A rugby club stalwart has been reunited with 18 months of research into his team’s history after the documents were stolen from his car.

Papers containing the 150-year history of Wimbledon Rugby Club were snatched when thieves broke into a car belonging to Noel Ahearne, the Barham Road club’s U18s manager.

He said: “I was devastated – I was just mortified.”

They were taken from Mr Ahearne’s silver Volkswagen in New Malden on October 27.

But days later they were found near Raynes Park Sports Ground, with some apparently thrown over fences in the area after the thieves had removed them from the bags in which they were in.

Mr Ahearne said: “These muppets assumed they were laptops or something.”

Mr Ahearne’s research will form the basis of a book about the club’s history to mark its 150th birthday in 2015.

He has uncovered information about famous former club members, including Leonard James Maton who single-handedly wrote the first full laws of rugby, specifying match lengths and player numbers, at his house in Homefield Road, in Wimbledon.

These were adopted by the Rugby Football Union – an organisation Mr Maton later became president of.

Other areas of Mr Ahearne’s research include the club’s involvement with the Calcutta Cup – the trophy fought over when England meet Scotland in international matches – and players who won military honours in the First and Second World Wars.

He has visited museums and archives across Britain, and contacted clubs on the other side of the world, in the course of his research.

Mr Ahearne thanked police officers from Raynes Park and Kingston for their help in trying to track the documents.

But he is still missing documents related to his business and a digital camera.

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