The Beginning 2000 - 2003

One "drunken" evening during the summer of 2000, John Quinlan, of the Financial Ombudsman Service (The FOS), had the seemingly great idea of starting up a rugby team for the organisation. The FOS were looking for new ways to encourage members of staff to socialise and John discovered that his drinking partner, Ian "Iggy" Samuel-Smith, was a qualified rugby coach; and in fact had just stepped down from coaching the Kings Cross Steelers RFC, after 4 years.

Initially, Iggy was against the idea, but as the alcohol flowed he warmed to the thought. So, an email went out to all members of staff, the next working day, in an effort to find any interested souls. Much to Iggy’s surprise, more than 10 people responded. A competition was held, to name this newly formed "rabble", and the Phantoms were born.

New members of staff were encouraged to join, during their induction to the FOS; also the new players managed to encourage friends and relatives to give it a try. Finally, in September 2000, 16 guys started training. Of these only 3 were regular players, the rest had either never played, or had run around a rugby in their school days. By November, Iggy decided that the team was ready for its first game, and arranged a fixture against the Vets team of East London Rugby Club.

On Sunday 26th, November 2000, resplendent in their new jerseys, paid for by The FOS, the Phantoms took to the rugby field for the first time. East London, predictably, scored the opening try within minutes of the kick off, but then the Phantoms surprised themselves (and shocked opponents & supporters alike) by scoring 2 converted tries to lead 14-5 at half time. The experience of the East London side told, in the second half, but the final score line of 21-31 was exceptional, in defeat, for such an inexperienced side. The team was:

1. Eddie Owens
   
2. Ian Papworth
3. David Lydiate
4. Paul Barker
5. Mike Bond
6. Chris Tilson
7. Seth Rolph
8. Richard Monksfield
9. Iggy Samuel-Smith
10. Richard Turnbull
11. Martin Watson
12. Matt Monksfield
13. Rob Spong
14. Matt Blaize
15. David Maurer
16. Andre Reyneke
    
17. Tony Quinn.

Over the next few months, the Phantoms played a game a month. Their next game was a slaughtering by Millwall Albion II (0-85), but in the 3rd game the Phantoms notched up their first ever win; with a 35-5 victory over the Kings Cross Steelers 2nd team. The final record for this first season was: Played 6, Won 1, and Lost 5. Not spectacular, but a great start for a bunch of rookies.

After a fabulous first Annual Dinner in May 2001, half of the players decided to "retire" from rugby. Which left the rest desperate to play, but without the numbers to put a team together. By this time Iggy was now working for Railtrack PLC and had met Rob Swain. Rob was interested in playing rugby again, plus he had some good ideas regarding recruitment. So, for the first time the Phantoms advertised on the GumTree website (www.gumtree.com). Rob also brought in to the team some of his friends (Shaun Gibson, Craig Raeburn, Grant Crawford & Stuart Bright). Plus, on Rob’s advice, the Phantoms held "recruitment drives" at Walkabout Bars during tri-nations matches; one such drinking session lead to the press-ganging (sorry recruitment) of Shaun & Tim Bell.

The Phantoms started the new season with a lot of new faces and a stronger 7 more experienced team. Phantoms stalwarts Rob Rossit & Dino Rolle joined, via the GumTree, along with Alex Davies and Wostenholm brothers. Grant introduced star player David Farrelly, and later in the season the team was joined by Nigel Loraine & Glen "Marty" Martin.  

The second season may not have appeared to have a glorious success, with only a won 2 of 11 games record. Yet, it was the making of the Phantoms as a competitive rugby team which could definitely have a future. Virtually all of the games were close run affairs, even if the team could still not get a victory over any East London RFC side. A 94-0 rout of the Steelers 2nd XV was breath taking, yet the 8-7 victory over Dagenham 2nds was the highlight of the playing season. The Phantoms during this season embarked on their first ever "tour", which was a fun-packed weekend in Hastings. True the result against Hastings & Bexhill’s combined 1s & 2s squad was not flattering, but the weekend will go down in to the annals of Phantoms History and Mythology.

Season 3, 2002-2003, was an unqualified success. A relationship with the Elusive Camel pubs was founded, a new sponsor (The Clarendon Group) paid for a new set of shirts and recruitment brought in an incredible amount of new players (Andy Bohnet, Ivan Tanuvasa, Mike Moran, Tim Rattaray, John Murphy, Neil "Fluffy" van Rooyen, Chris "Sheep" Schaap, Steve Condie, Brendan Freer & Dreyer van Schalkwyk; to name just a few).  

