Puddletown Club celebrates 50 years
The village of Puddletown in Dorset lies near the River Piddle and was fortunately renamed from the original Piddletown. It was also renamed Weatherbury when used by Thomas Hardy for the setting of Far from the Madding Crowd.
Fifty years ago, Lynne Lewis founded Puddletown RFC, after arriving at St Mary’s Secondary School in Puddletown straight from the old St Lukes PE College, now Exeter University. A Welshman passionate about rugby, he took the game to a new level at the school where they enjoyed a couple of unbeaten seasons. Then Lynne, with his students, started a separate successful Colts team before he set up Puddletown RFC. Lynne was a great inspiration as coach of the county schools team and also played fly half for Dorset and Wilts. He moved to Canford School and went on to be Chairman of England Schools Rugby.
Recently, Puddletown rugby club celebrated their 50th anniversary since the club’s formation with a pre-match dinner enjoyed by many of their former captains. The celebrations took place at their Greenfields Ground on Piddlehinton Camp where they now play their rugby.
Then they cheered on the Villagers in their celebration match against Dorchester Second team when the hosts won 62-0.
Club captain Jacob Holt said: “It was a chance to connect different eras of the club in what is a special year of nostalgia and excitement and created some beautiful memories. The fact we ran out of beer before the end of the game speaks for itself!”
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