Pulborough win their U11 Festival !

To all U11 players, parents, guardians & supporters:

The support from everyone today was absolutely superb, and you put on a festival that will be the envy of all the clubs who attended. This certainly helped the players & coaches to concentrate on the task in hand, and it was great to see such a high level of Rugby being played by them. To come back from being 2-0 down to beat Hove 3-2 was amazing and the bits I saw whilst refereeing on the next pitch illustrated how they never gave up. Having won such a difficult semi final to then play Horsham and win convincingly 2-0 summed up the belief and confidence the players have in each other. We have not beaten Hove or Horsham for the last 2 seasons and we did it playing sexy Rugby. A big thank you to me for the work done by Jon, Ian, Dave & Leigh we have improved significantly this season and the talented coaching staff we have make all the difference.

I had lost count of the number of weeks that we had tried to get the boys to play the ball along the back line & ensure the wingers use the overlap to score, and to see it happen twice in the final did make me realise that they occasionally listen to us. It was great to see the 6ft 6 u17 colts run onto the pitch at the end and hug all our players, it really felt like a whole club victory and the support from the touchline from everyone was immense.

The toughest tackles we faced today were from our own players who played for opposition sides, a huge well done and thanks to Jim, Ella, Sam (awesome tackle on Hartley) Tom & Michael, and I am really sorry that the Barbarians side we had hoped to field did not come off and thank you for playing your part in making the tournament such a success.

It really was the icing on the cake to go on & win today, and to hear such praise from the opposition coaches about how good they thought we were. There was also support from ladies & gents whose children are not in the u11's, Mike, Sue, Charles & Sarah thank you for your huge contribution also, and Kay Wheeler who along with Fiona & Paul manned the first aid tent & dealt with a steady line of injuries, an invaluable contribution.

All the parents/guardians/supporters & the whole squad were stars of the show today ... it was truly a team effort & I still have a huge smile on my face (with that horrible Genghis Khan moustache I know!! perhaps its lucky and I should keep it?, I will actually be glad when Movember is over) that will last for weeks, and I hope you do to, and I for one look forward to telling as many people as I see that we are the Pulborough Festival 2010 U11 champions

Steve Solomon
Lead Coach U11's
spsolomon@msn.com
01903 746965