Ahead of the Club v Bedford match this weekend, Patrick Kidd speaks to Derek Wyatt, Bedford legend.
Derek Wyatt, a legend at Bedford 50 years ago, has fond memories of Blackheath. He got his first mention in The Times in 1968 after scoring the only try for Eastern Counties Schools XV in their 6-3 defeat by Kent at Rectory Field. “A useful wing [with] speed, balance and a good physique,” wrote Peter West, who when he wasn’t the paper’s rugby correspondent was hosting Come Dancing.
The days when The Times would give ten paragraphs to a county schoolboys match are long gone. West had space to report on the weather – “continual flurries of snow” – and pitch conditions – “an unpleasant amount of bone in the ground” – and said that Counties could have snatched a draw with a late penalty.
Wyatt, a pupil at Colchester Royal Grammar who played on the right wing (not a position he often occupied in his later career as a Labour MP), said his first mention in the national press made his year and ended his plans to be a professional footballer.
After starting his rugby career at Ipswich, where he scored 62 tries in 37 matches, he knew he needed a bigger club if he was to play for England. He wrote to Bedford and Saracens and got a letter back from the latter that began: “Dear David [close], we don’t pay expenses…” So he chose Bedford. Perhaps he should have come to Blackheath.
He impressed in a trial at Bedford by running round Billy Steele, a Scotland wing, then scored 18 tries in six matches with the seconds before he was elevated into the first team, where he scored 145 tries in 152 matches. It was a club record until it was beaten two years ago by Dean Adamson, who claimed a hat-trick against Hartpury last week.
Wyatt had planned to be at the Utilita to see if Adamson can stretch his advantage further but is moving house this weekend. “I’ll be with you in spirit and hopefully will make the return leg,” he told me. “I enjoyed playing at Rectory Field and had many Blackheath friends. Tony Jorden [who would later join him at Bedford] was an elegant two-footed full back and a visionary. And Mike Bulpitt [with whom he played for Eastern Counties] played on the other wing and was better than the selectors appreciated.”
He said this with slight ruefulness since like Bulpitt, who played once for England in 1970, Wyatt was under-selected. For all his tries, which continued when he moved to Bath in 1978 and scored 58 tries in his first two seasons, he won just the one cap, against Scotland in 1976, though he went on an England tour to Australia and scored four tries in a match against the United States but it wasn’t a full international.
Such is sport. Politics, his second career, can be even more capricious. He spent 13 years as Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. In 2003, he had gone to Australia for the World Cup but with a backbench rebellion looming over plans to limit trial by jury, the chief whip called him back to vote before the final. Reluctantly, Wyatt had to obey. “I was in my seat on the runway, spitting blood, when the captain told me he’d taken a call from Downing Street to say I could stay.” Now that is a smart way to ensure future loyalty.
Rugby has remained a lifelong love. When his playing career ended, he coached Richmond’s first XV. “The only game that mattered all season was against Blackheath whatever our respective positions in those newfangled leagues,” he said.
Indeed, such is his fondness for our Club that Wyatt has a novel suggestion. “Blackheath should be knighted,” he said. “As the oldest club in the world, it has a special place in history. Royal Blackheath Football Club has a pleasant ring to it.” I suppose if Greenwich borough and our local golf club can be given that tag… Perhaps Wyatt could have a word with the prime minister next time he’s in Westminster?
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