Welcome to the October Newsletter. The season has kicked off and the 1st XV have had mixed fortunes. They started with a 9-0 win over High Wycombe, a good effort to “nil” them but it seems that we could have scored more points and had a more emphatic victory.

Windsor next. A team that was also relegated last year so a difficult game was in prospect. The team lost but again should have scored more points and won the game.

The first home game was against Beaconsfield and it turned out to be a wake-up call for the team. Perhaps anticipating a weaker team, the whole club was taken aback by the speed and organisation of the away team. Beaconsfield deservedly won by a wide margin.

Last Saturday the 1st XV travelled to Stow-On-The-Wold to play the previously unbeaten side. A great performance from the Reading pack saw them dominate the game and they rebounded very well from the previous heavy defeat to win 48-18.

Well done to the 1st XV and Ben Wills, the new Coach. This should give them a lot of confidence for the fixtures to come. There is Thatcham at home on the 21st, Wallingford away on the 28th and then a home game against Reading Abbey on the 4th November. This local derby is the first of the VP days of the year and Ian Cameron-Webb and the 1st XV would appreciate a large turnout for this fixture, I hope that you can make it and meet up with some friends.

We have done the September draw for the £100, £50 and £25 prizes and they are:

£100 – Mac Coveney – he has filled many roles on the team admin side and is also a 200 Club Committee Member.
£50 – Howell David – a former player of the seventies, coach and former 200 Club Organiser
£25 – Mark McAdden – a Rhino player and former Rhino Captain.
Congratulations to them and if they would like to give me some contact addresses, I can post their cheques to them or I shall be at RRFC on Oct 21st and the VP day against Abbey and can give them their prizes.

The 200 Club Committee have just given the Club the money to buy equipment for First Aid bags and bibs for the Youth section and we are awaiting further orders to be placed as I outlined previously.

If you have any ideas for spending the 200 Club money on your section, I remind you that all requests have to be submitted to RRFC Exec Committee for approval and they then pass on the approved list to the 200 Club Committee: Graham Lyke, Mac Coveney, Stuart Spindler, Yasmin Miller, Michael Brooks, Phil Wilson and Matt Bayliss-Binks to decide the final allocation. If we can achieve a full membership of 200 then we can give £6000 annually to the Club and give out £6000 in prizes to the members.
Next month, at the draw on November 4th at the Abbey VP lunch, we will be giving prizes to the value of £1000. First prize £500, then £250, £100, £100 and £50.

If you are a paid up member by 31st October then you will be included in the draw, so why not buy another membership before that date and double your chances of winning.

We currently have 150 members and the Committee will be raising their efforts to reach that 200 target before the new year. That will then mean that the membership will have been increased from 55 to 200 in a year. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my committee members for all their efforts in achieving our target. I would also like to thank all the 200 Club members for sticking in the 200 Club throughout the years or for joining during this year. Please help top make the committee’s job a little easier by encouraging your team mates to join and to put a little more back into this club which we all have enjoyed over the years.

Best wishes,
Graham and the 200 Club Committee

Any enquiries about the 200 Club contact Graham on: glyke@hotmail.com