Half a century after Cambridge were proclaimed the finest ever Varsity match side, its veterans return to Twickenham
On Wednesday night in London's swish Savoy hotel will gather 15 greybeards in faded, threadbare light blue blazers, a few of them a little shaky on their pins, but each with soft-boiled rheumy eyes glowing furnace-bright in the recollected glories of their prime. And on Thursday they will take their hangovers to Twickenham to share a slap-up commemorative lunch with 13 of their deadly rivals from a precise half?century ago. Then, together, the 26 fond old codgers will watch the 130th University rugby match.
When this junketing band of Cambridge ancients beat Oxford in the 80th contest on 11 December 1961 they established a timeless record which proclaims them still as the finest Varsity match XV in history as the only one ever to remain unbeaten throughout their season ? P14 W14, points for 249, against 49. It is particularly notable for in those days both universities would prepare for Twickenham with a string of matches against the grandest clubs in the land, full?strength teams packed with international players from such as Cardiff, Newport, Gloucester, Leicester, Coventry, Bedford, Harlequins, and Northampton. The Cambridge immortals of '61 beat them all. No wonder old men's recollections on Tuesday night will be rich and roseate.
Truth is, not 15 but just 13 of these famed light blues have homed in from all over this week. The missing two, both here in spirit, are the Scots, the fly-half Gordon Waddell, long based in South Africa, and the flanker John Brash, who sadly died in 2009.
The treasured 1961 programme lists the fabled XV with, naturally, full initials:
IA Balding; SA Martin, GP Frankcom, MR Wade, WM Bussey; GH Waddell, TC Wintle; WAM Crow, CFW Higham, NJ Drake-Lee, BE Thomas, JE Owen, RB Collier, RCB Michaelson, JC Brash.
All British: eight grammar schoolboys, seven public; nine were to win international caps, including captain Mike Wade, who has flown in from the US where he has lived for 40 years. His memories remain colourfully vivid, particularly of the most narrow victories which made up the famous 14, like his own drop kick to ensure the 3-0 win against mighty Coventry: "Their full?back sliced a high clearance; I was about 40 yards out and remember as if it was yesterday just waiting, waiting for the ball to come down and being completely certain I'd make the kick just as long as I didn't muff the catch." Hey presto! Another memorable game-changer put paid to the strong Steele-Bodger XV when greenhorn full-back Ian Balding stopped British Lions' luminary Tony O'Reilly dead in his tracks. "He tried to run through me, instead of round me," remembers Ian with a blushing relish all these 50 years on.
Such imperishably burnished little glints of glory ? and toasts to them ? will swirl congenially around the jubilee reverie on Tuesday night. Certainly raise a glass to Roger Michaelson's mixed bag of place-kicks, like the astonishing one which settled the win against Cardiff, a monstrous hoof out of a halfway line mud bath ? "flat and low like a line drive in baseball", remembers Wade with a chuckle ? not to mention Roger's botched conversion attempt against Northampton which the Daily Telegraph's reporter EW Swanton described as so inept "as to offer at a different time of year a difficult chance to backward short-leg".
Michaelson, from Aberavon, went on to build up a highly successful fruit?and?veg business, his compatriot in the pack Brian Thomas remains, of course, a Neath RFC legend; Ian Balding trained the Queen's horses; Geoff Frankcom was a RAF flight commander and fighter pilot; Gordon Waddell a South African MP, and his scrum?half Trevor Wintle a country GP. John Owen became MD of Rubery Owen, Bob Collier the big whizz of a multinational hotel chain, and Charlie Higham the noted head of anthropology at New Zealand's Otago University.
Sixty thousand came to Twickenham that 11 December to watch the dour armlock contest against an expectantly assertive Oxford on a matching dour grey day. It was settled only in the final quarter at 9-3 ? a drop goal apiece and two breakaway Cambridge tries out of, you might say, the blue ? a chase at the last by Frankcom and a dash by hooker Higham after his chargedown at a lineout.
Otago's head of anthropology has interrupted a "dig" in Thailand to fly in this week to retell to his comrades, yet again, his lifelong tale: "Lucky bounce straight into my hands ? only full-back Willcox to beat ? I pass to Michaelson inside me ? he makes straight for Willcox then flips it back to me ? I'm over in the corner ? Amazing noise ? a man in the front row of the east terrace is going berserk ? So am I ? so are all of us ? relief all round."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/dec/06/university-match-cambridge-twickenham
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