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Welcome
to Maidenhead RFC’s news and events page
There is
lots going on at the club and here we hope to keep you up to date with
what’s coming up and reports on recent events.
Events
Rugby
Summer Camps
2nd - 6th
August 2010
23rd - 27th August 2010
- Camps
run from 9.00am – 15.30pm
- Professionally
run and organised training structure by qualified coaches
- Mixture
of fun games, skills development, fitness and conditioning
- Lunch
provided
- £125 per
week, discounts for siblings and multi weeks
£125 per
week, discounts for siblings and multi weeks.
Booking
and payment details here or contact Jean Kingsley 07966 490374
News
Latest
Reports
4th
XV End of Season Report 2009-10
U10s
at Brean Sands
U11s
return from Brean with more silverware
U16s win Amersham & Chiltern
10s
U16Bs beat reinforced Reading As
U14s go Dragon Boat Racing
3rds
push league leaders to the limit
Fair
play to the U6s at London Irish Festival
U12s'
competitive performance against Wallingford
U15
Rangers score 7 tries against Bracknell
U15s
beat Bracknell despite mistakes
Maidenhead
RFC U16 Argentina & Uruguay 2010 - Daily Tour Blog
After a massive
fundraising drive and memorable evenings with Sir Ian McGeechan, Lawrence
Dallaglio and Stuart Barnes, along with a new indoor tackling World Record,
our tour is finally upon us.
Leaving
on Thursday 8th July we are straight into action on Friday
9th with 2 matches against Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby
Club. We then have a few days of local activities including working with
a couple of orphanages before playing 2 matches against St Brendan's College,
also in Buenos Aires. (St Brendan's will be visiting Maids in September).
We
then travel to Rosario and play 2 matches against Universitario de Rosario
before crossing the River Plate and heading for Montevideo where the final
matches of the tour are against the Uruguayan national U16 and U17 sides.
Hopefully all in one piece, we then cross back to Buenos Aires and fly
back, arriving in the UK on 20th July.
We'll
be posting match reports and updates as often as we can so please check
our Daily updates here.
'400
Club' Winners for Jun
1st
-S Egan
2nd –D Goodman
3rd – J Dance
SUMMER
TOUCH RUGBY
As
the rugby season draws to a close, summer Touch Rugby will be played at
Braywick Park every Tuesday evening from 6:30pm onwards, starting on the
26th April. This is mixed, so men and women are welcome. Touch is a great
way to stay fit and keep the skills up through the off season. If you
would like more details, please email: paul@in2touch.com
Carnival
Time at Nicholsons Centre as U16s claim new World tackling record
The
Nicholsons Centre at Maidenhead kindly acted as hosts to Maidenhead Rugby
Club Under 16s Squad this Saturday as they continued their efforts to
raise funds for their forthcoming Rugby Tour to Argentina & Uruguay in
July 2010.
The boys decided to "tackle" the world record for the highest number of
rugby tackles in 1 hour. (The official Guinness Book of World Records
record for this event outdoors is 4130 tackles. On the 31 May 2009, The
Nottingham Boots rugby team beat this record with 4489 but in June 2009,
New Zealand teams from Wellington & Poneke amassed a total tackle count
of 4852, though this is yet to be validated.)
As there is no current Indoor World Record, what better opportunity for
the boys to show off their skills, fitness and tenacity in the centre
of their home town by setting one, whilst using the outdoor record of
4852 as their target? The boys all raised sponsorship ahead of the event
and decided that on the day a percentage of any money collected should
go to Sports Relief. Full report
and pictures here
Club
General Manager
As some of you may know, Billy has accepted a new role outside the Club
and so has stepped down as General Manager. His wife Teresa has kindly
stepped into his shoes for the remainder of this season. We have already
received interest from a number of people wishing to be considered for
this role and would like to invite any other Club members to let us know
if they are interested in applying for the GM role.
Please email me directly on jwanklyn_home@hotmail.com or call me on my
mobile before Thursday 25th March.
Help
needed
I am pleased to report that the Clubhouse extension project has started
and is on track. The plan is to get as much of the new external building
work completed before the end of the season, then close while the internal
work is carried out. The Clubs last rugby activities conclude on Sunday
25th April, and so I would like to ask for volunteers to help us clear
out and pack up the Clubhouse fixtures, fittings, pictures, memorabilia
and furniture on Monday 26th April.
If you are able to help please let me know by contacting me at jwanklyn_home@hotmail.com
or on my mobile, 07834 899788.
Clubhouse
extension starting in March! - Message from the Chairman
I
am delighted to report that after many months of design work and weeks
of discussions we have now selected the prime contractor to undertake
the Clubhouse extension project. With part of the funding coming from
public sources the Club had to undertake a formal procurement process
and the company that emerged on top is Beard Construction. I would like
congratulate Beard, but also thank all of the other companies who submitted
bids for the project and to Paramount for completing the design work.
The schedule of work starts week commencing March 1st when the storage
cabins will be relocated to a temporary site, hoardings will be erected
around the two new build areas each side of the entrance and a site depot
for Beard will be set up to the left hand side of the entrance. Please
note that the front entrance to the Club will remain open but the pathways
either side of the entrance will be hoarded off and so all foot traffic
will be directed to the path on the astro pitch side of the road. I would
ask everyone to take extra care during this time as there will be a lot
of pedestrian traffic crossing the road in front of the Clubhouse.
The plan is to complete the external building work before the end of the
season then on Monday 26th April close the Clubhouse and start the major
internal works. The Clubhouse will be fully closed until 20th June at
which point some areas on the 1st floor will be reopened to allow some
key functions to resume, namely pre season training, some lettings and
our Youth training camps. The full refurbishment is due to be completed
in mid August in time for the beginning of the new 2010-2011 season.
