From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moseley Rugby Club was formed in 1873 and is based at Billesley Common in Birmingham. The club originally played at the Reddings, but after attempting to keep up with the transition to professional rugby, the club ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell their prestigious 125 year home to property developers.

Contents 1 History 2 The Professional Era 3 Sam Doble 4 2005/2006 Season 5 Current Players 6 External links 7 References

In 1873, Moseley was founded, born out of some members Havelock Cricket Club who wanted a winter sport when the cricket season had finished. The club debuted its signature red and black colours one year later. The Reddings was occupied by the club in 1870, and it stayed that way for almost 130 years. There were major success at The Reddings, including becoming the first team to defeat the travelling Maori's. The team's most successful years were the late 1960's and 1970's, this included reaching the RFU Knock-out cup final on three occasions - losing 17-6 to Gloucester and then 15-12 to Leicester before emerging joint winners after drawing 12-12 with Gloucester after extra time in 1982. The team also defeated Fiji and the Barbarians and the club won the Anglo-Welsh Trophy twice - in 1972-1973 and 1976-1977.

When league rugby commenced, the team was placed in the Courage National Division 1, the top division at the time. They ended Bath's astonishing run of 22 unbeaten cup matches in 1988 winning 4-3.

The team's relegation from the top division at the end of the 1990-1991 season marked a consolidation period for the club after their fantastic times of the 1970's. In August 1995, when the door to full-scale professionalism opened, the board executives came together to work on plans to move with the idea and find possible financial resources so that the team could play with the best team and best facilities. On 30th January 1998, the club went into Administration, after overstretching its financial resources in the unreal world of professional rugby union. The Reddings had been sold on a 'delayed sale' basis to Bryant Homes and the future of the club was in jeopardy. However, the club's playing commitments were still fulfilled except in the North Midlands Cup in which the 2nd XV was entered.

On 12th June 1998, the club was given another chance to fashion its own destiny when a group of Moseley Rugby Club members, assembled by Simon Cooper, a former club player and official, formed Moseley Ventures Ltd. and bought the club out of Administration. In the last 1st XV match at The Reddings on 6 May 2000, Moseley defeated Worcester 34-17 in a National Division One game. On 7 October Moseley defeated Exeter 27-18 in the first match at its new home at the University of Birmingham.

Long-term permissions for a clubhouse and hospitality boxes was not granted and in consequence Moseley Ventures found it more difficult than expected to raise the necessary finance. Merger plans were discussed and an offer was made by Firoz Kassam, the chairman of Oxford United Football Club with a proposal to buy out the club and take it to his new stadium in Oxford. Supporters organised a major media and political campaign and this became the catalyst for a consortium of Moseley stalwarts to come forward to raise finance to defeat the Kassam offer. At a predictably traumatic meeting at the Grand Hotel on 26 July, the consortium gained the support of the creditors by a narrow 1.7% majority regarded by some as a Pyrrhic victory. However, the consortium’s business plan was approved by the RFU and with additional backing by the politicians of the City of Birmingham and the North Midlands RFU, the club survived in Birmingham. So a new Moseley Rugby Club was born and appointed David Warren as Chief Executive and former players John Beale and Derek Nutt as Director of Rugby and Head Coach respectively.

The team hastily assembled after the rescue was inevitably relegated from National Division One (after 14 seasons in the top two divisions). Negotiations for planning permission for a new stadium at Billesley Common, in the same postal district as The Reddings, began 2004-5. Permission for a new stadium at Billesley Common, a mile from The Reddings, was obtained.

The record breaking league season of 2004/2005 saw many club records broken.

These were:

Most team points: 665 points

Most Consecutive Victories: 6

Most individual points in a season: 328 (Ollie Thomas)

Most conversions in a season: 48 (Ollie Thomas)

Most penalties in a season: 62 (Ollie Thomas)

Most drop goals in a season: 7 (Ollie Thomas)

Most consecutive scoring matches (points): 15 (Ollie Thomas)

Most league appearances: 161 (Andy Binns)

Most penalties in a career: 62 (Ollie Thomas)

Most consecutive matches: 70 (and counting - Gareth Taylor)

Wolverhampton school teacher Sam Doble may have only won three caps for his country, but he was one of the game's most popular characters and his tragically early death in 1977 at the age of 33 was mourned throughout English rugby. Sam first came to public attention when he scored an astonishing 581 points for Moseley in the 1971/72 domestic season, an achievement that earned him an England call up. His debut was one to remember, an 18-9 victory over South Africa in Johannesburg, against a side that were considered to be the unofficial World Champions. England were on the back foot early on when they lost prop Brian "Stack" Stevens to injury and had to contest seven man scrums for twenty minutes. However, the visiting side's makeshift front row did not lose one strike against the head and England gradually took control of the game when Stevens returned. With the forwards keeping the Springboks at bay, Doble scored four penalties and converted Alan Morley's second half try from the touchline to help England to a most unlikely victory. Despite his heroics in South Africa, Sam was destined to play in just two more matches, a 10-0 loss to New Zealand early in 1973 and a 25-9 loss to Wales in the following Five Nations campaign. England were outscored by five tries to nil, but Sam did manage to sign off his international account with two penalties to augment a drop goal by Dick Cowman. Then, just four years later, at around 4.30pm when referees around the country were blowing their whistles, Sam died of a rare form of lymphatic cancer. His life was honoured with a special match between the Barbarians and Moseley later in the year, and he is still fondly remembered by all those who knew him. Thirty years on, the victorious England side of Ellis Park '72 met up at Twickenham to watch Clive Woodward's England beat South Africa 53-3. Only one player was sadly missing.

In 2004/2005 Moseley finished third in National Division Two, narrowly missing promotion behind Doncaster and Newbury. In 2005/2006 Moseley were favourites to gain promotion to higher echelons of the English game. Coaches Ian Smith and Don Caskey, along with Director of Rugby John Beale assembled an exceptionally strong team, now including ex-Premiership players Neil Mason and Daren O'Leary.

O'Leary has seen most of his career in the top-flight of the English game, playing for Saracens, Harlequins - who he is their leading league try scorer - and most recently in National League One and then the Premiership for Worcester. Now at the ripe old age of 31, O'Leary offers tonnes of experience to the squad and is having a vast improvement to the team around him including that of the much-improved centre Paul Cox.

Neil Mason was signed from Worcester, the burly flanker can be seen constantly powering into the opposition from the edge of scrums and mauls and has great pace for a man of his physicality. He returned briefly to Worcester in November to replace Pat Sanderson who was on duty with England for the Autumn internationals at the time.

Moseley topped the table for much of the season and indeed finished as champions ahead of Waterloo. Both teams gained promotion to National Division One

Despite a large selection of players for the management to choose from, a 1st XV would normally consist of the majority of the below.

• Ben Buxton (Prop)
• Dean Bick (Hooker)
• Paul Coles (Prop)
• Tom Skelding (Lock)
• Paul Arnold (Lock)
• Mark Evans (Flanker)
• Neil Mason (Flanker)
• James Rodwell (No.8)
• Paul Knight (Scrum Half and Captain)
• Tommy Hayes (Fly Half)
• James Aston (Wing)
• Andy Reay (Centre)
• Andy Binns (Centre)
• Nathan Bressington (Wing)
• Ollie Thomas (Full Back)

• Moseley Rugby Football Club website