Old Wandsworthians Memorial Trust

Hall of Remembrance

Reg Sparkes

1928 – 2008

Reg Sparkes was a true Wandsworthian in more ways than one. Born in Putney in 1928, he went on to live within a drop kick of Wandsworth his entire life.

He went to Hotham Junior School where he obtained a Junior County Scholarship which gained entry to Wandsworth Grammar School. He started there in 1940 just about the same time something else kicked off; the Blitz. The school was temporarily relocated to Woking and his education was somewhat disrupted. However, as far as excuses for not doing your homework go, an air raid was probably quite a good one.

Two years National service followed in 1946 in Lossiemouth Scotland, the only significant time he lived away from the Putney/Wandsworth area.

Early in the nineteen fifties, he was press ganged into playing his first game of rugby for the Old Wandsworthians. He didn’t need to be asked again and that chance game was to have a significant bearing on his subsequent life. He played rugby for the next 30 or so years ending up retiring at 51 after a final few years in the Babes (the vets' side), one of 5 sides that the OWs could regularly field in the seventies.

Reg started off on the Wing and graduated via the Back Row to Prop as time impacted on shape and speed. He was a fairly prolific try scorer and got 20+ tries in a season on more than one occasion.

He played most of his early rugby in the A, being captain for a number of years. Later he had a long spell in a successful Babes side, reunited with a lot of the friends and players he had started with two or three decades previously. Around that time Reg, brother Ted and two sons Mike and Graham all played in the same victorious OWs team against Tiffs.

Playing was only one part of Reg’s involvement in the club. He watched more games than most played. He supported the Sevens teams and watched those great Sunday Surrey Cup games. He watched most weeks from the day he hung up the boots until he was about seventy. I think it is safe to say that he played in or supported well over a 1,000 OW games. One of his proudest OW moments was watching the Sevens Team walk out at Twickenham in the Middlesex sevens and of course winning a match and getting through to the last 8 where they gave eventual winners St Lukes College a pretty good game.

He had a particular link with the school intake that joined in the seventies because they were contemporaries of ours. He ferried some directly from the school games in the morning to the OW games in the afternoon and many a new OW without car benefited from the lifts always on offer.

His involvement didn’t stop there, however! If he wasn't playing Saturdays, he was at selection Monday evenings and training Wednesday evenings. In summer it was working parties; building the first clubhouse at The Memorial Ground in Claygate, manning the tractor, digging ditches, servicing the boiler – doing whatever was required.

He also ran a fete stall every year at the School Fete and did similar activities for the Royal Hospital on West Hill, Projects for the Blind and Victim Support. He gave more than he took from life.

Reg had many lifelong friends at the Club, many he went on to play golf, bowls and generally socialize with after the rugby finished. The Old Wandsworthians was a major part of his and our lives and he valued greatly the friends he made there. As the word of Reg’s passing has spread through the OW world wide network, wife June has been touched by the numbers who have taken time to send messages and make calls of condolence from their widely dispersed locations.

It was great to see so many people from down the years at the Memorial Service and the floral tributes from both Rugby Club and Association were very much appreciated.

Michael and Graham Sparkes

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