Firstly, let me apologise for being off line for the past couple of weeks. I had to replace my laptop and restore my contacts. Hopefully I have everyone back into our contact group. If you see anyone missing from the list, please let me know.

A warm welcome Alfie Green who has just registered with our under 12s this morning. It’s also great to welcome new faces and I hope Alfie continues to enjoy rugby with us at the Junior Black Reds.

Unfortunately, I was also informed that our under 12’s also lost a player to Rugby League this morning. Rocco Okesene has decided to follow in father’s considerable footsteps and play the 13 aside game for the foreseeable future. We wish Rocco and his family every success and thank them for their support over the past few years. They, like anyone else who has ever played for our juniors, would be welcomed back, should their circumstances ever change in the future.

If anyone else has taken the decision to pursue other interests and no longer wants to be copied on these emails, please just give me a call or drop me a line so that we know numbers for future fixtures. It helps when organising fixtures for the different age groups.

Hopefully Hein and I earned a some brownie points with a few mothers this morning, as we conducted the session entirely on the tennis court, thereby ensuring the kids returned home with dry, clean kit for the first time in a while. I’m not sure we can promise to repeat that feat in future weeks given this horrendous weather and the condition of the pitches.

Hopefully the kids all enjoyed a run about in the fresh air – however cold it may have been.

Our next game is against Cockermouth in 2 weeks time (21st Feb). Unfortunately, they have double booked the U12’s, so it will only be our U8s and U10s.

Due to the computer issues, I haven’t be able to put up the list for those who would like to join our planned trip to watch the Newcastle Falcon v London Wasps over Easter, but hopefully I can get this sorted for next week.

Finally, I hope Rob and Rachel were successful in their endurance run this morning. I don’t know where you get the energy!

Hope to see you all next week as we prepare for the Cockermouth games.

David.