Booth, Mickey

Mickey Booth was a wily tactician who could control a game from an early age. His sniping runs, sound tactical kicking and fine service marked him out as one of the very best scrum halves of his generation, and many sound judges believed that he fully deserved the international cap that somehow always eluded him. He played 475 1st XV games for Gloucester between 1956 and 1972, ending his career at Twickenham with the 1972 knock-out cup victory over Moseley. His 41 drop goals are a club record. A total of 39 games for Gloucestershire included the 1959 County Championship final against Warwickshire at Bristol. He assisted the RAF to a rare victory in the Inter-Services Championship in 1962 and played in an outstanding performance by Western Counties against the All Backs in 1963. Dubbed “The General” by sections of the press, primarily because of his name, he lived up to that nickname on the pitch. Together with outside half Terry Hopson, he formed one of the outstanding half back partnerships in club rugby.

Mickey Booth was born in Kingsholm, Gloucester “about 70 yards from the corner flag” on 7th December 1938 and attended St Mark’s Primary School and Sir Thomas Rich’s Grammar School where he was taught by ex-Gloucester and Leicester back Howard Terrington. He played schools rugby for Gloucestershire and the South West and in March 1954, played for the Probables in the final England Schools trial at Kingsholm, but the Possibles won, and he was named as a travelling reserve for the subsequent international against Wales.

On leaving school, Mickey played first for the newly-formed Longlevens club and then for Spartans before he was invited by Roy Sutton, who was on the selection committee, to join Gloucester early in the 1956-57 season. He quickly impressed and after three games for Gloucester United made his début at scrum half against Oxford University in December, a few days before his eighteenth birthday.

After a successful first season, he caught the eye of the county selectors and, still only eighteen, made his début for Gloucestershire against Devon, the County Champions, at Kingsholm the following October. He kept his place against Somerset in the final group match. The England selectors also showed an interest and he was chosen to play for the Colours against the Whites at Birkenhead Park in the first trial of 1958-59. The Times described Mickey as “a busy and gifted scrum half.” At county level, he retained the scrum half berth throughout the season, playing at Bristol in the final against Warwickshire at the age of 20.

By the time outside half Terry Hopson joined Gloucester at the start of the 1959-60 season, Mickey Booth was already well established, having played over 90 1st XV games for the club and ten for Gloucestershire. The two 20 year old half backs went on to play 35 games together in that first season, the best of the five seasons under Peter Ford’s captaincy. Doubles were achieved against Coventry, Bath and Moseley and there were notable wins against Cardiff, Leicester, Neath, Aberavon and both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. When Gloucester beat London Scottish 11-0 at Richmond on January 2, they had completed 13 successive victories – a club record. The Times commented that “Gloucester were a team of tough quality with splendid half backs, Booth and Hopson.”

The partnership was broken the following season when Mickey Booth was called up for service in the RAF which limited his Gloucester appearances. He played in the RAF side which won the 1962 Triangular Services Tournament at Twickenham and played for the RAF against Gloucester in two narrow defeats at Kingsholm. He played in France with Combined Services in 1961 and toured Rhodesia and Kenya in 1962.

On return from National Service in 1962, Mickey Booth was elected Gloucester captain for the first time and that October, Booth and Hopson played their first County Championship game in tandem against Somerset. For the next four seasons they were the regular county pairing at half back.

On 17th December 1963, just three days after an off-key performance by the partnership in a desperate 3-0 scrambled victory over Somerset at Kingsholm, Booth and Hopson put on perhaps their best display, playing for Western Counties against the All Blacks at Bristol. The New Zealanders were run desperately close in winning 22-14 and considered Booth and Hopson to be the best half back pairing that they had met on tour. Calls for the pair to be considered for international selection were ignored although Mickey Booth was a travelling reserve for the final trial.

After a year under the captaincy of Alan Holder, Mickey Booth returned to lead Gloucester successfully in 1964-65 and 1965-66.

The 1966-70 period brought mixed fortunes. Terry Hopson became unhappy with Gloucester’s selection policy and after initially planning to step down into local rugby, spent a part of two seasons commuting to Bath. He returned to Kingsholm for a final season in 1969-70 before suffering a career-ending injury. Mickey Booth, who had been partnering Cornishman Tom Palmer in Hopson’s absence, also had his problems with the Gloucester committee and as a result played few games in Hopson’s final 1969-70 season. Their last game in tandem was against Newbridge on 23rd February 1970. The partnership had spanned eleven seasons and 206 games.

