History of Old Boys Praha

HISTORY OF OLD BOYS PRAHA

The only Czech purely veterans club, Old Boys Praha is going to celebrate 20th anniversary of its existence. During all that time, we reached a number of good achievements, especially overseas tours to Canada in 1997, to Australia and New Zealand (including Tahiti) in 1999, to South Africa in 2001, to USA and Bahamas in 2005 and last time to Argentina and Brazil 2006 - each time as first ever rugby team from the Czech Republic.

In Europe we played 7 times in France, 6 times in Germany, 3 times in England, twice in Switzerland, Italy and Spain, once in Holland, Wales, Belgium and Croatia.

From the domestic achievements it is possible to mention 5 victories of Vyškov Collared Pork Tournament (Memorial of Johnny Navrátil) in Vyškov, Moravia - in 1993, 1998, 2003, 2004 and 2007 and last but not least victory of 1999 Old Golden Prague as well.

During its history, since 1988 Old Boys played more than 300 games. First of which in Autumn 1988 with Crewkern RFC in South England, the 10th game in 1990 with RC Caen in Normandie, France, the 20th one in 1992 with Czech veterans of Tatra Smíchov in Prague, the 50th in 1994 with Polizei Hamburg from Germany in Prague.

To play the 100th game in our history, we travelled in 1997 to Vancouver, Canada where we first time played with a team from Australia: Western Australia Rampants Rebels from Perth. 150th game played in 2000 with Zimmerians RFC from England and 200th game in December 2002 with another English team Clifton RFC - both games played in Prague.

The game No. 250 was played again in overseas - in San Diego, USA on May 18, 2005 with The Ratbags from Victoria, Australia. Year 2006 ended with the match No. 275 which we played on November 18, 2006 in Caxias near to Rio de Janeiro with veterans team Rio Rugby of Brazil.

Old Boys Praha has also participated in top events of World and European Golden Oldies Rugby. For the first time in 1997, we took part in 10th World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival in Vancouver, Canada and then we started also in 12th WGORF 1999 in Adelaide, Australia and last time in 15th Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival 2005 in San Diego, USA. In 2006 we started at Argentina Rugby Festival at Mar dela Plata, Argentina.

In 2002, we started our tour also in series of European Golden Oldies Festivals in 6th EGORF in Split, Croatia and continued then in 7th EGORF 2004 in Benidorm, Spain. We placed a bid for hosting IX. European Golden Oldies Rugby Festival 2008 in Prague.

In Prague we hosted a lot of teams from abroad during our 20 years of existence. The special occasions were Old Golden Prague international veterans rugby tournaments which we have already organised 4 times - in 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2008. In all four editions we hosted different teams from England, Russia, Germany, Wales, Belgium, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia, Israel, France, Canada, Poland, Croatia, Sweden, Spain, Norway and Moravia, eastern part of our country.
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LIST OF COUNTRIES AND CITIES WHERE OLD BOYS PLAYED DURING THEIR HISTORY:

• ARGENTINA (2006 Mar del Plata),
• AUSTRALIA (1999 Adelaide),
• BAHAMAS (2005 Nassau),
• BELGIUM (1996 Visé),
• BRAZIL (2006 Rio de Janeiro),
• CANADA (1997 Vancouver and Toronto),
• CROATIA (2002 Zagreb and Split),
• ENGLAND (1988 Crewkerne, 1995 London, 1998 Wolverhampton),
• FRANCE (1990 Caen, 1992 Montpelllier, 1993 Nancy, 1996 Grenoble and Lyon, 2004 Lyon, 2007 Toulon, 2009 Avignon),
• GERMANY (1997 Hannover, 2000 München, 2001 Konstanz, 2003 Konstanz, 2005 Rottweil, 2009 Rottweil),
• ITALY (1995 Verona, 1997 Trieste, 2009 Perugia),
• NEW ZEALAND (1999 Temuka and Hamilton),
• PORTUGAL (2008 Funchal - Madeira),
• SOUTH AFRICA (2001 Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria),
• SPAIN (2004 Benidorm, 2007 Barcelona),
• SWITZERLAND (1993 Zürich, 2004 Bern),
• THE NETHERLANDS (1991 Utrecht),
• USA (2005 San Diego),
• WALES (1995 Cardiff)

by AH