1980s Overview

Extract from Club History Article

The introduction of League Rugby brought about a fundamental change to all junior clubs and Hove was no exception. New training regimes, coaching and competitive spirit replaced Eskimo Nell and the Club started its league campaign in Sussex League 1. The club has since then bounced between Divisions Sussex 1 and London South East 4. However, during this period the embryo of a new beginning began to form following a rejection by the members of a proposal to amalgamate with Brighton FC (Rugby) who, following the construction of the Brighton bypass, was cash rich and moving to a new facility at Waterhall. New locations discussed included Benfield Valley to the south of the Sainsbury Superstore and the Neville Road playing Fields. Hove Borough Council did not favour either.

Acknowledgement

Once again, my thanks to the estate of Graham Gordon for the handbooks and ephemera. Others have also kindly provided items for this decade.

Teams

Old Name	Team Name	Gender	Founded	Club Level	Renamed To	When	Last Seen
	1st XV	Men	1952-1953	1
	A XV	Men	1952-1953	2
	Yeomen XV	Men	1963-1964	3
	Beefeaters XV	Men	1967-1968	4
	B XV	Men	1968-1969	5	Vets	1987-1988	1986-1987
B XV	Vets XV	Men (over 35)	1987-1988	5
	Colts	Men	1977-1978	?

1980’s Alumni

I have no information of any famous alumni this decade.

Governance

Committee	Date Founded	Didn't Sit	Last Operated	Became	Comments / Role
General	Original				Main Committee
Executive	1980-1981				Sub committee of the General - more active.
Finance & General Purpose	Original
Club House Administration	1976-1977
Social	Original
Selection	Original	1984-1985, 1987-1988, 1988-1989			All Senior Teams
Development	1972-1973	1980-1981 To 1987-1988	1975-1976		Only sat for two years 1988-1989 and 1989-1990
Mini Rugby	1980-1981				Junior Section

Points

Please note that throughout the 1980s the points awarded for a try remained at 4 points. The points awarded for a conversion remained at 2 points and the points awarded for both a penalty goal and a drop goal remained at 3 points.