University of Birmingham Rugby Club memories from 1976. 

I am am now 54 and went up to the University from Birmingham Grammar School George Dixon GS in the Autumn of 1976 after that 'Golden Summer of 76.' after just missing out on a place to read P.P.E.and get an Oxford Rugby Blue, or so I thought with the confidence of youth at Worcester College Oxford-never happened! 

Having played for Greater Birmingham Schools at Rugby and trialed for The Midlands Schools at Under 19's, where I came across some 'real' players like Mike Perry from Wrekin College, who went on the play for Moseley RFC and England Under 23's; Murray Fisken (any relation to UoB's David Fisken?) from King Edward's School opposite the University Guild in Edgbaston who played for Edinburgh Academicals and Scotland and Huw Davies from King Edward's School Stourbridge, who played centre/fly-half for England in the pre-Carling era with Marcus Rose et al in the mid-1980's.

As an interesting aside local rock superstar Robert Plant, former front man of mega group Led Zeppelin is an 'Old Boy' (I am sure Robert would love that epithet.....!!!) of King Edward's Stourbridge and trained as a Chartered Accountant in Dudley-how the 'mighty are fallen'..eh? 

I had played for Dixonians RFC the rugby club of the former George Dixon Grammar School as a Colt earlier that year and was very fit. 

I made my debut for the University of Birmingham 1st XV in early October 1976 against local Black Country 'Thugby Club' Dudley Kings who now play at Level 3 in the arcane RFU English Clubs hierarchy 

UoB rugby was excellent in the mid 1970's as was sport generally at the University of Birmingham. Birmingham RFC's coach Keith Bonser (an England coach later in his coaching career!) and a Senior Lecturer in the PE Department, led the University 1st XV Squad as an innovative coach, ahead of his time in his techniques and tactical appreciation. 


We were well beaten by DK who had a great afternoon on the Bournbrook:'Hunting students', losing something like 25-6, not even scoring a try against a particularly strong pack. We ran the ball from anywhere, not a good idea on a sweltering hot early Autumn Saturday afternoon. 

I went onto play for two seasons for the University 1st XV until a serious knee injury early in January 1978 ironically at Wast Hills against a club I played against subsequently for Dixonians: Old Edwardians, a long-established and once upon a time first-class rugby club who played Moseley's 1st XV way back when.Old Edwardians was founded in the Victorian era by the former pupils of King Edward's School, Edgbaston, where 'local hero' Bill Oddie from Quinton in Birmingham was skipper of their 1st XV in something like 1967 before going up to Cambridge and becoming a star of 'Footlights', 'The Goodies' and all that followed as the UK's most famous 'Twitcher' on BBC TV's: 'Springwatch.'....etc.etc.

Ah...Wast Hills AKA 'The Wastland' (apologies to TS Eliot) as the wind whistled across the rolling plains of West Heath/Kings Norton, near to 'The Man in the Moon'! ? 

This put an early end to a promising student rugby career. 

As a rugby club Dixonians RFC celebrates its Centenary next year 1913-2013 on September 14th 2013 with a Grand Centenary Dinner at The Botanical Gardens in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, just around the corner from The Vale at the University of Birmingham.

I would urge any former UoB students who played for Dixonians Rugby Football Club (www.ldrfc.com ) in the 1970's and 1980's (and even the 90's and the noughties) to contact me as Former Players' Secretary for Lordswood Dixonians Rugby Football Club for more information about attending the Dixonians Grand Centenary Dinner in September 2013 if you are interested? 

Dixonians RFC won the prestigious North Midlands Cup thrashing Droitwich 28-0 way back in 1988 at The Reddings, Moseley RFC's former home, now a Bryant's housing estate with Moseley now plying their trade in the 2nd tier of English Rugby at Billesley Common, where Moseley United used to play University XV's. 

Dix reached the dizzy heights of Level 4 in 1992, as high as we have ever reached in the 'pecking order'...... 

So you see University Rugby in Birmingham wasn't always booze-fuelled legalised mayhem......

Keith Bracey 
B.Com 1976-9 
Vice-Presidents and Former Players' Secretary 
Lordswood Dixonians RFC 
www.ldrfc.com 
Mobile: 07552 758 710 
Home : 0121 541 2154 
Email: keithbracey1@gmail.com

Historian's FC AKA 'The Vile's 'Guide to Supporting one of the Oldest Clubs in the Premier League.....

Fans of BCFC-Bluenoses and Small Heathen to boot please take note.....when I was a season tix holder at The Vile we beat you 5 1 at a canter....My sister Gill is a Small Heathen too and my little brother is a Baggy....Boing...! Boing...! My old man took me to Vile park when I was 4 in 1962 when he would buy me a bag of sweets from the corner shop near the ground in Trinity Road, give them to me and sit me on one of those red stanchions which kept the crowds at bay. 

