Best wishes to all members as we approach another rugby season and I hope you are all summering well and have enjoyed the festival of top class sport that has been on our screens over the last few months.

Quite a lot has happened since the last edition of Welwynformed which was way back in January. Please accept my apologies for this lengthy period of silence.

The 1st XV were relegated despite a last minute surge in their fortunes and will now play against many old friends and rivals at clubs such as Barnet Elizabethans, Cheshunt, Hitchin and Datchworth. The lads have their minds firmly set on an immediate return to London NW2, so we will hopefully have many victories to celebrate over the coming months. Make sure you don’t miss out – even the beer is better now, as Heather points out in her report!

A huge amount of work on improving the clubhouse has been carried out over the summer, again all covered in the Chairman’s report so I will not go into details here. I find it hugely reassuring in these changing times that all of the work has been carried out by volunteers – many thanks to you all.

We welcome James Coles, Dene Miller and Mike McKay as our new coaching team and I hope you will all take the opportunity to get to know them over the next few weeks. James’s day job is with Saracens and he had very successful spells coaching the County U16 and U20 sides last season. Dene was a formidable winger for QE2, Tabard and OAs and also won a full cap for Scotland at rugby league. I use the past tense reservedly as he is only 30 and we hope to get some game time out of him as well! Mike was part of the very successful Colts coaching team last season who also coached the County U18 team. Pre-season training has been in progress for a couple of months and the boys are looking fit and raring to go. Mick Hills has stepped down as Chairman of the Senior Playing Committee after several seasons and Andy McLachrie has kindly volunteered to take on this role. Many thanks to Mick and welcome and good luck to Andy.

The girls section had yet another successful season with both U15 and U18 winning their leagues in style beating such sides as Worcester and London Irish along the way. Many congratulations to the girls and their coaches. I attended their presentation evening at the end of last season and was very impressed with the turn out and contagious enthusiasm of the girls and their families.

Two old boys of the club have also been in the headlines over the summer. Simon Hardy was part of the England coaching team that toured South Africa and Joe Worsley has hung up his head band and joined Raphael Ibanez at Bordeaux Bègles as defence coach. We wish them both well for the future.

Fixture cards have been printed and are available at the clubhouse. If you would like me to post you one, please let me know. All fixture card information will be available on the club website at www.welwynrugby.co.uk. The first league fixture for the 1st XV is away at Cheshunt on 15th September and it would be good to see Welwyn well represented on the touchline. They play at the Rosedale Sports Club at Andrews Lane, Cheshunt EN7 6TB - directions can be found at www.cheshuntrugby.co.uk

Lunches will be held before every home league game, so please get in touch with Heather or sign the list in the clubhouse if you would like to attend.

Finally, I am delighted to report that Hertfordshire made history in May by beating Lancashire at Twickenham game to become County Champions and proud holders of the Bill Beaumont Cup for the first time in our 76 year history!

See you on the touchline!

Best wishes

Mark Elliott
Vice Presidents’ Secretary
1 Elmwood
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL8 6LD
mark.elliott@elliottpm.com
07836 728804

Chairman’s Report

As many of you will know, the 1st XV were relegated from London 2NW at the end of the season despite winning their last two games. Whilst this was very disappointing, it may have proved to be a good thing as Stevenage, who lost their promotion play-off game, were level transferred to London 2NE – had we stayed up in 2NW, I believe that we would have been the team transferred which would have meant long away trips to Lowestoft & Yarmouth, Beccles, etc! The ambition of the 1st XV is to gain promotion back up to London 2NW this season. The 2nds and 4ths both won silverware and the 3rds had a good season. The 5ths, who were only going to play the odd game, were so successful that they will be playing in the Merit Tables this season. The Colts played a nail biting final at Datchworth and beat Hitchin to win the County Cup for only the second time in our history. The RFU have changed the age qualification for the Colts which means that most of our two Colts teams are ineligible to play as Colts again this season. Many of the former Colts are down training and pushing for places in all the senior teams which is very encouraging to see. Andy Riley stepped down as coach and, after a lengthy selection process, James Coles was appointed as Head Coach with Dene Miller as backs coach and Mike McKay (who was very involved in coaching our Colts) as assistant coach. Pre-season training has been going well and the players are looking fit and enthusiastic!

