On behalf of everyone at Exmouth Rugby Club, I would like to express our clubs thanks for the amazing services that he has given to everyone at the club both on and off the pitch.

Bob has brought many areas of professionalism to the club as well as maintaining and balancing these with old school values. He has always had, and will continue to have the full respect from everyone at the Cockles and we completely value the contribution he has made. Bob has been an absolute rock in the Exmouth pack for a number of years, and even last season put in a number of 80 minute and man of the match performances. He has captained the side on many occasions and basically made Exmouth a side who opponents feared playing. The fact that it took till Wednesday to recover following a Saturday game, I think, has been one of the main reasons behind his decision because actually, his performances defy his years ... And some!!!!

Whilst we will certainly miss Bob on the pitch, he will continue to have a key role off it, and we look forward to benefiting from his knowledge and expertise and coaching skills.

The word legend is often an overused word, but in The Case of Bob Armstrong it is a word which is almost always repeated time and time again, when you ask anyone about Bob and his impact in South West as well as Services Rugby.
These thoughts, I am sure, would be echoed at Exeter Chiefs RFC, Plymouth Albion RFC and Bristol RFC for whom Bob made a huge impact. Some comments and references to follow should put into context the impact he has had with Services rugby with the Royal Navy and the Combined Services. It is worth noting that Bob is still the most capped Royal Navy Rugby player!

As part of a send off at our awards dinner a few weeks ago, I contacted a few of Bob's ex team mates for some character references and stories. By reading them, it should put into context the respect that he deserves and the impact that he has made. Here goes ...... :

Keith Brooking
I first met Bob Armstrong at Exeter Chiefs when I was a young impressionable front row forward. When he first walked into training my first thoughts were "Who the hell is this bear of a man?, Can he really play? I wonder how much stick for being Ginger he actually got? How many times has he broken his nose?" The answers were obviously Bob Armstrong, yes he can play and quite well come to that, I don't think anyone ever mentioned that he was ginger, not twice anyway and once he spoke you realised that his nose had been broken many, many times!

Bob brought to Exeter a new element to the game not just on the field with his ball carrying and organisational skills but the main part was off the field and to me what rugby is all about. He started to enhance the social side and took on the role of Chief fines master and for some reason made quite a lot of money and never had any issues collecting late payments. He helped get Exeter Chiefs promoted and helped start the push up the leagues to the pinnacle of where they are now. But to me the legacy that he leaves behind is how to run a social bus & the 'Thing to Bring'. He introduced the 'Thing To Bring' to the Exeter changing room both home and away and this has gone on to several clubs throughout the South West. He made a fortune on this and always used the Navy stores for his inspiration no matter where he was based. Most of the time you had to bring something that was hard to find but not impossible. However we all knew a big bus trip or social was coming up when the 'Thing to Bring' was almost impossible to get. To this day I still keep my eye out for a Military Issued Ice Pick just in case I need one and have left a space in my cupboard just in case I ever ended up having to find an Artificial Limb one more time.

A true legend of the game.

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Dan Parks

Bob has been a constant in rugby for that long now its getting ridiculous. He was the best the player the navy had seen in his generation.
There is one thing however that bob has mastered even more than rugby. That is the art of not buying a beer or generally ever opening his wallet, it was said in the navy that people that were tight with their money that when they opened it bats would fly out, however with bob its been that long that pterodactyl’s would fly out.
I have seen bob play against some of the best players around and one that stands out for me was against Richmond playing 8 against Scott Quinnell, bob completely cancelled him out and on the day was the better player, quinnell shock his hand and said that’s one of the hardest games ive played.
I think a saying that encapsulates bob the best is;

Good players can play great games, but great players play good every single time.
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Dave Sibson

I was lucky enough to get my 1st cap playing with Bob back in 92 against the Army, he was the sort of player like Parrisse who was on the losing side in a Navy shirt but still gave a man of the match performance. We toured NZ, SA and Canada with many a story that will stay on tour but one you may like him to relive is when we were in NZ in 92 and the Maori welcome party showed us honour and respect by performing the Haka. Bob as Captain had to reply, what would he do? A few versus on 'rum & coca cola'? A traditional British song? No Bob took to the stage & started his own Haka...... A ringa Ginga, ginger he started with his war face, then went into heads, shoulders, knees & toes with all the actions!! You can imagine how that went down!
I played with Bob against the All Blacks in 93 alongside international legends like Rory Underwood, Paul Hull, Rob Wainwright. Bob was still man of the match. His injury vs Plymouth Albion was a sad day and one that threatened his life let alone his playing career, again I was there that day and you don't just lose a player like Bob, the Navy team did not recover from that for a few years. 31 caps could easily have 50 as he would still do a job today.

