Peter Kingston, ex-rugby player, former rugby coach and one-time PE teacher, is a bit of a legend around these parts.

The now 70-year-old is too modest to say so himself, of course, but his is one of the most instantly recognisable names in Gloucestershire.

He was a top drawer rugby player back in the day. Starting off at his hometown club Lydney, he went on to play for Gloucester, Gloucestershire – in the days when playing for the county was a really big deal – and England for whom he won five caps back in the 1970s.

And the former scrum-half built an equally impressive CV as a rugby coach once he had hung up his playing boots, including lengthy spells at both Gloucester and with England Schools.

Throw in the fact that he was also a teacher at Pates Grammar School for a remarkable unbroken 33-year period from 1976 and it’s easy to see why he is so well-known and so well-regarded by so many.

And though he is now happily retired, he still retains close links with the great game of rugby because these days he is president of Newent Rugby Club, the fiercely ambitious South West One West club.

Kingston’s rugby journey started when he went to Lydney Grammar School at the age of 11.

“That was the first time that I picked up a rugby ball,” Kingston told The Local Answer. “In those days there was no mini rugby but I took to it straight away, I don’t know why.

“Before that I was always football mad but then I became rugby mad!”

And Kingston is pleased that he started rugby a little later than many youngsters of today.

“It can be an advantage not to have played rugby too early,” he said. “You do see quite a drop-off of players in their mid-teens because by then they’ve been playing the game for 10 years.

“If you start a bit later, you’ve still got that enthusiasm in your formative years.”

Not that Kingston is opposed to minis and juniors rugby, far from it.

“It’s wonderful to see all these youngsters running around with a rugby ball in their hands,” he said. “My grandchildren all started playing at a young age and it’s great. And then there’s this wonderful army of volunteers who work so hard to make it all possible.”

Kingston was also lucky when he was starting out to come under the watchful eye of two of Lydney Rugby Club’s great stalwarts – Ted Parfitt and John Morris – who both taught at the grammar school.

They obviously knew a good player when they saw one – Kingston went on to win an England Schools cap – and after playing for Lydney’s Colts he got his chance in the first team at the age of 18.

And it was a baptism of fire because that first game at Regentsholme was against Bristol, who, as they are now, were one of the top teams around.

“It was a midweek game at Lydney,” recalled Kingston. “It was a wet, drizzly night and we lost 17-0. In those days we used to play both Gloucester and Bristol and they were great occasions for Lydney, we always had a big crowd.”

But no sooner was Kingston in the Lydney side, he was out of it because his studies took him to St Paul’s College in Cheltenham where he trained to become a teacher.

“I played for the college during term-time and then played for Lydney in the holidays,” Kingston said.

But while he was established as the number one number nine at St Paul’s – playing for England under-19s and British Colleges along the way – he found himself out in the midfield when he went back to Lydney.

Not that he had any complaints.

“I used to play outside centre,” he said. “My old teacher John Morris was scrum-half at Lydney. He was captain of the club for 12 years and was a much better player than me.

“He could do everything, he could kick, run and pass, and he was a great captain. He could have played at a much higher level. He played for Gloucestershire and in those days you had to be something pretty special to play for the county if you weren’t at Bristol or Gloucester.”

And to be fair, Kingston enjoyed his time in the 13 role.

“I played with Winston Morris, John’s brother,” said Kingston, before adding with a laugh, “he did most of my tackling!

“I wasn’t very big but I was quick.”

Winston Morris went on to have his own close connections with Gloucester because his son Simon played for the club in the 1990s and Simon’s son Jake has also represented Gloucester more recently.

Kingston, meanwhile, would go on to make his Gloucester debut in 1974 after spending a couple of seasons with Moseley.

“I left college in 1972 and got a job in Birmingham, which is why I joined Moseley,” said Kingston. “That’s how it worked in those days, we were all amateurs and you played for the club where you lived and worked.”

Kingston played a number of games for Moseley’s first team but he was very much second choice behind England scrum-half Jan Webster.

Understandably, Kingston wanted more and being a Gloucestershire boy through and through he also wanted to play for Gloucester. So when he landed a job as a PE teacher in Swindon he couldn’t have been happier because it meant he was about to realise his ambition of running out at Kingsholm in a cherry and white shirt.

And what made it even more special was that he knew he would be playing behind a pack of forwards that was widely regarded as the best in the land.

“The pack was superb, they really did give me an armchair ride,” said Kingston. “Mike Nicholls and Steve Mills were the hookers and you also had Mike Burton, Phil Blakeway, Gordon Sargent and Keith Richardson in the front row.   

“Alan Brinn, Jim Jarrett, John Fidler, Steve Boyle and Nigel Jackson were in the second row and then we had Mike Potter, John Watkins, Dick Smith and John Haines in the back row.

“I’m sure I’ve forgotten some players but they were a great pack, I don’t remember any occasion when they were bettered, it wasn’t difficult to play scrum-half.”

