Richard Uren (26 February 1926 – ) was a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who played for

Waterloo R.F.C. Waterloo Rugby Club (known as Firwood Waterloo for sponsorship reasons) is an English Rugby Union team based at St Anthonys Road, Blundellsands, Merseyside. Once a powerhouse of the English rugby union game, the men's 1st XV now play in Nort ...

and represented the

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasion ...

four times. He represented

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

at both rugby union and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and was also a successful racing sailor.

Biography

Uren was born at

West Kirby West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Cheshire, to th ...

on the

Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to t ...

.. His father,

Harold Uren Harold John Uren (23 August 1885 – 7 April 1955) was an English association football, footballer who played as a midfielder for Liverpool F.C., Liverpool in The Football League. Uren started his career in the reserves at Liverpool and progr ...

, was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

er who played as an amateur for

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

and as a professional for

Everton F.C. Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...

Dick Uren was the youngest of seven children; one of his brothers, Harold Uren, was also capped by England at rugby union. Uren was educated at

Calday Grange Grammar School Calday Grange Grammar School (abbreviated to CGGS; also known as Calday Grange, Calday Grammar or simply Calday due to the difference in spelling to the nearby village of Caldy) is a non-denominational, academically selective grammar school, fo ...

and served as a navigator with the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

in World War 2. After the war he went to the Midlands Agricultural College before joining the family firm of food merchants, H. J. Uren & Sons. He worked for the firm until he retired in 1986 and continued to go to the office until two days before his death. Uren married his wife, Diana, in 1962 and they had two sons and a daughter.

Rugby union career

Dick Uren played for

He represented the

county team and on one occasion kicked a penalty from half-way which put Cheshire into the final of the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

, a final which they won. At international level Uren was capped four times by England as a full-back. He played three games in the

1948 Five Nations Championship The 1948 Five Nations Championship was the nineteenth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the fifty-fourth series of the northern hemisphere rugby ...

and one final game in the

1952 Five Nations Championship The 1952 Five Nations Championship was the twenty-third series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the fifty-eighth series of the northern hemisphere rugb ...

. Uren scored two conversions in his first international and one penalty in his second, for a total of seven points for England. He played for the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be less c ...

and was selected for the

1950 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia The British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia in 1950 was the first post-war tour made by the Lions; there had not been one since 1938. The 1950 team was the first to be nicknamed "the British Lions", rather than just "British I ...

but turned down the invitation for business reasons.

Other sports

Uren represented Cheshire at golf between 1966 and reduced his handicap to scratch. As a racing sailor Uren led teams from West Kirby sailing club to win a competition called the Wilson Trophy in 1957 and 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uren, Dick 1926 births 2010 deaths England international rugby union players English rugby union players People educated at Calday Grange Grammar School Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union players from Merseyside Waterloo R.F.C. players