An Evening with some Amazing Women.
– The 40th re-union of the 1986 GB Women’s first rugby International.
Programme team sheet, Great Britain v France 1st women’s rugby international, 19 th April 1986,Richmond Athletic Ground.
On the 19th April 1986 I attended and photographed the first proper Women’s rugby international to be held in England. Then Great Britain side contained many of the women I had photographed over the previous two seasons the Loughborough women – Kik Lee, Lisa Burgess, Amanda Bennett, Sam Robson, Pippa Atkinson, Finchley Girls Jayne Watts, Tricia Moore, Janet Gedrich, Debbie Maclaren, and of course the Wasps ladies Suzy Hill, Karen Almond, and Val. Moore. There were others in the side I had not photographed – Janet Talbot from Swansea University, Trica Durkin from Bromley, the Captain Carole Isherwood from Leeds Uni. Over the years I would go on to photograph many of these girls and of course many others in club games and in the 1994 Women’s Rugby World Cup up in Scotland. In these early days whilst I was sure that the women’s game would become more important, my main clients – the UK National newspapers mainly shied away from covering this fledging sport.
40 years later I was chuffed to bits to be invited to the 40 th anniversary dinner to celebrate these early pioneering women to be held at Richmond Athletic Ground, the same venue as that first women’s international match. Many of my images were seen, many for the first time, on the big screen during the evening.
The main screen showing my (Pete Jenkins) photos from that first ever women's rugby international at the Richmond Athletic Ground.
It is no secret that my photographic career started in the 1980s in Northwest London as a sport photographer. I supplied local newspapers all over London with sporting images, mostly taken on a Saturday afternoon. London in those days was awash with small local paid for and free newspapers, and on average each of the top teams would have as many as three or even more of these papers following their progress. By 1983 I was concentrating on the top rugby sides, Blackheath, Harlequin, London Irish, London Scottish, London Welsh, Metropolitan Police, Richmond, Rosslyn Park, Saracens and Wasps. I left the smaller clubs to contact freelancers to cover such Ealing, Finchley, Hampstead, Harrow, Ruislip. There were others of course.
Ealing is now a big club – Ealing Trailfinders, London Irish and Wasps have both gone, although there is still thriving small London club Wasps FC which carried on after the Men’s 1 st XV went professional back in 1996.
At the start of 1983-1984 season, I made the decision to start working the Fleet Street circuit. I committed myself to Rugby as my main sport, although as in those days most mainstream sport was on a Saturday afternoon I found myself photographing all sorts of different sports on the days when rugby was not happening. However, I digress, women’s rugby, ah yes.
The RAG seems to have stood the ravages of time rather well. It looks, mostly, much as it did forty years ago. Back in the day I seemed to visit the Athletic Ground several times a month. Both Richmond and London Scottish played there then (and still do) so it seemed like there was a match every week. On top of club games, over the season there would be Divisional games, and various other representational games, and one women’s games became more frequent there would be their games as well
I was one of the first to arrive, my journey from Nottingham to Richmond was relatively uneventful. I was met by Tricia King and had the opportunity to meet many others who were at the match alongside me, although back in the day we had little to no idea who we all were.
I spoke to the referee on the day Clive Leeke, who also addressed that gathering
Clive Leeke the referee of the first GB Women’s International
and it was fascinating to get his take on the occasion. I also was able to speak to Lisa Burgess the GB 8 and numerous other of the women
Carole Isdherwood, Captain in that famous match
Lisa Burgess, scorer of GBs two tries
Janet Gedrych
Amanda Bennett
Gill Burns
It was the first time I had seen Chris Thau in several decades too, a journalist of some renown, and former head of communications at both the WRFU and the International Rugby Board.
Chris Thau
Such a lot happened, that night and there were so many people and such a lot of ambient noise that the best way to describe the evening is to show it to you.
Sally Cockerill
Emma Miitchell
The highlight of the evening for me, had to be the group photograph I took when the players and others sang the ‘Sloop John B’. Shortly after which I had to start my journey back to the Midlands. A wonderful evening.
TWe come on the sloop John B
My grandfather and me
Around Nassau town we did roam
Drinking all night
Got into a fight
Well, I feel so broke up
I want to go home
So hoist up the John B’s sail
See how the main sail sets
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home
Let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah, yeah
Well, I feel so broke up
I wanna go home
The first mate, he got drunk
And broke in the captain’s trunk
The constable had to come and take him away
Sheriff John Stone
Why don’t you leave me alone? Yeah, yeah
Well, I feel so broke up
I wanna go home
So hoist up the John B’s sail (hoist up the John B’s sail)
See how the main sail sets (see how the main sail sets)
Call for the captain ashore, let me go home
Let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don’t you let me go home? (Hoist up the John B’s sail)
Hoist up the John B (hoist up the John B’s)
I feel so broke up, I wanna go home
Let me go home
The poor cook, he caught the fits
And threw away all my grits
And then he took, and he ate up all of my corn
Let me go home
Why don’t they let me go home?
This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on
Hoist up the John B’s sail (hoist up the John B’s sail)
See how the main sail sets (see how the main sail sets)
Call for the captain ashore, let me go home
Let me go home
I wanna go home
Let me go home
Karen Almond – Player no 1 on the Red Roses honours board at Twickenham. The first English player to lift a Rugby World Cup (XVs)
Pip Atkinson-Kennedy – Player no 2 on the honours board, she also played, coached and captained England Sevens in the First women’s Hong Kong Sevens
Sally Cockerill – player number 3 on the honours board, a back row player for Newport
Chris Gurney – Player number 5 on the honours board
Tricia King Player number 7 on the honours board
Suzy Hill – player no 8 – a scrum half
Sam Robson – Honours board no 11 played for Loughborough and Wasps
Clair Vyvyan – Honours board no 13
Emma Mitchell – Honours board no 19 captained England and gained 57 caps over 15 seasons
Janis Ross – HB 20 – former Saracens Captain and blind side flanker
Fiona Barnet – HB 26 – former Saracens prop
Peter Kennedy – coached the Red Roses between 1999 and 2002, including two Grand Slams, and also coached Saracens women.
Gill Burns, whose 14-year international career from 1988 to 2002 included 75 caps Carol Isherwood, the first England and Great Britain captain,
Sue Dorrington, who played hooker in 13 Tests in the days when England’s women might play one match a year, said of the Grand Slam decider between England and France: “This is truly epic. I played here for Richmond in a Cup final in 1987, when we struggled to get a crowd of 200.
Sarah Hunter, who retired as England captain in this campaign
Thank you for reading my blog post about an evening with some amazing women.
– I hope you enjoyed it.
Pete Jenkins
Clive Leeke the referee of that first GB Women’s International