Kingston was never the biggest player but what he lacked in size he made up for in other areas.

“I was only 10-and-a-half stone but I was quite quick around the fringes,” he recalled. “I was quite quick over 10 or 15 yards, although I slowed down quickly after that! In those days all scrum-halves dive passed and I had a good dive pass.

“It’s a completely different type of game today. In my day, my job was to whip the ball out to the fly-half, but that’s not how teams play today. Defences are so well drilled, there isn’t the space.”

Kingston believes that top-level club rugby is more exciting now than it was in his heyday.

“You see some great tries, they’re fantastic,” he said. “The players today are training every day and they are learning new skills. When I played we didn’t have an obligation to entertain but these days I think they do because it is geared for television.”

And the state of the pitches is another big difference, of course.

“Back in the 60s, Cardiff would be playing at the Arms Park twice a week every week,” said Kingston. “When the internationals came round in February and March there was barely a blade of grass left!”

That was the way it was back then and, to be fair, Kingston wouldn’t have it any other way.

Nor would he change any of the half-back partners he played with during his time at Gloucester.

His best known number 10 partner is probably Chris Williams, who he played with at Lydney Grammar School and St Paul’s College and who was capped once by England in 1976.

“He was a big lad,” said Kingston. “He was a strong runner and could kick. But I also played with Bob Redwood, Tom Palmer, Dave Pointon and a bit at the beginning with Micky Booth’s long-term partner Terry Hopson.”

Gloucester were a very strong side in those pre-league days back in the 70s and Gloucestershire, for whom Kingston played 51 times, were equally strong in the county championship.

Kingston played in four county finals, winning two, in the days when the competition was regarded as a stepping stone from club to international rugby.

“We beat Middlesex 24-3 at Richmond in 1975 and the following year we beat Eastern Counties at Kingsholm,” said Kingston. “We used to get fantastic travelling support and I really enjoyed playing for the county, it was a great honour to play for Gloucestershire.”

One of the disappointments for Kingston, looking back, is that none of the finals he played in were at Twickenham.

“It’s ironic that the final is played at Twickenham today when the competition is much devalued,” he said.

But while the county championship is no longer what it once was, back then it gave players a chance to showcase their talents on another stage, and Kingston was certainly grabbing the eye with his all-action performances for both club and county.

So much so that he was one of two scrum-halves selected for England’s two-Test summer tour to Australia in 1975, something that Kingston says came as a bit of a surprise.

“I didn’t really have an inkling that I might get chosen,” he said. “I’d had a season with Gloucester but put it this way, I wouldn’t have been disappointed if I’d not been selected.”

The other scrum-half in the tour party was Brian Ashton, the future England coach, and like Kingston he was uncapped.

“I knew I had a chance of winning my first cap because there was no obvious first choice,” said Kingston. “And after the first provincial game Brian Ashton had to fly home to England. He never got a chance to stake a claim and he was replaced by Ian Orum.”

Kingston’s time had come and at the age of just 23 he was running out for England alongside the likes of Peter Butler, Alan Morley, John Pullin, Mike Burton, Roger Uttley and Tony Neary.

“The first Test was played at Sydney Cricket Ground,” said Kingston. “It was where Don Bradman scored all those runs all those years before and I remember thinking this wouldn’t happen at Lord’s!

“We played in the middle of the ground and I remember the cricket square being rock hard.”

England lost 16-9 but despite the defeat, Kingston enjoyed locking horns with his opposite number and Wallabies skipper John Hipwell.

“He was a brilliant player,” said Kingston, “one of my heroes, he had such a quick pass but never passed it more than 10 metres. He was very good.”

A week later Kingston was in the England starting line-up again for the game in Brisbane that became known as the Battle of Ballymore, a game that saw Mike Burton become the first England player to be sent off in a full international.

He was sent off in the first few minutes too which made England’s defeat – they lost 30-21 – all the more gallant in the face of some severe provocation.

“It was quite a tight contest for a long time,” said Kingston. “Bill Beaumont had to play prop after Mike Burton was sent off but I remember Barry Nelmes getting punched and kicked from the first kick-off.

“Then there was another fracas straight from a lineout before Mike Burton late tackled their full-back. It was nothing like as bad as what had happened in the first couple of minutes.”

So just how rough and tough was the Battle of Ballymore?

“Yes, it was up there but some of the Gloucester trials we had in late August were a bit on the tasty side too,” chuckled Kingston. “And when we played in South Wales on a Wednesday night those games were tough.

“Rugby is nothing like as dirty as it used to be, certainly at the top level, because of all the TV cameras, although it’s more physical because the players are much bigger.”

Kingston returned from the southern hemisphere pleased that he’d won his two caps and thinking that he’d “done alright”, but he had to wait almost four years before getting another chance to play for England.

He had to look on from afar as both Mike Lampkowski and Malcolm Young were handed debuts before he was brought back into the fold.

