Christmas Kick

I'm late... awfully late!!

I haven't posted any new story since more than two months... late and lazy... though I still have lots of rugby stories and pictures to share about new collecting finds, about Louis Magee in Paris, about rugby in Russia and Japan, about ruggers during WW1, about Northern Union tour in Australasia 1910, about the great flood in Paris and Colombes a hundred years ago, about grassroot rugby in Scotland, about Phil Grant's "Tommy Vile: A Giant of a Man", about Jep Pascot and his six rugby jerseys, about Twickenham stadium... just to name stories I've started to draft!!

Enough said... let me wish a happy Christmas to all my rugby friends - old and new - I've met this year, to all my rugby friends I've have seen in ages (hope to see you soon!), to all my rugby friends I haven't already met "IRL" (yes, I have to travel down under one of these days...) and to all anonymous rugby fans visiting "rugby-pioneers.com"...

As a small "present", let me share this early 1900s postcard... a "XMas and rugby" poem... pretty unique in its kind :-)... it reads like this:

YOU WON'T KICK
at my wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS WILL YOU ?

I tackle the job
with the greatest of glee
In Touch with Good Luck
at all Points may you be
A jolly Good Run through
a Scrum-ptious Yule...
May you Take all your Chances
And Score a Fine Goal.

I'll be back soon... at last!

Comments

[Rugbeia]

Football at Christmas Fred is a good and apt connection to make...In Christmas in "Ritual and Tradition" (published in 1903) the author C.A. Miles tells us that folk football (which led to rugby) is the only field sport traditional to the Christmas festive season (from Christmas day through to 'the Twelfth Night').
http://www.rugbeia.com

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

Sean , your knowledge of old rugby texts is unrivalled !

This said, have you seen any videos of last HCup game Racing v Saracens in Colombes ? festive winter game indeed !!
http://rugbydump.blogspot.com/2010/12/saracens-beat-racing-metro-in-snow-in.html

(and -10°C tomorrow... only extreme hardcore ruggers will survive !!)

[John]

a nice card one of yours?

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

Sure (I always credit pictures that dont belong to me)

I can see from my Flickr that I found this postcard in Spring 09, but cant remember where. Most likely eBay...

@+

Frédéric Humbert
www.rugby-pioneers.com
www.twitter.com/frederic

[Dissertation Writing Services]

Good to read about the grassroot rugby in Scotland,although the post is excellent to read.

[Kurt Mericle]

Thank you. I am very interested in the early history of rugby in the Rusian Empire. I have read that 'rugby union was played in the Russian Empire as early as in 1908". But, I have not been ablt to find any information on this event, or any materials on the rugby game from 1908 till the revolution.

Any information you could provide on where this material can be found, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Kurt

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

Hello Kurt

Im afraid that I dont know anything - though Id love to ! - about rugby in Russia before ww1... we could certainly imagine that the Anglo-Russian treaty signed in 1907 has strengthen exchanges, and whenever/wherever you have 20 British expats somewhere, they form a cricket or a rugby team !

My only evidence is this comic postcard c1905... not an obvious demo of early Russian rugby I admit! http://flic.kr/p/awBj3

Im quoting Russian Rugby in this post because Id like to say a few words about this curious picture taken in Leniningrad Sports Institute (GIFK) in 1933... http://flic.kr/p/7Yfarf 

@+

F-

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

just read this morning "Rugby was introduced to Russia by foreign construction workers on the Trans-Siberian railway circa 1895." in http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/8094015/Rugby-World-Cup-2011-Steve-Diamond-out-to-unearth-hidden-gems-for-Russian-revolution.html