Peter was educated at St. Brendan’s College in Berkeley Square during the war years. He left in 1948 to complete two years’ National Service in the Royal Air Force and then proceeded to St. Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill to commence his training as a teacher. In 1952 he joined the staff of St. Brendan’s to teach in the prep school – no doubt many of you reading this will remember him as the first teacher you encountered on joining the school.
At that time mini rugby was only played at prep school level in public schools, but around 1970 Bill Pitt, then headmaster of Hambrook Primary School, decided to include it as a sport at his school. Bill, a very keen player with his local club Frampton Cottrell, arranged a fixture against St Brendan’s which led to him building up a friendship with Peter Pullin. With the help of another St Brendan’s old boy, Vince McDonald (Treasurer of Bristol Schools), they organised what was deemed to be the very first, large scale, annual mini rugby tournament in the UK. This very successful tournament, with over 40 teams from all over the country participating, was held annually until 1978 when Peter left St. Brendan’s to join St. Mary Redcliffe School where he remained until his retirement.
The tournament continued to be held by St. Brendan’s Old Boys RFC at the Filton Combination Ground still organised by Peter, Bill and Vince but for the Combination clubs and not the schools. I spent many a happy day refereeing at the matches along with many other Combination referees. Sadly, Peter passed away in 1988, but the Old Boys have kept the tradition going thanks to sterling work from Richard Kolanko, Ray Merchant and Chris Groves. It was Peter ‘s tremendous enthusiasm that helped to establish mini rugby in Bristol and that is why he will always be remembered as Mr. Mini Rugby!
The Old Boys are presently striving to survive but getting stronger thanks to the dedication of ‘The Three Musketeers’ and a fantastic nucleus of helpers. In my playing days we were one of the strongest sides in the Combination losing on average only three games per season. We won the Combination Cup in 1968 under Joe Lewis as Captain and with John Blake of Bristol fame in the side. In those days the sevens were played at the Bristol Memorial Ground, with preliminary rounds held each day Monday to Thursday and the Semi-Final and Final on the Friday night. It was all quite a physical endeavour! In 1971 we won the Combination Cup under Captain Pete Kehoe, beating Keynsham 3 points to nil with a try from John Davis who then went on to play for Bath.
In October 1971, in Peter’s time, the greatest game in the history of St Brendan’s College took place when Mike Titcombe, our local international referee, organised a match against an International XV. The team was made up mainly of the British Lions, who had just returned from beating the All Blacks, and included that famous pairing of Gareth Edwards and Barry John. They beat the school 62 points to 35, but when you consider there were nine Lions and seven internationals in their side it wasn’t a bad result! The St Brendan’s XV was captained by Jim Davidson, the then current Irish wing forward, and also contained two Oxford Blues and six county players (two from St. Luke’s).
I would like to thank all of those associated today with The Peter Pullin Tournament, named in memory of Mr. Mini Rugby himself. Long may it continue!
Gerry Foley