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| | == Lakenheath / Mildenhall Rugby Football Club == | | == Lakenheath / Mildenhall Rugby Football Club == |
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| − | Put Logo Herel. Click here for a brief history of the [[formation of the Mildenhall team]] | + | Put Logo Here. Click here for a brief history of the [[formation of the Mildenhall team]] |
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| − | The team was started in the spring of 1978 by Tex Byrd who also served as team captain. Interest in starting a rugby team was generated by Tex' old unit (5th Mobile Aerial Port Sqn) who put together a small sevens team with some combat controllers and entered a few local sevens tournaments. Tex started playing with the Newmarket and then Thetford clubs before joining forces with this sevens group to form the Mildenhall team, which was made up of players from a variety of units, but mostly from his then unit, 315th Transportation Sqn (he was the commander). When the club was formed one of the players was on he base staff, which gave the team the support of the Base administration. (he was Tex's boss, an 06, at age 45 was an eager and valued team member!)
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| − | We think this was the first Rugby club to be formed at Mildenhall. RAF Lakenheath is located 5 miles away and was & is a completely different type of base with its own complete facilities. Lakenheath was a fighter base and Mildenhall a tanker, transport, and special ops base with heavies. Lakenheath had no rugby team and there was no interaction between the two bases other than hospital and commissary.
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| − | As to specific games, dates and scores, other than the info I sent you on the game in which Tony Mason refereed and that Gordon Alderson
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| − | at arranged I don't have a clue. I do know that we played the Thetford and Newmarket clubs. We also played the Suffolk constabulary @ RAF Manston. Date, time, score big question mark. Also, at that time there was no rugby club @ RAF Lakenheath. - Tex Byrd, team founder
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| − | We did manage to play some of the local English team "B" sides. The furthest we traveled was to visit Gordon Alderson and we stayed overnight for that one.
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| − | The club was allowed to have its own dedicated pitch on the fight line. We were allowed to have as much area as we wanted and were several hundred yards to the side of the flight line but also a quarter mile away from any of the base facilities. It was perfect! We had to construct, and erect our own goalposts, and line the field using our own manpower. We were allowed to use the base gym basketball court for indoor practice when it rained. As I said we were given pretty much a free hand-no physical support or money- but we could do pretty much what we wanted without an unusual amount of "adult" supervision.
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| − | As an aside Matt at age 17 was selected for the Newmarket & Suffolk county under 18;s, the only yank". And he also played for our base team.
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| − | Tex was also the base football team coach and due to there much improved record over the two seasons he was at the helm, he was selected as 1979 UK coach of the year.
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| − | Our very own Jimmy Meeker was assigned to RAF Upper Heyford flying F111's. He also played football for them and we managed to see each other frequently in the four years we were in the UK together. On the rugby side, the Mildenhall team was the last Rugby I played. I was hotdogging it in one game trying to play scrum half and got tackled by two guys and slammed to the ground suffering a 3rd degree subluction(?) of the left shoulder which had to be reconstructed and tied together with Orlon tape through the coricoid process. I still have the horseshoe scar to prove it. That was the last game I ever played (I think)and I PCS'd to MacDill three months later.
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| | Click on the season below to see details for that season. | | Click on the season below to see details for that season. |
Click on the season below to see details for that season.
