We hope you all have enjoyed using the facilities at West Park during the first few months of the new season, and would like to thank all those who help in the organisation which goes into making busy Sunday mornings successful, especially the ladies who help in the kitchen and those who have the jobs of putting cones out and are on car park duty.

The Team managers and coaches do a great job getting teams organised and out on to the pitches but it would be a struggle without the backing of the volunteers.

If you don’t do anything at the moment and would like to get more involved see your team manager, the more helpers we can get on and off the pitch the better.

There have obviously been a few teething problems as we have moved into much larger premises and there is still a large list of things to do but we are getting them ticked off slowly but surely.

On the pitch our teams are well coached and supported, which is shown with players from each junior age group representing the club at county or district level, so well done to them, and increased numbers in the mini have seen up to four coaches per team, but not resting on our laurels we hope to encourage seniors players and coaches in taking specialist sessions to help in the development of our players, we already have experienced former players coaching so the futures looking bright.

The use of  ‘Blade’ type boots ,although not illegal has been known to cause serious injury and we are keen to phase these out by encouraging parents to buying traditional studded boots when they next have to replace existing boots

Please remember the coach’s responsibility for the player’s behaviour ends after the game, and transfers back to the parent/guardian, please ensure your child behaves in an acceptable manner.

As the changing room ceilings have been damaged and mud thrown on walls, the changing rooms will be locked 30 after the game ends, please ensure  kit is not left in the changing rooms or upstairs but is placed in the kit store in the foyer. Lost property will be available to view Wednesday evenings

Presentation

This year due to the increased number of players we are splitting the Mini and Junior presentation 

The Juniors will hold their Presentation Evening on Saturday 2^nd May with entertainment from Paul Edwards (15’s coach) band ‘The Port Brothers’. The Mini’s will have theirs the following day,which is always a well organised and fun event, more details to follow shortly, but all welcome to attend both events.

Seal of Approval

As we strive to ensure that our club remains a safe environment for young people to learn and play rugby we enter the second stage of our acredditaion for the Seal of Approval, having ticked all the boxes  last time and acheiving targets laid out in our development plan we now have updated targets which includes.

Encourageing our coaches to move towards Level 1 & 2 awards and also having at least one person per age group attending a ‘Safeguarding young people in sport’ courses , we already have at least 5 people willing to attend this course which will be at our club early in March , Please  let Alan Simpson , Jeff Rothwell , Avril Pearce or Pat Knowles know if you are interest in furthering your coaching or are interested in the child welfare courses.

Finally thanks again to all of you who are helping to make the club run smoothly and although not always said enough it is most appreciated

Simmy/Jeff