“I was on the bench for the first Five Nations game against Scotland at Twickenham in 1979,” said Kingston. ”Malcolm Young was scrum-half and we drew 7-7, and I got my chance in the next game against Ireland at Lansdown Road.”

That game ended in a narrow 12-7 defeat – a certain Tony Ward kicked eight of the home team’s points – but Kingston was retained for the game two weeks later against the French at Twickenham.

And what a game that turned out to be. France boasted the likes of Jean-Michel Aguirre, Roland Bertranne, Robert Paparemborde, Jean-Pierre Rives and Jerome Gallion, but it was England who took the points in front of 67,000-plus delighted supporters.

“We crushed them 7-6,” chuckled Kingston, who was playing in front of a full house at the home of English rugby for the first time.

“I’d only played there in a couple of England trial games before that.

“It was the best occasion of my career. We were 7-6 ahead for the last 15 minutes and the last few minutes seemed to go on forever. When the final whistle went it was fantastic.”

The aforementioned Gallion was Kingston’s opposite number that day and Kingston said: “He was very good, one of the best French scrum-halves. Their current scrum-half Antoine Dupont reminds me of him.”

Remarkably, England headed to Wales for the final game of the championship still in the hunt for the title, even though they’d only managed to score 21 points in their three games.

Unfortunately, they added just three more to that tally in Cardiff as they fell to a crushing 27-3 defeat, although the final scoreline does not tell the full story.

“The great Wales side of the 70s was nearing the end,” said Kingston, whose opposite number that day was Terry Holmes.

“We were still very much in it when JPR Williams went off injured in the second half, but Clive Griffiths came on and changed the game.”

Wales scored four tries in the last 20 minutes and, as it turned out, pull down the curtain on Kingston’s international career.

By the following year, Steve Smith, who was first capped in 1973, was back in favour and as all England rugby fans of a certain vintage know, played a key role as England won their first Grand Slam for 23 years.

Bill Beaumont’s all-conquering team included just six players from the side that lined up in Kingston’s last game in an England jersey.

“The Grand Slam side of 1980 was built around the North team that beat the All Blacks in the Autumn of 1979,” said Kingston. “That was a great victory.”

Not that Kingston thought his international career was over even after the Grand Slam success.

“I was still only 27 or 28,” he said. “I still had a lot to offer, it wasn’t as though I was in my 30s.”

Sadly, a recall never came, but Kingston does not harbour any regrets.

“To be honest, the chances of staying in the England side for any length of time in those days were not good,” he said. “The selectors were notoriously fickle. I’m just glad I got my caps and in those days you got a full 80 minutes.

“These days you can win 20 caps and end up only playing 20 minutes a game, you hardly ever see a scrum-half or a prop play a full game.

“That would have wound me right up. You’ve done all the hard work and then you’re taken off with 10 minutes to go, I would have found that very frustrating.

“I feel very lucky to have got my five caps, I’m delighted with that. There are a lot of players better than me who didn’t win any caps, John Morris for one.”

Kingston’s last full season of first-team rugby with Gloucester was in 1980/81. He played for Gloucester United for a couple of years before playing a handful games for Pontypool in 1984.

His last involvement in a playing capacity with Gloucester, however, came another eight years later. With the club in the midst of a crippling injury crisis he was named as a replacement against Sale at the age of 41.

But while his playing days were winding down in the 1980s, his teaching career most certainly was not and in 1985 he was promoted to head of PE at what was then still Cheltenham Grammar School.

“I was a history teacher as well,” said Kingston, a grandfather of four. “I always enjoyed teaching PE and I coached rugby, cricket, basketball, gymnastics.”

Teaching is a big part of the Kingston family because his wife of 47 years, Sylvia, was also a teacher who went on to become a deputy head at Mitton Manor in Tewkesbury, while their two daughters, Jenny and Heather, are also teachers.

And that ability to teach stood Kingston in very good stead when he embarked on his rugby coaching career, which saw him enjoy a variety of positions at his beloved Gloucester over the years including 1^st XV backs coach and United coach.

He also worked for a time at Hartpury College, but his most high-profile role was when he coached England Schools at the end of the 1990s and the start of the noughties.

He was involved for seven years, initially as assistant before becoming the main man and was part of the group that was unbeaten in Australia in 1997.

That squad included future World Cup winners Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw.

They were great days for everyone connected with English rugby, of course, and Kingston certainly played his part.

Happily, he has never lost his love for rugby. In the recent past he has helped coach Newent – he lives just up the road from the club in the village of Upleadon – and he was only too happy to take on the role of club president when it was offered to him.

So what does the role entail?

“That’s a very good question,” laughed Kingston, “that’s exactly what I asked when they offered it to me!

“They said I could make of it what I wanted, it was up to me. I suppose I’m a figurehead for the club, I attend committee meetings and I meet and greet where I can.

“Hopefully it’s a role I can do for a while yet.”

And one thing is for sure, Newent Rugby Club, and the whole of rugby, will certainly be richer for Peter Kingston’s continued involvement.