Capturing the thrill of rugby
Maidenhead: Club marks centenary with special sculpture
A striking three-metre high sculpture of rugby in action was unveiled at Maidenhead Rugby Club on Friday.
Rob Briers, senior vice president of the Rugby Football Union, unveiled this new addition to the arts scene in Maidenhead.
The sculpture is based on an original painting by Anna Zinkeisen – and has been created in stainless steel by Stephen Wray, managing director of Cookham-based Craufurd Engineering.
It has been donated to Maidenhead Rugby Club as a permanent record of the club’s centenary year.
Titled ‘The Kick-Off 1922’, the sculpture features an outline of two players jumping for the ball.
It is based on a painting made in the early 1920s by Zinkeisen.
It is believed that she was a friend of a player in the club’s second XV (team).
At the time, the club was called Thames Valley Rugby
Club and was playing its matches in Kidwells Park.
The painting was used as part of a poster that listed the club’s fixtures for each season, displayed in shop windows around the town.
The club has two copies of this original poster, one of which lists the fixtures for the 1926/27 season – displayed in the clubhouse.
The whereabouts of the original painting is unknown.
Stephen Wray’s sculpture, nearly three metres in height, is fixed high upon the exterior west-facing wall of the clubhouse and forms ‘an impressive welcome’ to all members and visitors.
Rob Briers unveiled the statue on Friday – he represents Lancashire RFU on the
RFU Council and is a director of the Sale Sharks Premiership club.
He was also the guest of honour at Maidenhead Rugby Club’s final celebration of its centenary, a dinner in the evening at Dorney Lake.
Geoff Cowen, vicechairman of Maidenhead RUFC, said the event is a celebration of the club’s history as a club in the centre of town for many years before moving to Braywick in the 1960s.
“The dinner [celebration] was filled with players from yesteryear – dozens of famous Maidenhead players and some Thames Valley players,” he said.
“We were very grateful that Rob Briers was able to come down.
“He said we had facilities most clubs would be very jealous of. It was a great day.
“This club is coming to the end of its 100th year and the sculpture on the wall is a permanent memory, created brilliantly by Stephen Wray. It combines the history of Maidenhead together with the sporting aspect.”