Tributes to Evans, 75, stalwart of Scots game

SCOTTISH Rugby Union President Ian Barr has led the tributes to Ron Evans, one of the club game’s great stalwarts, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 75.

Evans was a tireless champion of the sport at all levels for over half a century as a writer, broadcaster, administrator and owner of Rerite Sports results service.

He suffered a serious heart attack last year and although his initial recovery had been promising, there was subsequent complications. He died peacefully in hospital after a fall last week.

A proud son of Ayr, Evans was a knowledgeable and diligent local rugby reporter for the Ayrshire Post and Ayr Advertiser from the mid-1970s onwards, a correspondent for West Sound radio station from the early 1980s, part of the media and commercial operation for Glasgow Caledonians (as the city’s professional club was then known) in the late 1990s, and also launched Rerite Sport around that time.

It was the last of these roles which really established Evans as arguably the most well-connected figure in Scottish rugby. It involved him and his team collecting and compiling every rugby result in the country on any given Saturday afternoon for clients ranging from national and local newspapers to the Scottish Rugby Union.

This required Evans to cultivate a vast network of contacts from across the club landscape, and the strong personal relationships he fostered was reflected in the warm tributes sent his way on social media yesterday by journalists, former internationalists, club committee members and casual supporters of the game.

“Ron’s passing is a huge loss personally and a major blow to Scottish club rugby,” said Barr.

“I count him as a very good friend, who was a great supporter of my club, Lasswade, as we climbed through the leagues a few years back. He knew the game inside out and always had its best interests at heart.”