SEASON 4
I write this fourth instalment with the season 2009/2010 completed. This was Season 4 of the club’s five year plan.
I write this instalment just after the Annual Club Dinner, which was held on Friday 7 May 2010 where it was my privilege to dine with Mr Matt Perry of Bath, England and the British Lions. Matt Perry told me that he felt that we were a traditional rugby club with the same values which had been instilled in him both at grassroots level and international level with these primarily being enjoyment, discipline, sportsmanship, teamwork and most importantly respect.
Interestingly these are the same promoted values of our Rugby Football Union, emanating from Twickenham (Headquarters) and these are the bedrock of our great game and your rugby club, Medway RFC!
Sponsorship
We have been extremely fortunate to have many existing and new sponsors on board. Specific thanks to Mr Richard Ebanks and his firm, Hospital Lane Dental, Mr Jayson Stickings and his firm, The Generator Company, Superintendent Des Keers and the Medway Community Safety Partnership together with Webster Thomas Electrical and Shepherd Neame for their incredibly generous sponsorship this past season. There are a whole host of long term and regular sponsors who have been very generous with their funding and without all of the sponsors we would not be enjoying the sort of success we currently are.
The Seniors
The 1st Team played some exciting and expansive rugby this season and ultimately achieved a league position at one place above mid-table. Given the previous three seasons we had achieved consecutive promotions (as champions) to achieve a top-half league finish was a huge achievement. The club’s thanks go to Mr Taff Gwilliam, the 1st Team coach, who has again, exceeded our expectations with a cementing of our league status in regional rugby in the London Division 3 where we will once again play our Rugby in our 79th season (next season) 2010-11.
When I look at the three team photographs from the previous three promotion seasons I see quite a different 1st Team who played and retained their London league status this season and on that basis we have asked Taff if he will coach for a fifth season (commencing September 2010) and we are delighted to announce that he has agreed to coach for a fifth season, looking to build on the promotion from Kent Division 3 into London Division 3 and take us forward, looking to challenge for greater honours.
Taff and the 1st Team success was supported by the coaching team of Gordon Stone, Dave Tasker with support from Graham “Ginger” Longstaff. This season saw the introduction of the “Development Squad”. This innovation has seen the culmination of discussions with Senior, Youth and Mini coaches and many, many parents and has now evolved into our fresh Youth policy. From next season (2010/11) the Youth players will play their final “Youth” season at under-17 level. During their under-17season (on their 17th birthday) they will be introduced to the concept of the “Development Squad”. The Development Squad is a Saturday side which played a “pilot” season this current season 2009/10 and it has been so successful that the Development Saturday side has been placed into a league for next season (2010/11). A player can play Senior rugby on his 17th birthday with parental consent (but not in the front row, where he needs to be 18) and assessment of the player is undertaken to establish his physical development, skill level and competitive standard of the match. This first season of the Development Squad has worked extremely well, they did not play in a league but acquitted themselves exceptionally, winning many of the fixtures they were entered. After some misgivings from parents and coaches about the switch from Sunday Youth rugby into Senior rugby, we believe as a club, that we have bridged the divide between the Youth and the Seniors using the Development Squad who will play as Medway Rugby Football Club Development XV (in effect our third Senior side) and the players will enter that squad during their under-18 season, having met the Development Squad during their under-17 season and then will make the transfer from “Youth rugby” on a Sunday into “Senior rugby” on a Saturday afternoon.
The Development Squad has three coaches and a manager and because each individual young player develops at a different rate they will stay within the Development Squad until they are ready to move into the other Senior sides with an unofficial top age range of 21/22 years of age. We say unofficial because there may be players who are 22 who need an extra season in the Development Squad but generally we will encourage them to move into the other Senior sides (depending upon their ability) where they will already have an appreciation and some confidence in playing Senior rugby. Each individual 17 year old player will be assessed as to his welfare and safety before playing a senior match, in line with the RFU protocol.
WE WILL PROMOTE AND ENCOURAGE OUR TALENT, AND WE WILL PROVIDE A PATHWAY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE ABILITY TO PLAY AT THE VERY APEX OF OUR GAME.
We see this role in under-17/under-18 transfer as complementary to the university, sixth form and working life that the young players inevitably will experience and we trust that the innovation will retain players and transfer their skills from the excellent Youth section into the growing and ambitious Senior section of Medway Rugby Football Club.
The Development Squad will make five Senior sides for the season 2010/11 and in fact there is an unofficial sixth side called “Spartans”. Medway Rugby Football Club is proud to confirm that this first season of the Spartans has been incredibly successful and we are now the affiliated club with the Medway Universities. The Spartans have asked us to renew that affiliation with their second season commencing 2010/11 and with no less than 30 players available to play mid-week at Priestfields, Medway Rugby Football Club Senior sides have already benefited with at least two Spartans making the grade in the 1st XV and other Spartans playing for the 2nd and 4th Team at Medway RFC this season.
The Extra 1st Team, the A Team and the Old Holcombeians have all performed well in their respective leagues and I thank all of the captains, Simon Green, Matthew Jackson, Simon Thomas and Tony Evenden for the Medway Senior sides together with OJ who captains the Spartans. Finally, Graham “Ginger” Longstaff is thanked for his efforts with the Development Squad and getting that project off to a successful start with his support from Jane Wadhams, Chris Thompson and all the parents and supporters of the Development Squad, thank you one and all for a wonderful Senior season.
