TheRUGBYPaper Sunday, June 7, 202024

Feature

FORMED in 1861 as thesecond oldest club inEngland and later oneof the founder mem-bers of the RugbyFootball Union, Rich-mond’s history is well

documented.But outside of the south-west

London club, the unsung work ofone key individual in ensuring theclub has not only survived andthrived, before and after profession-alism, may have largely goneunnoticed.

Jen Gadsby-Peet has fulfilled aplethora of roles, from club shopassistant/retail manager throughto secretary and treasurer – manyheld concurrently – over the bestpart of three decades.

While the club have had manyups and downs during that time,with administration and its climbback up the leagues, Jen’s presencehas been one reassuring constant atthe Athletic Ground.

“The minis that I see on a Sundaymorning are the children of theboys that were at the club when Ifirst came. I am now a Grannyfigure to them,” she jokes.

It was mini rugby, and a chanceencounter at an off licence, thatprompted her 28-year association.

“I’m a widow now, my husbandTony died five years ago, but he wasa great rugby fan and player and wehave three sons. At the time, theymust have been six, five and twoand Tony happened to meet hisfriend John, who also had threeboys, in an Oddbins one Sundaymorning buying wine for lunch,and he said to him, ‘I’ve found thisfantastic place to wear the boys outon a Sunday morning which allowsme to sit and snooze on a Sundayafternoon’. That’s where it started.

“We went down and the two olderboys joined the mini rugby. Theyoungest had to wait a while but allthree went on to play for variousRichmond teams. James played inthe development team, Ed in theU21s and William in the Saxons, the3rd team.”

Unable to find Richmond shirtsfor her boys, Jen made someenquiries and discovered a familyfriend ran the club shop on a volun-tary basis. Before she knew it, shewas assisting there on weekends.

“William remembers Richmondas his playground. I used to takehim down to the shop on a Saturday

afternoon and he’d play on theswings at the bottom of Pitch 3, andI could see he was alright.”

Soon the printed names on theback of the shirts would become alot more famous as the advent ofprofessionalism was fullyembraced by Richmond, bankrolledby Monaco tax-exile Ashley Levett.

“When we went professional, Itook over the shop as retail manag-er and my position becamesalaried. We had to get clothes spe-cially made for the Quinnells (Scottand Craig),” she says.

“Eden Park was one of our spon-sors, our kit suppliers. We had anEden Park shop at Richmond. Wehad 70 boxes turn up, shopfitterscame from Paris … everything hadto be done in a certain way; theywere so brand specific. They evensent me over to Paris two or threetimes, so I knew how to do it theirway.”

With losses of around £1.5-2ma year, professionalism was unsus-tainable and in March 1999 the clubwent into administration.

“I think we got so excited aboutwhat was happening, we sort of losttrack of reality and with us beingthe first club to go properly profes-sional, there were no guidelines, noparameters that you could relate tobecause it had never been donebefore; you were writing the rule-book as you went on.

“I remember we were sitting inthe sports bar, they had all the play-ers and support staff in there for ameeting, and I could see the threeadministrators coming acrossPitch 4 from the main gate, theyhad black coats on, and it felt likethey were the harbingers of doombecause they were coming to tell us‘you’re sacked, you’re sacked’.”

Instead of ending her ties withthe club, administration strength-ened the bond between the two.

“Everyone who’d been involvedwith the club came together andsaid, ‘we can’t let this happen …what can we do to stop the club fold-ing?’ We put together amanagement committee and I wasinvolved on a voluntary capacity. Ihave a financial background, Iworked at NatWest, so I said I’d takeon the books.

“We started to employ people, weemployed Andrew Gordon as secre-tary/general manager in 2000 and Ibecame his assistant on a part-timebasis, which then grew into a full-time role as the children got older,and I still did the treasury job andlooked after the club shop on a Sat-urday/Sunday.

“When you grow something fromthe beginning like we did, and youdon’t have many resources, theresources you have tend to fill inthe gaps, so I took on stuff that Iwas quite happy to do.”

When Gordon left in 2010, Jenbecame secretary in her own right,and has continued in that role tothis day, albeit now as a caretaker.

Her first year in the positioncoincided with the club’s successful150th anniversary celebrations, andthe arrival of current DoR SteveHill.

