Tony was a hard man but a good lad.

He used to do about 4 runs a game and it usually took 4 men to tackle him each time. If you got him down by yourself you were rewarded with the ultimate Banham accolade "facking good tackle mate".

Tony's (de)motivational cry to his Shire Horse team was "cam on you facking lazy kents" which was a bit rich given Tony's work rate.

Never saw him foul anyone when I played against him, always good for a laugh and a pint after, a real character sadly missed.

Played against him once for Abbey v Oddbottle...a sunday morning thing against 2 local pubs......i put a sly one in in a 3 man tackle....he flattend me about 10mins later....told me after the match he recognised my boots as he was being tackled when i hit him and knew who it was..........he was one big mean bugger.

Dave played in the same team as me at Stonehouse. I recall him getting into a bit of bother at someones house, which ended up all over the HDM. IIRC it was alleged he was running around the front garden stark naked with a dustbin lid in his hand. He took a real beating from the boys in blue that day! But he was totally innocent (but I won’t go into this any further). He was a great singer was Dave.

the story i was told was that he was ' friends' with a local butchers wife and was bragging about the friendship in Hastings in front of the husband. so the husband left and returned with a works knife and cut him. This may or may not be accurate as it was a well passed about story.

Hey RBA I played for Ace too alongside Duncan. who are you ?

Tony Banham was a HUGE man. Played a few times against him think he played for North Bransholme ay the time when I played for Reckitts as a young nipper.

We had a scrum half called Tommy Elm who tried taking Tony's head off with a swinging arm. From the ground you heard Tony say " I hope that fackin wont you Tommy " . As Tony got up, Tommy pointed to me and said " it want me Tony it was him !!!"

Closest I've come to shi**ing myself on a pitch LOL

Always a gentleman when we saw him in pubs after the game, and his enornmous hands made a pint glass look like a thimble.

I played alongside you for a couple of years mate. Wouldnt want to blow my cover on here though.