It is with great sadness that we share the passing of a great player and dear friend Tony Bond. His funeral service will be taking place on Friday 2nd January from 1:30pm, you will be able "attend" via this link: https://www.dctrust.ie/location/glasnevin/chapel-webstream.html
Note that it is live, so if you open the link before the service is due to start, at 1.30 pm, you’ll need to refresh the page just before the start time. The instructions are on the page itself.
Tony was born 3rd August 1953 and lived in Urmston. He attended Wellacre School. At the age of 17 arrived at Park with his friend Cam Milne. They joined a very successful Colts team coached by Gerry Mulholland and Walter Bougen. This Colts team had players such as Kenny Wilson, Paul Lavin, Billy Jackson, Steve Bull, Paul Coop and Tommy Barber.
At the age of 19 he became part of Park’s first team squad which consisted of players such as Syd Harris, Keith Pacey, John O’Hara, Pete Forrest, Pete Stenhouse, Steve Neary, Jack Partington, Bill Seddon, Hugh Mainwaring, Bob Washbourne and three England Internationals Tony Neary, Mike Leadbetter and Barry Jackson. The coach at the time was Geoff Barrett. This squad of players reached the Lancashire Cup Finals but were sadly beaten on the day.
In September 1974 Jack Partington took over the captaincy and Eddie Deasey became the coach with the addition of two future Internationals Jim Syddall and Kevin O’Brien. The club played a more open game of rugby and this suited Tony as much as anyone. His fitness levels and commitment were second to none and around this time broke through to play for Lancashire and became part of the England Under 23’s squad. The most difficult thing at that time was controlling his exuberance off the field. Tony had been picked to tour Canada with England Under 23’s when sadly he decided to move to Sale Rugby Club for season 1977/1978.
He continued his successful career and helped Lancashire over the coming years to win the County Championships and in November 1979 played what was arguably his greatest performance for the North of England against the All Blacks at Otley. He scored two tries on the day, but his overall game gave England Selectors little choice but to pick him for England the following Saturday against New Zealand at Twickenham. This was followed by being picked for the opening International in the Five Nations in January 1980 against Ireland. Unfortunately, during this game Tony had a very bad leg break. England won the Five Nations that year and I believe Tony would have been picked for the Lions that Summer of 1980 to tour South Africa. Tony did get back to play for England in 1982.
In the mid 80’s he moved South and played for Blackheath and Askeans before his career finished.
He was a fantastic player and as everyone who knew him was a great tourist, probably the phrase that suits Tony best is “work hard and play hard”.
RIP Tony (Bondy)
