Obituary: Jock Steven, farmer, rugby player and former president of SRU

Jock Steven, former SRU president and farmer. Born: 
10 May 1935 in St Andrews. Died: April 2020 in St Andrews, aged 84

Jock Steven

During his term of office as President of the Scottish Rugby Union, Jock Steven sat beside The Princess Royal at one of the post international match dinners. During the meal they were seen in animated conversation, leaving some of his friends to hope that Jock was reining back on his occasional flowery language.

After the meal he was asked what he, a farmer from Fife, had in common with royalty. Leaving a great deal to his friends’ imagination, his short reply was they had been discussing artifical insemination in cattle.

This easy ability to talk to people from all walks of life was but one talent that had taken him to the top of the Scottish rugby tree.

He rose to the highest level in the game on the playing field, then coaching from the sidelines and in managing the sport at national level.

He had a natural strength nurtured by hard physical work on the family farm in the East Neuk of Fife. One opponent, who learned at first hand, recalled how strong his hands were as they ripped the ball from his grasp.

Jock’s physical fitness was also honed by a spell of National Service in the 1950s. His time in the resplendent Horse Guards uniform was spent in Cyprus but this was no easy posting as at that time the Greek Cypriot organisation, EOKA, was flexing its muscles in a bid to end British rule and Jock, along with his fellow squaddies, spent much of their time in armoured cars dealing with terrorists.

His rugby life started as a schoolboy at Madras College where his inherent leadership abilities first surfaced when he captained the junior rugby team three years running. Although academically bright there was no senior school for him as he exercised his independent streak and went back to the family farm. A great aunt observed, “Jock never listened to what he was told. He just did his own thing.”

On his return from military service, he started playing rugby again but it did not all go well. A sevens tournament in Perth saw him receive a nasty kick to his private parts, causing him to mutter that he was never going to play “that bloody stupid game again”.

Not only did he play again, he rose through the ranks. He was a one-club man with Madras FPs, benefiting initially from his playing and then his coaching, and finally as club president.

On one occasion, in 1957, he joined his brothers, Bill, Alan and Robert, in turning out for the Madras first fifteen; a rare sibling occurrence in the sport. He was captain of his club twice; firstly in the 1958/59 season and then three years later in 1961/62.

Shortly thereafter he captained the then regional team – the North and Midlands – playing against the touring All Blacks and this led to an invitation to play for the Barbarians on their Easter tour of Wales in 1962; the first Madras player to be so honoured.

His service to his club was followed by a five-year stint from 1970 to 1975 as club president. Twenty years later when president of the SRU, he was extremely proud to be asked to open the then new Madras clubhouse.

Jock played as a wing forward but was also sufficiently versatile to move to scrum half. In one game where he had made such a move, a press cutting describes him thus: “Jock Steven, an improbable scrum half in scrum cap and massive bulk, put himself into this most specialised of positions. He came round the scrum like an avenging fury to whip the ball from the opposition’s fingers and then sailed through the gap like a stately battleship.”

His enthusiastic and aggressive style of play was picked up by the Scottish selectors and he was chosen as reserve for the Scottish international against Wales in 1962. The use of reserves in those days was much less fluid and his seat on the bench marked the high point of his fifteen aside career.

Although of solid build he was sufficiently nimble to be selected for the Co-optimists sevens team competing in the Edinburgh Tournament in 1960. His illustrious team-mates on that occasion were Dave Rollo, Arthur Smith, Phil Horrocks- Taylor, Andy Mulligan, Tony O’Reilly and Ronnie Dawson – all British Lions. It needs hardly be said that they won.

A bad ankle injury brought his playing career to an early conclusion but he moved into coaching, both with Madras and also for the North and Midlands.

In 1976 he was elected to represent the Midlands District with the SRU and this marked the start of almost two decades in administering the sport nationally. This culminated in his year as SRU president in 1993.

During his time at Murrayfield he was tour manager of the Scotland Development XV which made an unbeaten tour to Zimbabwe in 1988. This tour marked the introduction to Scotland colours of the likes of Craig Chalmers and Alex Moore. It also led to such non rugby highlights as an aborted plane landing after a rhinoceros strolled on to the runway.

Although rugby was his main sport, Jock was, as befits someone brought up in the vicinity of St Andrews, no mean golfer, achieving a handicap of 3. He may have had a distinctive swing or “agricultural hoick”, as it was described, but it was effective as he picked up several pieces of silverware, including the prestigious R&A Local Golf Clubs Gold Medal in 1967; a feat emulated by his son Neil, almost three decades later with the same winning score

The Steven family was but one of many farming families who in the early days of last century moved from the West of Scotland to the East, where there were more growing options and less rain.

In his case, the family had moved to Fife from their roots in Ayrshire and he grew up on a tenanted farm at Nether Stravithie, a few miles south of St Andrews.

He was an elder in the local church of Dunino where he was a lusty singer of his favourite hymns.

Jock was in his fourth decade before he met and married Val, a Dundee lass. In his latter years, Val looked after him dutifully as dementia increasingly curtailed his personality and movements.

Val died just last year, surrounded by her family after a short illness. Jock is survived by their sons, Ian who continues to farm in Dunino, and Neil, a CA who has recently returned to the St Andrews area, and their families.

ANDREW ARBUCKLE