Living legends ensure Cambridge will thrive

THE club with more Lions than any, Cambridge University RUFC, held their ‘Red Lion Legends’ dinner on Wednesday. In the process they not only sidestepped the clumsy attempts by the British & Irish Lions marketing bouncers to ban any mention of the word ‘lion’ at rugby club fundraising events, they also raised a handsome sum of £50,000 through a lively auction.

The cash will go towards Red Lion 150, a five-year funding plan leading into the club’s 150th anniversary in 2021, to counteract its traditional income model being torpedoed by the decline in Varsity Match gates at Twickenham.

The Cambridge University RUFC crest is a rampant Red Lion, and there was a remarkable turn-out of Light Blues who went on to become Lions legends.

Among the 400 guests at the Hurlingham Club were Ken Scotland (1959), Mike Gibson (1966, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977), Gerald Davies (1968, 1971), Billy Raybould (1968), Alun Lewis (1977), Eddie Butler (1983), Gavin Hastings (1989, 1993), Rob Andrew (1989, 1993), Mike Hall (1993), Tony Underwood (1993, 1997), Rob Wainwright (1997), and Jamie Roberts (2009, 2013).

There were also a host of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland internationals plus Phil Keith-Roach, the 2003 England World Cupwinning scrum coach, and Cambridge University coaching grandee, Tony Rodgers.

Top of the auction list was a three-day experience (for four) with Scotland captain Wainwright. The former Army doctor, whose interests include falconry, boxing and cycling, now runs a farm on the Isle of Coll in the Hebrides – a farm that boasts its own golf course.

After the initial item had been sold for £5,000, Wainwright offered a similar lot to the under-bidder. The winners can look forward to a vigourous outdoor experience while their donations will help to keep an historic rugby club in working order.