Wessex RFC, one of England’s newest clubs, have arrived and in no uncertain terms!
Snarling, snorting, spitting fire and brimstone, and with the Wyvern, a two-winged dragon, emblazoned on their chests, they have terrorised the tranquil dungeons of Devon Three in their first league season and have already set their sights on Devon Two and beyond.
St Mark and St Johns (Marjons) almost slayed the beast but even they faltered as the club from the West Bank of the River Exe relentlessly chews up its rivals and spits them out.
In their four opening league games, they have rattled up a record breaking 501 points to only 23 against, fly half Lee Thorpe scoring 58 points in one game, and were unbeaten leaders by the Christmas break.
Wessex, the name’s a derivation of West Exeter, came into being on VE Day, May 8 1995, following a chat between two former disillusioned Exeter RFC stalwarts Phil Bye, now the captain, and secretary Phil Langford.
They kicked the idea around for a bit and within six weeks of the start of the 95/96 season, were running two sides.
The Wyvern, courtesy of the Wessex brigade, became their emblem, Semper Audax (Always Bold) their motto and they settled on the Springbok colours to play in.
Langford says: "It goes back to the early 60s when the South Africans left a lasting impression on me having seen them playing at Gloucester.
The Exeter City Council gave them a pitch at Flowerpot Fields and the Barley Mow opened it’s doors for entertainment and, by the end of their first season, they had polished off four Devon One sides on the way to beating Newton Abbott, 22-11, to lift the Havill Plate.
Hooker George Meldon, prop Bradley Lowman, No.8 Robert Walker and full-back Richard Lambert all crossed the Exe from the County Ground to join the likes of Devon scrum-half Gary Chugg, South Africans Ettiene Van Aswegan and lock Otto Van Aryx plus Kiwi wing Will Dundas.
Back stage, Bye’s three sisters Margaret, Jenny and Janet have formed a formidable fund-raising committee and thanks to Reg Richardson of Richardson Transport, they’ve come up with a novel way of attracting sponsorship.
Richardson has had one of his seven and a half ton trucks painted in the club colours and sponsors pay to have their name on the side.
"It’s difficult to catch your breath with this club," admits Langford.
"But we dearly want to run youth rugby here in the future to bring on the next generation of player."
Exeter’s loss, including fixture secretary Ron Roberts and chairman Tracy Turner, has been the Wessex men’s gain and who knows where this dragon will be in 10 years time.
(- with thanks to Rugby News)

Breathing fire ... Wessex wonders roar their way into Courage's record books 
                                                                                                           (Season 1996/97)

WESSEX RFC really are - in the legendary, hackneyed but comically evocative words of David Coleman - Quite remarkable, quite remarkable!
The little Exe-side club's venues at Exwick for playing rugby and quaffing ale go by the comfortingly homely names of Flowerpot Field and the Barley Mow.
Wessex are remarkable because, since a small group of disaffected Exeter R FC men got together in May 1995, they have been breaking all sorts of records and producing the kind at rugby on the field, and club morale off it, that must be the envy of many larger, richer and more august names in the Devon and Cornwall Unions.

This season, their first in the Courage League, Wessex have brushed aside all that sacrosanct, hand-me- down advice about the deference required of the new boy, who must know his place, keep his head down and learn the ropes.

Joining the leagues right at the bottom, as the rules dictate, Wessex have not just taken Devon Three by storm, they have torn through it like a tornado, uprooting records and tossing them aside to create new ones which are likely to stand for years.

They are probably the first club in the country to have won a county trophy in their inaugural year, lifting the Havill Plate in the 1995-96 season following a 22-11 victory over Newton Abbot.

This season, they have scored a quite phenomenal number of points and produced some staggering results  which give a whole new dimension to the cliche about cricket scores.

