FIFTY years ago in the mid-1970s a small group of gentlemen, definitely not a group of small gentlemen but as many as could fit into a light aircraft, took a flight across the skies above Worcester and changed the sporting landscape of the city in a way they never imagined in their wildest dreams.

Led by surveyor Philip Sawyer, who was not a large man himself but including Ted Burnham who certainly was, they were some of the leading lights of Worcester Rugby Football Club which was looking for a new home.

Having sold its former base at Bevere for housing, the club was in search of somewhere to lay its hat.

Peering out of the plane windows as it cruised the northern boundary of Worcester, they spotted land near the Warndon junction, now better known as Junction Six, of the M5.

Farmland owned by the Silvester family, it was just the job, probably for reasons they couldn't have foreseen.

Because some time after WRFC established itself at what was named Sixways, local benefactor and businessman Cecil Duckworth became involved.

He pumped several millions of pounds into the operation and created Worcester Warriors, a professional rugby team that operated at the highest level of the sport in the UK.

Easy travel access to the Sixways stadium and the ability to purchase surrounding land to expand underlined the wisdom of the 1975 purchase.

After several years of financial trauma and eventual collapse following Mr Duckworth's death, it is rather appropriate that professional Warriors are returning to action this season in what is the golden anniversary of Sixways.

Meanwhile, across the road but linked by a tunnel, the amateurs of the original Worcester Rugby Football Club, the other side of the sporting coin, continue to run, kick and tackle on their own pitches with their own clubhouse.

Former WRFC president David Hallmark explained: "Moving from Bevere to Sixways was a property transaction.

"The Bevere site was once a field on the edge of Worcester that became surrounded by residences and thus allowed the pitches to be sold at development value.

"The formal ownership was in the Wadley family who held the lands they had bought for the benefit of the club which could use the sale proceeds for the purchase and move to Sixways. Such extraordinary generosity.

"Sixways site became a place of expanding rugby with more teams and more pitches and more events such as the MEB Floodlight Tournament.

"About 10 years after the move to this site, as president, I presented a vision for a training shed that could be used as an event venue and set out to achieve this by 2000.

"Cecil Duckworth heard of this scheme, became involved and the new development of Sixways Stadium was completed.

"Cecil went further with his spending, taking the club into the commercial and professional era as Worcester Warriors.

"This led to a separation of the two interests and now the amateur WRFC has its own premises on Westons Fields nearby and promotes rugby for all and their families."

The Sixways project, in which former WRFC chairman David Robins played a pivotal role, was very much a club affair and legendary supporter Dick Cummings recalled: "I moved to Worcester in 1972 and joined WRFC the following year.

"I mentioned that I was a civil engineer and immediately was roped into developing the new Sixways site.

"I am proud to say that I dug the first sod for the new road into the new site and then went onto the earthmoving necessary for one of the pitches and finally the pitch drainage."

While former player Peter Richardson added: "I remember the day with pride - rugby runs deep in our family.

"My dad Bill helped secure the ground, my brother Jem even re-invented himself as a front-row forward after a career in the back row just so he could play in the opening game.

"My son Jeremy came through the ranks and now Edward, the great grandson of Bill, keeps the Richardson name going at the under 16 level at WRFC. "

It was on Thursday, September 4, 1975, that Worcester Rugby Club , founded in 1871, opened its new clubhouse and ground at Sixways.

The celebrations were in two parts, the first in the afternoon with a match against local rivals Birmingham, who won 31-19, and in the evening a dinner at Worcester Guildhall.

Both the match and the dinner featured one of the most famous international rugby players Mike Gibson, of Ireland and the British Lions, who arrived at the ground in style in a helicopter.

But it was not known then that many other famous international names would also take to the Sixways pitch in years to come, all thanks to another plane flight.