Old Parkonians Rugby Club
Old Parkonians Rugby Club was formed by old boys of Birkenhead Park
High School in 1928 and became an Association in 1931, moving to Holm Lane in
1948.
The photograph on the right shows HM Curphey with the Mayor of Birkenhead at the opening of the first Clubhouse in 1951 - click on the photograph to see the full sized version.
The press article below preceded the opening with an account of how the Club was founded and what led to the Clubouse being opened. Click on the article to see the full sized version - you may need to enlarge this in your browser to read the details.
In
1964/65 the existing clubhouse was built using materials from the old RAF
site in Greasby, labour and professional help provided by club members. Changing
rooms were added in the 1970's also with the help of members.
The Rugby ground was officially opened in September 1951, membership being restricted to old boys of the school. This continued until the opening of the present clubhouse in 1966 when club membership was open to all.
Friendly rugby (with at one time 6 XVs) was played until the RFU league structure was formed in the 1980's.
Currently we field 2 XVs with high hopes shortly of moving to 3 XVs.
Old Parkonians Cricket Club
The cricket section was formed in 1950, playing on coconut matting on the rugby ground, then moving to a ground share with Victory Kidder CC in Arrowe Park. When the Holm Lane grounds were re-developed in 1970/71 a cricket square was made between the two new rugby pitches and was in use 2 years later.
Friendly games with one team were played until we joined the Wirral league in 1987, finishing the 1988 season as champions, 1990 saw the formation of a second XI in the Wirral league. A 3rd XI was formed in 1994 and plays in the Bromborough Paints Merseyside cricket competition.
From 1992/96 the club played in the North Cheshire league, 1997/99 in the Merseyside cricket competition, moving again in 2000 to the Meller Braggins Cheshire cricket league.
Sunday and mid-week matches are played throughout the season.
The under 13 and under 15 teams play in the Wirral junior league.
The Birkenhead News ~ 8th January 1958
Old Rockferrians 3pts - Old Parkonians 3pts
Saturday`s game between Old Rockferrians and Old Parkonians as the previous encounter earlier in the season ended in a draw, on this occasion each side claiming a penalty goal.
A ground more than generously laden with mud held so little prospect of an enthralling spectacle that the subsequent uninspiring display was not so much disappointing as expected.
Old Parkonians, much to their credit attempted to open the play out, but despite some promising looking movements their opponents line was rarely threatened.
Old Parkonians nearly scored under the home posts, but generally the Rockferrrians covering was to much for the visiting backs. In the forwards the home side were more often than not superior, despite some good work by Paterson, Morris and Evans for the visitors.
Behind the respective scrums, the Rockferrians threes being cast in a mainly defensive role. Most of the activity emanated from Old Parkonians who in Madden had a particularly dangerous centre.
However such enterprises were not always assisted by an erratic display from fly-half Holt, who at times produced some excellent touches, yet often inexplicably ruined previous good work.
There can be no doubt that both sides were best served at fullback in which the incomparable Kendall augmented a sound defensive display for the visitors with some brilliant running.
Old Rockferrians enjoyed a first half lead through Wildman, who kicked a splendid penalty goal from near the left touch-line. This was negatived late in the second half when Madden deservedly landed a penalty goal for the visitors in front of the posts.
Madden`s kick represents the only score achieved by Old Parkonians against Old Rockferrians in the last four meetings and the game itself continues the run of low scoring engagements by now all too common between these sides.
Click on the pic to see the detail -
What was the year and who are they?
Answers to
Response 1: "If you think the pic of the late 1980’s is in the IOM, then I think it was Billy’s first? year of captaincy when he broke his leg. If so, I also think that it could have been at Vagabonds who we played for a couple of years in the leagues around that time. They had taken over from Douglas as the best team on the island. I remember one visit to Vaggers (and it may be this one) when Rick Wakeman’s son was the entertainment at Vaggers. I don’t think we stayed long and hihoed out to take the island by storm. Best wishes to all, Ian Jones.
