The Talented Andy Ripley

Much has been said in the last couple of days about the great Andy Ripley who succumbed to prostate cancer on Thursday, I would like to add my personal experience of meeting the man.

I was delighted to read in an England Rugby programme for a long forgotten match I attended that Andy Ripley was, like me, a former pupil of Westbury Park Primary School in Bristol 10 years earlier. Some time in the summer of 1975 or 1976 we were both competitors at a National League athletics meeting, Andy being Andy ran the first string 400M hurdles race, me being me ran the second string. However every point counted and I was asked to get a point in the high jump as our regular jumper was AWOL. I was no high jumper, 5 foot and beyond and I tended to blackout crossing the bar and woke up somewhere the other side of the foam landing bed - OK this only happened twice and one other time I landed on concrete on my back with a metal stanchion underneath my back severely winded to the great amusement of my fellow pupils who assumed I was larking around.

I turned up for the event and was delighted to discover Andy Ripley was also in the event. Normally I'm a bit shy but I immediately asked him if he was, as per the programme, a former Westbury Park pupil. As the event progressed we had a lovely chat about shared teachers, the playground layout, the 19th Century bar of chocolate outside the headmaster's study and more. I was still a kid, Andy was already a Rugby legend and possibly the finest 7-a-side player I have ever seen. But we both played number 8, both ran 400M

Compared to the modern day equivalent of The Great Wilson I was very much minor league but with Andy the shared background and the shared competitive experience made us equal in his eyes. Of course he said he was just there for the points as well but beat my by a foot or so, that was just the legend that is Andy Ripley.