Aspull
“ I was brought up at the club . My dad was one of its first members when it settled in the village . I stopped being involved with the club when I went to secondary school until shortly after I left around 2005 . The club I came back to was totally different the one I left .
I started to go to committee meetings to offer help as I knew it was really struggling . I went to one in August 2007 , nipped to the bar for a pint and was being seconded in as Club Secretary when I got back in the room ! That ’ s where I have been ever since .
We are a small village team in the very heart of Rugby League country so our challenge is always fighting preconceptions of what playing Rugby Union is like . This presents challenges unique to Yorkshire and Lancashire clubs . In my role the challenge has always been balancing my time between having a life and helping club . It has of course got a lot easier as success breeds success and more members are around to share the load .
I don ’ t think the mood at the club has ever been more positive , normally the season finishes and other than a bit of tig & pass once a week the squad breaks up and go their separate ways . This summer the lads have trained fully once a week , played football / tig & pass once and then gym club on Saturday mornings . Pre-season doesn ’ t start until early July but we have 20 + lads going to at least one of those sessions , more with the lions games on Saturdays too .
About half way through last season we realised that our style of rugby was attracting attention so we decided to take positive action and created the position of Commercial Manager whose purpose was solely to look at ways to generate revenue and publicity for the club .
Since Chris Pike took the post he has been selling sponsorship packages for pitch side hoardings and player sponsorship along with a match day programme . All of these things might seem standard and mundane to other clubs but this is all new to Aspull as we try to improve performances on the pitch this drives the change off it . The clubhouse and main pitch have never looked better and that is driving interest from the most unusual places as people notice it .
As a club we see our future as the ‘ local club ’, to me that means more members , more players and maybe a 3rd team . We can only achieve that if we hold on to the values we currently hold . Our junior section needs a real recruitment drive at all levels as with a first team to look up to and feed into we have a chance to create a real community asset where children and adults are proud to wear the crest . Off the field further improvements to our facilities and pitches to allow greater use should be our target so that when the time comes for me to hand over my pen and notepad to the next secretary he / she doesn ’ t have to fight the way we had to to drive the club forward .”
Christian Walsh , Hon Secretary www . rugbyclubmag . com 73