Claverdon Rugby Club Remembers the Founder Who Started It in a Pub

Claverdon Rugby Club has paid tribute to Peter Braithwaite, one of the small group of villagers who started the club at the Red Lion pub in 1964. He has died aged 85 in Carmarthenshire, where he retired. The tribute was first reported by the Stratford Herald.

Players wore black armbands and stood for a minute’s silence before the club’s recent league match at Woodrush RFC.

From a pub meeting to 16 acres

Former club president Richard Hoyland told the Herald that the club got going in 1964, when Mr Braithwaite, Dale LeVack (whose parents ran the Red Lion) and a few others decided over a drink to form a team. The first match was played in January 1965. In the early years the club borrowed pitches and kit, often turned out only 12 or 13 players, and players bathed at home after games.

Mr Braithwaite captained the side for its first three seasons. Mr Hoyland remembers him as a strong number 8 and a good kicker who also took on every other job, from marking the pitch to washing up. His verdict was simple: “It needed a leader and he was the leader.”

Mr Braithwaite worked for Lloyds Bank in Warwick. He moved to Tenby in 1976 and opened a wine bar there, but he kept in touch with the club. On his last visit, in 2025, he and Mr LeVack unveiled a plaque at the Red Lion to mark the pub as the place where the club was founded and where it was based for its first few years.

The club today

The club began on a borrowed field in Ossetts Hole Lane, offered free by a farmer. It now owns 16 acres there, with three pitches and its own clubhouse. It has just marked its 60th anniversary, and it runs two senior teams and a colts side. Nearly 200 mini and junior players, aged from under-6 to under-17, train and play there every Sunday morning.

According to the club’s own website, boys and girls play together up to under-12s, and new players of any standard are welcome at Ossetts Hole Lane, Claverdon, CV35 8HN. For more sport and clubs near Stratford, see our community news.

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Alex Harrington

Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.