THE HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY RUGBY – ALL 150 YEARS OF IT - TOLD FOR THE FIRST TIME!
In celebration of CURUFC's 150th Anniversary, we are proud to publish a limited edition book to showcase our rich history. From Parker’s Piece to Grange Road, Queen’s Club to Twickenham the book will chart the unrivalled contribution the rugby club and its members have made both on and off the pitch.
Readers will be taken on a journey from Albert Pell’s early attempts to establish a handling code of football in Cambridge in the 1840s to the establishment of CURUFC at a meeting in Clare College in 1872; the creation of ‘Cambridge Rules’ to try to set a unified set of laws for the game of ‘football’ to the first of what has been 138 annual battles with ‘the other place’ in the inaugural Varsity Match in 1872.
You can read about how the Suffragette’s tried to bomb Grange Road, how Wavell Wakefield’s touring party were chased by Gendarmes through the street of Lyon, in France, and how a future Vice Chancellor of the university was actually rusticated while captain of the club.
The club’s eight World Rugby Hall of Fame members all feature strongly along with the man who declared the game of rugby union ‘open’, Vernon Pugh, and the incomparable Micky Steele-Bodger.
You can discover the first mother and daughter team to play against Oxford, as well as all the other family links over the years, and find the answer to which women’s Blue is literally setting her sights on the moon!
The names of the 1258 men’s, 394 women’s and 95 War Time Blues are all listed in a comprehensive statistical section. There is also a list of the 352 male and four female international players who have played at the club, along with the 30 President’s of the RFU, SRU and WRU.
Long standing coach Tony Rodgers picks his best teams from the Sixties through to the Noughties and former England forward and RFU President Ian Beer, captain of the club in 1954, does the same for his era.
If you, or any member of your family, have been a part of the Cambridge rugby story then this is a ‘must-have’ book. Or if you just love the game of rugby then this is a book you just won’t be able to put down.
Click here to order your copy now!