Anti-Assassins
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| Unions | Rugby Football Union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1950 |
The Anti-Assassins Rugby Union Football team (A-As) was an invitation team that selected players from the northern counties of England to play friendly charitable matches locally and to go on tour. The team was remodelled in 2004, teaming up with the Wooden Spoon Society (another charitable rugby organisation) to become the Spoon AAs.
The Spoon AAs rugby team continues to play a mixture of traditional fixtures with matches against the Old Boys teams from Sedbergh, Kirkham, Giggleswick and Stonyhurst. Special matches against clubs in the North and other parts of the country are arranged to celebrate Anniversaries and openings etc. The team has recently travelled to Cambridge University, Richmond and Taunton, they have played against the Royal Navy and a British Army team based in Germany, as well as a variety of Sevens tournaments.
Semper Mores Boni, Latin for "good behaviour always", is the motto of the club.
The Anti-Assassins was founded in 1950 when three Old Sedberghians, Stewart Faulds, Geoff and Arthur Kenyon, were invited to pick a Northern team to play against the masters and Old Boys (The Assassins) of Sedbergh School, Cumbria. This invitation team carried on playing a variety of fixtures, mainly in the North, raising money for established charities, celebrating special club occasions and helping to develop rugby football at leading schools.
The A-As have played many clubs locally in the north of England, they have conducted tours within Europe (to Galway, Isle of Man, Jersey, Ulster, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain) and have been further afield to play matches and 7's tournaments in Australia, Canada, Dubai, East Africa, South Africa, USA and the Caribbean. The A-As were a regular fixture at the Glengarth Sevens at Davenport Rugby Club (now ) and won the Davenport plate in 1978.
The first tour to East Africa by the Anti-Assassins took place in 1964 (one source states 1965).
The second Anti-Assassins tour to East Africa occurred five years later. (In the intervening years East Africa had played against the Anti-Assassins on their "Third Tuskers Tour" to England in 1966; on this tour East Africa had also played against Richmond F.C., Blackheath F.C., Wilmslow RFC, Vale of Lune RUFC, Harlequin F.C. and Fylde, losing all their matches).
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