Grass-roots clubs
LONG SERVICE AWARD
“Retire? Not me.” That is the staunch attitude of
Allan Robertshaw, 77, York’s fixtures secretary and former lock, despite 61 years of service to the club. He played for 44 seasons and earned a treasured place in the Guinness World Records after 1,075 first-team appearances and another 300-plus for the lower sides.
Way back, he represented Yorkshire Colts, featured in five Yorkshire Shield finals and, until recently, was also the club’s registrar and grounds manager.
York spokesman Rob Long said: “Allan is still ‘The Man’ after all this time. I saw him play the full 80 against Yarnbury thirds on his 60th birthday.” Robertshaw said: “My most amusing highlight was when a referee penalised me at a lineout with the words, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing… but it must be wrong!’”
BRIDGE THE GAP
Douglas, on the Isle of Man, visited Guernsey to play the first senior British match at community level post Covid, a fixture made possible by an air bridge between the two islands. The Raiders, of Two South, beat Douglas 84-17 in the inaugural Crown Cup match at St Peter Port. On the same day, a Douglas Development XV lost 42-10 to Guernsey hosts St Jacques Vikings.
Chris Branningan, IOM development officer, said: “These games were behind only the Russian and Lithuanian leagues in terms of a return to rugby in Europe.”
HALL OF FAME
When social distancing restrictions are lifted, Bristol-based
Thornbury plan to celebrate the life of Iva Hall, who founded the South-West One West club with four friends at a pub in 1962, the year before the opening match against Whitehall.
He became their first treasurer, a role he did until 2007, was the first-team touchjudge and a club fund-raiser. Alan Hodgkinson is the only remaining founder member.
MOORE HONOURS
Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised £32.8m for the NHS, followed his knighthood with two other distinctions from Keighley, his hometown club. DoR Russ Gibson presented him with honorary membership and a centenary club tie, and received a quick response. Sir Tom wrote: “Thank you very much for your honours. They truly mean a lot to me.”
Keighley’s squad were also busy fund-raising, completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge with a target of £2,000 to refurbish the changing rooms. At the last count, they had put together £2,500, with extra proceeds going to Manorlands Hospice in Oxenhope.
CASH IN
Around 200 miles away, a group of 175 members, supporters and friends of Enfield Ignatians boosted the newly-promoted Two North-East club by helping to amass £20,000 in 56 days for their Covid-19 Fightback Scheme. London Irish scrum-half Ben Meehan has since become their first-team coach, alongside other familiar names adding their input to community clubs this season.
DOUBLE CHIN
National One club Chinnor pulled off a dual coup. They recruited Soane Tonga’uiha, the former Northampton Saints and Tonga prop, as player-coach soon after Delon Armitage, the ex-London Irish, Toulon and England full-back, was put in charge of the backs.
Chinnor not only claim to have the first blue 4G pitch in England but have also adopted the kite, a bird of prey that flies above their Kingsey Road ground. The club’s revived women’s team, which last played more than a decade ago, are now known as Chinnor Kites.
Head coach Fran Ronan said: “It’s exciting to have our new name in place. Sometimes they perch on top of our posts and they are generally fierce and competitive birds, so that fits in well.”
FAMOUS FACES
Former Gloucester back-row Akapusi Qera, a past Fiji captain with 64 caps, has joined Shropshire club Newport, of Midlands Premier, as player-coach, while Exeter Chiefs and England centre Ollie Devoto is continuing to coach Bridgwater &
Albion, a One West club. He is working alongside new head man Carl Rimmer, a former Chief who was forced into retirement two years ago.
Elsewhere, Bruce Reihana, the ex-Northampton Saints and New Zealand wing, has become attack and backs coach for Two South club Clifton.
NEW MENTOR
Wanstead, a London Two North-East club, have appointed ex-England scrum-half Kyran Bracken, a RWC 2003 winner, as backs coach.
