Kenilworth Rugby Football Club- A Brief History

Kenilworth Rugby Football Club was founded in 1924 and after a nomadic existence around Kenilworth finally moved to our current ground in Glasshouse Lane, Kenilworth in 1947. A full history of the club has been written by member Mick Wheatley and it documents everything associated with the club from its formation in 1924 through to 2002.

The club were always deemed to be a strong "town" side and early fixtures were predominantly against similar "town sides" who now generally reside in the National Leagues. The 'town' fixture list was taken to the extreme when a fixture was offered against Cardiff 2nds at the Arms Park in return for the hospitality offered to them following their visit to Kenilworth after a game at Coventry, but the fixture was turned down, 'we only play town sides!
In the late 80's and 90's the club was in serious decline and a bold decision was taken to appoint Steve Brain, the ex England International hooker, as player/coach in an attempt to restore the club to its former glories.A mission statement was formed "to make Kenilworth RFC the most successful Junior Club in Warwickshire by the year 2000." The subsequent success both on and off the field was phenomenal and Kenilworth were promoted consistently over a seven year period to reside in level 5, Midlands 1 Division, which was only one level below National League, the ultimate aim.

KENILWORTH ANTIPODEANS

In the early 90's one of our players (his name escapes me) wondered into a bar in Leamington (that does not narrow it down unfortunately !) and ordered a pint. Standing next to him was a rather tall gentleman. 'Have you ever thought of playing rugby ?' was the question posed by our man. 'I've played a little bit' was the response. The tall gentleman was then persuaded to come down to Kenilworth and this was the start of Kenilworth's Antipodean connection. The rest is history. His name was Jim Ware and from the moment he put on a Kenilworth shirt he was something special. Steve Brain even remarked that he could probably make him an England International - the fact he was Australian had nothing to do with it. Jim remarked that his mate was planning to come over for a short time and may want a game. 'No problem' we said. That guy turned up at the club in a long wax jacket and played for the thirds. When the thirds returned from their game down at the Cow Patch they were singing the praises of this 'new guy' - Jeff Head had arrived !.

TAKEREI LEE NORTON: KENILWORTH RFC 2005/2006
In season 05/06 Kenilworth were honoured to have a truly superb player in our ranks in Tak (call me Takerei please) Norton. 

In New Zealand Tak played for Linwood, a suburb of Christchurch and was heavily into the Canterbury Crusaders. Tak was set to join another club in the UK but they let him down and in desperation he surfed the web and came up with that superb web site, www.kenilworthrugby.co.uk. He contacted the site and, by chance, we informed him that our scouts had already been despatched to New Zealand to entice anyone who could handle a rugby ball to Kenilworth RFC for the forthcoming 05/06 season. A few days later the trusty scouts (Messrs Dick, Collett, Riley, Rawlings and Brain) rather impressively arrived in Christchurch in the 'lowest slung camper van' (as described by Eddie Butler in the Observer) and the bond was made at Tak's local club, aided by a rather lot of beer. I do not think that Tak has quite twigged yet that it was sure coincidence and they were actually there for the first Lions test!
Once his details and CV had been wired back home enquiries were made with former Kenilworth stalwarts now resident in New Zealand. The legend Roly had heard of Tak but suggested that he may be a wee bit too good for us. That was good enough for us and Tak was advised that he would be most welcome in Kenilworth and, if lucky, we could even sort him out with a bride to take home, as per previous Antipodeans. In the middle of August the young Tak appeared in Kenilworth ready for action and pre season training. His first appearance was a truly shocking pre season game at home against Melton Mowbray where we took a right stuffing but the class of Tak was evident and everyone got rather excited about him and what he had to offer. One problem though was the position to play him as he had come as a scrum half but we needed a fly half. The other problem was his desire to work with pigeons, which made finding the employment he wanted rather awkward, to say the least. He then announced himself in the first league game at Stafford and was promptly awarded the man of the match by Stafford.