Booking a place in rugby history

Award-winning former business editor John Duckers has edited the recently published 150th anniversary book celebrating the history of Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club.

Red & Black is a 384-page hardback tracing glories and travails from the 1873 founding by a bunch of cricketers eager to partake of a ‘winter game’.

Their pioneering zeal went on to produce a clutch of England internationals and in the 1970s a club that was among the top six in the land. Not quite at those heights today, nevertheless still playing at a good standard in National One, the third tier below Premiership and Championship.

The book was launched at the final home game of the season, against Taunton, and will be promoted at a number of events marking the milestone.

It is priced at £35 and available from the club’s offices – see https://moseleyrugby.co.uk/.

Journalist and author, John has previously published three children’s books, plus a romantic novel, Time For The Polka Dot, under the pseudonym Alex O’Connor, available via Amazon.

He said: “Red & Black, the club’s colours, took a lot of work in pulling together the mountain of facts and figures prepared by archivist Ewart Patrick and turning them into a readable entity. All done voluntarily as inevitably these things are.

“As for Time For The Polka Dot, which features love across the generations, I just need a Hollywood producer to stumble across it and turn it into a film!”

He added: “The book world is incredibly competitive and it is hard to get noticed. I treat it as a hobby. That way, coupled with being mostly retired these days, I can maintain perspective.”

A one-time business editor of The Birmingham Post, John still ghosts a personal finance column that appears in the paper.

A Birmingham Press Club member, he is also treasurer of the local branch of The Journalists’ Charity.

He started out on The Press & Journal in Aberdeen. And, curiously, John’s playing days were with Aberdeenshire RFC, who also wear red and black.