Portsmouth Rugby Club stalwart is thrown 'emotional' surprise party to mark a special birthday

On Saturday 3 December, Portsmouth Rugby Football Club (PRFC) hosted a surprise birthday lunch for Roy Harris, a long-standing player, coach and committee man whose service to PRFC reaches back decades.

‘I joined in 1962 and I’m still here, I’ve played, coached, captained, I’ve done a bit of everything,’ says Roy. He adds laughing, ‘including helping the bar profits!’

Roy was thoroughly surprised and overcome with emotion with the support on his 90th birthday.

‘I opened the door and I was just expecting a few people there for the normal lunch we have before the home game. Little did I know, everybody was standing up and the club house was packed!’

‘It was a tremendous day, it was quite emotional,’ adds Roy.

Roy, a Cornishman by birth but who has lived and worked in Portsmouth since he moved to the city in his early 30s, was joined by over thirty family members who crossed the River Tamar to join him and help mark his special day, as well as family visiting from London, Oxford and Eastbourne.

‘It was amazing that they were all there! To think that they all made the effort, how everybody kept it so quiet I don’t know. A couple of times I’d asked questions and got what I thought were strange answers, but I now realise they were lies!’

‘But I’ve forgiven them already,’ laughs Roy.

He was joined by his son Mark, who was also captain of Portsmouth RFC in 1985 during the centenary season and has played for Hampshire, his daughter Jane, four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, his close-friend and partner Mollie and over a hundred other friends, family and club members on the ‘jolly’ occasion.

Roy, one of the oldest Portsmouth RFC players, was a scrum half and played rugby for England U15s, England Air Training Corps and was a Redruth Captain for two seasons in Plymouth Albion and Cornwall before moving to Portsmouth in 1961.

‘Rugby’s a way of life for a Cornishman, I’ve tried to pass on a bit of that to Portsmouth, and they’re teaching me now,’ he says fondly.

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The first ever coach at Portsmouth RFC 1979, Roy initially came to Portsmouth with his wife and two children for just three weeks to cover as deputy manager at Radio Rentals, on Commercial Road, and never left.

‘I suddenly got a phone call from the company saying they had a problem in Portsmouth, and could I come up for two weeks to hold the fort,’ he says.

‘I said yes, for a bit of a change, and I’m still here!’

Roy’s last game in Cornwall on the Saturday before he arrived in Portsmouth was playing with renowned England quicksilver fly-half and captain Richard Sharp.

‘I’ve always been involved in sport,’ says Roy.

‘I arrived on the Thursday, and I played my first game on Saturday for Portsmouth’s third team.’

He also played cricket for Cornwall, as a middle order batsman and for many years at Havant Cricket Club.

Going on to act as a coaching coordinator for Hampshire RFC for a number of years, Roy has lived at the same house in Copnor since he moved to the area in 1962, playing his last game at Portsmouth RFC on his 50th birthday.

‘The club put on a special game then too, I preferred playing of course but there comes a time!’

‘I’ve never wanted to move, it’s a lovely area with a lovely set of neighbours,’ he adds.

Roy will celebrate his actual birthday later this month on December 12, with a small get-together of neighbours at his home in Copnor.

He adds: ‘You can’t affect yesterday, just live for the day and make the best of it because the one thing you learn over the years is that you don’t know what’s going to happen next, you lose people and things move on.

‘I’m just so thankful I’ve lasted so long and made so many friends.’