JEFF PROBYN

LAST week I attended a memorial for a player, Ali Mills, from one of my very first clubs which I left some 40 odd years ago; Old Albanian in Hertfordshire.
Ali was the first team scrum-half when I joined as a young teenager, a good player who knew the pitch we played on at Beech Bottom like the back of his hand, and like all scrum-halves quite talkative.
Although Old Albanian have moved grounds, walking into the club and seeing so many of the players that had both directly and indirectly influenced my career in the game was like taking a step back in time.
At the time I was...