Les Anson’s 90th Birthday Party

Date: 07 April 2015

Les Anson is 90 years young on Saturday 16 May 2015 and the club is celebrating the birthday boy with an informal lunch in the clubhouse. Whether you played with Les, toured with him or just know him and want to mark his contribution to the club over the years you are most welcome.

Lunch is priced at £12 and is 1200hrs for 1230hrs. To book a place please ring the office on 01772 863546. The afternoon may also include the opportunity to have Les buy you a pint!

Les took up rugby in 1947 during a weekend’s leave from the RAF when a friend of his who played for the Hull & East Riding Rugby Union ‘A’ team persuaded him to make up the numbers. A year later he made his First Team début for the club as a prop against Headingley and later became their Club Secretary.

He moved to Preston carrying out what he likes to refer to as ‘Missionary Work’ in 1953 and within two hours of his first visit to Hoppers at the Lea ground, he was given the job of Fixtures Secretary, a position he held for thirty one years.

He was soon to take on the role of Honorary Secretary for the club and only stood down in 1995 when he immediately took the position of Club President when his three year tenure was over in 1998 and the role was taken on by fellow Yorkshireman George Thompson.

Les on tour in Ypres, 1991

Les on tour in Ypres, 1991

There are many stories about Les’ playing career and time in service at Preston Grasshoppers so I’ll retell just one and let the others be recanted at the Birthday Lunch being held in his honour.

Some one might ask Les to recall the day in 1954 he scored a hat-trick of tries playing for the Extra ‘A’ XV at Lea against Keighlians. He may also remember converting “a fine try, run from his own 25” by a certain Robert Bailey. This was at Kirkby Lonsdale later in the season.

The same team apparently performed heroics against Fylde in an earlier fixture, coming from six points down to win with only 13 men. Was Les one of the heroic thirteen, or did he incur the wrath of the official? Surely not, not amiable Les!

Digger

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