HISTORY SHOWS BRIDGWATER & ALBION’S PROWESS AND QUALITY
The family of the late Mr Richardson-Aitken have kindly sent the Bridgwater and Albion, the membership and fixtures card for the 1929/30 season in which the deceased was a prominent member. In fact he played through the Club during the 1920’s and 30’s during which time the Club produced internationals JWR Swayne (1929) and TJM Barrington (1931) who was also affiliated to Bristol. Both were solicitors at Glastonbury and Bridgwater respectively. Check out more history from the club at https://barfc.co.uk/history/
Mr Richardson-Aitken was clearly well established and connected to the game as he rubbed shoulders with the legendary Wavell Wakefield a doyen of the game in this period and England’s captain.
The fixtures may surprise younger members of the Club but perhaps those who have been around a bit longer will have acknowledged the Club’s reputation in the inter-War years. A quick examination shows home and away fixture with Bath, Exeter, Plymouth Albion, Northampton and a visit to Leicester. The traditional local fixtures with Taunton, Wellington, Wiveliscombe and Weston-super-Mare are included. There are some clubs which do not exist now – Leytonstone and Edgeware but who knows – they are probably merged with others and continue. In 1930 Easter was clearly in the midst of April that year and Bridgwater & Albion played Northampton, Blackheath, Edgeware and Nottingham in a five day period. Easter is now sadly a blank date on the league list.
Bridgwater & Albion have played many of these teams over many years and for a few years after leagues were introduced traditional fixtures remained so we still managed to meet the likes of Plymouth Albion, Clifton and Exeter. Certainly the first two of these have also been league opponents during the 34 years leagues have existed.
It is also interesting to look at the Reserves (now United) list to see the regularity of fixtures with the likes of Bristol sides Old Colstonians, Imperial, Old Redcliffians from way back then. Again most of the sides played in that season remained on Albion’s fixtures list for many years. In recent seasons and some currently, then the likes of North Petherton, Wellington, Old Redcliffians, Cullompton and Wells were then on our 1st XV league list.
History is a wonderful thing and we are grateful for relatives of former players for bringing these matters back to attention. There aren’t many people around who can recall rugby football in 1929/30 but some may know a friend or relative who did play for us then. The Club is always grateful for such historic information and we will retain the details with acknowledgement for the player/players concerned.
Scribe
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