With their thoroughly appropriate name logo of the Wyvern - the two-winged Wessex dragon.- and their equally apposite motto Semper audax (always bold), the club, breathing mythical fire, have boldly gone at warp speed 10 where no fledgling member of the Devon R FC has gone before.
Tally
They have scored what is almost certainly a Courage League record of 641 points, with a derisory 28 points against - a points difference of 613 (Mind you, Marjons, second in the league, are not too far behind with a tally of 540 and 95 conceded).
However, it is Wessex who are the phenomenon.
They have played seven, won seven and, amazingly, topped the ton in their first four Courage matches. 
......

(-extract from article, with thanks to the Western Morning News)

DEVON LEAGUE THREE                                Season 1996/97

Marjons 13 Wessex 15

Wessex clinched the title and maintained their 100 percent record by winning their last league game. But it was Wessex's most difficult game of the season and they failed by seven points to reach 1000 for the campaign.
After falling behind to an early penalty, Wessex went in front with a Steve Boatfield try, converted by Darren Russell.
Marjons were back in front with a converted try but a Joe Carpenter try and Russell penalty put Wessex ahead. Their margin was trimmed to two points by a penalty.

(with thanks to the Express & Echo 14/04/97)

Cornwall & Devon League                                Season 2002/03

WESSEX CRACK OPEN THE BUBBLY

WESSEX 17 DEVONPORT SERVICES 3 BY PAUL EASTERBROOK

Wessex players aren't paid but they did a thoroughly professional job to clinch promotion to Western Counties West. Their nerve held as they showed all the resolve and grim determination necessary, effectively shutting champions-elect Devonport Services out of the whole of the second half of Saturday's game at Flowerpot Field.

Last year, Wessex frittered away the same chance as their attitude perhaps wasn't quite right but this time, spurred on by that painful memory, there was no mistake. With great discipline and skill, especially by the pack, they earned promotion for the fourth time in seven years of league rugby.

And as a long night of celebrations began in the riverside garden of their social base at the Royal Oak, joint player-coach Phil Bye was already looking ahead to the next challenges for this remarkable club. He said: "We've been more focused this year. We had a plan to get to Western Counties - but hopefully this isn't the end. We've now got to evaluate what we want from the next six or seven years."

In common with Bye and many others, on and off the field, at Wessex, the club's irrepressible president Reg Richardson has been active from the start.

"Eight years of effort culminated in a superb afternoon of top class rugby," he declared. "I'd love to see a stadium dedicated to all amateur sport, including Wessex, at Flowerpot Field."

That's the long term goal but a matter for another day. Having fulfilled the short and medium term aims of the club is enough for the moment.

The penalty count was massively in Wessex's favour, especially after the break, as Services became increasingly frustrated with referee Danny Brown (Warwickshire Society) and his control of the tackle area. Jeffery acknowledged that opting, in a tight game with so much at stake, to kick for position rather than at the posts with a number of penalty awards didn't go down well with some of the wise old heads watching. He said: "I must have given a few people on the touchline heart attacks. But the penalty count shows how much control we had. Patience was the big word and we were very patient."

Services, with players away on altogether more serious business than playing rugby, have the depth of squad to cover contingencies.

Needing one more win to clinch the title, Services began brightly by getting their rucking game going and moving the ball crisply.

But an eighth minute penalty by Les Oman, one of their former Plymouth Albion contingent, was to be their solitary reward. Their authority began to evaporate and the last hour of the game was pretty much all Wessex, who would have prevailed more comfortably had they used the ball as well as they won it. Paul Turner and Lee Mason secured line-out possession and back row trio Bye, Sean Ankers and Roy Mears worked tirelessly to keep Wessex on top. Losing selected fly half Lee Thorpe, who dislocated a shoulder in training, was a well kept secret and something of a blow. But having the vastly experienced Darren Russell to step in was no problem, even if there was a slight change of emphasis.

Russell kicked two penalties before the break but it wasn't until his fourth went over in the 72nd minute for a 12-3 lead that Wessex had any sort of cushion. Russell had also missed three and there were a couple of drop goal attempts - a poorly considered and executed effort by Mason, who otherwise had a fine game, and then one from Russell which rattled an upright.

