THERE is little or no opportunity for club rugby players to come up against current internationals these days, but before the top bracket of the sport turned professional things were different.

Back in those days top-flight ­players would turn out in end-of-season games, often in aid of a ­charity, and allow a local XV the chance to try to match them in skill, guile and fitness.

Usually the gulf in class won the day easily. Occasionally, though, the district side would pull off a ­surprise.

When a South Hams XV ran out against England international Peter Larter’s star-studded team at Coronation Park in Dartmouth, the final result should have been a foregone conclusion. In fact, it is remembered as a closely contested fixture.

The scoreline appears to have been lost in the mists of time, but Fred Inch from Salcombe and John Marsh of South Milton both recall the local team having their moments.

Fred, who sent in the photograph and who is standing on the left of the back row, played on the left wing. John, then of the Kingsbridge club and still a regular supporter at High House, was at fly-half.

The match was played on April Fool’s Day, 1970. The programme cost spectators threepence. Dartmouth RFC and its president Mark Sugden OBE were the hosts and Dartmouth’s mayor, Ald J Mashford, performed the kick-off.

Peter Larter, who was born in the Dartmouth area in 1944, played 24 times for England, including 20 consecutive matches between 1967 and 1971. His first two matches in the white shirt of England were at Twickenham against Australia and New Zealand, and both times he was on the side that lost 23-11. He appeared in 17 Five Nations tournament games, the last being in 1973 against Wales at the Arms Park in Cardiff. He also played for the British Lions in South Africa in 1968.

For the local boys to go up against a player of Larter’s pedigree when he was still at the top of his game was an honour, if nothing else, but the lock forward paid his opponents a huge compliment by including five other England internationals in his XV, along with an England trialist and various Combined Services and county players.

The South Hams team comprised: C Allen (Salcombe); R Empson (Dartmouth); A Mundy (Kingsbridge); P Shearet (Totnes); F Inch (Salcombe); J Marsh (Kingsbridge); P Warren (Kingsbridge); J Long (Totnes); J Sharam (Dartmouth); hooker R Pengelley (Kingsbridge); R Hoare (Dartmouth); P Vallance (Totnes);

C Pillar (Dartmouth); A Hall (Dartmouth); and number eight P Howard (Salcombe).