Doncaster College of Education rugby union club

After a run of games in February and early March that were cancelled because of frost and snow we finally returned to action on Saturday the 22nd of March playing against a newly formed club called Barton on Humber. In the Barton team were some experienced players who had obviously told their team mates that as they were going to play a team of young students then they needed a very physical approach. They certainly had a physical approach, but we had one or two players who could handle themselves, we were not intimidated and gave as good as we got. Unfortunately, the referee was intimidated and so just after half time he said he had seen enough violence and was going to abandon the game. That was a disappointment as we hadn't played for over six weeks and we were leading at the time.

Most of the college games were enjoyable because we did try to play open rugby. The twelve games we won were mostly on a Wednesday when we played other student teams. We usually managed to get a stronger team out on a Wednesday, probably because of the night out that followed the game. We had some good players at college, but the occasions when we managed to field our best team were few and far between.
Ian Cooke, who was a good non-league footballer, played for us when his football commitments allowed. Ian hadn't played much rugby, but he was a very good ball player as well as being quick and he could be relied on to kick well either from hand or at goal.

A second year mature student called Les Clarkson always made an impact when he played. He was a massive man who had played amateur rugby league to a good standard and his presence on the field often struck fear into the opposition. In one particular game against Scawsby College we were winning by over sixty points at half time, quite a feat in those days when tries were only worth three points. There was some talk of abandoning the game as we seemed to score every time we got the ball. However, Scawsby were keen to play the second half so Les suggested that we swopped the backs and the forwards around. I played as a flanker in a very small pack with the rest of the backs and Les played stand-off with prop forwards in the centre and second rows on the wings. It did keep the score down a little, but we still got over a hundred points. Scawsby was a local college, but because of that heavy defeat they were not very keen to play us again.

 Doncaster College of Education continued to play regular fixtures in the 1970s and were often able to field two teams both on a Saturday and a Wednesday.

Below is the fixture list from the 1976/77 season

In the late 1970s the then Minister of Education decided that the national arrangements for the training of teachers should be revised, and one consequence of this was the termination of teacher-training courses at Doncaster College of Education, and the end of the college rugby union team.

Unfortunately, there were to my knowledge no team photographs taken during the 1968/69 season. If anyone reading this post has connections with someone who played for the college team and does know of any photographs in existence I would be delighted to hear from them.