We didn’t hold the annual Dinner & Dance this year but instead held a Players’ Presentation Evening (which went very well) and a separate Summer Ball, which again went well. The costs of hiring a marquee and providing a sit down meal for the Dinner & Dance made the evening too expensive for many people and the decision was taken to try alternative ways of celebrating the end of the season.

There has been good news and bad news during the summer and I will start with the bad news. As many of you are aware, Gerry Barker, who dedicates every other Thursday throughout the year to keeping the club in good decorative order, fell from the rugby club roof whilst applying anti-vandal paint on 12th July and smashed his thigh, hip and ribs. He was airlifted to hospital in London where he underwent a four and a half hour operation to pin his leg. He has been transferred to the QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City and is slowly making a recovery. I visited Gerry today and he is likely to be in hospital for at least another fortnight. Very sadly whilst Gerry was still in hospital, his wife Jean passed away and Mark and I were asked by the family to represent the club at her funeral on 3rd August. When Gerry is out of hospital a memorial gathering will be held at Welwyn RFC to remember Jean and I will keep you all up to date with news of this. Another person to occupy a hospital bed is Angie Mercer who had a very nasty experience with a gall stone and was rushed into hospital in Stevenage for an emergency operation. Fortunately the surgeons were in time to remedy the problem and Angie is now back home and getting stronger every day. Last but not least is news of one of our young players, Carl Lewis, who was crushed at work by a fork lift truck and who is very lucky to have survived. Carl is out of hospital which is good news but is also out of rugby for at least this season as his body tries to recover. We wish all three people as speedy a recovery as possible and hope to see them down at the club very soon. Also on a sad note, three people who have been involved with the club over the years have died recently. They are June Howe, John Henchley and Kim Elliott – our sympathy goes out to their families.

On a happier note, a lot has been going on at the club during the summer to try to bring the clubhouse up to scratch. My thanks to Nigel Patey for replacing the perimeter ceiling in the clubhouse, to Mick Hills for putting in the new LED lights, to Ian Ewin for supplying the lights at “mates’ rates”, and to Austen Cox, Joe Burns, Boomer, Charlie Aldridge, Barry Crowe, Craig Wilkins and Russell Bowden for giving up their Sunday morning to get the new ceiling painted. The gym has been redecorated (thanks to Brian Thomas for helping me out with the painting!). I was delighted to present Rod Faircloth with the Club Personality of the Year at the AGM and he has continued to show his support for the club throughout the summer by laying the new rubber gym flooring, putting wooden trim around the new ceiling in the main clubroom, repairing the leaking roof and a myriad of other maintenance jobs. As I write, Rod is putting new pumps in for the showers and will be removing the old, inefficient calorifier in the cleaner’s room and replacing it with four new units in the boiler room. He will also be installing a shower unit in the referees’ room. I applied for and was granted £5,000 from the RFU to offset the cost of these works, so the cost to the club should be minimal. I cannot thank Rod enough for the huge amount of work that he does at the club. Mick Hills has given up hours of his time to sort out the electrics at the club which are now
both safe and operational – he worked particularly hard to ensure that all the work was completed in time for my son Peter’s wedding on 18th August and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to him for getting the work done on time. Also as I write, Jeff Lack is laying an area of block paving leading out to the rugby pitches and again my thanks to him for doing this virtually at cost. We are hoping to block pave the whole of the car park when funds are available and this will negate the need for regular line marking as this will be done using different colour blocks. Unfortunately this will have to wait until the coffers are replenished! Thanks to Shabby and Gary Peterkin for getting the Fullers rep down to the club and persuading him to upgrade the pumps – we now have new ‘T’ bar pumps and a new chiller unit so we can serve extra cold Guinness and Carlsberg as well as suitably chilled cider and Stella. Also new to the bar is a card payment machine and an electronic till – so please be patient with the volunteer bar staff as they get to grips with this new technology!! My thanks, as always, to all those who give willingly of their time to help the club to continue to run on a voluntary basis.

As usual, there will be pre-match lunches prior to all 1st XV home league games – if you would like to attend any or all of these, the cost is £10 per head for a two course meal. Please let me know by the Wednesday before the Saturday at the latest so that I can let Jimmy the caterer know numbers (heather.elliott@btinternet.com, 01707 324617 or 07870 414975).