My bum was so numb after watching the game in between his arms as he stood behind me protecting me as the crowd ebbed and flowed and moved and swayed back and forth depending on the action on the pitch. 

I remember watching the fatty goalie Colin Withers and Charlie Aitken as a young Scottish left-back (he holds the record for Villa apearances, something near 700 games from the early 60's to something like 1975. Mind you we were rubbish for most of that time, even losing to the Blues in the League Cup final 3-2 in 1963 (?) 

I am old enough to have attended a game at Villa Park in the 1966 World Cup...a nil all bore draw between West Germany and Argentina, with a player sent off from each side. 

I was only 8 and watched the game from a Birmingham City Police command post in the Holte End as I couldn't see a thing from so low down in the ground.... 

I was passed over the heads of the crowd to the arms of a waiting Bobby and had the best view from the Holte End any 8 year old could wish for.... 

My Dad Les Bracey was a genuine Astonian as was his Dad, my Grandad Wilfred Bracey, both born in Price Street in the Gun Quarter by the Bull's Head Pub. 

They all attended Summer Lane School at the top of the hill near to Constitution Hill. 

My Dad worked in the Gun Quarter for a Gunsmith, carrying rifles and shotguns to the Proof House nearby. 

The whole family supported The Villa, including my uncle Norman. 

My Dad played Football in Harborne for a club and Roy Ulyett, the Sports Argus cartoonist drew a cartoon of Les Bracey in the 1950's and dubbed him the 'Harborne Tarzan' due to an uncanny likeness to American swimmer and film star of the time Johnny Weismuller. the Olympic Freestyle Swimming Gold Medallist and Champion who played Tarzan in the Tarzan films of that era.....Happy memories of less complicated days......!!!! 

PS I would love to get hold of a copy of that Sports Argus cartoon of my Dad....are they online or is the Sports Argus from the 1950's online anywhere...say the Birmingham Mail and Sports Argus online archive.....? Any ideas anyone....?

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I grew up watching Coe and Ovett, and later on Cram, chase world records around Europe in what was a truly 'Golden' period for British middle-distance running as the talented triumvirate of track stars broke world record after world record and collected a record haul of medals at the Olympiads from 1976 through to Los Angeles in 1984. It inspired my brother Richard to take up running whilst at Loughborough University in the late 70's, early 80's when I believe Sebastian Coe was a student there. Richard has run the London Marathon several times as a talented amateur athlete with a best time of 3 hours and 9 minutes which I think you will agree is an excellent time for someone with a family and a job to hold down and who could only train in the evenings and at weekends.

We inherited the running 'gene' from our Dad Leslie Bracey who discovered he had a talent for running in the RAF during the Second World War, when he took part in cross-country races whilst stationed at such far-flung outposts of RAF Bomber Command as Downham Market and Dearham in Norfolk.

Les engendered in the three of us a love of sport that still burns brightly many years after he passed away way back in 1989. Our sister Gill played Women's football in the 1970's before it was fashionable and became the fastest growing sport for women that it is now.

I have given my sporting life to the sport of Rugby Union, having played the sport from the age of 11 until a serious knee injury (ironically playing soccer!) forced the end of a promising (or so I thought...?) Veterans Rugby career with my club Lordswood Dixonians RFC (www.ldrfc.com ).

Lordswood Dixonians or as they are more correctly known nowadays, Edgbaston Dixonians Rugby Football Club celebrates its centenary 1913 - 2013 with a Grand Centenary Dinner on Saturday 14th September 2013 at The Botanical Gardens in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston. in Birmingham.

The club are hoping to welcome in excess of 400 guests and their partners to The Botanical Gardens to celebrate the centenary of the club whose long and illustrious history began with a game between the first Old Dixonians XV and the school side in December 1913 won by the school 16 points to 13 at a ground near Warley Woods in Bearwood, somewhere near the site of the now long gone Warley Abbey.

The Old Dixonians XV contained arguably George Dixon Grammar School for Boy's most famous former pupil, Michael Balcon, later to become Sir Michael Balcon, Head of the Ealing Studios which at one time rivalled Hollywood in terms of quality if not output in world cinematic terms.

In a nod to his old school, Sir Michael called his 'Everyman Copper' George Dixon in the Ealing Studios film: 'The Blue Lamp' where PC George Dixon is gunned down by a young tearaway played by Dirk Bogarde.

Miraculously PC George Dixon was resurrected as a Sergeant for the long-running BBC TV series: 'Dixon Of Dock Green' which ran in black and white on Saturday evenings in the early 1960's through to the early 1970's..... a forerunner of long-running 'police procedural' series 'Z Cars' and more latterly 'The Bill'.

Any Old Dixonians wishing to help us celebrate the centenary of the rugby club should contact me as Former Players' and Vice-Presidents' Secretary of Edgbaston Dixonians Rugby Football Club.

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