Sportsman's Dinner

Sportsman's Dinner

Friday 13 April 2018
19:00 - 23:59
Sean Reid
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https://www.chinnor-rfc.com/ca

Join us in The Rectory Room for this annual event, to celebrate with good food, wine and companionship.

The evening will be compered by the king of quips and wonderfully witty Aaron James who some of you may have seen at last year's BIG LUNCH and we will be joined by Rory Underwood and although Rory needs little introduction, below is a brief resume of his career.

Tagged by Rugby World as one of the greatest wingers of all time, Underwood was born in Middlesbrough, England, of Chinese-English parentage. His father was a Yorkshire engineer who worked in Malaysia where he met and married Underwood's Chinese-Malaysian mother.
Underwood was educated at Barnard Castle School (with fellow rugby international Rob Andrew and infamous MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson), followed by initial officer training at RAF College Cranwell.
His early life was spent in Malaysia. His family moved to Yorkshire in 1976, but his father was posted to Singapore and did not rejoin the family for another three years.

Royal Air Force
In the RAF, he played for the Strike Command and main RAF rugby team. As Flying Officer he flew with 360 Sqn, an electronic countermeasures training squadron, on Canberras at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire. He then flew the Hawk with 100 Sqn also at Wyton. He took a ground-instruction job in 1995 at RAF Cranwell becoming a flight lieutenant, whilst playing for Leicester. He became station flight safety officer, then joined 55 Sqn (navigator training, now referred to as a weapon systems officer) on the twin-engined Dominie (British Aerospace 125) and continued in the RAF until 1999, although he could have stayed until 2001.

Rugby
Having first played as a youngster at Middlesbrough Rugby Club (with Rob Andrew and Bernie Coyne) he went on to become one of the greatest wings in rugby union. Underwood is the leading try scorer for England in international matches. He first played for England in February 1984 against Ireland at Twickenham. He won 85 England and 6 Lions caps between 1984 and 1996 (then an English record, later surpassed by Jason Leonard – it remained the highest total for an English back, though that has since been overtaken by Jonny Wilkinson), scoring a record 49 tries for England, and 1 for the British Lions, making him one of the leading try scorers of all time. He played for England in the Rugby World Cups of 1987, 1991 and 1995.

He was capable of playing on either right or left wing depending on who was selected on the opposite side. More usually seen on the left wearing shirt number 11, in 1988 he switched to the right (and shirt number 14) to accommodate Chris Oti: in 1990 on the right opposite Mark Bailey, but on the left when partnering Simon Halliday, continuing on the left in 1991 opposite Nigel Heslop: in the 1991 World Cup he played on the right in partnership with Oti early on, then on the left in partnership with Heslop until the quarter-final and Halliday for the final two rounds, an arrangement that persisted throughout the 1992 Five Nations championship - which was initially billed as his final season before retirement, Underwood scoring tries in each of the first three matches of the championship and coming close to scoring against Wales. However, Underwood changed his mind and opted to carry on, initially for the next match against South Africa (their first match since their readmission to international sport) and eventually for several more years - playing mostly now on the left, to accommodate his younger brother, Tony, on the right wing. They were the first brothers to represent England at the same time since 1937 and in the 1993 match against Scotland, the first pair of brothers to score tries in the same match for England.

Recent career
Underwood has worked as a management consultant. When leaving the RAF he planned on setting up a company called Teamwork with his friend John Peters. He planned on acquiring a Commercial Pilot Licence.
He set up UPH, a management and teamwork training company, with John Peters and Martyn Helliwell on 20 May 1999.
Two years later, he appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank
Like John Peters, he is also a motivational speaker. He is on the board of Leicester FC. His new company is called Wingman Ltd, formed with Dave Moss.

Menu
Ham hock and pea terrine served with a homemade Picallili

Rib eye fillet of beef with pressed potato, spinach, glazed shallots & Madeira sauce

Oxfordshire cheeseboard with water biscuits, celery and apple

Coffee & brandy snaps

Numbers limited to 120 with 80 already sold (19/03/18)
Tickets available for individuals or groups at £60

Further reading
This is a past event
3 members attending
John Monaghan
John Monaghan
Alan Hine
Alan Hine
Stephen Fairfax
Stephen Fairfax