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Tam's Return

Tam's Return

Doug Watters23 Jul 2015 - 11:22
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Former player, captain and coach, Tam Bennett brings his Kinross side to Academy Park this Saturday.

“Tam was one of the best players I coached, a tremendous captain and all round good guy.”
- Jim Smith, Club President

Saturday sees the visit of Kinross RFC, led by their Head Coach, Thomas ‘Tam’ Bennett. A bona fide club legend here at Academy Park, Tam joined Leith in season 1989-90 from Ferranti (now *cough* Inverleith RFC) having befriended some of the Leith squad during off-season darts, dominos and pool sessions between the two clubs (there were no X-Boxes back then kids).

Club Vice President Gordon Anderson, captain when Tam rocked up to our old home of Hawkhill, recalls “he thought Leith seemed like a pretty sociable club so came along.” Gordon then tried to introduce himself to his new charge only for Tam to reply “you dinny remember me eh no?” and it turned out Tam and Gordon had been team mates at Craigroyston High School. “In my defence, Tam had grown in size somewhat since playing centre back in those days!” Ando went onto recall that “Thomas”, or “Daft Tam” as some members of staff had cruelly referred to him, could have had a career in the sport of rounders/baseball. “During a game on a camping trip to Mull, he hit a magnificent shot and started to run. Unfortunately his eyesight being pretty poor, he reached first base without realising it and kept running. Took us ages to find him again!”

During a hugely successful career as a player at Leith (Tam also captained the club from 1995-1997) Tam was, in the words of someone who’d rather remain anonymous (Club Vice President, Paul Allison - oops),…described as “a 100% committed flanker at blind or open - think along the lines of a McCaw of his day, altho don’t tell the bugger I stated that! In the mid-90s Tam was even selected for an Edinburgh/regional select alongside an up and coming Scott Murray.” Club President Jim Smith recalls a time when a ref was trying to test Tam for concussion…”the ref asked Tam to follow his finger with his eyes. Tam had to explain that due to his "squint" it was impossible to tell which direction he was looking in!” Seriously though, Tam was a much coveted player across the country at the time, and could easily have gone onto play at a higher level, but remained loyal to Leith, much to the club's benefit.

During his playing days, Tam, in the finest Leith traditions, was also always a keen tourist, and after some intense editing, some of the stories which have been deemed fit for a family-friendly website include one from Willie Cook, “On the 1996 tour Tam (and Brian Archer) both side stepped making a tackle on the opposition’s biggest player (and believe me was a monster) leaving the young tour virgin to make the tackle (AKA me) - which left him seeing stars (literally) and getting taken to hospital for severe concussion.” Willie was at pains to point out that he made the tackle, and in fact forced a knock-on as well. (Sure, Willie…) There was also a tour to the Shetland 7s the following year, which doubled as Derek Greenan’s stag-do, where after hitting it hard on the first night, Tam slept his way through the entire rest of the tour, getting up only to play in the 7s itself; Tam winning the Beer Goggles of the Year Award on the 1997 Lions Tour to South Africa (ask Alex Bowman); and finally Tam losing his bag at the airport in Dendermonde in 1999.

After becoming player-coach in 2001-02, things didn’t start well with relegation (“probably my fault as I joined that year” – Tony Reilly) but Tam and Leith immediately bounced back with two successive promotions. First a regional championship triumph in 2002-03, “dismantling Inverleith’s scrum on the final day” (Paul Allison) and the following season finished second behind Forrester to go into a playoff against Marr, where victory took the club up into National Division 4 for the start of the 2004-05 season, where we remained for several years pre-SRU re-structure. Players who spoke to the website for this article cite his man management ("emotional blackmail" - Richard Organ) as central to his getting the best out of the squad, echoed by captain-at-the-time Gordon Tweedie "He was very good at one on one coaching, but you never knew if he was talking to you or the bloke six feet to your left, so everyone took everyone else's advice and although very confusing it made us better players."

Tam continued to play for Leith throughout this period, despite several “retirements”, and in the most definitive of these, he managed to score in his last game for the club against Lenzie. (See accompanying photo album). Other highlights include his being sick in the same lay-by on the A9 on the way back from fixtures with Orkney and Caithness in 2004-05. Work continues apace at Leith to have Highlands Council erect a signpost declaring it ‘Tam’s Layby’. Stay tuned folks.

During his coaching at Leith, Tam particularly enjoyed working with younger players and seeing them develop, and is held in high regard by many in the current squad too, having overseen their elevation to senior rugby. Doug Watters recalls “I joined quite an older squad in 2004, as a young sh*tebag standoff, and Tam immediately looked after me, encouraging me to try things even if they didn’t come off and getting the big boys to look out for me! He believed in my abilities from the start and I couldn’t have asked for a better coach at the time.” Tam also gave many of the younger guys in today’s squad their debuts in the 1st XV, Craig Smith being one. “To be honest, a lot of us owe him a lot. He brought us into adult rugby when we started coming out of the school team in 2008. He always insisted on two hands on the ball. Watching him play was like watching basketball!” Hooker Craig Winton echoed this sentiment “The main thing I'd say about Tam was that were all pretty inexperienced coming out of school and he gave us the confidence to step up and know we could compete.”

After bringing through the current crop of reprobates in blue and white and stepping down as coach in 2007, Tam has been a fairly regular visitor to Leith for games and social functions alike, remaining a big fan of the club, and loving a derby game. Doug recalls “I also remember the season we won East Division 3 (2012-13) losing a tough one away at Inverleith just before Christmas that put them quite a few points ahead of us. Everyone was trudging to the sheds pretty devastated and Tam came over and told me to get in there and lift everyone’s heads. He said Inverleith would drop points and to tell the guys it wasn’t over, and to believe in ourselves. I’m not even sure I believed him but he was right, we went undefeated the rest of the season and got our medals. I’ll never ever forget that chat.”

Despite returning many times to check in with his old club, this will be Tam’s first time back in a competitive capacity (OK, pre-season, but still) and it will be great to see him back at the club this weekend, where a warm welcome awaits him and his team. Final word to Club President, Jim Smith who noted, “Tam was one of the best players I coached, a tremendous captain and all round good guy.”

Click here to see some of Tam's best bits.

All at Leith look forward to welcoming Tam and his Kinross team to Leith on Saturday, in what will be a special fixture for the club.

See you all on Saturday!

Further reading