Finally, I am very proud to announce that the club has its first President of Herts RFU. Mark took over from Colin Haslam in June this year and will serve a two year term. You may well see him all blazered up in a particularly noticeable green at the bar on his return from duty visiting other clubs!!

I hope to see many of you down at the club either on the touch line or in the bar or preferably both!

Heather Elliott
Chairman
heather.elliott@btinternet.com
07870 414975

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Website

Just a reminder that by simply visiting the site at www.welwynrugby.co.uk and registering your e-mail address you can be automatically informed on club news and events, weekly match reports, comment on club forums and even post your own photos and contributions - simply click member sign up and follow the instructions to become part of the Welwyn RFC web community!!

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Coaches’ Report

Hello Welwyn Rugby Club!

Can I firstly say what a pleasure it is to be here in my home town, coaching my local rugby club. As you may know, James Coles, Mike McKay and I have been working with the teams over the last couple of months and I have been impressed with the enthusiasm and hard work shown by all the players. I'm sure the hard work in pre-season will reflect in a positive start to our league campaign.

We have worked hard on fitness, basic skills and ball retention through a number of phases and we hope you enjoy seeing us retain possession this season and put our opponents under pressure. Enjoy the game today and hopefully we will see you showing your support and being entertained throughout the season.

Best regards
Dene Miller

Report from Andy McLachrie – new Chairman of the Senior Playing Committee

As I reach the twilight years of playing rugby (although not giving up just yet...some will be disappointed to hear), I am looking forward to giving something back to the club and senior sides where I have enjoyed many happy occasions, always without having to worry about how it gets organised. I plan to carry on the great work done by Mick on a weekly basis, and hope it all goes as smoothly as he has made it seem over past years!

As part of this I want to encourage our adoption of the club website and its integrated selection process - this will make selection simpler and easier for all players, captains, and managers. It will also provide all club members visibility of who is selected for which team, and hopefully lots of stats and game reports as we move through the season.

I would encourage all club members, and all active players to register on the club website as soon as possible to ensure you are kept up to speed with all club news, fixtures, team selections and result.

Cheers
Andy McLachrie

Mini/Junior News

The 2011-2012 season was very good at Welwyn in the Mini/Junior section, we had lots of good rugby played and teams excelled at all levels. We continued with around 355 players - boys and girls combined.

PLAYING
In the Mini Section the U7s have improved through the season and are very competitive thanks to Geoff Riley.
U8s - have doubled their squad - great work Jonathan Slade
U9s - are with Ross Marshall and are improving steadily.
U10s - with Daffyd Wynne are a smaller squad but are getting on well together.
U11s - Manny Adolph did a stellar job with many strong opponents losing against the Welwyn boys.
U12s - a great season for Phil Boon and his coaches, winning the Herts County Cup for the 6th Year in a row, the Northampton Saints Land Rover Cup and the Etihad Harlequins Curtain Raiser. They will be joining the ranks of the Junior Section as U13 in the 1st division and I look forward to seeing their progress.
U13s - Julian Emery and Paul Frake had a mixed season in their 1st year as juniors, winning a good portion of their games enabling them to stay in the same league and they continue to grow.
U14s - Peter Middleton and his coaches again had a strong season gaining promotion into Division 2 and winning the County 10s Plate at Hertford. Great effort from all concerned.
U15s - Gary Peterkin and forwards coach Rod Faircloth won the County 10s at Hertford and narrowly missed promotion; a good all round effort and the squad is gaining in strength and ability.
U16s - started the season with very low numbers but Dave Elwood and his team of coaches worked hard to increase numbers and ended the season with a very large strong squad and a great bunch of lads who have developed into a good team looking forward to this coming season.
U17s - again started the season with low numbers but lots of effort from the team of coaches headed by Steve Hubbard kept the boys together and on occasion had the support of players from U16s to fulfil their fixtures. Well done to all.

COACHING
We have a few changes in our volunteer coaching staff with Steve Buck coming into the U7s to manage the group.
At U12s level, we have Eugene Bruce who is taking over from Manny Adolph who is stepping down for the moment, good luck to Eugene and his team and thank you Manny for all your hard work.
In the U14s Julian Emery is coming forward to manage the team and Paul Frake has taken a step back, thank you Paul for all your effort and hard work and thanks to Julian.
On a final note, this will be my 3rd year as Mini /Junior chairman at Welwyn and I hope to keep all the age groups and increase our Mini /Junior section as a growing part of Welwyn Rugby Club as a whole .

