HOPA and Quinssa & the Stoop


By kwin
February 6 2005

More than hundred members of Quinssa and HOPA gathered last week for an enjoyable evening of reminiscences of Harlequin Football Club past and present.

This was a warm-hearted and amiable evening. Congratulations to the Quinssa committee, and especially Duncan Franklin for an imaginative, and well organised event.


Man in black

Gathered together on the panel were a selection of ex players:

And also a writer - Ian Cooper, author of the recently published Immortal Harlequin, about Adrian Stoop.


Ian Cooper, Paul Anderson, Graham Murray & Bob Hiller

Ian kicked off the evening with a potted history of Stoop, the band of players that he drew around him and the innovative and fresh approach that he had to football: inventing some of the roles that today we take for granted. For instance it was Stoop who invented the concept of scrum-half and fly-half - previously the two halves played left and right.

No single player in Quins history had more impact on the club than Stoop. As well as building a successful team he also forged the agreement to play at the RFU, and meanwhile bought Quins their first ground of their own at Fairfax Road in Teddington: a purchase that enabled them to buy the current site some years later.

Ian brought Stoop, and the early days of the club alive, and his book is heartily recommended


Ian Cooper, with an admiring fan

Next up was Paul Anderson, who described the surprisingly small structure of the club in his day - running just five teams, when junior clubs like Esher managed 15.  Paul conjured up the amateur era well, and was full of interesting snippets of information: did you know the significance of the rare club ties containing the green stripes?

Graham Murray was captain of the club in its centenary year, and in his long association with the club has known five presidents. His stories of the notorious Easter tour were intriguing

Graham passed on to Bob Hiller, perhaps the best known on the panel. Bob waxed lyrically about his rugby career, and no opportunity for self-deprecation was missed  (On the Lions: two tours, seven months away, never played on a Saturday)  Though you wouldn't have guessed it from his self effacing style Hiller is a very influential figure in the recent history of Quins - and not just  for introducing compulsory training in the 60s - and exhausting his team in the process. It was an honour to have our president at the evening.

Neale Edwards represented the 80s, and the end of the amateur era: retiring when the professional game started. He provided the link to the modern era - describing how hw played against Johnson, Back and Garforth in 1991.

Steve White Cooper was the first panellist that I can remember watching. He didn't speak for long, but was interesting later in the evening on the impact of the game going professional - and his decision to give it up in favour of a job in insurance. 

Finally, the normally very articulate Simon Miall took his turn with the mic, but he seemed a little uneasy that evening - or perhaps fed up with only making the bench for the forthcoming game?

 

After the panellists had spoken there was plenty of time for questions. Perhaps not surprisingly we spent a deal of time discussing the differences between the amateur and the professional games, and some interesting points were raised in favour of both

Throughout the evening, it seemed to me that the spirit of club burned brightly, and I felt a strong sense pride and continuity of all the players - and indeed supporters - that have worn the famous shirt of one of the most influential and important clubs in rugby history.

 

As I walked the long distance home, a couple of thoughts echoed strongly in my mind. 

The first was a comforting one from Bob Hiller who was emphatic that the players of today were very much the same sort of people as in his time, enjoying their rugby in different circumstances, but essentially not dissimilar from the young men of thirty, forty, fifty years ago.

The second was from Simon Miall, who's presence at the evening paid testament to what he said - that the players and management today are very conscious of a sense of continuity, tradition and history in the club.

In my view they fully appreciate the weight of the famous shirt on their backs.