Little India, Sunday 20th March, 3.00pm
Thanks to all of you who have booked your places for Sunday afternoon's meal at Little India in Frodsham. We talk a lot about being a family club and in this, the club's 60th Anniversary year we're keen to be staging more events like this - great opportunities for the club's members to all come together - Seniors, Juniors, past and present players alike, etc. A big thanks to Club Secretary, Pete Davies for pulling it together - as things stand, there are 40 people booked to attend the 3.00pm sitting, but if you would still like to go there are a few places still remaining, so please email Pete if you can make it.
Sunday will also see us officially launch our affiliation with the Looze Headz foundation - a charity which is tackling mental health issues in sport. Little India owners, Prya and John sadly know all to well the impact of mental health issues, having lost their son, Sunny - an avid rugby fan - a few years ago and it is a pain that we at Helsby Rugby Club have also shared, having sadly lost our own Adam Smith and Sam Howarth in recent years as well. Club Safeguarding Officer, Andy Wheeler is leading the initiative on our behalf.
Super Saturday! The final round of Six Nations games
After finding themselves a man down in the first minute of last Saturday's match against Ireland, England put in a valiant performance but unfortunately any hopes of setting up a Championship decider against France in the final weekend were dashed by a late flurry of tries by the visitors. Nevertheless, Saturday still presents a great excuse to get out of the house and watch the final round of games amongst friends in the club - the action starts at 2.15pm when Wales take on Italy, followed by Ireland v Scotland at 4.45pm with France v England bringing the day to a close in an 8.00pm kick-off.
Tractor Boys Rally to support Junior Rugby!
A huge thanks this week to the local group of Tractor enthusiasts, including former Helsby RUFC Club Captain, Bob Merrill and club sponsors Alvanley Agricultural Services' Andy and Joe Wright, who have kindly donated £450 to the Junior Rugby Club following their recent rally that started and ended at Helsby Community Sports Club. Footage of the rally can be seen here - held slightly later in the year than normally due to the rising cases of Covid-19 at New Year, but nevertheless a huge success! Thanks for your support!
Cheshire Festivals and Capenhurst Away games
For the past two weeks we've found ourselves on the road and it's been fantastic to see all of the hard work that the coaches and the junior players have been putting in during the course of the season, has finally started to pay off. At the Cheshire Festivals, our Under-7s teams, under the guidance of Jed Denham and Dan Bruce, did the club proud and it was a similar story at Sandbach RUFC, where our Under-10s and 11s (led by Dave Harrogate and Paul Wright) also showed plenty of never-say-die spirit in their debut on the Cheshire circuit. Great days out were had by all and this was followed last weekend, when local rivals Capenhurst were once again excellent hosts as we visited with all of our age groups for a mini-tournament with Ellesmere Port, Hoylake and Knutsford. With free hot dogs and ice creams for the kids and some great tries being scored - what was not to like?!?
Highlights of the U10s Festival are available here and look out for one particular try, which demonstrates great determination and fantastic support play! For more photos from the Festivals and last week's trip to Capenhurst, please check out the club's Gallery.
Save the Dates
Finally this week, some future dates for your diaries. On Sunday 10th April, Chester RUFC will be staging the re-scheduled U9s Festival that was unfortunately postponed two weeks ago due to waterlogged pitches. This will be open to our Year 4 players only and we'll circulate further details in the weeks to come. Then at the end of the month, we will be looking to arrange a coach trip to Sale Sharks to watch their match against Newcastle Falcons on Friday 29th April. Last but by no means least, please note that we will be holding our End of Season Awards Evening for the Juniors on Friday 20th May (again, more details to follow in the coming weeks).
That's all for now! See you Sunday morning!
Chris Johnson, Club Chairman