Tales from the Members Bar v2 No 10 - Lee Dickson


By OSB
December 13 2008

England, Germany and Scotland; that is a trio that normally sends sports journalists to reach for the thesaurus. So much to say and all of it said before. Lee Dickson combines all of these - an English mother, a Scottish father who was a serviceman stationed, of course, in Germany at the time of Lee's birth.

Tales from the Members' Bar

Vol.2 No.10 Lee Dickson

 

Lee Dickson

England, Germany and Scotland; that is a trio that normally sends sports journalists to reach for the thesaurus. So much to say and all of it said before.

 

Lee Dickson combines all of these - an English mother, a Scottish father who was a serviceman stationed, of course, in Germany at the time of Lee's birth.

Lee was a pupil at Barnard Castle School. Old Barnardians could form a pretty useful team with a couple of Underwoods and a pair of Taits on the list for the recent past. Lee numbers Mat Tait as one of his best friends (Best Man at his wedding). They were part of one of Barney's most successful teams. In 2002/3 the school first team lost but one game - the Daily Mail Cup Final. They were undone by two measly points by Oakham School. To squeeze just a little more sympathy from the plight, the Oakham captain and flanker, Joe Wheeler (yes, son of) was the tormentor in chief with three tries in the match.

In such an Old Boys team, Lee would find competition from Ben Jones - formerly of the Parish of St James, Northampton - for the scrum half's jersey.

Lee joined Newcastle Falcons Academy straight from school and found himself involved in international age-group rugby - for Scotland. Successful campaigns with the Falcons Academy under his mentor, John Fletcher, brought him once more to the eye of selectors. A guy by the name of Jim Mallinder picked him for England Under 21s. He followed up with two years with the England Saxons and a call from Brian Ashton to join a week-long training camp with the full England squad.

For a young man, changing clubs - severing the links with the people that have looked after you and given you your chance - can be a traumatic experience. It was no different for Lee. With his contract up for renewal and Fletcher gone from Newcastle, the burden of such a decision was made lighter when that nice Mr Mallinder came to call. He and Ben Foden have been knocking around the same circuit for a number of years and find themselves pushing one another hard for the Saints No 9 shirt. Most observers see differences in the games of the two with Lee rating distribution and decision-making as two of his strengths while recognising that Foden is probably the more potent running threat. He works hard at all aspects of his game and does not focus solely on one particular aspect.

Of the opponents he has come up against, the one that has demanded most respect (so far) is Neil de Kock.

Not that you could tell from his off-the-pitch demeanour but Lee is known to be one of the talkative brand of scrum halves. His wife reckons that there is a complete personality transplant once he leaves the dressing room. He is always talking to his team-mates, encouraging them to the best of his ability; "Everyone knows when they have made a mistake, there's no point in getting on to them." Referees are also participants in a certain amount of banter. "Most of them are pretty decent blokes. I have been playing for four years now so they have got used to me."

I suggested that we were not always on the right side of the referees. A thoughtful no. We had a good one last week though. He liked us. Nacho spoke to him in French. Priceless - I wonder if Nacho speaks Italian, too.

Lee advised me to persuade the Communications Manager to put Chris Ashton up for one of these interviews - he is brilliant, he makes us laugh; he will definitely be good value. I agreed that Chris should have a right of reply to all the people that troop through the Members' Bar giving chapter and verse on the latest amusement from our rugby league convert. The Communications Manager looked sceptical.

On the main questions of the day Lee was in the ‘Hate' camp as far as Marmite is concerned and is quite partial to Chocolate Digestives.

His bite-sized coaching tip: Work hard and don't stop smiling.




arw
11.12.2008

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Tales from the Members Bar Volume 2 No 10
Discussion started by ComeOnYouSaints.com , 13/12/2008 23:51
ComeOnYouSaints.com
13/12/2008 23:51
Tales from the Members Bar Volume 2 No 10

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St.Rich Joe, Niamh and Sam's Dad
14/12/2008 09:20
Nice work Richard, of course the marmite thing now tips me very much into the foden camp

No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.

Dryathlon

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Chris Hoddle
14/12/2008 09:55
Good one again. Will the editors be putting all of these in a book at the end of the season, would make a wonderful collection to have.

http://chrishoddle.smugmug.com/photos/i-TsCHdzK/0/M/i-TsCHdzK-M.gif

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Phil.
14/12/2008 16:53
Last year's are all together here, Chris, and I'll do the same at the end of this season.

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