The Twickenham Team Who’ve Seen It All
Twickenham Stadium is unusual in that for matches and concerts a team of up to 400 volunteers keep thousands safe and happy.
This dedicated and professionally trained squad is made up of the stadium’s honorary stewards. They travel from the length and breadth of the land and even fly in from further afield and encompass every walk of life from high court judge to police constable.
Mike Collen is a marketing manager who travels the world for a global electronics company but loves to come home to Twickenham for match days. He became an honorary steward 20 years ago, is a member of their committee, and has seen lots of change.
'Kilts, royal handbags and dogs'
"It used to be a more casual role but it's now a very serious one where we all take qualifications. I have passed my NVQ3, having already got my NVQ2. It's been an interesting journey and I'm proud to be part of the stadium team that has driven higher standards,” he says.
"There have always been fascinating people involved, from all walks of life. I've worked with a professor, a doctor, military officers, police and fire brigade people. There's a wide range of experience, everyone wanting to give back to the rugby community. I come up from Fleet in Hampshire but others come from places like the Lake District or Devon.
"We don't get paid, we do it because we want to. The crowd is great, there are very few issues and we want to make sure everyone is happy and safe. I think because it's an honorary and trained role the quality of stewarding is higher than in most places.
"There's always good banter. On one occasion after Jonny Wilkinson had taken a conversion, a group of kilted Scotland supporters wouldn't give the ball back and I went to help the ball boy. 'Oo look,' they said, 'the ball boy's brought his father!' When I said 'Oh come on guys,' they all lifted up their kilts!
"Of course, we don't always get it right. On one occasion, just before kick-off, I sent Kyran Bracken the wrong way, which was a bit embarrassing and we all share anecdotes, like the bodyguard who went out to fetch a royal handbag and couldn't get back in. We've had some silly people too, in the past we've even had people turn up with dogs and then wonder why we won't let them in. I think 'would you take your dog to the theatre?'
"It's been great fun and we're a sociable crowd. Carol Wynn organises a bi-annual dinner dance but when everyone turns up in their finery we don't recognise each other without our high-vis coats."
'A marraige made in HQ'
Carol is part of a stewarding married couple, being deputy manager of the middle tier, while husband David is tier manager of the lower tier, "He has to look up to me," she laughs. "We've both been doing it for 30 years and are stewards at big matches and concerts, Rolling Stones to Lady Gaga.
"Concerts are different to rugby matches because a lot of people have never been to the stadium before. They are enjoyable events, though they are quite long, well into the evening, and the noise levels can be interesting to cope with when you are helping people."
Carol and husband David are now both retired. They met in the RAF, Carol left as a Flight Lieutenant, when she was expecting their first child, as you had to back then, and was later a charity fund raising director. She organises raffles at each match and at the dinners.
"We have raised thousands and thousands of pounds, mostly for rugby charities over the years," she says. "Currently, we are supporting the RFU Injured Players Foundation."
She's a member of the stewards committee which liaises with Twickenham full-time staff. She enjoys her match day role and particularly loves the Fiji fans at the London Sevens, who she says are often living over here, playing rugby, and are just out to sing along and enjoy themselves at a family occasion.
There have been some other interesting occasions over the years. She draws a veil over the young couple, who having got engaged one match day, had to be evicted by Carol from a quiet corner of the stadium where they were attempting to mark the memorable day with their own version of 'rugby union'!
'Pass the parcel'
Carol’s husband David retired from the RAF as a Wing Commander, played rugby for their team, and earlier for the likes of Gloucester, Wasps and Bedford. He captained Crowborough, played for Blackheath and began stewarding at Twickenham when the family flew home from Belize and he was stationed at Biggin Hill.
“There’s always a good natured crowd,” he says. “If anyone is being difficult you just ask them to smile and when they ask why, tell them they’re on camera. They always smile! And you’ve also got the option of looking at their tickets, seeing which club they are from, and suggesting that the RFU might sanction the club. In the past I’ve had people claim their tickets were stolen when two lots of ticket holders turned up, one was a police rugby club and another a well-known university which I won’t name.
