A remarkable milestone will be passed at Dorking RFC at the end of this season, when Alan Clatworthy steps down after 45 years as the Surrey club's president.
This is certainly a record for the club and they would love to hear whether anyone else in England, or indeed the world, can rival such extraordinary service.
In the meantime Dorking have marked Alan's long association - which began 60 years ago in 1948 when he joined the club as a 21-year-old - with the presentation of a sculpture engraved: "Big Al - thanks from your many friends".
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Alan's huge contribution to the club was distilled in a tribute written by Ted Ivens, senior vice president of Dorking RFC and immediate past President of Surrey RFU, to coincide with the presentation of the sculpture by Bob Rogers, immediate past president of the RFU.
Ivens recalled that it was Sergeant Clatworthy who joined Dorking straight from National Service and who within a year had been elected Hon Secretary, a position he held until 1958, the same year he gave up his playing days in the second row.
From 1958 through the early 1960s he took up the whistle for the Sussex Referees Society, while devoting himself to the Dorking presidency from 1963 onwards.
"At the age of 36, Alan was elected President and he has since led the club through the most incredible period of change and success," wrote Ivens. "From five teams in 1963 to 25 teams in 2008 is extraordinary progress by any standards. Winners of the Powergen National Vase in 2006 and winners of the Under 17 National Championship in 2007 are the results of a very happy club."
Alan's day job was sugar broker (Alan, sugar, make up your own jokes!) in the City of London and among his many contacts around the world were producers of a West Indian rum, allegedly 100 per cent proof and created for the Royal Navy to help anaesthetise sailors injured by cannon. It formed the basis of a piping-hot rum punch most popular at Dorking's end of season cocktail parties.
Alan worked tirelessly to secure much-needed new fields for the club's teams and presided over the building of a new clubhouse - with donations from members and support from the RFU and a brewery - in 1971, extended with Alan bridging the funding shortfall in 1975.
He also supported the creation of the Muffinmen invitational side who played annually against Dorking and District from 1951 to 1992. One year, Scotland's Alastair McHarg was so keen to partake of Alan's legendary hospitality that he played at Murrayfield on the Saturday and made it to Dorking for the Muffinmen match the next day. Though, still garbed in his dinner suit from the night before, McHarg was sensibly dispatched from the scrum to the wing.
"The proceeds of the match were always donated to the Surrey Playing Fields Association," wrote Ivens, "and all the top players including more than 200 internationals spread over 40 years were never paid a penny for appearing.
"They came for the love of the game, which is exactly why Alan Clatworthy has been president of Dorking for the past 45 years."
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