Many of us will remember turning out for our school rugby matches at weekends.

For most pupils, the school timetable covered just Mondays to Fridays, but the sportsmen among us were expected to make ourselves available for games on Saturdays.

A home match against another school or a coach trip to play our rivals would be a key part of our weekly programme.

READ: Repairs to famous Oxford pub set to go ahead 

This picture shows rugby players who kept their interest in sport after leaving school.

The Oxford Old Boys’ team posed for the camera with some of their officials before a game against Cheltenham North in 1970.

The players were former pupils of the City of Oxford High School and Southfield School, which amalgamated in the mid-1960s to form Oxford School.

In the back row, left to right, are Mr C Carr, John Wakefield, John Pemberton, Alan Fay, Tom Cooksey, Ken Withers, Lynn Summers, Mick Jones, Dick Gibbs, John Lukes, Nigel Townsend and Mr H Waters.

In front are Pip Kent, John Frogley, Alan Brunsdon, Ziggy Laverty and Tony Hand.

The most observant will see that there were just 14 players in the picture - as the Oxford Mail cheekily pointed out at the time, “there are no prizes for guessing where the 15th player had gone”.

Life in the Old Boys’ club was not all about winning and losing matches - it made rugby history by becoming the first to host an all-black South African team, the Mbabalas.

One of the visiting players was treated successfully at the John Radcliffe Hospital for meningitis and the Oxford team took him under their wing and helped to get him fit again.

The club’s efforts received high praise from Oxford Mail rugby correspondent Ron Grimshaw.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.