My previous reports have not contained a great deal of information about the Medway Women’s XV but I am able to report that they continue to grow (but they do need some additional support and other ladies to come forward and play for them). They play in the South-East division 3 and they have had a reasonably successful season, their Chairman (or perhaps Chairperson) Mandy Dyble is thanked for all of her and her committee’s efforts with the ladies and the executive continues to support them and we encourage all of the membership to help the Ladies XV move forward.
Spartans Rugby
As mentioned above we have now formalised our relationship with the local universities of Medway. This is a combination of University of Kent, Christchurch and Greenwich, who each have a campus in Medway. The Medway students have got together and formed a rugby club. They approached us for an affiliation and we are delighted to announce that this first season has gone very well and the Spartans have announced the design of a new playing shirt with the Medway crest emblazoned on one arm. The club in return has cemented the relationship and affiliation with a gift of Medway socks to the newly arrived students. We have high hopes for this partnership in the future and both of the institutions (Medway RFC and the Universities of Medway Students Union) believe that the partnership will bear fruit in the mid to long term future.
New Coaching Team
The plans for Season 79, 2010/11, are well underway and as stated above Taff will be the lead coach for the 1st Team (Senior club) and it has been agreed that he will be supported now by Graham “Ginger” Longstaff who will receive further support from Drew Sherston who will coach the Extra 1st Team.
The Development Squad will continue to be coached by Chris Thompson with support from Jane Wadhams and we welcome back into the fold Mr Paul Essenhigh who returns to bring his England coaching experience at the level of Development Squad (assisting where necessary also with the front five in the 1st Team and the Extra 1st Team).
For the next season Simon Green will continue to captain the 1st Team, the Extras are to be captained by Jamie Settle, the Development Squad in effect managed as stated above, Simon Thomas captain of the “A Team” (in effect the 4th XV Team) and the Holcombeians (the 5th XV) captained next year by Stuart Cullen.
Dean Conway will be the Youth chairman and we welcome Scott Daly as the Mini chair.
It has been a joy to work with Mr Lee Bruin who has done an excellent job with the Senior fixtures and has agreed to do it again next year. Mr Danny Pattenden has provided referees throughout the season. It was my privilege to present the Buxton award to Mr Jeff Robertson who has continued the good work with the England RFU ensuring that we retained and enhanced our “Club Mark” seal of approval and Mr Gerald Farrow is thanked along with the Chairman’s award winner, Mel Collins, for the tireless work they have done on the pitches. Some £10,000 of Club’s money has been spent on improving and maintaining the playing surfaces and I continue to receive many complements about the playing surface on all four pitches, especially the show pitch.
The deserved recipient of the Mick Burford “Spirit of Rugby Award” was Mr Graham McManus for his constant work with the Veterans, we thank you all.
Winning against the ultimate champions, East Grinstead RFC, was a wonderful day (Saturday 14 November 2009) and Grinstead were full of praise for the Medway efforts and ultimately to receive that praise from the champions of the league is worthy of note. The Kent President (Mr Robin Taylor) also congratulated the 1st Team on an outstanding display of rugby in beating Charlton Park in early November.
Seeing five nominations at the Medway Sports Awards with ultimately Mandy and Sheila taking the award for “Unsung Hero” was a real endorsement of the Club’s progress and with regular Radio Kent coverage now of Medway’s 1st Team, the Club status continues to move from strength to strength.
The Mini and Youth sections had many, many victories and on a personal note the Medway Under-16s performed marvellously to win the Kent Plate final (overcoming a powerful Sittingbourne side, just!) and we finished the season by taking the u16’s on tour to Ireland where we played Greystones and topped off a fantastic season. The whole of the Mini and Youth sections went to watch London Wasps versus Bath on 24 April after taking part in a Wasp’s master class (over 300 Medway people attended).
I was informed that a young man who I coached when he played in the Mini’s (Under-7s 2001/2002) has been selected for the England Under-16 group, Mr Simon Sexton, and I was delighted to inform Geoff Kempt and the other coaches in the Youth section that I have an international player in my coaching experience! Most of them continued to hang up on me and so in the end I sent the news by e-mail.
Touch Rugby
You can see from the photograph that leads this piece that I played some Touch Rugby in the summer. It was a joy for me to be able to play the game, having been injured out of the “contact” element. Touch Rugby at Medway Rugby Football Club is growing and with the committee led by Mr Eddie Baldwin, the touch Rugby Section grew from strength to strength. The Development Squad quite rightly won the 10 week tournament but everybody who took part had a fantastic time, I lost a stone in weight (which I thankfully gained again) and I look forward to next summer playing our great game. Thank you to all involved in Touch Rugby.
Finally, as I look forward to our 79th season, 2010/11 I remind myself that it will be my fifth and final season as Director of Rugby and I see, when I look at the hopes and aspirations of the five year plan, some fulfilment with the bridging of the gap between the Youth and the Seniors now in place with the establishment in a league next season the Development Squad and I look to thank everybody who has worked tirelessly at the Club this season with a final word for the Executive Committee and all the time that they and all the other volunteers give to make Medway Rugby Football Club a safe and vibrant place to be.
Our window to the world continues to be run by Mr Alan Bourne and I don’t know about you, but I cannot find a better website for a rugby club anywhere on the world wide web, a huge mention of appreciation, Alan, on behalf of every single member and the Executive Committee.
So that’s my fourth season done and dusted, a highly successful season for Medway Rugby Football Club. I look forward to the challenge of a fifth and final season as Director of Rugby where I seek to ensure that the legacy of our great game echoes with those words of “enjoyment, discipline, sportsmanship, teamwork and respect”.
See you at the Club….. c’mon Medway!
Mark Marriott
Director of Rugby at Medway Rugby Football Club