7 Nov 2021
Written By Matthew Eastley

1st XV 1967/68 – with a new kit

In 1967/68 a new kit was introduced for the first fifteen – and quite a kit it was too with a black shirt, with a broad, purple band, sandwiched between two narrower white hoops across the chest and each arm, black shorts and black socks.

This cracking photograph shows the 1967/68 first XV pictured in the main hall in front of the closed serving hatches.

Back row, third from the left, is Terry Ryall, a mainstay of the first fifteen during the mid to late 60s and he has supplied some fantastic rugby memories from this period.

Also pictured, front row, far right is Games Master, Peter Lawson. Next to his is Steve Strangeway, a very talented scrum half who would later play for Park House RFC.

Holding the ball is captain Sam Hall: “He was a very mobile forward, quick and aggressive and a good motivator,” says Terry, “but a heavy away defeat by some 50 odd points at Gillingham Grammar School was a chastening experience. The return encounter in Sidcup offered the chance to restore some bruised pride and was a closer contest but still comfortably won by one of the best opponents St Mary’s had faced that year.”

Peter Saguiez, who is pictured front row, third right, recalls that the boys themselves chose the new design for this kit and that the strip was purchased from the proceeds of a school dance held in November 1967. As an aside the dance featured a band called Mr Mo’s Messengers, who played regularly at the Whisky A Go-Go in Soho and later at a club called The Mistrale in Beckenham. (Apparently Chis & Sid managed to secure both Free and Alexis Korner for a school dance in 1968).

Back row, left to right; Oswald Folkes, Pat Masterson, Terry Ryall, Peter Downey, John Webster, Chris Dunne, Peter Humphries, David Phillipson, Charles Bewley

Front row, left to right; John McBride, John Pelican, Peter Saguiez, Sam Hall (captain), Kevin Murphy, Steve Strangeway, Peter Lawson.