Mickey played on with great success for a further two years, developing a fine partnership with Tom Palmer in two triumphant seasons for the club, in which the record for the number of wins in a season was twice broken under Mike Nicholls’s captaincy. He partnered Tom Palmer in every round of the inaugural Knock-out Competition in 1971-72 and ended his career at Twickenham playing in Gloucester’s victory over Moseley in the Final.

Perhaps the last word on Mickey Booth the player should come from Terry Hopson:

“Mickey Booth…a very very good player…good at protecting an outside half…he was deadly accurate with his passing…he was an immaculate chip kicker…if his pack wasn’t going forward, he’d make sure it was… he’d do little sniping breaks to break the game up… he could win a game without an outside half.”

Comments about this page

  • Best scrum half of his era. Great partnership with Terry Hopson. I worked with Micky; never a dull moment and same on the pitch. Should have been a “first pick” for England shirt but didn’t know the right people. Good that rugby has moved on.

    By John Rodway (09/10/2014)
  • Mickey had the talent and Jeeps had the University Blue

    By Chris (01/03/2014)
  • Best scrum half I ever saw, and it reflects no credit on the England selectors of the time that they consistently ignored him. I once trained with him at Longlevens RFC in around 1963/4 and was one of many who couldn’t even lay a hand on him in a game of touch rugby. Like Ron Fox above I recall his dummy runs with a huge smile on my face

    By Tony Ridge (09/04/2013)
  • I’ve only ever heard great things about Mickey. What a legend. He’s my second cousin through my mum’s side of the family. Related to my nan Phyllis Booker. Makes you proud to be from Gloucester when you know you’re related to a Gloucester Rugby hero! 🙂 Maybe that’s where I get my cricketing from?

    By Rob Birch (06/11/2012)
  • Mickey Booth was an absolute legend – he was the best and the best Grandad ever and he is always loved by our family, especially Me.

    My Grandad tried his hardest to do the best he could for the team and still today he wishes he could play even tho he had a heart bypass and he has a lot of back pains but he surely wishes he could still play to make them win today.

    By Shaun Roche

    By Shaun Roche (05/07/2011)
  • Mickey was certainly the best player I ever saw. At the time he played Gloucester was the best team in the country but were not appreciated by the toffs. They won the first ever Knockout Cup but, due to the dominance of the scrum, 10 man rugby was the slur they wore. However if you ever saw Mickey’s run without the ball, or the backs in single file behind the scrum with Terry and the Don they had more than a few backline moves. Bayliss was the most destructive of centres and winger Clewes if my memory’s correct more than capable. At a time when England were always beaten by Welsh sides, Gloucester vs any of them was always a contest, physical encounters with no quarter given specially Neith, Cardiff, Swansea, Pontypool. Dick Smith, Hannaford, Ford and the hooker whose name escapes me were worthy champions. To beat the best of the English Bristol, Coventry, Bedford Leicester, Sale, Harlequins, London Irish, Wasps, the Cherry & Whites WERE THE BEST AND STILL ARE. However somehow the rivalry of all these teams that existed before the European comp doesn’t seem to be the same. Fond memories

    By David Crump (24/08/2010)
  • Booth was totally indomitable, he regarded any score against the Elver Eaters as a personnel insult. If we were 20 points down he would give blood to stop it becoming 23. He had a habit of rubbing his hands on the Kingsholm turf and then appearing to lick his fingers. When this happened we knew he was on the warpath! Being dismissed by him in local cricket was almost a pleasure.

    By Harold Francis (24/12/2009)
  • Does anyone remember the “running away without the ball”? At a scrum near the opposition line he would scurry away from the back of it but without the ball. Most of the defence would charge forward and the ref had little option but to blow for a penalty as the ball was still in the scrum. I think after this the powers changed the law so that dummying like this was illegal. Like most people I think he was undoubtedly the best scrum-half of his time, and if his name had been Michael Booth-Smith he would have had many caps for England.

    By Ron Fox (03/12/2009)
  • Mickey was a great scrum half who should have been capped. I can remember watching him play behind the renowned Glaws pack on wet Wednesday nights at Kingsholm against Welsh teams in particular and he was usually immaculate, great pass, always sniping around the fringes and excellent box kicker. Happy days.

    By Alan Taylor (02/12/2009)

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