Droitwich
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/RUGBYCLUBMAG
Members of the Second Team
This season’s Junior Players Dinner
was held at the beginning of May where
Jackson Willison, the Worcester Warriors
centre addressed the players. There is still
a problem keeping our young players in
the club when they reach eighteen and
this is an area that we will address during
the next season. In the junior section we have two
players that have represented England;
in the seniors we have three in the current
45+ England squad. An interesting point
is that Touch has brought many ex-
players back to the club and playing.
Some have used it as a way of keeping fit
while recovering from injury.
GTR Touch rugby Referees
On 26 November 2012, we had a
meeting with the Rugby Development
Officer for our Area, he outlined the
requirements to become an O2 touch
centre, and we pulled all the stops out
and became an accredited centre just
after Christmas. We play every Tuesday
throughout the year; there are normally
about 25 players each week, with 25%
being ladies.
Touch has been one of the fasted
growing sports in the UK. We have
expanded greatly over the past season
with our Spring Touch tournament
attracting up to 15 teams. This normally
runs from the start of May to June with
weekly rounds. For the past two seasons
Worcester Warriors have held their
tournament at our Club. A major problem is to get referees for
the seconds on Saturday and the juniors
on Sunday. This season a referee’s course
was held just after Christmas where
fifteen from the club attended. It was
agreed by the committee that the club
would finance the course. I’m pleased to
report that all 15 passed the course.
In order to give the new referees
experience they started by refereeing
the junior fixtures on Sunday, this has
worked well with some joining the North
Midlands Referees Society. We hope that
finding a ref for a Saturday or Sunday
will be a problem of the past.
500 Club
with this in mind a 500 club was launched
to provide funds for pitch maintenance
in September 2015. It was hard work to
set up involving going out on a Saturday
and Sunday and getting players and
parents to sign up.
Of the money we collect 40% is paid
out in prize money and the remainder
goes towards pitch maintenance. At
the end of the season our training pitch
will be ripped up, de-compacted and
reseeded ready for next season, this
being paid for by the 500 club members.
We currently have 107 members and
will make a special effort to increase this
at the start of next season.
The Committee
An important part of the season has
been our committee. This has worked
together to produce a structure that has
allowed the Director of Rugby, Chairman
of M&Js and Touch to grow without the
worries of financial constraints.
Article provided by David James,
Fixture Secretary
Very little had been done to our
pitches over the past few seasons and
“Our seconds have also had a good season under the
guidance of manager Mike Taylor and Captain Craig Browne.
They have honoured every fixture this season benefitting from
the training sessions and club identity.”
62 Issue 71