2023/24! What a season for the Engines! With 10th anniversary's, new leagues and fresh faces around the corner it was clear that big things were in store. But where to start..?

A strong committee elected during the ‘23 AGM, led from the front by Eleni Maoudis and Dan Nicoll, boded well and planning for the season was quick out the gates. Marketing, hassling and a huge engines presence in freshers week saw a large in-take of freshers , both men and women, which set us off to a strong start. This year saw the 3rd anniversary of the SERFC women’s team and a fantastic group of women meant good things were on the horizon! The addition of the (BRAND NEW!) MANES intra-uni league gave the 1st XV side something to work towards and alongside the existing Yorkshire Merit League and Championship, the squad was well and truly stocked with fixtures!

First Semester saw the 1st XV play a number of challenging fixtures in the Championship and MANES league which, although mostly tough, wet and a drive away, gave way to some great results. Storming out the gates, the 1s played Morley away and secured the season’s first (of many) tight victories - winning 22-15. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the teams MANES fixtures which gave way to gutting losses to Sutton Bonnington, Notts Medics and Brum Engines. Thankfully, the Christmas break gave the 1s squad some thinking time and a fantastic midweek fixture down in Leicester saw the semester’s first victory (and post-match spa) - winning 21-19. A double-header at the Nortress against Brum Engineers resulted in another narrow loss but the team wasn’t finished yet - MANES final day (and what a day it was!). With an almighty fansoc and plans to get seriously loose on the fun-bus, the club headed down to Birmingham to dish out a 55-0 thumping against Leicester Medics, a fitting send-off for a number of the club’s long serving members who left us at the end of this year.

The 2s side saw a strong mixture of new and old faces, as well as placement-year returners, who week on week grew and melded together to form a well-rounded squad that performed incredibly in the Yorkshire Merit League this season. The team had a fantastic day at the Nortress with a 68-5 victory against Hemsworth early on in the season. Predicted to be a wet and slippy scrummage fest, a delay in kickoff gave way to some sun and joué and a late onslaught from the team sealed the deal. Wins against Dinnington, Wortley and Sheff Oaks followed after Christmas but the final match of the season against Sheffield 3rd XV proved to be best. With an almighty score of 102-5 (one that may never be beaten again) the 2s (aka the people’s 1s) played a fantastic game full of the structures and organisation that Coach Marcus had been banging on about all year! What a season from the 2nd XV!

A special mention must be made for SERFC’s women’s squad who had a great season in the intramural 6-a-side touch league on Sundays and used it as an opportunity to show off some great skills against a number of varied teams. Also, a hugely successful and exciting moment for the women’s team came during their first ever contact game. After just one week of intense contact training and drills delivered by Coaches Camy and Marcus (a special thanks to them and all the fansoc that went to support), the girls stepped up to take on Sheffield Uni devs team at Norton. After a lot of lessons learned, fun and bruises acquired, the girls are ready and raring for some more 7s fixtures in the future!

There were many special weekends and socials that the club enjoyed throughout the year including, but not limited to; house golf, Lads and Dads, a virtual horse-racing fundraiser, UXD and Summer Social (never sensible ones), and of course the annual Old Boys Weekend. This year, the Friday night of Old Boys saw a new addition to the SERFC calendar with the one of the sharpest dressed nights in the club’s history in the form of a black tie ball. The evening included a charity raffle and auction which raised an estimated £1200 to go to Old Boy Toby Sweeney’s fundraiser for the RFU Injured Players Foundation. Saturday saw a set of (very hungover) boys old and new locking horns for this year’s bragging rights, ending in a solid 32-12 victory for the current crop. An amazing weekend as always which was perfectly summarised by James Featherstone who said: “Every year I say this is my last old boys, I’m done; this year I said I’m never missing an old boys again!”.

Overall, this has been a fantastic season to be part of SERFC but as always we say goodbye to a number of exceptional men and women who move on to brave the (real) world. The club has continued to build on its 10 year strong foundations of being a successful rugby team as well as being great fun to be involved in both on and off the field. Both men’s and women’s sides have so much potential and can look forward to another terrific season in 24/25.