Dear Old Millhillian,

The Annual East Anglia Meeting 

David Short and I invite you to join us on 4th May for our usual blend of Cambridge history and a relaxed and convivial buffet lunch in the Alhusen Room of Trinity College.

We shall be joined by our President, Stephanie Miller, who has kindly agreed to give a report on the activities and developments of the Club along with a summary of her Presidential year to date. We invited the new Head, David Benson, as our guest but he will be otherwise engaged. It is my intention to request that a member of the Senior Management Team will join us to report on the Foundation in general and the main school in particular.

We invite you to gather in the Clubhouse of the Cambridge University Rugby Football Club for some well-deserved refreshment after making your way to Cambridge. David and I will be there to meet you and suggest you arrive between 11.00 and 11.30am. With a glass of something in your hand, we shall be treated to a tour of the Clubhouse and its memorabilia, along with a view of the first XV pitch before, later that day, the finals of the Inter-collegiate Cup are played on it.

Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club (CURUFC) was officially founded in 1872, three years later than Oxford University RFC and just one year after the founding of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). In 1896 CURUFC, together with Cambridge University Association Football Club, jointly purchased land at Grange Road, the home ground to this day of the Club, erecting the Pavilion and Members’ stand which are still in existence. In the mid-1970s the Pavilion was extended to include a bar which is where we shall meet. Off the bar is the Members’ Clubroom, called the Windsor Room, after Windsor Lewis, Captain in 1927 and a Welsh international. In 1995 a new meeting room was opened by and named after Micky Steele-Bodger, who was Captain in 1946 and subsequently English international and selector. The annual Steele-Bodger’s XV to play CURUFC First XV (the Blues), 10 days before the Varsity Match, took place in late February for the 77th time and the Blues went on to record their biggest win over Oxford University by 56-11 at the Stonex Stadium on 2nd March, the home of Saracens RFC and a venue where the OMRFC First XV has played.

From 12.30pm we shall bid farewell to the CURUFC and make our way to Trinity College for lunch, formalities and socialising. 

We hope you will join us; your guests are most welcome and it will be a pleasure also to welcome OMs with first-hand experience of playing or spectating at Grange Road.

We shall need to confirm final numbers by 2nd May but then it is never too late to attend.

Locations for parking for CURUFC will be issued to all those attending a few days before the event.

Russ Cowan