Wiveliscombe RFC Newsletter Autumn 2014 RUGBY NEWS With the start of another season underway we all look forward with eager anticipation to witnessing our lads producing some quality, free flowing, rugby on both the main recreation ground and Plain Pond pitches. The first and second teams remain in the Tribute Somerset Premier league and the Tribute Somerset 2 South league respectively after both teams ended last season just below mid table. John Ker has taken over the captaincy of the First XV from Dan Twose with James Stenning retaining the captaincy of the seconds. We are also hopeful that a veterans team, under the captaincy of Ross “he’s never that old” Porter, will provide some entertainment for those who enjoy their rugby at a slightly slower pace! Sanatogen will be to the fore! The new senior coaching team of Peter and Brian Stone have been encouraged by a good turnout at pre-season training with several new faces adding to the pool of available players. Two narrow losses away at Yatton and Gordano were soon forgotten as the First XV recorded an excellent home win against Taunton. Meanwhile the seconds have notched up a 100% win record with 2 from 2. Sadly, the Colts have suffered 3 defeats in league games but are developing into a cohesive squad under the coaching of Simon Higgins and Paul Ridge. CLUB NEWS Off the pitch the closed season has seen considerable activity with regards to both the development of the club and the committee structure. At the AGM, Doc. John Rees agreed to continue as our club president and Gary Sharland was elected as Club Chairman with Robert Burston as his vice chairman. Dean Horton has been elected as our secretary and Jackie Bellamy continues as our honorary treasurer. Susie Hemborough will continue her role as the chair of our social and fundraising committee and Pete Hughes remains as the junior section chair. Other appointments include Dan Twose as the new Chairman of Rugby and Pete Stone as club facilitator with a number of other roles being filled by club players and members. More details are shown on the fixture card. It is entirely appropriate to reflect on the work of Peter Rawson, our previous chairman, and Arthur Moore, our hon. secretary. Both have worked tirelessly for so many years on behalf of the club and, with astute and careful financial management, Peter has steered us away from the difficult financial position that the club faced a couple of years ago. Our sincere thanks and best wishes to both although Peter remains involved as the club sponsorship and advertising lead. If you can support the club in this way, please give Peter a call. Before the start of the season we said goodbye to Chester Locke who has been involved with Wiveliscombe RFC for a very long time. Judith remains as the lead bar person, hopefully, assisted by an army of volunteer bar staff. If you fancy pulling a few pints on match days or at other events please make contact with Susie Hemborough. The bar cellar has enjoyed a refurbishment and a team of Exec members now look after the pipes and other paraphernalia which are needed to provide a selection of superb ales and ciders. They are busy pipe cleaning (and checking the quality of the beer!) every Thursday evening during the season so, if you fancy an “almost the weekend” pint, pop down and see them any time after 8.00pm when the senior players also enjoy some post training rehydration. Our bar prices have also been substantially reduced - what more incentive could you need! You may have noticed that the posts at the Rec. were taken down at the end of last season as a group, led by Robert Burston and John Ker, have been giving them a much needed coat of paint and, in a couple of cases, some straightening! Well done to all involved getting them finished and back up ready for our first home game. CLUB NEWS (Continued) Plain Pond is also getting some love and attention as the shower system is having a long overdue overhaul. This is a costly but much needed piece of work. As is so often the case our thanks to Pete Stone for pulling this together and to Tony Ormerod ([email protected]) for all his support and hard work. Another piece of good news is that, during the closed season, the club applied successfully to the RFU to become an accredited club. Although this does not bring any direct revenue into the club, it does reflect that we are a club which is moving in the right direction and is one where members, players and their families can be confident that the club was able to meet some rigorous RFU criteria. We are one of only a few clubs locally to achieve this. Allied to the accreditation, the club ran a series of development evenings assisted by the RFU, to review and consider changes to the club and the committee structure, many of the suggestions that arose have been acted upon including the provision of Wi-Fi in the clubhouse, reduced bar prices, a debit card machine and BT Sport. Please do not forget that all this work is undertaken by volunteers. If you have any great ideas to help develop the club going forward please share them with members of the Executive Committee but also please consider rolling up your sleeves to help make your idea a reality. The development evenings demonstrated that the club will thrive and go forward if the tasks and roles are shared amongst a greater number of people to drive them forward. The improvements to the club have all cost money (hopefully, we will see increased footfall and cash spent at the bar as a result) and huge amounts of volunteer time and effort. Please can you ensure that your membership is paid without delay as this is a particularly testing time of the year financially for your club and these payments are vital in ensuring the club can be viable, can move forward and meet expectations. We all know that there is not a lot of spare cash about at present and many people and families are struggling to meet their household bills but, please remember, your club is no different. Prompt payment of membership and other costs are really important in ensuring your club can provide the facilities that you want. Apologies that this has been a lengthy piece - it is important to share details of what is going on at our club. Hopefully future newsletters will be full of reports of champagne rugby being played by all our teams across the age groups. After all, this why we all do what we do! END OF SEASON CLUB TOUR Many thanks to Jake Sharland for his work pulling together arrangements for an end of season club tour to Lille in Northern France. We understand that the tour is currently oversubscribed but if you want to put your name down on the waiting list, please contact Jake. And Finally…… If anyone has any funny anecdotes or tales (that they can share with others), articles or news to share through this newsletter, then please let Pete Hughes know on 07968 199002 or e-mail it to him at [email protected]. It would be great if match reports could be included in the future! Why not visit the club website: www.wiveliscomberfc.co.uk (with thanks to Hugh Kelly for his work to develop this resource). .