The Club Notice board Contact info Directions to the club History Chat  Fixtures and results 1st team results 2nd team results  The players Player profiles Where are they now?  Fun stuff Photo albums Club legends A guide to Sawston Local clubs Jokes		-- History -- Back in 1977 a group of regulars at The Queen's Head, Newton, who were rugby fanatics decided to run a "social" rugby side based at the pub. Among the founding players were several New Zealanders - Greg Abraham, Jim Bensemen, Howard Broughton, Miles Everton and one John F. Kennedy ! The early games were played on Sunday mornings, usually with players suffering from the excesses of discussing tactics in the pub the night before ! The first such game was against a Shelford XV who beat The Queens Head Tipplers 10-0. Undaunted by this result, further games were arranged, mainly against othe pub teams, including a certain "Slippery Nipple" side. It wasn't until the second season that a win was recorded, that being against Cantabs 1V side, played unusually on a Saturday. Later that season (mainly thanks to the Kiwis) Newton won the Cambridgeshire Sevens Plate Competition beating Shelford and Saffron Walden sides on the way to the momentious occassion. Newton also took part in The County Cup Competition for the first time, narrowly losing to Wisbech 9-0. Newton did win the drinking competition afterwards when the "Blue Ball" in Granchester was literally drunk dry !! Players joined as Newton's social style of playing appealed to a more "coarse rugby" players than some of the other local clubs. However, affiliation to The Rugby Football Union meant that the club would also have to play on Saturdays, and in 1979 a full season of Saturday fixtures was arranged. Results were mixed, but the spirit never wavered. A need for a home ground was resolved by Sawston Village College who made the school pitches and changing facilities available in 1981. The mists of time cloud how it was achieved, but in 1984 the first licensed Clubhouse was built (for the grand sum of 6000 quid) from a disused school building ! It was then decided to name the club after the village it played in - Sawston. And so there are two registration certificates from the RFU. Every club has its ups and downs, but through it all Sawston has survived and thrived, which in these days of shrinking national rugby participation is a remarkable achievment. Membership is growing all the time, and the new Clubhouse (Funded by The Foundation for Sport and The Arts, Everards Brewary and the Club itself) will help create a stability which the club has not previously had. Two Senior sides and a Youth side are now regularly fielded every week, with the occassional Veterans XV taking to the field. Also there is a thriving Vice Presidents group who enjoy the rugby almost as much as their eight hour lunches ! Through all these changes though, the ethos of the club has remained unchanged. Perhaps the latin inscription below ther club badge provides a clue. Translated this means "Inebriated all of the time !". Martin "Tommo" Tomlinson