My family moved to Lewes Road in Ditchling from Chatham in 1956 when my
father retired from his career as a naval doctor. When I left school in late 1961 | started work as a trainee lawyer in Brighton. I joined Hove RFC and played for Hove Yeomen, their 3rd XV. The following year I moved to Haywards Heath RFC where I had several friends, and the return bus fare of 2/6 (12.5p) was a bit cheaper. My team captain at Haywards Heath was Sean Black, a formidable second row who fabricated beautiful ironmongery as the blacksmith at Pyecombe.

One Saturday evening, returning from Hickmans Lane, Haywards Heath to Ditchling on the bus with my good friend Chris Pepler, we drew up a list of friends and colleagues who might be happy to play rugby if we set up our own side. To our surprise we found that we had nearly twenty friends living in the Ditchling area who might be persuaded to play an occasional game of rugby, and decided to see if this idea could be taken further.

On Ditchling Playing Field, Ditchling Football Club had two pitches on either side of the cricket square, but only one was normally used each Saturday. The cricket pavilion was small and just had changing rooms with no washing facilities. If we were to start a rugby club we would need a pitch, changing and washing facilities and most importantly a bar!

Having discussed the situation with the Parish Council and the committees of the football, cricket and stoolball clubs, who were all supportive, we decided to go for it, and placed an ad in the Mid Sussex Times inviting donations and members. The three existing sports clubs and ourselves made an application to the National Playing Field Association (now renamed Fields in Trust) for a grant towards a new pavilion. Slowly over the next few months money trickled in, sufficient to get the rugby club officially started.

Our first and only match of the season was a hastily arranged game against Hove Yeomen on Easter Monday 1963. The pitch was so foggy that it was difficult to see from one side to the other, and we wore a motley assortment of shirts as our team colours were yet to be decided. We won a close game
5-0, with Chris Pepler scoring underneath a heap of overweight forwards.

We then set up a committee. Chairman was Dick Oldfield, who lived in Keymer, had played for Blackheath and had an England trial just before the war. He was supported by Ceddy Styer, a dentist who had played for Guy's Hospital and lived in Beacon Road. His son Richard scored many tries for us as a fast stocky winger over the next few years. I was appointed club secretary, treasurer, and team captain, and Chris Pepler was appointed team secretary and team vice captain.

We wrote to all the clubs in the area requesting a fixture for the following season (no leagues in those days!) and before too long we had a respectable list of fixtures for the next season. Then over the summer we sorted out the team kit (which had to be purchased by each team member), a green shirt with a yellow windmill badge to be sewn on, white shorts and green socks with a yellow stripe at the top. Goal posts, crossbars, corner flags, linesman flags and a couple of rugby balls were purchased, and Charles and Mary Cornwall, landlords of the North Star, were warned that they would need to increase their beer order from Charringtons for our home matches!

Unfortunately the new pavilion that had been hoped for took a couple of years to materialise. Meanwhile it was agreed that after each home match, players would take their opposite number back home for a bath/shower and a cuppa, and then meet up at the North Star at 6pm which was opening time. Inevitably a handful of team members were unable to commit to this from time to time, and Chris and I would normally take home three or four of the opposition. Our long suffering mothers, Mary Mussen and Rosemary Pepler, were generous and understanding in clearing up the inevitable mess we left behind, and were elected the first Vice Presidents of the club! As our house had no shower, just a bath, l often after a muddy game departed the house refreshed but no cleaner! At 5.45pm a bunch of thirsty young men were to be seen looking at their watches outside the saloon bar door of the North Star.

Around this time Heasmans the chemists at the top of the High Street, opposite Chris house, The Limes, decided to give their shop a makeover, and erected a swing sign outside saying 'Ye Olde Apothecary Shoppe'. We considered this sign to be extremely pretentious! Every Saturday evening on our way to the North Star we folded a large sheet of lining paper with sellotape over the sign (Chris on my shoulders) with the word CHEMIST on each side in black block capitals. This remained in situ until Monday morning when a furious Mr Stiles tore it down. Mrs Pepler eventually received a visit from the Ditchling village policeman, Bernard Gillam, who suggested that it would be wise for this activity to be terminated! The message was duly passed down to the culprits.