Former England wing Tom Varndell is the new player-coach for Bury St
Edmunds, of Two South, while prop Camilo Parilli-Ocampo, ex-Leicester
Tigers and Bedford Blues, has taken on a dual role on a full-time basis as a player and the first paid commercial manager for the Suffolk club.
PEDAL POWER
It’s ‘on yer bike’ for Hinckley, aka the Hornets. Their players embarked on a 48-hour cycling challenge on two static bikes, covering 1,264 miles – the total distance between the 16 clubs in Two South, the league in which they will compete this season.
It was part of Hinckley’s Crowdfunder Campaign for essential maintenance work and gave a ‘virtual’ impression of the extra ground they need to cover after been level-transferred from Two North, in which they finished third last season. They’re up for pastures new, too, after achieving ten consecutive wins dating back to mid-December.
MOVING IN
Ivybridge now have a ready-made women’s team, created from the playing squad and staff of Plymouth Albion who have decided to head across Devon. They are adding to Ivybridge’s wide range of teams and president Alan Knight rates the side as a “fantastic asset”.
They play in Championship South-West Two and the Ivybridge link began when the side used the club’s artificial pitch for training last season.
UPBEAT MESSUM
Amid the pandemic, Oxford University captain George Messum has taken a positive view of the men’s and women’s Varsity matches against Cambridge at Twickenham being switched from December to March.
He said: “We’re hugely excited to see a change to the spring. It will allow more preparation for the squads and produce a level that equals the physical intensity of any professional match.”
COMMUNITY SPIRIT
During lockdown, Two North club Luctonians supported local businesses, gave free membership to NHS frontline workers, had a ‘phone a friend’ scheme and provided online interactive services ranging from exercise classes to murder mysteries.
That’s not all. Since then, Lucs showed three films in a day at a free outdoor cinema event, having already raised £16,729 for local charities last season.
PARK SWITCH
Ruskin Park, of St Helens, are among the clubs joining the expanded Lancashire Leagues organised by the county union. They were launched two seasons ago with the Premier and First Division. Now a middle tier, the Championship, has been introduced.
Park occupied ninth place in the RFU’s Lancs-Cheshire Two Premier league last season and the club’s committee regard the Championship as “the most competitive league for our players”, though they’ll start in the First Division.
KIT GESTURE
Sevenoaks backed their local NHS with a £500-plus contribution, a percentage from sales of limited-edition Frontline Heroes shirts that celebrated the NHS and remembered VE Day veterans. The shirts had ‘75’ on the back to mark the 75th anniversary of WW2 hostilities ending.
QUINN IN
Ged Quinn, a member of the
Darlington Mowden Park board, has taken ownership of the National One club following an EGM. He said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed assisting the club and its management team over recent years and I’m pleased to be able to help to secure Mowden Park’s future.”
They finished seventh last season, having been promoted to Two North in 2012 and National One two years later.
GROUNDSHARE
When the community clubs kick off, Yorkshire Two team Old Grovians will be co-locating with Otley, newly relegated to North Premier. Grovians will play their home matches at Otley’s Cross Green ground.
The clubs already have something in common. Former Wasps and England wing Paul Sampson played for Grovians before joining Otley in 1995-96.
ON HOLD
Norwich, newly promoted to London One North, have suffered a blow in their quest to relocate to the University of East Anglia. The club had been granted permission to move from Beeston Hyrne to the uni’s playing fields in 2016, with money generated from the sale of the club’s ground contributing to investment at the UEA site.
Plans were put on hold because of a highways issue at Beeston Hyrne and UEA withdrew from the deal as it would have involved significant cash input.
TOP GONG
The Eastern Counties Club of the Year award has been bestowed on West Norfolk, the unbeaten London Three Eastern Counties champions.
They also reached last season’s RFU Senior Vase semi-finals by ending Reeds Weybridge’s 52-match unbeaten run.
Their second team backed the senior side’s efforts with promotion to Eastern Counties Two North and the women’s squad consolidated their position in Championship Midlands One.