLD DUNSTONIANS SPORTS CLUB LIMITED
CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS M C Wright (Association) – Chairman Associate Members Mrs L Richart (Archery) THE OD HOUSE CLUB The OD House Club is responsible to the Sports Club for the day-to-day running of the Clubhouse and its facilities including the Licensed Bar and the management of hirings and catering for social events. Current House Club Committee Members
The Club is run via an elected Committee which oversees the day-to-day management of all OD rugby. Committee members are elected at the Club’s yearly AGM. The ODRFC has, by right, four elected representatives on the Board of the OD Sports Club company.
The Club was formally constituted as the Old Dunstonian Football Club at a meeting on 20 July 1903, some six years after the formation of the Old Boys Club (later the Old Dunstonian Association), with 25 members and affiliated to the Rugby and Kent County Unions. It ran two sides each week and for a new club, it had a commendably strong fixture list. Some 20 matches were played against opponents which included Park House ‘A’, OMTs ‘A’, Blackheath 2nds, Old Alleynians ‘A’, Old Paulines ‘A’ and the full Old Whitgiftians 1st XV. Its first playing season – 1903/04 – opened on 26 September with a match v Beckenham ‘A’. The present ODRFC name was in common usage by the last season before WW1 – no doubt to ensure a proper differentiation between ‘Rugby’ and ‘Association’! Two similar matches were played in the following year and the fixture has been played every season since, except for wartime. 1897 saw an OD XV meeting opponents other than the school for the first time, the opponents being the long since defunct Norwood Club. These occasional games were played in dark blue jerseys with an oval ODFC monogram Among notable OD rugby men at this time was our first international, I G Davidson – Ireland (1899, 1900, 1901) and one H E B Wilkins, Captain of Kent (1898) and later International Referee, President of the Kent County RFU and the London Rugby Union, and a member of the Rugby Union committee. They and others had joined other clubs before the formation of the ODFC and were subsequently reluctant to transfer their allegiance in mid-career. Indeed, the Catford Bridge side that won the Kent Cup in 1905, the first year in which the ODFC competed, had no fewer than five ODs in its ranks! WWI took its toll on the Club with no less than 37 members lost. 1919 saw the Club’s re-establishment and yet another change of ground – to land at the back of the ‘Tigers Head", Southend Lane on the basis that, should it be needed for building development, no rent would be due! By 1921/22, 1st XV matches were being played on the Catford Wanderers Cricket Club ground nearby, the Tigers Head land being retained for junior teams. All was not well, however. Claims from allotment holders for vegetables damaged by balls kicked too far out of touch were manageable but the cricketers, unconvinced of an arrangement whereby they were obliged to play on a square cut from the rugby field, were another matter and the Club was given (very short) notice to quit! The answer came with the purchase of Beckenham Hill which remained the home of the Club – and the OD Association and its other constituent clubs – from 1922 until the move to our present ground at Park Langley in 1959.
HISTORY In December 2001 the Kent Cricket League’s Management Committee confirmed an October decision by a full meeting of all Kent League Clubs to allow a merger between the Old Dunstonian Club and Cuaco CC to form OD Cuaco CC. The ODCC was a founder member of the North Kent Cricket League (1973) and was a member of the South Thames Cricket League from 1989 until 1995 when it joined the Kent Cricket League. The Club’s tour to Norfolk was originally established in the late 1960s by the infamous OD Ramrods XI – an essentially rugby based team with touring manners to match – and was revived in a slightly more respectable form during the 1990s. The origins of the Club’s flourishing Colts Section go back to the late 1980s when regular coaching sessions were established. The Section was formally constituted in the mid 1990s since when it has been a member of the North Kent Junior League. However, the merger with Cuaco CC proved timely. Despite a potentially large pool of players and a strong Colts Section, the OD club had slipped down the Kent League structure and continued League status was in doubt owing to problems meeting the League requirement to field full 1st and 2nd XIs for each fixture. Cuaco Cricket Week has been run continuously since 1923 while 1953 saw the first Club Tour – to Hambledon CC, the home of cricket, where the home side appeared in 18th century kit and the visitors in the dress of the fire brigade of the day. Since then UK tours have continued alternating between Southport in the North West and Bath in the West Country. Centenary year, 1961, was celebrated with a special cricket week and prestige fixtures including that against the MCC and, more recently, successful overseas tours have been taken to Sri Lanka (1994) and Zimbabwe (1995). The Club was a founder member of the Kent Cricket Keague in 1975 and a member of the South Thames League until 2000. A potentially fatal blow to the Club came during the course of the 2001 season when its ground was sold as a result of the take-over of its ‘parent’ organisation, Commercial Union, by Norwich Union which proved unwilling to underwrite company sporting activities including cricket. The club completed its 2001 fixtures but could not retain Kent League status without a permanent home ground and thus the merger with the ODCC was equally timely. Part of the agreement reached means that certain offices – including President and Club Captain – will continue to be reserved to ODs. Otherwise, all members of the new club enjoy equal status in all respects and are eligible for election to office.
OD Golf Society – founded in 1950 – is OD golfers’ own Club with its own fixture list and competitions. OTHER OLD DUNSTONIAN CLUBS
THE OLD DUNSTONIAN SWIMMING CLUB THE OLD DUNSTONIAN NETBALL CLUB THE OLD DUNSTONIAN SQUASH CLUB OLD DUNSTONIAN TENNIS Contact: Mike Waters 020 8467 6321 NON OD CLUBS
FOOTBALL ARCHERY TENNIS CROQUET |
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Rugby