The team was ready and set to play more games than ever before; and against new opponents, such as our now good friends from Old Albanians. The first half of the season was amazingly successful, helped by the massive front row of: Shaun Bell (18 stones), Shaun Gibson (17.5 stones) & Ivan Tanuvasa (24 stones). The team record won 7, drew 1 and lost 1 as they played fantastic open and running rugby; which everyone, including their opponents enjoyed being involved in. The second half of the season was a struggle; Shaun Bell & Ivan left the team and though the Phantoms had the pace to test any opponent, the lack of size & experience in the front & 2nd rows was hampered them in the forward exchanges. However, the record at the end of the season was still an impressive; won 7, drew 3 & lost 7.

The Glory Era 2003 - 2006 

If season 3 was an impressive leap forwards by the team, then season 4 was monumental stride forwards in the shape of development of the team. This was the Phantoms first appearance in a league structure (Division 5 of the East Counties B&L Merit Tables) and the team signed up for a previously unprecedented number of games (22 including league and friendlies).

Recruitment, mainly via the GumTree, brought in an amazing number of players. With the likes of Dino Bagattin, Mark Bainbridge, Don Fahrer, Alistair Mann, John van den Dorpe, David Yems, Tarek Ahmed, Mike Denney, Mark Longhurst, Karl Whitcombe, Nathan Jones, Christian Kellerman, Manne Khan, Craig Dunlop & Chris Merrit joining in the fun. And, what fun it was.

After losing the first game against a Hackney trials team, the Phantoms went on the rampage. Seven games were won on the trot as the Phantoms racked up 277 points, whilst only conceding 34. Results got harder to come by in the second half of the season, but this was a team on a mission. With the wily old war-horses of Upminster Vets being the only team who were able to contend with the Phantoms pace and game plan.

Karl Whitcombe, Brendan Freer & David Yems ripped up the Phantoms record books. Both Karl and Brendan beat the previous record for tries in the season; Brendan set a new single season points scoring record; and David surpassing Nigel Loraine’s previous best for try conversions in a season.

The team finished 2nd in Division 5 of the Merit Table, despite beating the eventual division winners, Bancroft IIs, twice. And, their final season record was an incredible; played 22, won 16 & lost 6. Racking up an impressive 615 points and only conceding 245.

If 2003-04 finally confirmed that the East London Phantoms had arrived as a rugby team, winning promotion at their first attempt at playing in a structured “league” then 2004-05 really was the cherry on the cake in terms of winning their first piece of silverware. The season started with concerns regarding a shortage of talented players as standouts Karl Whitcombe and Brendan Freer both departed to the shores of the United States. However, salvation arrived in the form of the return of former player Rohan Mitchell along with a friend, Eddie Moolman. These players, along with stalwart Dreyer van Schalkwyk provided the impetus from the backs which would result in the most scintillating rugby ever played by those in sky blue and purple jerseys.

Sketchy early season form, which saw an early defeat to title rivals Millwall II’s, was quickly turned around as the Phantoms racked up point after point against sides who couldn’t compete against the electric South African inspired backline they faced. Results such as the 87-3 demolition of Brentwood III’s, the 45-19 win over Braintree II’s and a 74-22 thrashing of Thames II only served to highlight the potential this team had.  The wins continued to come and perhaps most satisfyingly of all was the friendly win, 10-5, over our landlords East London (II’s) at Holland Road which provided the most smiles.

As the final third of the season approached, the Phantoms warmed up for what they thought would be the title decider at Victoria Park against the Llamas of Millwall with a 101-0 victory at home vs Thames II. As kickoff against the Llamas approached, there were some concerns that Millwall weren’t fielding a team of purely second team players for this important game. With this in mind, the Phantoms hit every tackle, ruck and scrum as if their lives depended on it and it quickly became clear that Millwall had neither the stomach or the inclination to take on the Phantoms in the battle for the hard yards. 80 minutes later the Phantoms were victorious 43-7 and with only two Merit Table games remaining they thought the title was in the trophy cabinet already.

However, Braintree, with a string of games in hand had hit a rich vein of form and were chalking up win after win until finally the final weekend of the season was reached and with Phantoms travelling to Braintree, who were unbeaten at home, it had become a winner takes all affair to finish the campaign. The Phantoms were stronger in the tackle all day, defended like men possessed and when their opportunities came, they took them through tries by Eddie Moolman (2), Don Fahrer and five points from the boot of David Yems. With around 50 Phantoms past and present either playing or supporting on the touchline, there were jubilant celebrations as the final whistle blew on a 20-5 victory and the realisation that the Division 4 trophy was on its way to Holland Road.

Final season statistics of played 23, won 16, lost 7, (mainly friendlies) with a point scored total of 816 for and 271 against, it was a truly memorable season, capped by winning the Division 4 title. Eddie Moolman shattered the try scoring record with 24 over the season, David Yems broke both the penalties scored (9), conversions scored (63) and points scored for a season record with 153 points. With Dreyer van Schalkwyk and Rohan Mitchell adding 17 and 15 tries apiece, it truly was a season for Southern Hempisphere style rugby.