RUGBY MATTERS
Nobody ever refuses an offer from Steele-Bodger
IT’s rare enough these days that a fixture between two sides should have been played for 70 years without interruption but for one individual to have run and selected one of those sides throughout that period is surely unique.
But then again Micky SteeleBodger is unique – and barring a disintegrating knee which ails him greatly at present – the 93year-old will yet again be at Grange Road on Wednesday where Cambridge tackle the Micky Steele Bodger XV in their annual dress rehearsal for the Varsity match. This time, however, he will also be guest of honour at a special dinner to celebrate his achievement.
“I’m absolutely staggered the game is still going strong and even more amazed that I’m still here to enjoy it although this year I’ve been so busy with Barbarians stuff and laid up with my gammy knee that my son Guy has had to do most of the organisation.
“I suppose the genesis of the idea is that when I was still playing I was asked to appear for the Stanley’s at the other place. We had a good time, won the match and had a few beers at Vincent’s but rather oddly were then left to our own devices while they went off for a dinner.
“I decided that I would organise an Invitation XV to play Cambridge in a similar match but that we would lay on a damned good dinner afterwards and put them up for the night so they could get stuck in.
“The spirit of the game has never changed and that’s why I’m struggling to ever remember anybody ever turning us down. Slap up dinner, bed for the night and travelling expenses has always been the deal. And many of them waived the travelling expenses and said save it for the club.”
Steele-Bodger was a brilliant Neil Back-esque Cambridge and England flanker but was forced to retire early with an ACL rupture – curtains in those days – and has spent the rest of his rugby life running the Barbarians and putting in a long spell as an England selector.
With his unmatched connections there could have been no better man to bring a fifteen together every November to match the Cambridge side. Some years the Blues were strong and he needed to respond in kind – he once selected five current Lions – while in modern times he has had to dial down his selec- tions a little although still keen to include a name or two.
“In terms of the Cambridge season it has become the club’s biggest gate and earner. They are able to put the tents up and do some corporate hospitality and get a few sponsors involved. That is very gratifying to see. It is something concrete for Cambridge University rugby.
“We lost the game one year to frost and another year we had a very tough decision to make, it was very touch and go with frost again and talking to my players all but one – our Scottish fly-half – could make it the following day if needed because they had booked in for the night anyway. I approached the fly-half – damned if I can remember his name – to try and persuade him: ‘I would love to play tomorrow but unfortunately I’m emigrating to Australia’ came the replay. And he bloody well was, he was leaving at midday from Heathrow. So we decided to risk it and play. Happily all was well.
“I don’t really know how or why the fixture survived for so long but at the beginning I owed a great debt to Rex Willis and Cliff Morgan who supported the match from the off and immediately raised the whole level in terms of prestige and profile.
“At one stage Cliff played in six games on the trot. He used to recruit some outstanding Welsh players and by the end was ‘mine host’ on the day as much as me. He found a great pub outside Cambridge where the Welsh contingent used to set up base camp the night before and where they returned late after the game. I don’t think a great deal of sleep was had on either night.”
BRENDAN GALLAGHER A new weekly look at the game’s other talking points