With the new season only two weeks away on behalf of Twickenham RFC I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a warm welcome back and hope you all had a marvellous summer holiday!

The senior squad did not get much rest and has been hard at work in pre-season since 1st July and already has one warm up match under its belt and two matches arranged at home for Saturday 30th August. From the following Saturday the full league programme commences! All senior fixtures for the season can be found on the notice board in the foyer where the kit bags are placed post-match. Believe me when I say that the players very much appreciate your support on match days.

The U13s to U16s have already completed four weeks of Wednesday night fitness and skills training and latterly the U17s have started Wednesday and Sunday fitness sessions. A number of these sessions have been attended/run/supported by members of the senior squad past and present. Indeed when the season starts in earnest a number of the age groups will have senior players heavily involved on Wednesdays and Sundays. This is the essence behind a Whole Club accreditation and One Club philosophy. But it has to work up and down the tree. The club has also recently appointed a member of the senior coaching team who will also fulfil a whole club role across all age groups as coach educator (having worked for the RFU running Level 3/2/1 coaching award courses) once the season is in full swing.

During the summer there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes by a number of people, the results of which will start to be seen throughout the club from day one and as we progress through the season.

In particular I would like to mention the planning team that are striving to get things ready for our very busy opening weekend of the season – Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September.

On Saturday 6th we are trying to get all sections of the club along to Parkfields to support what is without doubt going to be a special day; for full and complete details follow this link>>

The newly established 4th XV are playing Whitton Lions and will look resplendent in their new kit and old faces. If there are any other old faces out there who fancy a bit of a run out – coaches/parents – please contact Harry 07793 269931 or Paul 07801 033683.

The 3rd XV will be playing their annual charity match - fundraising for Macmillan Nurses - against usual foes Egham. And we must thank Egham very much as they have moved their “home fixture” to us for a very special reason. This particular game is of extra relevance this year, as it was a charity obviously very close to Andy; as a mark of respect to a man who put a hell of a lot into the club over many years the whole day is to be dedicated to Andy Rees as his memorial day.

The 3rd XV and 4th XV games kick off at noon. These will be followed by the first league games of the season for the 1st XV and 2nd XV. Both teams are in new leagues, with the 1st XV gaining promotion to London 1 South and the 2nd XV moving to the Shield in order to have much more competitive matches. The other advantage of moving the 2nd XV to this league is that there will be ten double headers whereby the 1st XV and 2nd XV play the same opposition club at the same ground at the same time.

As stated before it should be an exciting and busy day and it would be great to see Parkfields packed out with members and supporters. You may also want to put a hand up and volunteer half an hour of your time on the various activities going on through the day.

Then on the Sunday our minis and juniors will be starting their season. We wish them a fun packed eight months and hope that leads to success on and off the pitch.

Iain Brown
Head of Senior Rugby