Players from the 1956/7 Season
Back: Bob Keating, A.D. Evans, Ken Jackson, C.K. Wilson, Bob Amery, George
Parr, Ron Cooper, C.D. Forbes,
Eric Potter, Andy Miller, H.M.
Curphey
Front:
Terry McCann, John Madden, Ted Chamberlain, Jim Kendall (Captain),
Arthur Clarkson, Stan Prescott, A.N.O.
(Click on the photo to see the detail)
A Team from the 80s
Back Row: HM Curphey (President) Haydn Owen, J D Smith,
Paul Mullen, Steve Johns,
Kevin Dobbing, Ken Cooke, Mark Pearson, Brian (Gus) Cusick, Ian Jones.
Front Row: Rod Whalley, Noel Youds, Bill Lloyd, John Maher (Capt), Dave
Smith,
Geoff Williams, Mal Evans.
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Brian (Gus) Cusick (1940 ~ 2008)
Brian (Gus) Cusick, who was associated with the
club for more than 50 years died suddenly on Thursday 7th February 2008.
Many tributes were made to Brian in the Book of Condolence.
Memoirs from Ritchie Beckett...
Brian 'Gus' Cusick is a true rugby legend of the Wirral. He was Old Parks through and through and although well capable of playing at a much higher level he would have never dreamt of leaving the club; although he often threatened to go to Oldershaw when he was annoyed with us.
Gus joined the club on leaving school in 1956 and was very quickly in the first team at his beloved No. 3 position of tight head prop. Although neither he or the club kept official records he will have played well in excess of 1,000 1st. team games for Old Parks as well as many other lower team games...
He first 'retired' from first team duty in 1981, aged 41, taking on the third team captaincy for the following season. This did not last long, not even the season and he was soon back in the 'ones'! He then continued in the 1st. team until the end of the 1984-85 season when he 'retired' again from frontline action, aged 45. The club even arranged an official retirement party for Gus.
Again, this retirement did not last long and that summer of 1985 he changed his mind again and played 1st. team for much of the following season. From the late '80's he alternated between 1st team cameo appearances with playing for, and often captaining, the lower teams.
One season in the '90's when he was captain and the team was not doing very well he proceeded to show his team mates how it was done! First he ventured to hooker and then became more adventurous moving back to No. 8 in an infamous game in the snow at Waterloo!! He even managed stand-off a couple of years later with Donny Hawker at scrum-half [a combined age of 115 at that time]
Gus played rugby until he was eligble to draw his old age pension, only finally retiring because he required a hip replacement operation! His last 1st team game came at the age of nearly 64 against the much loved 'old enemy' Prenton.
I can only recall a prop getting the better of him once. It was at Southport against ex-England prop Frank Anderson. Frank lifted Gus out of an early scrum and while he was up in the air he declared in a loud voice that he could see both his wife, Sandra, and the Blackpool Tower from where he was!
The last three seasons saw Gus on the 1st team touchline, both home and away, as the club's trained first aider as well as continuing in his role as referee's assistant offering the officials his well thought out opinions whether they liked them or not.
He was no angel on the field of play but he was a much feared and respected opponent as well as being a tremendous team mate both on and off the field. He, will of course, be dearly missed by his loving family but also by all Old Parkonian club members both past and present; he will be sorely missed by his close friends within our club and in all other Wirral rugby clubs. Gus was also well known in many other Merseyside, Manchester and North Western rugby clubs.
How well he was loved and respected is demonstrated by the many glowing tributes on the family and club websites.
Gus, we are all going to miss you so much!!!!
Ritchie Beckett ~ February 2008
Pictures from the Past
The following photographs are just a few from the historical collection from the Club. We hope to be able to provide information on the pictures, including putting names to faces, and add to the collection over time.
To see the full sized version of one of the pictures below, click on it.
