Michael and Julie Sargent along with local friends, David and Janice Parker dropped into Ocean Park on Thursday July 31^st in a pilgrimage to pay respects to the Bude Boys whose names appear on the Rock.

Michael and Julie are part of the thousands of Lions supporters out for the tour and took the opportunity to join their local friends and catch up with our own Bude resident, Pete Towers, and pass on the respects from their Bude Community for past Bude players whose names now appear on the Rock

Peter Vickery was one of a heap of players from this small seaside town of Bude who spent some time in Oz and played for the Rocks. Peter’s wife Denise made the replica Bude flag and entrusted the tourists to carry it out with them while on tour and then to visit Ocean Park and plant the flag as a mark of respect for these past players.

Alan Bloomfield, Rick Sheppard, Keith Perkins and Max Aitken are all honored on the Rock and their names are a constant reminder of the connection between Bude and Shamrocks.

Many Bude players made the pilgrimage to Woonona over the years, and many of the Shamrocks returned the visits. Some of the Bude boys were handy players. Dave Mayor, Max Aitken, and Alan Bloomfield were all selected for Illawarra, and Dave Troke and Jan Hicks were also first graders. It is part of Shamrock folklore that these boys came with an accent that made conversation almost impossible especially after sessions at the pub and their fine repertoire of bawdy Rugby songs certainly introduced the club to the fine Rugby tradition of ‘unusual’ songs. This resulted in the publication of the Shamrocks Hymn book that was to be a source of either shock or pleasure to those fortunate enough to experience the choral delights of the Shammies choir in full voice

The Shamrocks Rugby Club was delighted to see such a tribute and very grateful that the visit allowed us to be reminded of the contribution to the growth of the club made by these Cornish Lads – forever young!