It was more than three decades since 54-year-old David Bailey had started playing for Norwich rugby club and three years since he began managing their first XV,
Still registered as a player, it’s believed that David is the oldest player in the club's 130-year history. When he joined the first’s front row recently, he was the oldest team member by 20 years. “They hadn’t been born when I began playing for Norwich,” he says.
Wayne Barnes and Freddie Steward & the Youngs
David started playing for Norwich aged 16 with his first team debut at 18 in 1987, and is a British Airways training manager, a former aircraft engineer and teacher, having taught at Gresham School in Holt. “I knew the Youngs brothers since they were knee high to grasshoppers and I coached Freddie Steward through his youth rugby at Holt and coached Wayne Barnes at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Rugby’s a small world.“
What David hadn’t expected was to become “ridiculously famous.” Not only did he get a standing ovation at a pre-match lunch in the clubhouse, but he got more than 2,500 likes on Facebook and messages from New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
“It just kept growing and then I was on local radio, BBC Look East and asked to do an interview for the local university. My BA colleagues knew because I had to block out time for Radio Norfolk, which they all thought very Alan Partridge!”
David has always played in the front row “built for comfort not for speed” and acknowledges “props are a bit mad, if you want to stick your head in there you must be!”
Both his sons have played for Norwich and still play when home, Oliver is studying at Cardiff University and Lewy is travelling in South Africa.
He says: “I joke it was just a warm-up and I might manage ten minutes next time!”
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