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Mark Ridout
Today in our occasional series of player profiles we explore the nether regions, that dim and dank place called the ‘front row’ and in particular tighthead prop Mark Ridout. Very much a ‘local’ man Mark was born at Farnborough Hospital on the 8 th April 1969 and educated at the Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys followed by, in his words, a stint at the University of Life!
The epitome of a ‘one club man’ Mark has played right through the club from the mini’s through to the First XV and along the way has captained both the colts and the A XV. This season he has become only the fourth player, joining Malcolm McCulloch and fellow front rowers Chris Crang and Damian Manning, to reach the notable landmark of one hundred league appearances. Mark considers the high point of his rugby career, thus far, being the beating of Tabard and Blackheath in the 1999/2000 Tetley Bitter Cup and the low point the subsequent extra time loss, in near total darkness, to Thurrock by twenty-four points to twenty-three and thereby missing the opportunity to play Harlequins at the Stoop in the next round. Mark’s sporting hero is Graham Metcalf who, not only coached and managed Mark in the Colts, but who also persuaded Mark to move from the back row to hooker and “started me down the road to tighthead prop”.
His ambitions with the club are to see Sevenoaks get promotion (relegation a couple of seasons back is one of his rugby low points) to “a league we know we can do well in” and, on a personal front “continue playing 1 st XV rugby until someone takes my position (I’m not going to give it up without a fight)”.
Outside of rugby Mark enjoys working out in the gym and will ‘play any sport he is asked to’. He follows football, motor racing and ladies beach volley ball and will watch almost anything that England or Great Britain is competing in. Recently married to Sandy Johnston, daughter of Oaks Club member Peter, Mark considers that his father in law is probably his “most critical supporter and, for someone that never played rugby, a true armchair expert”.
On the career front Mark, on leaving school, pursued his fortune in the ‘city’ firstly as a trader with BNP Parisbas and then as a broker in the Money Markets. Seven years ago a career change saw him become a recruitment consultant and he is now a Business Development and Strategic Account Manager for a soft ware services company.
Four people Mark would invite to a dinner party are Jason Leonard, because he enjoys a beer, Julian White, so that Jason and Mark could tell him where he is going wrong, Kirsty Gallagher, because she can talk sport and is not bad to look at, and Kylie Minogue, why not! (I’m not going to argue with him!).
We wish Mark every success in the future both on and off the field of play