A real warrior. Tough on the field, tough off it.
RIP Reg Reginald Mark Smith
Reg’s funeral will be taking place on Wednesday 17th June with a 2pm kick off at Bramcote Crematorium.
If you ever played in the same team as Reg or played against him it would be great to see you, as we say a final farewell to the man who gave so much on the field and was such a character off it.
Reg was one of the breed of good people in Nottingham who had never played Rugby League before and gave it a whirl with Nottingham Crusaders. Playing out of various venues Reg was always a cert on the team sheet. He was raw, he was rough and he was a warrior.
Pulling on the Red and white Hoops, was a proud thing for Reg a good club member and was a founder of the one in all in brigade. In the early days Crusaders often took the field with less than the usual 13 and to have substitutes was a luxury. To help the club Reg brought down different friends he had some were a success and others not.
As well as playing for Crusaders, Reg was one of breakaway group that went off to form Bulwell RLFC. This was a gang of lads that he really enjoyed playing with. He loved being in the thick of it in maroon jumper with the team playing out of Southglade, he would often pull on a second team jumper and play for The Pelican, The Sportsman or whatever the team were called that week. Reg was a great advert for what you could achieve on the rugby field in Nottingham.
I personally have a great recollection of him at the Project 30 event, which is probably the last time a lot of people at the club saw him. We had plenty of beers lots of stories. At 11pm he told us he was going home as he was flying out early morning to meet a lady who was going to be his future wife. At midnight Reg told us he would have another beer and then was off, he lied about the 1 beer. At 1pm he took us to a cash point, borrowed £100 and said it was too late to go home so he was off to a club and then gunna head off from there. The words ” I’ll see ya soon lads, echoed into the early morning Nottingham sky. We never saw Reg for 3 years after that, but he kept in touch in Reg style and FB was a place we got updates, some good, some bad, some pure Reg.
Reg mate it was a pleasure to play with you, it was not a pleasure to play against you but most of all it was a pleasure to know you.
You will be missed by many.
John Yarker