SPORT
A Golden Age Nick Cain (SH 1970-75), chief writer for The Rugby Paper, celebrates a book about his allconquering predecessors.
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n any sport in any era, when a champion team emerges due to the remarkable alchemy that makes it outperform not only all its opponents, but also the teams before and after that come from the same parish, it should be cherished. That is one reason why A Golden Age, The King’s Canterbury Rugby XV of 1963-64, a glossy 350 page publication celebrating the unbeaten side that represents the peak of an exceptional era for King’s sport, deserves the widest possible audience, whether OKS, or further afield.
Fairservice had an uncanny ability to instil confidence in his players and draw the best out of them through his encouragement and patience. However, as with all great teams, its achievements were the sum of all the individuals working in harmony.
Another reason is the book depicts a team that set a benchmark for future generations in terms of aspiration, standards and a camaraderie based on the joy of playing together. Those values are priceless, and they serve as a reminder in a time of hot-house rugby academies, where coaches sometimes extinguish the spark of self-expression, just how intrinsic enjoyment is to success. It is the story of the brilliant fifteen-a-side and sevens teams of 1963-64, captained by Seb Barker, a gifted inside-centre and goalkicker from a bohemian background who became a celebrated poet, and coached by Colin Fairservice, a former Kent and Middlesex cricketer with a love for flowing attacking rugby.
Above: 1963 1st XV informal photograph Below: A Golden Age front cover
Together they have produced a gem of a team biography.
The King’s golden boys beat all-comers, whether rival schools or the physically much bigger A teams of leading London clubs, and then scaled a further summit by winning the 1964 Rosslyn Park Sevens, the abbreviated game’s most prestigious schools’ tournament. They were so good that Geoff Dodds, for decades the tournament’s resident expert, always described them as the best school seven he had ever seen. The Times backed this up, declaring that they had “given the finest exhibition by an English school in the history of the tournament”.
The same can be said of this book. Lock John Norwood has been the driving force behind it, and he enlisted his surviving team-mates, or their surviving families, in providing their life stories as well as a wealth of photographs. Norwood says he is also indebted to Sir Michael ‘War Horse’ Morpurgo (1st XV 1961) for his foreword, to Michael Dover (1st XV 1966) for his publishing expertise, and to school archivist Peter Henderson for his research and editing skills.
How to buy Visit ko-fi.com/ agoldenage/shop or contact John Norwood norwood.johna @gmail.com
All I would add is that as an OKS who has made a living as a rugby writer since playing for the 1973 and 1974 1st XVs, my team-mates and I knew all about the exploits of the 1971 and 1974 Lions – and next to nothing about our illustrious King’s predecessors only a decade before. I am delighted that A Golden Age has changed that, and hope it proves an inspiration to future generations of King’s players, as well as those from the wider rugby family.
OKS MAGAZINE • № 9 • Spring 2022 OKS Magazine is published twice a year by The OKS Association, 1 Mint Yard, Canterbury, CT1 2EZ Printed in the UK on a PEFC paper stock
oks.org.uk