At that stage, the club hadworked their way back up fromHerts/Middlesex 1, after a drop ofnine levels following administra-tion, to the National Leagues.

“We had an unbroken record of83 wins; you were used to winning,it was wonderful,” she says, look-ing back fondly on those halcyondays. “Everyone was involved forthe right reasons. It was really

where we strengthened our ‘OneClub’ ethos.

“One thing we were very certainon was to never become financiallyinsecure again; rugby wouldalways be driven by the financesnot the other way around.”

Jen says such financial pru-dence, led by chairman PeterMoore, will stand them in goodstead for surviving the currentCovid-19 challenge.

“We’ve been very lucky that ourfinancial prudence brought aboutby the event 20 years ago means weare in a better position to weatherwhat is going on than many clubsare. A lot of that is down to PeterMoore, he really took a grasp of thefinances 20 years ago and has man-aged them ever since.

“He has always felt we shouldmake sure we had financialreserves in place in case of an eventthat we cannot control.”

The pandemic means Jen’smulti-tasking days are not quiteover. “I was going to retire on June20. The treasurer and finance roleshad already been passed over tosomeone else, and the shop hadgone online, and just as lockdownstarted, we were beginning toadvertise my job as secretary/oper-ations manager.

“Now it’s the wrong time to gobecause we have no idea what thejob going forward will look like. Iam happy to stay in a caretaker roleuntil there is more clarity.”

Regardless, Jen will stay on asmembership secretary. “I’m notgoing cold turkey completely!” sheinsists.

‘Her boys’, as she refers to theplayers at the club, will be happyabout that.

JON NEWCOMBE

We’ll drink to that:Jen Gadbsy-Peet,bottom right, handsout tankards tocelebrate Richmond’spromotion from London1 South in2008

WE SPEAK TO A NUMBER OFWELL-KNOWN RUGBY

FIGURES ABOUT THE CLUBTHEY CALL THEIR OWN, THIS

WEEK JEN GADBSY-PEET, ASTALWART OF THE CLUB

MYCLUBRICHMOND

1. Which post war cap-tain of the Britishand Irish Lions wasborn on a Mediter-ranean island?

2. One of rugby’s truegreats but born inCaracas, Venezuela.Name him.

3. Name the British andIrish Lions interna-tional who starredwith Peter O’Toole,Charlie Drake, BillMaynard and LeslieCaron in various cin-ema productions?

4. The British and IrishLions, on their wayhome from NewZealand in 1966,were defeated by aCanadian province.Which one?

5. Only one player inthe 20th century hasscored a hat-trick oftries in a Five Na-tions Championshipmatch and ended upon the losing side.Name him.

6. Name the only twopost-war players toscore 4 tries inFive/Six NationsChampionshipmatches.

7. A talented footballer,he played 595League matches andrepresented Englandat full internationallevel on 11 occa-sions. He also ap-peared in the filmEscape to Victory.However, he wasalso a gifted rugbyplayer who cap-tained and playedfull-back for EnglandU16s. Name him.

8. Gareth Edwardspartnered five out-side halves at Testmatch level. Namethem.

9. The British and IrishLions defeatedSouth Africa 28-9 inthe third Test in Jo-hannesburg in 2009.Who were the twocentre three-quartersfor the Lions?

10. List the seven re-placements whoscored tries duringthe 2020 Six NationsChampionship.

11. What have the fol-lowing in common?:Gordon McCrae(Scotland), Mick Hip-well (Ireland), TimDalton (England),Phil Bennett (Wales),JM Esponda (France)

12. Which former Testcricket captainplayed at outsidehalf for England?Who partnered himat scrum-half?

13. Who were the Frenchhalf backs selectedfor the 2011 RugbyWorld Cup Final atEden Park, Auck-land?

14. Cardiff Blues havebeen crowned Euro-pean Challenge Cupwinners on two oc-casions in 2010 and2018. Where werethe final matchesplayed?

15. Who was suspendedfor 12 weeks follow-ing foul play in aHeineken Cup semi-final and missed outon the 2009 Lionstour?

RUGBY

QUIZFORMER LEADING WELSH

REFEREE ALUN WYN BEVANTESTS YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Q14: Cardiff Blues win the 2018 Challenge Cup

Answers on Page 26

I’m now Granny toboys I saw grow up