Jeff Lack
Mini/Junior Chairman

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Girls’ Final League Tables

Central U15 League Table
Standard Table :: Full Home / Away Table
Club P W D L PF PA PD TB LB Pts
Welwyn U15 12 11 0 1 327 87 240 7 1 53
Worcester Greyhounds U15 11 9 0 2 320 178 142 7 1 46
Berks Baa Baa U15 11 5 1 5 214 206 8 4 3 34
Oxford Bee's U15 11 5 1 5 199 237 -38 4 1 32
London Irish U15 10 6 0 4 137 118 19 3 0 29
Oxford Vale U15 11 1 0 10 17 388 -371 0 0 13
Hertford U15 10 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0

CENTRAL U18
Central U18 League Table
Standard Table :: Full Home / Away Table
Club P W D L PF PA PD TB LB Pts
Welwyn U18 11 11 0 0 271 69 202 7 0 51
Lichfield U18 11 8 0 3 200 201 -1 3 1 39
London Irish U18 9 6 0 3 235 127 108 5 2 34
Berks Baa Baa U18 12 4 0 8 221 311 -90 3 3 30
Worcester Greyhounds U18 11 5 0 6 192 185 7 4 1 28
Paviors U18 11 3 0 8 166 205 -39 1 5 25
Oxford Barbarians U18 11 1 0 10 90 277 -187 1 0 11

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News from Peru!

Over the Christmas period, Heather and I bumped into Keiron Heath. who is a former full back for Bishop’s Stortford and taught at Hitchin Boys. He is now living in Arequipa in Peru and is trying to encourage the development of rugby there. As we chatted, it became apparent that they are desperately short of all types of rugby equipment including playing shirts. After rummaging around in the cupboards at the club, Heather came across a set of shirts that were a bit tired and were no longer in use. These were very gratefully accepted by Keiron who arranged to get them transported back to Peru at no cost. A few weeks later we received the attached email and photograph which I thought you might like to read:

Dear Heather & Mark,

I have posted this picture on Facebook along with a few words of thanks etc but thought you might also like to receive a copy by email.

I can't thank you enough for your club's generosity - I have never before seen a group of rugby players with such beaming faces when they were each individually handed a Welwyn rugby shirt......these players are all students at one of the state Universities in Arequipa - but they don't have cash and the University does virtually nothing to support them! Their training ground is next to a giant stadium but they have to train on some ground outside the stadium - drains, holes, boulders and all! Health & Safety and the RFU would have a mental melt-down if they saw the conditions but these guys are so keen they take risks........myself and the British Consul are going to see if we can change this somehow or other!

You might be pleased to know that Welwyn received several 'Oggy Oggy Oy Oy's in Spanish plus a few other special 'prayers' for your future success! Now that you have Divine support and encouragement, the rugby world will undoubtedly become your oyster!

Blessings to you both...and I look forward to seeing you in April when I should be back in Blighty

Sincerely

Kieron Heath

Creaky’s Alternative Medical Dictionary

Artery............................... The study of paintings
Bacteria........................... Back door to cafeteria
Barium............................. What doctors do when patients die
Benign............................. What you be, after you be eight
Caesarean Section.......... A neighbourhood in Rome
Cat scan.......................... Searching for Kitty
Cauterize..........................Made eye contact with her
Colic................................. A sheep dog
Coma............................... A punctuation mark
Dilate............................... To live a long time
Enema............................. Not a friend
Fester.............................. Quicker than someone else
Fibula............................... A small lie
Impotent.......................... Distinguished, well known
Labour Pain.....................Getting hurt at work
Medical Staff....................A Doctor's cane
Morbid............................. A higher offer
Nitrates........................... Cheaper than day rates
Node............................... I knew it
Outpatient....................... A person who has fainted
Pelvis.............................. Second cousin to Elvis
Post-Operative............... A letter carrier
Recovery Room............. Place to do upholstery
Rectum........................... Nearly killed him
Secretion........................ Hiding something
Seizure............................Roman emperor
Tablet.............................. A small table
Terminal Illness.............. Getting sick at the airport
Tumour........................... One plus one more
Urine............................... Opposite of you're out