Cornish Rugby Legend & County Cricketer Richard Sharp - RIP
by Robert Jobson
RAW (Richard) Sharp OBE, who has died aged 87, was one of Redruth and Cornwall’s most revered sporting sons, famed not just for his brilliance on the rugby field and his excellence as a cricketer but for his humility, grace and modesty as he quietly lived out his final years at St Ives.
He first sprang to notice in the 1950s as a cricketer and also as an athlete, excelling in the high jump and pole vault. A batsman-wicketkeeper for Blundells School’s 1st XI for 4 years, he went on to play with distinction for Redruth, St Austell, Cornwall and the Cornish Crusaders, whom he led on summer tours upcountry.
He made 13 Championship appearances for Cornwall between 1957 and 1970. Debut against Devon at Exeter. He played four games in 1960 and five the following year. Three games followed in 1964 before ending against Wiltshire at Helston in August 1970, where he hit the winning runs. His highest score was the 72 against Somerset Seconds at Knowle in 1960.
Having started his rugby at Montpelier School, Paignton, and Blundell’s, as a scrum half, he blossomed into one of the world’s leading fly halves, moving onwards and upwards via National Service in the Royal Marines to Oxford University, where from 1959 to 1963 he became a magnet for the scribes of Fleet Street and a target for ‘tackles’ high and late, which went left him with a series of facial fractures.
Not one for recriminations, he kept bouncing back to thrill Redruth, Cornwall, England and British Lions supporters with his match-winning feats, making 14 appearances for England, 28 for Cornwall and guiding the Barbarians to a gritty victory over South Africa at Cardiff Arms Park in 1961, the Springboks only loss on their all-conquering tour of Britain and Ireland.
How good was he? Cornwall Rugby Historian, the late Tom Salmon: “He was one of the great outside halves, a quite brilliant attacking player in the classic mould. All the basic skills seemed to come naturally to him, and on to them he grafted an almost uncanny awareness of gaps yet to be opened in opposing defences. Along with this, there was a wholly deceptive speed and style of running, almost gliding, taking him through defences in a fashion seldom seen.”
His rugby playing years, alas, came to the saddest of ends in 1967, with a County Championship semi-final replay defeat to Surrey at Redruth - following a last gasp 14-14 draw at Richmond - and a bruising loss inflicted on England by Australia at Twickenham, where 4 years earlier his solo try against Scotland had seen him lead England to a 10-8 win and the Five Nations Championship amid massive acclaim.
Born in India just before the Second World War, he was the younger son of a mining engineer, who had studied at Camborne School of Mines, and a Redruth mother whose family ran a music shop, Chandlers, in the town where the Sharps returned, to settle in Clinton Road, attend Redruth Methodist Church and play sport at every opportunity.
Both Richard and his brother Nigel had been enrolled at birth for Wasps RFC, their father’s club, before being taken as boys to watch Redruth - and in particular their mighty captain Bill Phillips and their star three-quarter Keith Scott, an England rugby captain and Cornwall cricketer, just as Richard himself was to become.
In his book Winning Rugby, published in 1968, he spoke with much affection about his rugby days at Redruth. He recalled one Easter Saturday when he and his brother played for Redruth versus Lloyds Bank in the afternoon, for Wasps versus Penzance-Newlyn in the evening, and then for Redruth v Wasps on Easter Monday. Suffice to say, the Sharp boys finished on the winning side in all 3 games.
Richard Sharp, however, was very clear that by far the best thing to happen in his life was to meet his wife, Esther at Oxford. On graduating, they married and moved to Sherborne School, where he taught geography, coached rugby and continued to play on Saturday afternoons for Bristol.
In the late 1960’s English China Clays' supremo Sir Alan Dalton, recognising Richard’s special qualities and public relations value to a world-renowned export company, recruited him to their marketing division based at St Austell, where he settled with his family, and joined St Austell CC in Senior 1 East on the nearby Brewery Field.
When St Austell CC moved to their new ground at Wheal Eliza and former Somerset player Terry Willetts arrived to inspire them to championship success, Richard opted to rejoin Redruth CC for his final few league seasons, having started his club career there in 1952 in Redruth 2nd XI alongside his best friend Tony Wickett.
He retained his rugby links through the 1970s and 80s by working on Saturdays as a Sunday Telegraph correspondent, covering international matches, county and club games. Tragically, in the 1990’s Esther Sharp was struck down by a terminal illness, a loss which affected him deeply. His brother Nigel also died young.
To the end of his life, despite serious health issues, he kept in regular contact with and supported both Redruth RFC, where the Richard Sharp Bar, with his photographic collection, honours his memory, and Redruth CC, where the function room he opened many years ago, also carries his name.
Best-selling author Bernard Cornwell has also ensured that the name lives on through his ‘Sharpe’ novels and television dramas about the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, played by Sean Bean. The character, Mr Cornwell explained, was inspired in part by him
witnessing the sporting heroics of Cornwall’s Richard Sharp.
