Scottish club rugby mourns death of stalwart Ron Evans, aged 75

Scottish club rugby has lost one of its great stalwarts with the passing of Ron Evans, who was 75.

He had suffered a serious heart attack last year and although his initial recovery had been promising, there were subsequent complications. He died peacefully in hospital on Tuesday 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. He was a reporter on West Sound radio station from the early 1980s, was part of the media and commercial arm of Glasgow Caledonians (as the city’s professional club was then known) in the late 1990s, and also launched his Rerite Sport results service 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 for clients ranging from newspapers, including The Scotsman, to the Scottish Rugby Union.

Evans was also the founder, owner, presenter and commentator of Scottish Rugby TV, which produced high quality coverage of the club game for a number of years in the late 2000s and early 2010s, providing that tier of the sport with an important profile boost at a time when it was struggling to find its place in the new professional order.

He is survived by his sons, Gregandglynn,andhismother who celebrated her 100th birthday last year.