1990s Overview

Extract from Club History Article

The 1990s saw Hove expand their junior rugby set up and also saw certain members take an active role in the junior section who were to have pivotal roles in the Club.

Richard Beecham joined the Club in 1992 and became Chairman of the junior club and then the main club and took on the mantel of relocating the Club to a better environment. Previously we had set our sights on expanding in the Neville Avenue Playing Fields where we already had two pitches. Our aspirations were deflected from the Neville by one of our Ward Councillors who suggested that the Recreation Ground could be made available to us. We were stunned. What an opportunity. However that particular Councillor subsequently completed an immaculate volte-face in the face of opposition from local residents in an election year and it was not until Brighton and Hove Councils merged that the ‘Rec’ became a reality.

Both Jamie Angus who became Club Secretary during the decade and Andy Ward joined the Club junior sections – Andy initially helping on the junior committee as Press and Publicity Officer which involved him building the Club’s first website in the mid 1990s – one of (if not the)  first in Sussex. Andy also developed the first Club Membership database which revolutionised our ability to keep track of and communicate with members. Andy was then seconded to the Executve Committee becoming Assistant Secretary and Acting Secretary as Jamie became almost full time Project manager for the build of the new Clubhouse.

The Club also formally merged the junior section and the senior section into one Club and prepared to convert from an unincorported entity into a Friendly Society.

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

The Men’s 1st XV league performance for this decade is show below. Currently, we only have the info for the last 2 years but if you have any more then please get in touch.

	1998-1999	1999-2000
League	Sussex 1	LSE3
Level	9	8
Final Position	1	14
Fate	Promoted	Renamed

Just to clarify the above. 1998-1999 is fairly simple, we were in Level 9 in League Sussex 1 and finished in first place. So, at the end of that season we were promoted to Level 8.

At that time, the L8 league was called London South East 3 or LSE3. We finished in 14th in that league but remained in it, but the RFU renamed the leagues and so we actually played in LSE4 the following year! And that is in the next decade.

1990’s Alumni

I have no information of any famous alumni this decade.

Governance

[table “372” not found /]

The start of the 1990s saw a series of changes about to start in the somewhat unwieldy committee structures. The Executive Committee (effectively the General Committee but slimmed down) started to fully run things and ostensibly there were several other committees. In practice, many of these didn’t sit, rather an individual was responsible. Further changes were to be made in the next decade when Andy Ward rationalised everything.

From personal memory (certainly from 1992-1993 onwards, I recall the Executive, Junior, and Playing/Selection committees.

Points

Please note that in 1992 the points awarded for a try increased by 1 point from 4 points to 5 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.

The Hangover Trophy

This started in the 1980s but continued on and here is a link to a game from the 1990s – details unkown.