CHARLIE Ede, widely regarded as Mr Oxfordshire Rugby for more than 30 years, has died aged 85.

Mr Ede worked and lived in Oxford, owning 14 Windsor Fish and Chip shops around the area, which enabled him to indulge in his real passion which was playing and running rugby teams.

In his playing days he was prominent as a hooker for the strong Oxford RFC First XV in the mid-to-late 1950s.

He also played for Oxfordshire and was a member of the team that beat Oxford University in 1954, the first time since the War years.

As he was not regularly available on Saturdays because of work, he set up what became the famous Oxford Thursday Nomads team, based at the Bypass ground, which catered for players available on that day of the week.

The regular fixture list included university, college, military and police teams, but his greatest rivals were public school Wanderers and the Leicester Thursday teams He would select a team for the occasion and would often travel to pick players up for the match.

Some of the players, Joe McPartlin, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Tommy Bedford and Ollie Waldron were internationals and it was always an honour to be selected for the team, but the ultimate honour was to be presented, with a Thursday’s tie.

He also had a passion for seven-a-side rugby and the zenith of his achievements in this area was to carry away the Oxford Times Trophy by fielding the winning team in the Oxfordshire seven-a-side tournament, held annually at Iffley Road, in 1966, beating Wasps 10-0, and in 1967, beating Moseley 15-13.

Off the field, Charlie was a hard-working committee man and became President of Oxford RFC for the 1966-1967 season.

He later became a prominent member of Oxford’s rivals Oxford Old Boys.

In his later years he lived in Spain and then Portugal before moving back to Devon several years ago.

Long-time Oxfordshire and Oxford fly-half Ray Tapper said: “He will be missed by many.

“Charlie wasn’t a great player, but he made up for it by being the bravest man I’ve ever seen on the rugby field.”

He died in South Moulton, Devon, on July 8 leaving behind a widow Margaret, two daughters, Victoria and Katherine and a son, Simon and several grandchildren.

His funeral took place at 12.30pm on Tuesday at St Mary Magdalen Parish Church, South Molton, North Devon, followed by a wake at The Coaching Inn nearby.