WESTBURY Rugby Club was founded in February 1980 by Matravers School teachers Jon Wittock and Mark Knott.
The club reports, “After placing adverts in the local paper, a meeting was held in The Oak Inn, attended by about 20 interested players. The first ever match was played later that month versus Minety 2nd XV recording a win.
“Later that year the club took up residence at Leighton Sports Ground and for the next three years player numbers increased with some successes on the pitch, although after one poor run of games the club motto was suggested “Victoria Non Est Omni” (winning is not everything)!
“1984 saw the start of a Colts XV under the coaching of Craig Hibbert. These Colts were to herald the real rise of the club over the coming years.
“In 1988 the club entered the Berkshire/Dorset & Wilts leagues and won promotion in the first season.
“The club continued to play at Leighton Sports, until 2010 when they moved to the White Horse Country Park and their own pitches named after founder, Mark Knott.
“After the move to Knott Field, the on-field results remained steady, until 2015 when, after an unsuccessful season, the club was relegated to Division 2. Club chairman, Gareth Vaughan took on the job of team coach and immediately instilled a new work ethic and after a couple of seasons of hard work, the team was once more promoted in the 2019/2020 season. They also won the Southern Counties Vase Final and made the final of the South West Vase.
“The club also runs a successful ladies team which was started by Theron Bates and daughter Claire in 2010. They entered the South West Ladies league in 2012 where they continued to grow in strength, eventually winning Division 2 in 2017 and being nominated for Women’s Team of the Year at the National Rugby Awards. Choosing not to take promotion so that they could condition new players to league rugby, they again won the league in 2018/2019. Although this time they took promotion but found the going tough and unfortunately were relegated at the end of the season.
“Since March 2020, due to Covid restrictions, no rugby has been played at the club although limited training was able to be carried out. That is until the current lockdown, frustrating the efforts of all of the players and the club supporters.”
Pictured: Westbury 1st Xv 1993-94 and Westbury RC Ladies 2017
