CREDITON Rugby Club members will be saddened to learn of the death of former player John Bastin at the age of 78. John passed peacefully away on January 6, surrounded by his family.
He attended Sandford Primary School and then Hayward’s School in Crediton which is where he received his early introduction into rugby.
That was in 1956 as a 14-year-old pupil under the tutelage of Jack Hayes and who, along with Jack and Albert Labbett and Cecil Hamlin, were the great influences on his early rugby career.
In addition, he never forgot the passion for the game shown by Gifty Steer, a passion that rubbed off on John throughout his playing days. His ability was soon spotted and he was sent for trials with Devon Schools as a winger but ended up representing the County at fly-half!
On leaving school he worked at a timber mill and in forestry, then working mainly in construction. John was a “down to earth” man who loved nothing more than to don the black and amber jersey of Crediton RFC.
In 1958 Crediton started a Colts XV for the first time and John was a member of that side although he had already had a couple of games with the Seconds. It did not take long for him to be noticed and in 1961 he made his First XV debut and before too long he would be a regular. One remarkable statistic is that during the three seasons between 1963 and 1966, John played in 116 First XV games out of a possible 121!
In total he made 255 appearances in the First XV in a career that finally came to an end (well almost) officially in 1979 when his wife, Joan had a serious accident and sadly passed away in 1981.
Nonetheless, John always carried his rugby kit in his car “just in case!” and it proved handy on quite a few occasions after and he did sneak an appearance when the Third XV were short on a Saturday in 1984 in a game against Wellington but in which, more importantly he played in the same team as his son Mark who was just beginning his career in the seniors.
However, he also added another game two years later against Crediton Thirds when a visiting touring side found themselves a player short and John jumped at the chance to play for them and ended up scoring a try! He finally hung up his boots after the 1987-88 season when he managed three games.
John was always keen to have a chat about rugby and impart the benefit of his knowledge on to younger players. He was, what may be called typical “old school” and I recall a conversation with him some years ago and his view on the modern game was that it had become too complicated and based on bulk.
His point was that rugby is basically a simple game made difficult by coaches, TV, players and law changes. It was, as he pointed out, a simple game, when you have the ball you score tries and when you don’t have the ball then you tackle!
Tackling was such an effective part of John’s game and he always took the view that all players had to go to work on the Monday and it was not in his nature to intentionally injure an opposing player but as a wing forward, it was his job to ensure the opposing fly-half was aware of his presence and had a very uncomfortable afternoon!
Although not the biggest of players, John was as fit as they come and would run all afternoon in pursuit of a fly-half, he never seemed to tire.
John was renowned for his timekeeping, well rather the lack of it, as many of his team mates recall, he never turned up for games on time and trotted out the same excuse about the level crossing at Fordton being down and he had to wait for the train.
It became one of his trademark routines. Indeed the majority of team photographs in which he appears, John is usually stood at the end of a row simply because he was the last to arrive and then only just in time!
John was very proud of his family, he had three children, Mark, Carrie-Ann and Johnny. Also, nine grandchildren, Nathan, Dale, Olivia, Roxanne, Joseph, Maddie, William, Zachariah and Jebadiah, and Great-grandchildren Lucas and Lily.
Both Mark and Johnny played for Crediton RFC as did Mark’s son Dale. Mark’s other son Joseph has played for CRFC since U9’s, played for Devon U15’s and U16’s and is in the Colts side presently.
Throughout his life John always remembered with pride his early life in Sandford and playing rugby for Crediton.
He never forgot his gran who continued to live at Sandford with her daughter and every Saturday morning, John would take them both into Crediton to do their shopping.
In a career that spanned 30 years, Johnny played well over 450 games for the Club, and although we did not see too much of him in recent seasons, he will be sorely missed by us all. We extend our condolences to the family at this sad time.
Paul Harris