1929-1945
In 1922 the junior section of Coventry Technical College was founded. The
Junior Technical School took boys between the ages of 13 and 15. Its aim was to train them
for careers in engineering. After much debate and a vote, the favoured game at
the JTS was changed from football to rugby. In the summer of 1929 a meeting
was held to form a JTS Old Boys' Rugby Club for boys 16 and over who had left
the JTS. Present at the meeting, among others were Messrs Price, Blakemore,
Cammack, Payne and Wilson. The JTS Old Boys' Club (the original name of the
Coventry Tech RFC.) was duly founded at the meeting.
Games were sometimes played in the Memorial Park. Pitches were allocated for
matches by the Parks authority and one of the pitches was notorious for its
severe slope. Other games were played on Stoke Green, a green on the right
hand side of the Binley road, just past Gosford Green. When the Technical
School moved to new premises in the Butts in the 1930s, games were sometimes
played there.
The club was entirely self-financing. Sometimes there would only be a bucket
of water in which to wash after a match! Players would cycle to matches
dressed in their kit and leave their bikes at the side of the pitch. They
would then also cycle home in their kit, as they had to do their own laundry.
For matches played at the Memorial Park, there were two pre-fabricated
buildings on the Coat of Arms Bridge road. One was used by the JTC Old Boys'
Club, the other by Trinity Guild.
Rivals at the time included Trinity Guild, Queen's Road Church, Newbold and
Armstrong Siddeley. Factory teams would often have an advantage over the JTS,
as many had the support of their own sports clubs, making them comparatively
well off. However, finance never proved to be too much of a problem. The
players would pay for coaches out of their own pockets for matches that were
too far away to cycle to. The club played in red and green and had about 18/19
members, which was always sufficient for a first XV, but never a second.
The only competition then was an annual seven-a-side. The JTS Old Boys reached
the final of the Coventry District seven-a-side in the 1938/39 season. They
played Armstrong Siddeley but lost 19-0.The team photo can still be seen in
the clubhouse and is the oldest photo in the club.
When war broke out in 1939, play at the club ceased. However, when the war
ended the JTS Old Boys reformed again. The JTS Old Boys' Club members were
either former pupils, or in some cases, former teachers from the JTS. At one
point the club moved to the Woodlands School. Fred West, the Head Master was a
former JTS member and Mr. Gay a former teacher at the JTS was likewise a JTS
Old Boys member. The Phantom Coach Public House also had a team, but when this
was disbanded, it merged with the Coventry Technical College RFC.