“Being in the lower tier has it’s own challenges. At the last Six Nations, against Wales, the ball went into the crowd and it was like pass the parcel, forget getting it back, you’d have to evacuate! But the great thing is you have a laugh, there’s great rugby rapport. Occasionally you even get fans at the end of a match saying thanks very much, we’ve had a great time.
“No we don’t get paid but we have a pre-match meal together and a match programme and though it is so much more professional now it is still enjoyable. I come from a time of training with Wasps in a wooden clubhouse in Sudbury, with an RAF PTI putting us through our paces in the bar before we went out in the dark for a trot around the pitch. Much of rugby has changed but the camaraderie stays the same.”
'Matt Dawson almost knocked me flying'
Peter Hannan, a former Lloyds insurance underwriter, started as a steward in the 88/89 season at the back of the old South Stand on a stairwell directing people to the right level. “Ten minutes into the match we got a seat ourselves. Then I went to the very top of the North Stand, where people were smoking in designated areas right at the back,” he says. “I watched the ’91 Rugby World Cup up there. There were four stand commanders, each with a deputy, and four senior stewards with a deputy, and only one guy had a radio.
“For some matches like the County Championship and Premiership Final I was in the players’ tunnel. On one occasion Matt Dawson almost knocked me flying when Northampton were winning the final, he’d been stitched up and was desperate to get back out there. In those days there were honorary stewards and gate keepers. We all parked at Kneller Hall and had a three-course meal before the match, leaving tips for the waitresses in the ash trays.
“It was in the 1991 Five Nations from the top of the North Stand that I watched France’s Philipe St Andre score one of the best tries ever, I was coaching rugby with Farnborough and Hampshire Colts and said to another steward ‘they are going to score’. From up there you could see the way the team were spaced, how it was playing. Then after the match near the players’ entrance I saw St Andre’s father with tears in his eyes. He said ‘That was my son!’ At the sevens years later I saw chatted to Philipe St Andre who certainly remembered that ’91 try.
“There are times you’ll never forget like the five minute crowd standing ovation for South Africa when they came to play after apartheid. Then there are those you laugh over, like at the 2015 Rugby World Cup when ITV were jumping up and down because Sir Clive Woodward needed to be pitch-side in five minutes and they hadn’t given him accreditation. I said I knew very well who he was but I had to radio to control and he just smiled and waited.
“In years past we all got one ticket to a game if we had covered ten matches. We used to swap with stewards in Cardiff, Dublin, Paris. No money changed hands, we just exchanged tickets and all got to away matches. Then one of the Welsh tickets ended up with a tout and, although the RFU settled it amicably with our steward, that was the end of our tickets swap.
“Since the stadium has grown and everything is so much more professional and we have a committee, of which I’m a member, working with stadium managers, you can look back to the days when 20 odd years ago I did a risk assessment of the old South Stand with a senior fire officer who was also a steward. What we noted then has all changed. I can’t think of a stadium or venue with better standards.”
Jo King describes herself as a newbie, having joined the stewards after volunteering as part of The Pack for Rugby World Cup 2015. She began in the stadium bowl but, having been recruited for the royal box for the London Sevens, has remained there, minus the usual high vis, in smart black trouser suit and white shirt.
In the less rarefied stadium bowl atmosphere, she loved the sevens fancy dress, her favourite being the ocean themed sea anemone bedecked with long skinny balloons, which other fans good naturedly parted to catch sight of the on-pitch action.
'A genuine love of the game'
A Sussex magistrate for many years, the past five in a voluntary leadership role bringing the courts up to date with video technology, she has a definite head magisterial air.
“The honorary stewards have a really high standard of integrity,” she says. “Their contribution is enormous. The roles are filled by people who have a genuine love of the game. You can’t replace them with paid workers, not just because of the cost, but because the fans respond to them in such a positive way. Twickenham is unlike any other stadium. I was once in a home-going crowd when a mounted policewoman’s loud hailer stopped working as she was directing supporters across the A316. The entire queue went ‘sshhh’! and she was heard by the whole crowd.”
Jo’s favourite time is when she arrives early in an empty stadium. “The pitch is pristine, there’s an air of expectation. To see two little boys come in, once the gates were opened, gazing around, eyes wide, and hear their similarly wide-eyed father say the family were at Twickenham for the first ever time, makes you realise what a privilege it is to be there.”
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