A trophy with a purpose

The Rugby Advertiser Cup was not created to crown the best sevens side in Warwickshire, though that is what it came to do. It was created to pay for a bed.

When the competition was first played for in 1950, the proceeds went towards the “Sportsman’s Bed” at Rugby St Cross Hospital — a bed funded by, and set aside for, the town’s sportspeople. Local clubs entered a seven, the town turned out to watch, and the gate money went to the hospital. That is a very 1950 way to run a rugby tournament, and a very good one.

The trophy took its name from the local paper that backed it, the Rugby Advertiser, and it became the premier sevens prize in the Rugby & District Rugby Football Union.

A newspaper column from the Rugby Advertiser headlined 'Rugby Sevens — Long Buckby win Advertiser Cup', reporting the final and listing the round-by-round results and team line-ups
The Rugby Advertiser’s own report of the tournament — Long Buckby beat Rugby 6–0 in the final. Click to read it full size. Image courtesy of the Rugby Advertiser.

The report is worth reading in full. Long Buckby took the cup after a final the paper describes, with admirable bluntness, as “a scrappy, bull-at-a-gate affair” played in poor weather. Mawby put Long Buckby ahead with a drop goal, Incley burst through for a try five yards from the posts, and Rugby — despite their seven going hard to the end — could not answer. Six points to nil.

Underneath the match report sits the full draw: eight teams, first round through to the final, with every line-up printed name by name. Long Buckby, Rugby, Newbold, B.T.H., Willans, St Andrew’s, Leamington. Clubs that, three-quarters of a century later, are still very much part of this town’s rugby.

Forty years, then silence

The cup was contested through the decades that followed — through the eras when works sides like B.T.H. and Willans fielded proper teams, when a seven-a-side tournament on a summer evening was an event the town came out for.

A sepia team photograph of a rugby squad in hooped jerseys posed in three rows around a large silver trophy, with a match ball marked 1966-7
A previous winning side with the same trophy — the match ball is marked 1966–7. If you can name this team or these players, we would genuinely love to hear from you.

Then, in 1990, it stopped. The tournament wound down, the cup went into a cupboard, and for thirty-six years nobody played for it. A generation of players in this town grew up, played their rugby, and retired without ever knowing it existed.

Back on the table, 2026

In 2026, following discussions between Rugby St Andrews RFC, Hamplified and Rugby & District RFU, the cup came back out.

The decision to attach it to the Matt Hampson 7s could not have been more fitting. The trophy was created to raise money for injured and ill sportspeople in Rugby; the Matt Hampson Foundation exists to support young people seriously injured through sport. Same town, same instinct, seventy-six years apart.

Originally set up to provide the “Sportsman’s Bed” at Rugby St Cross Hospital, it is fitting that it should be used again at the Matt Hampson 7s tournament, in its home town.

Eight teams entered. Kick-off was 09:30 on Saturday 18 July, followed by the annual music festival — because Hamplified is a rugby tournament wrapped inside a festival, and that is a large part of why it works.

The first name in thirty-six years

TR7 won it — five games out of five, beating Old Laurentian RFC in the pool and again in the final, with Rugby Welsh, Broadstreet and Broadstreet's second side along the way.

A team in its first season, made up of lads from Newbold on Avon, Rugby St Andrews and Rugby Lions, alongside players who came to us through the UR7s U23 competition at Hertford a month earlier — and a few mates who just fancied it. In our own kit, at a club in our own town, playing for a trophy that predates all of us.

The TR7 squad in red, white and black kit posed together on the pitch at the Hamplified Charity 7s
TR7 at Hamplified, 18 July 2026 — Rugby St Andrews RFC.

We are extremely aware that winning a trophy in its comeback year is a piece of luck as much as anything else. Somebody had to be first. But we intend to treat it properly: to defend it, to help the tournament grow, and to make sure the next lot of players in this town actually know what it is.

Roll of Honour

Incomplete — and that is the point. Four decades of winners between 1950 and 1990 are not recorded anywhere we can find. If you know a name, a year, or you have a photograph, please get in touch and we will add it.

1950
Long BuckbyBeat Rugby 6–0 in the final — a drop goal from Mawby and a try from Incley.
c.1967
UnidentifiedPictured above with the cup, match ball marked 1966–7. Help us name them.
1951–1990
Records wantedForty years of winners we would like to restore to the record.
2026
TR7 — The Rugby 7sHamplified Charity 7s, Rugby St Andrews RFC. Won all five, beating Old Laurentian RFC in the final. First holders since 1990.

Can you fill in the gaps?

If you played in this tournament, if your club won it, if you have a photograph in a drawer or a clipping in a scrapbook — we would like to hear from you. The plan is to build the most complete public record of this competition that exists, because right now there isn’t one.

Call or text +44 7944 297249, or email hello@therugby7s.co.uk.

With thanks

  • Rugby & District RFU — for sanctioning the return of the cup.
  • Rugby St Andrews RFC and Hamplified — for doing the work to bring it back.
  • The Matt Hampson Foundation — the reason the day exists.
  • The Rugby Advertiser — for the trophy’s name, and for the 1950 report reproduced above.