Tim Bell talks through his career, the highs and lows
“I’m 11 years of age on a football pitch, I’ve got the little shorts on, it’s a cold, windy day and I’m shouting out ‘Hey Billy, pass to me, pass to me’, but he won’t pass to me. “Billy is dribbling along the line, passing to everyone else, but you know what, he’s not passing to me. “Come on Billy, pass to me! “All of a sudden, ‘whack’ back of the net, he’s scored. All the footballers are going ‘Ooh Billy, great!’ and I’m thinking to myself, ‘why didn’t he pass to me?’
“But I know why he hasn’t passed to me – ‘it’s because I’m not a footballer. I’m not part of the in-crowd.’ “But, you know what, sod you Billy, I’m not going to play football any more. “So I’m 11 years of age at school, thinking to myself, ‘what should I play now?’
“I went off and played squash, badminton, tennis, and I really enjoyed it.
A bit later I got into this sport called rugby.
“What I loved about this sport was it wasn’t about waiting at the post for the ball to come to you, it was about going out and getting it. “And that’s what I loved. You could go out there and you could tackle someone, and you could rip the ball off of them.
“They could jump on you, but you could do the same. “I was thinking to myself, ‘oh, I love this sport.’ “So I got better and better, played for the first year, second year, third year, up to the fifth year, and I thought, ‘I’m not too bad at this.’”
Rejected by Berkshire as a schoolboy, flanker wins Twickenham final
Having given up on football, Tim had a dream which would initially be dashed.
“Then I saw on the notice board, ‘Berkshire – players required.’ “I’m going to put my name up for that. Tim Bell. “Two days later I went to look at the results and there was no Tim Bell. I’m thinking to myself, ‘why, I’m a good player?’
“So I thought, I’m going to speak to my teacher. He was a tall lad who always rocked back and forth with his hands in his pockets, looking down on you.
“Excuse me sir? “What do you want, Bell?’ “I noticed I’m not on the board for Berkshire?’ “He turned round to me and said: ‘Well to be honest, Bell, you’re not good enough and you never will be.’ “I thought: ‘Did I hear right? Did he just say, I’m not good enough and I never will be? I was gutted and thought ‘sod that game, I’m not going to play rugby any more.’ “Off I went, but a few weeks later I had a chap by the name of Joe Bell, my brother, a very effeminate one who played in the backs, who said ‘why don’t you come to this club?’ I still can’t pronounce Redingensians.
“So off I went, joined this club, played with a load of guys, trained, jumped on a load of people, got to wear some sexy socks and I loved it.
“I played more, got better and better and thought, ‘this is fantastic, this is the life for me.’ “Eventually, playing in a 7s tournament, Harlequins came down to play and I had a good game against them, and the coach came up to me and said ‘do you want to play rugby for us?’ “I said, ‘Well, I play for Redingensians on a Saturday, but he said ‘we play on Sundays.’
“Having been knocked back at school, and now playing at Redingensians, I ended up playing for Harlequins and was part of a John Player Cup final victory. “But I still feel extremely blessed to be part of this club.”
When the ‘Fun Bus’, Jason Leonard, describes you as a ‘character’, you know you have something about you
Having explained the earliest stages of his career, and then his rejection from Berkshire, Tim describes the 1988 final and how he overcame racist remarks during his career:
“We were on a coach travelling to Twickenham and there were more supporters from Bristol because what happened, when they were playing against a London side, all the west country sides grouped together. So they would all come down en masse.
“They would have far more supporters than we did.
“I was outside the coach window and they were shouting ‘WWWAAHHH’ and I was giving it back until I got told off which wasn’t the sort of thing we were meant to be doing, so I remember that very well.
“But it was a fantastic occasion.”
Reflecting on some of the abuse he was given, Tim said: “Everyone deals with things in different ways. For me, I’m always having a laugh and rugby enabled me to become a confident person.
“On the pitch, I was called a ‘black b******’ a number of times, but what do you want to do? Fight about it – or do you say, thank you very much, you’ve got really good eyesight, thanks for letting me know!’
“When I was playing if anyone could take advantage they would do. At Twickenham there was one lad who after they scored took the ball and threw it at me and said ‘keep on running black boy.’
“I thought, ‘What do I do?’
“What I did was wait till we scored the final try to win the match and I picked up the ball and threw it at him and said ‘look at the scoreboard’.
“You don’t need to get angry, you don’t need to get annoyed, you just need to get even.
“Just get to the point where you can converse with them and let them know they’re a plonker.”
Back at Old Bath Road for Rams and Reading West Indians!
Following his first experience of rugby, through the early rejection from Berkshire and onto the Twickenham cup final and learning to respond racism, Tim certainly had some stories to tell.
And after he’d finished at the top level, he returned to Old Bath Road and enjoyed the remaining years of his career.
He concluded: “I’ve been privileged to play with guys who were my mates (from when I was coaching) and it’s amazing some of the guys still playing in the 1st XV at Rams (James Baker) are still doing so.
“Rugby for me was about playing a sport I loved and doing it as much as I could.
“I’d play at Twickenham televised on a Saturday and then come down and play with Franklyn Richardson on a Sunday (for Reading West Indians) and at the end of the day, it didn’t matter who you were, who you played for, on a Sunday, you were just another guy playing rugby and having a great time.
“I always did the best I can do to get that tackle in and get down on the ball and win the game. For me, that was what it was all about.
“It was like Rams – it was a club, a community – and it reminds you of the two things you missed during the lockdown. Theatre, darling, and rugby.”