Bob now continues to guide and mentor young players and I can think of no better role model, enjoy your retirement old friend, see u at the next charity match.

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Owen Salmon Navy Head Coach

Bob he's a Navy Rugby legend! I'll give you a few Navy Rugby stats, a quick story and some contact details of other ex players:

1. First played for the Navy in 1989 and went on to win 31 caps which is still the highest.
2. Last capped game was against the Army at Twickenham in 2004.
3. Captained the Navy between 1997 - 2000.
4. Played for the Combined Services against the All Blacks (1993), Namibia (1990), Argentina (1996), Canada (1998) and Romania (2001).

The RN played the Irish Defence Force for the first time in their history in 2002 at Old Deer Park, Bob used to be the Royal Marine heavyweight boxing champion but during a maul an awful crack was heard, as play moved on Bob was left knocked out star fished on the deck! I think after he came around he took some time looking for his teeth in the grass!

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Craig Barrow

This is the report from the Sunday Times from Eddie Butler when Bath beat Bristol 14-9 at the Rec. I have lived on this story for years stating I had red hair because the day before the match was Comic Relief Day and I had sprayed my hair red!!

The real story was that I wore letter M and Bob letter N as Bristol wore letters in those days and the programme was the other way around. Therefore Eddie Butler thought I was Bob Armstrong and this is what he wrote.

“But the most outstanding performance came from Barrow (Ie BOB!!) and virtually unknown in the Bristol back-row. Taking a leaf out of England’s book on how to stop the direct play of the All Blacks, he stood square on to the charges of Clarke, Ubogu and Ojomoh and knocked them all down. He picked up a stream of scraps at the line-out and presented immaculate ball to the three quarters.”

This could have been me but I fear it was BOB but the article looks good on my wall.

Bob was that sort of player and character. Straight forward, no nonsense and reliable and HARD as nails.

One of my last memories of the professional game was a game at Newcastle Falcons in the cup for the Chiefs. They had the following, Dean Ryan, Doddie Weir, Nick Popplewell, Pat Lam, Tony Underwood, Vaiga Tuigamala, John Bentley, Rob Andrew, a very young Johnny Wilkinson, and I think Gary Armstrong at scrum half. It was like the Alamo and we tackled everything that moved and leading at the front was big Bob, all red hair, solid as a rock, unflappable, what a player!

My last story is from my Director of Sport, Pip Atkinson-Kennedy, whose husband Peter Kennedy was a coach at Chiefs. On the way back from Waterloo, Pip was driving and Pete was in the front but in the back was Big BOB, Del Cross (very large 2nd row Marine) and Andy Beattie (very large No.8) The car was a very small Chiefs Rover Thingy and the three big blokes in the back were playing the Eddie Stobart game where apparently you punch each other very hard in the arm if you saw an Eddie Stobart Lorry. How Pip kept the car on the road she does not know as the three blokes in the back had a very amusing journey home on the M6 and M5.
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Stu Lowe

Bob instantly bought into the Exmouth ethos and he became an inspirational player throughout his years at the club. He has helped develop many players and a role model throughout South West Rugby Circles.

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Ian Morgan

My fondest memories of Bob were the constant beatings that we took when we played against the Navy. Bob managed to break my nose three years in a row. I love the guy to bits and he is one of the very true legends of our game. Every time I saw that big ginger monster run out, I feared for my nose, he seemed to enjoy getting his hands on me! Bob, I have the ultimate respect for you, you have had an amazing career and won't ever be forgotten as a player.

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Mark Wathes

One of my first senior games I played with Bob. I was amazed at how Bob command the respect of the whole squad which included the likes of Leggy and Adam Hooper. From that point on he had my respect and has had it ever since. A true ginger legend.