When W.A. Dinning died in March 2007, aged 83 years, the club web-site and the Annual Report later that year, stated that if ever we had to choose one person who best encapsulated the spirit and ethos of Tynedale Rugby Football Club, then that person would have to be Bill Dinning.

The importance of his place in club history was acknowledged in 1976 when Bill was made an Honorary Life Member of the club, the club’s ultimate accolade. He had enjoyed a fantastic playing career but the physical structures of the clubhouse, the spectator stand, and even the actual grounds at Tynedale Park stand as permanent lasting memorials to his administrative influence once his playing days were over.

As a boy Bill went first to Catton Primary School, then the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Hexham where he learned his rugby. He there came under the influence of Kingsley S.D. Hodgson, who was games master at the school in the Thirties, and had played for Durham, Yorkshire and Northumberland as well as captaining the Tynedale 1st XV from 1932 to 1937. With that sort of guidance Bill prospered and gained County schoolboy honours, firstly as a 13 year old in the Northumberland U14’s, and then up through the age groups. He played his first game for Tynedale in 1940.

Unlike during the First World War Tynedale were able to keep the game alive between 1939 and 1945. The chief opponents then were Service sides from Army and RAF units stationed in the neighbourhood. In 1942, as an 18 year old Bill played for the Tynedale team which beat an Army XV 19-0.

In October 1946 in Northumberland’s first Championship match since 1938, against Cumberland & Westmorland, W.A. Dinning who had played in friendly fixtures was to play at prop. He was later to play second-row (Lock), middle of the back (No.8) and wing-forward (flanker) for the county at various times. In that 1946 fixture Bill joined the brothers Walter and William Rutherford from Tynedale, both of whom had played in Championship matches pre-war, and a newcomer, John Cousin, also from Tynedale. John later began the Cousin rugby dynasty through his son Wallace, then his grandson Jonathan up to the present day. Bill too was delighted that his son Roger also starred as a No.8 for the Tynedale 1stXV for many years. Bill once said that he had played against all sorts of representative sides but the hardest he had ever been tackled was in a Tynedale pre-season trial, when he had been downed by John Cousin, his great pal. When this was reported to Wallace Cousin he laughed, and said that the hardest tackle he had ever felt was also in one of Tynedale’s trial matches – by Roger Dinning!

In that period just after the war Tynedale provided five players for the Northumberland team ten times and six on one occasion - H.P.Brogdon, A.B. Morton, W.A. Dinning, J.E. Cousin and the Rutherford brothers. That situation did not recur until 1987, when Tynedale’s players began to dominate County selection, with players like Alan Gledson, Richard Parker, Chris Dixon, Martin White, Steven Dunn, Graham Yates, Chris Leslie, Mark Richard and others coming to the fore.

Apart from his work on the farm and his early rugby career Bill was very active elsewhere. When Miss R.T. Bell retired as a teacher in 1946 after 37years teaching at Catton Primary School Bill was the young ex-pupil who was asked to make a speech paying tribute to her work before presenting her with a gift. He was also Secretary of the Northumberland (South Regional) Young Farmers Club, played cricket for Allendale and was a member of a number of other groups, mainly concerned with activities in his home area.

Along with Will Rutherford (later his brother-in-law) and team-mate Ken Hall, Bill played for a combined Northumberland & Durham team against Australia in October 1947 at Gosforth Park. In April 1948 he then played, at prop, in the Tynedale side which beat Northern 15-13 in the final of the Northumberland Senior Cup at the County ground in Gosforth, in what was regarded at the time as one of the finest finals ever seen at Gosforth. Tynedale were to have to wait another forty years before they again won the Senior Cup, in1988, in the last match played at that old County ground.

Bill was vice-captain of Tynedale in 1951-52, in the club’s 75th Anniversary year. On the 11th October 1951 the club played a Scottish Border XV in a ‘Birthday Celebration Match’. He then captained Tynedale for the two following seasons from 1952 to1954. In September 1952 he had played for Northumberland (in the second-row) against Edinburgh & District at Murrayfield, then on the 7th.October 1953 he played for a Durham & Northumberland XV against a Combined Universities XV at Roker Park (the old Sunderland FC ground) in the first game of rugby football ever to be played under floodlights.

Bill continued playing until the mid-fifties. He had played for Northumberland, virtually without a break, right up to 1953, missing only one game and setting a new record for county caps. For Tynedale he retired, but was recalled in 1955 when the senior side struggled. Then in 1956 he was cajoled into playing for the club’s third team in the Northumberland Junior Cup, and was instrumental in ensuring a 16-5 victory over Percy Park III in the final. That was his last appearance in a Tynedale shirt.

Bill took over the club presidency at Tynedale in 1970 following the sudden death of Bobby Blackburn and served a further term in 1971/72. He was an active member of many of the club’s committees and was one of the prime instigators behind the introduction of mini-rugby at Tynedale, as well as always providing encouragement and advice to those moving into senior rugby from John Clark’s ex-Colts and schools.

Helped by Jim Chapman, Tom Dixon, Edward Robson and Ken Bell he was the main driving force behind the club’s acquisition of Tynedale Park, the Tynedale Agricultural Sociaty showfield at Corbridge, the move from Dene Park, Hexham, and the construction of the new clubhouse.

In 1971 the purchase of the 33 acre site at Corbridge for £12,000 was secured by borrowing £9,400 in personal loans from 23 club members. The Hexham ground’s 5.5 acre site was sold to Northumberland County Council in 1974 for £75,000, and the clubhouse and car-park to the National Coal Board Opencast Executive for £27,500 in 1975.The total Tynedale Park project cost about £142,000 by the time the new clubhouse was officially opened in the 1976/77 season.

At Tynedale Sports Council’s second Annual Dinner and Awards ceremony held in November 1976 Bill won the ‘Personality of the Year award’. The awards were presented by Basil Reay, the former Secretary of the LTA and the International Lawn Tennis Federation, largely responsible for running the Wimbledon tournament and the Davis Cup for many years. Mr. Reay, from Haltwhistle, was also a former pupil of the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Hexham.

The old spectator grandstand at Corbridge, built in 1942 by Italian prisoners-of war, was condemned under the Health & Safety at Work Act, following the 1990 Taylor Report into the tragedies at Bradford and Hillsborough football grounds. Tynedale Rugby Club had launched a fund-raising campaign led by Bill, which secured grants and loans, and he also raised more than £20,000 in donations from members, with the donors’ names being fixed to the benches in the stand. Bill Dinning, Dave Thornton and Walter Rutherford had been mainly instrumental in overseeing the construction of the new cantilever stand. It cost £85,000. At the opening ceremony in October 1992 Bill was presented with a silver salver to mark his contribution to the success of the whole project.

With John Shotton Bill reinvigorated the rugby club’s cricket team, which competed very successfully in the Tynedale Cricket Club’s annual knock-out cup competition for many years.

For all of his work it was appropriate that, in 1993, Bill was the first Chief Executive appointed by the club after the reorganisation of the management and committee structures. He carried out these duties for two years, in his customary helpful, efficient and wise manner. W.A. Dinning will also be remembered for his friendliness and great sense of humour, but behind that demeanour there lurked a driving will to get things done. Mike Sharman, editor of the club’s Centenary brochure said of Bill “his contribution has been equalled by few and surpassed by none”. That was in 1976! Thirty years later it would certainly have read “equalled by none”.
D.F.Hamilton

It is worth noting that the above is not a biography but concentrates mainly on the rugby aspects of Bill's life without mentioning very much about farming, family, Allendale cricket or his huge number of other interests.