Preston Grasshoppers RFC is delighted to be welcoming current RFU President Bob Reeves to Lightfoot Green this Saturday as our guest for the 1st XV game with Macclesfield. Our older members will know Bob from his time at Preston Grasshoppers as a member in the late 1960’s and early 70’s.
Bob Attended Preston Grammar School, and joined the club while he was a student at Loughborough, only playing odd games before 1965, when he left to come back to Lancashire to teach.
He played for the Hoppers until 1971, when he went to work at Bristol University.
Hoppers was the only club he ever played for.
Bob claims to have been a mediocre player, but a very good kicker, and played largely for the 1st XV. Commitments to work (teaching at Lancaster RGS, with Saturday morning school) and also to cricket in the overlap in seasons ( I played for Preston CC), meant that he lost his place more often than he would have wished!
We hope Bob has a wonderful day back at his old club and that the 1st XV can produce a performance he will be proud of.
Bob Reeves
Brief Biography
All my working life has been in sport-related education. I worked at Bristol University for almost 40 years, over half of which was as Director of Sport, Exercise and Health. I set up the first Masters programme in the United Kingdom in Exercise and Health Science. This followed two months spent on a Winston Churchill Fellowship in the USA, where I investigated the changing trends in exercise for health. However, much of my time at Bristol, from where I retired two years ago, was spent involved in coaching. I was coach of Bristol University Rugby Club for over 25 years, and became coach of the England Students representative team, as well as spending some time coaching the Bristol club. I also spent a few years coaching Oxford University cricket team. I was an honorary staff coach of both the Rugby Football Union and the National Cricket Association, and was involved in the establishment of the National Coaching Association (now SportsCoach UK).
For six years, I represented the Minister of Sport as his nominee on the South West Sports Council.
I have been involved with sport in Kenya for almost 20 years, and set up a charity, the Bristol Kenya Partnership, which I chair. This led to the Kenyan Olympic and Paralympic teams being based in Bristol prior to the 2012 Olympics, and to 20 Bristol schools having twinning arrangements with Kenyan counterparts. We have also explored commercial and other links. I am currently involved in developing a programme aimed at improving Kenya’s sporting performance in the International arena. For my work involving Kenya and the Olympics, I received an award last year for the best contribution to Olympic legacy in the South West of England.
In 2010, I was involved in the establishment of the ‘Foundation for Leadership through Sport’, a charity whose aims are to develop leadership qualities through sporting involvement, which might then transfer to life beyond sport and in the leadership of sport at high levels. I am one of four directors of the charity.
My involvement in rugby led to me representing the Students Rugby Football Union on the committee of the RFU, on which I have sat for 15 years. I have been involved in many committees of the Union, and am currently the RFU President
Bob Reeves