Wessex's perfect day just needed a try - and it came with three minutes to go, when Jeffery plunged over from a driving maul after a line-out in the corner.

WESSEX: M Hopper; Boatfield, Smith, Holt, Walker; Russell, Lambert; Furzer, Jeffery, Andrews, Mason, Turner, Ankers, Bye, Mears. Reps not used: Stables, Farmer, Coen.

(With thanks to the Express & Echo 31/03/03)

Cornwall & Devon League                                Season 2002/03

FLOWERPOT MEN HAVE ROSY VIEW

They've been through five divisions in just seven seasons and all the signs are that Wessex have not yet reached a plateau in their league aspirations. Last Saturday's 17-3 win over Devonport Services ensured the Exeter-based side of one of the promotion slots in the Cornwall & Devon division this season and Western Counties rugby from September.

For a club which was formed immediately after the 1995 World Cup, and in tribute to the winners plays in Springbok green and gold, it is a remarkable rise up the ranks.

They went through Devon Three without losing a game in their first season, Devon Two the year after with only two defeats and Devon One the season after that with only one league reversal. That's quite a record.

In the year before they joined the league they defeated Newton Abbot, then a Devon One side, 22-11 in the Havill Plate final.

Cornwall and Devon took a little longer, but only once in four years have they finished lower than fifth.

So it was pretty clear where they were going and at times they seemed in a hurry to get there, which didn't win them any friends.

Founding member Tracey Turner, like most of the founders a refugee from the run down of junior rugby at Exeter, recalls the message that went round rival clubs after they stormed to the Devon Three title. "I think I suggested we should miss Devon Two and go straight into Devon One - and I was slaughtered for it," said Turner.

Sides who came across Wessex in those early years had them labelled as a Western Counties side in waiting and another rumour went round that club officials were pressing to be shunted up the league ladder without the messy business of having to win promotion.

Turner strenuously denies that charge, adding he is delighted they have got there under their own steam. "I'm glad nothing like that happened because it means no one can devalue what we have done," he said.

"If we carry on at this rate, another seven years and we will be in the national leagues."

The thought of a side based in a pub and playing on a windswept council pitch reaching the national leagues might sound far fetched, but there were plenty of people who said Wessex could not get this far.

"We were told after the first season we wouldn't be able to hang on to our players, but we did," said Turner. "We were told players wouldn't join us, but they did and still do because they see an ambitious club which acts professionally.

"No one gets paid, but in all the time we have been a club, no player has had to pay for a shirt, a pair of shorts or socks."

Loyalty is transient in rugby these days - especially when clubs are paying players - but it still seems to be in vogue at Wessex, which proves something.

Of the squad named for the Devonport Services game at least seven players have been with the club from day one, among them former Exeter flanker Phil Bye; two more were with the club in its first league season.

Turner, now in his second stint as chairman, has ambitions to climb higher up the league ladder while accepting there are limitations to what can be done on a council-owned ground, even one as delightfully named as Flowerpot Field. Onwards and upwards is his clarion call, but with some infrastructure put in place as well.

"The one word which is not in our vocabulary at Wessex is consolidation - when you are in a league, you are in it to win it," said Turner. "We have approached the city council about building facilities at Flowerpot, but it won't be just for us. That's a non-starter.

"You can't build a new facility for a rugby club which will use it a few hours a week eight months of the year.

"There are soccer teams down with us and other sports clubs looking for facilities and we are surrounded by chimneypots. What's needed is a facility for the whole community in that part of Exeter."

Turner is not the first sports club chairman to talk grandly about being part of the local fabric and he won't be the last. The strings attached to Lottery funding make sure of that.

However, anyone who has ever played against Wessex or seen them in action close-up will knows they mean business.

So don't count against them carrying onwards and upwards.

(with thanks to the Western Morning News 02/04/03)

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