Whilst the North Star was our rugby HQ, we would regularly visit Cecil Evans in the Sandrock, Tony Keogh in the White Horse and Reg Struby in the Bull. Reg, understandably, aimed to cater for a more upmarket clientele than DRFC could provide and served us most reluctantly. Returning with the team from an away game one Saturday, I arranged for us all to meet in the Bull and order pints of ginger beer shandy. When we were all assembled, I said loudly 'Say, Chris, is your beer a bit cloudy?". 'Yes, James, this beer is not clear at all' he replied, and we all raised our glasses to the light and pulled disapproving faces, much to the concern of several customers and the fury of the landlord. Reg was not at all happy, and the club was duly barred from the Bull.

The clubs we played against initially included Burgess Hill who started at the same time as us and were particular rivals, and Sussex University who also had just started then. We were very proud to have held their 1st XV to a 5-5 draw. Other teams we played included St Francis (Gatwick), Old Azurians (Worthing), Hove Yeomen, Seaford, Eastbourne, London Scottish (5th XV), Haywards Heath Ex A, East Grinstead, Roxeth Manor Old Boys (London), Crawley, Horsham, Worthing, East Sussex Police and Chichester. Brighton did not offer us a fixture. When we won or lost by a large margin we agreed to move up or down with the following years fixtures, where clubs hadseve ral teams.

Ditchling's team inevitably was recruited from farther than the village. But local regular team members included Chris Calver, who tucked down in the second row with me. He married Sue Longhust, daughter of BBC golf commentator Henry Longhurst who lived in Jill, the white windmill at Clayton. He sadly died whilst trying to walk ten miles to civilisation when his car broke down in the outback in Oz. Jimmy Evans lived at the nurseries (now abandoned) in Beacon Road, just down the road from Richard Styer whose father was vice chairman. They were both regular players for the team David Stenning was a powerful threequarter who lived in East End Lane. lan Law and Stewart Brown followed me as team skippers. In 1965 several of us (lan, Eric Marshall, Richard Styer, Mike Phillips, Marcus Pembrey) moved to London for work or study, coming home at weekends, and we used to meet up for a weekly training session running round Hyde Park. We started by running up the 'down' escalator at Hyde Park Corner, much to the consternation and disapproval of other users. It was a killer, and a pint in the Anglesey in Onslow Gardens afterwards was well deserved. John David Faulkner, cousin of the Peplers, was a medical student whose parents lived on the Common. A fast and effective wing forward.

Lawrence Pepler played in our first game but after that stuck to refereeing. He very nearly sent me off when I got involved in a big punch up with the opposition after mistakenly thinking I had scored a try when I dived
enthusiastically over the 25 yard line. Malcolm Forster and his friend Robin York were poached from Burgess Hill, and Malcolm went on to captain the club. Denis Haywood and his friend David Storey were sergeants who played for East Sussex Police. They joined DRFC and Denis, a large and fearsome looking lock, but a gentle giant, captained the side in the late sixties. Other regulars from the immediate area were unstoppable Ray Tucker, Jamie Smithson, Raymond Wright (both Lewes Road), David Russell (Shirleys), Graham Young (who we converted from the football club), Nick Betteridge (who also played for Hove), Brian Rogers (great full back), Chris Baker (Folders Lane, Burgess Hill), Philip Cauvin (Westmeston), Nick Wiseman (Lewes), Alan Murray (Hassocks), Mike Buckley (Spatham Lane), Graham Berry and Geoff Murray (Hurstpierpoint) and David Emmett and his brother
Chris (Hassocks).

After a year or two we steadily expanded and managed to put out a second XV. We acquired a second pitch from local farmer George Holman in Spatham Lane. This improved our side-stepping skills when negotiating any
cow pats that we had neglected to remove with a shovel before kick-off. Other teams were keen to play us as we developed a reputation for good hospitality as well as knowing all the words of the rugby songs. It also was helpful in due course to have our own pavilion and a bar! If we didn't beat them on the pitch, we would beat them in the clubhouse! In hindsight it is astonishing that Charles and Mary put up with our Saturday antics in the North Star.

One team we played and got on well with was Allen West, made up of employees of an electrical engineering company in Brighton. In the late sixties following a 'company reorganisation' the team disbanded and asked if they could join up with us. We were very happy to agree, and for a while had a third XV that we called Ditchling West. The following year they were fully amalgamated with the club, and, having married and moved to Surrey I sadly hung up my boots, leaving the club in the capable hands of Malcolm
Forster, Roger Linn and young Stephen Booth, Chris Pepler's nephew.