This is a huge achievement for the Club to be able to embark on such an
ambitious project and I’m sure many members will have all sorts of questions
regarding the project. As such I would like to invite all members to the
Club on Thursday evening from 7.30pm for a chance to meet the Committee,
review the plans and discuss the project. This will be an informal session
but I hope we will be able to answer any questions you may have.
I would however like to address two issues that I believe are important
to all members:-
The first is funding. One of the fundamental tenants of this project was
that we would not take on any debt in order to fund this project. I can
confirm that this is still the case. All of the funds necessary to complete
this project have been raised independently of normal club operations
and specifically for the purpose of a major capital project, for the lasting
benefit of all members. We have a fully funded plan but it is important
to understand that this money can only be used for this project, i.e.
it cannot be used to finance general club operations. On behalf of the
Club, I would like to thank all parties who have contributed money to
this project, but especially the extremely generous individual members
who have provided significant private donations – Thank You.
Secondly as mentioned earlier, some of the funding has come from a public
source and as such the Club had to follow a formal procurement process
to select the main contractor. However, now Beard have been appointed
they would be happy to be contacted by any members with companies that
could offer sub contract services for any of the works to be undertaken.
If you have a company with products or services to offer please contact
Craig Mitchell at Craig Mitchell craig.mitchell@beardoxford.co.uk .
This is a very exciting project and I hope you can join myself and the
rest of the committee on Thursday evening.
MRFC
awarded RFU Whole Club Seal of Approval
Maidenhead
Rugby Club is proud to announce they have been awarded the RFU Whole Club
Seal of Approval.
The
pathway to the award followed weeks of intensive work from the club committee
to demonstrate to the RFU they have built on the standard achieved in
obtaining the Mini & Youth Seal of Approval in 2008.
By
expanding to include all playing activity within the club we can now proudly
show the local community we are a club that is fully inclusive.
The
Seal of Approval and the Sport England Clubmark accreditation scheme are
based upon a three-year rolling award system in which the club will be
assessed on its continuing ability to provide a safe and effective club
environment.
Maidenhead
qualified by the completing and assessment file and the writing of a three-year
development plan. By implementing the development plan, with an annual
review, it will continue to be accredited and ensure continuous improvement
in provision for the players at the club.
The
award is indicative of the quality of provision the club offers, and its
commitment to the continued development and growth of rugby. The club
now displays certification to confirm accreditation, both from the RFU
and Sport England.
Sean
Egan, Director of Finance, who coordinated the club's submission said,
"We
are proud to have achieved the Seal of Approval, but as importantly, see
this now as a springboard to enhancing the quality of the services we
provide to our members and the wider community".
Year
5/6 TAG rugby competition
On
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 Charters School Sport Partnership,
in conjunction with Maidenhead Rugby Club, will be holding their Year
5/6 TAG rugby competition. The tournament will be hosted by Maidenhead
Rugby Club, Braywick Road, SL6 1BN. The first match will start promptly
at 12:30pm with the final is due to finish at around 3:30pm.
London
Wasps will also be in attendance to provide referee support via their
Community Team.
Charter
School Sports Partnership organises sporting events for 36 schools within
Maidenhead & Ascot each year, aiming to encourage more young people
to take part in sport or physical activity more often. Emma Fitzgerald,
Partnership Development Manager said "This will be a true celebration
of primary school rugby. Coaches from London Wasps Community Team have
been working in a number of our schools in the lead up to this competition,
and we are very happy to be working with Maidenhead RFC to be able to
signpost those who are interested in continuing their rugby at an excellent
local rugby club".
It
is expected that some of the 350 children who regularly play in the Maidenhead
RFC Mini Section each Sunday will be part of a school team.
The
tournament will take the form of a group round, followed by a knockout
round so each team will play at least 3 matches. All schools will enter
a squad of 10 players, of which at least 3 are girls.
The
top two
teams
will go on to represent Charters School Sport Partnership at the Berkshire
County Final on Wednesday 24th March.
A
further event for Year 3/4 children will be held on Tuesday 2nd
March at Braywick.
All
support for the events will be welcome.
U17s
selected for the Berkshire U20 squad
2
members of the ever-improving U17 squad have been selected for the Berkshire
U20 squad. Fly Half James Brooks and Winger Thomas Simpson have represented
Berkshire U18 this season but were selected last weekend to play for the
U20 side versus Oxfordshire along with Colts prop and Wasps Academy player
Jamie Townsend.
The U17 have had further representative success with full-back and captain
Mike Habgood being selected for the county U17 squad. Mike represented
the county U18 team earlier this season. Also winger / fullback Matt Collins
has also gained recognition for the first time in the Berkshire U17 squad.
U6-8s
Christmas Party
The
youngest members of the club again held their annual event in the clubhouse.
The place was awash with well over 100 children all eager to enjoy the
morning. With a willing and able body of parent volunteers we were able
to ensure events ran smoothly.
For most of the morning we had the services of entertainer, Brekk Sarnie,
who kept the children engrossed with his eclectic show ranging from a
disco and magic show through to animal shape-making with balloons. For
a full report click here
Wasps
U12s Land Rover Premiership Trophy at Braywick 12th Dec
As part our
Community Partner Club Scheme with London Wasps we will be hosting their
U12s Land Rover Premiership Trophy event at Braywick.
This
will involve 12 clubs including our own under 12s. All games will take
place on the pitches located adjacent to the Rifle club.
The
first game is due to start at 9.45am and will serve as an excellent pre-cursor
to the Elite 1st
XV game against Exmouth later in the day, so make a day of it and cheer
on another MRFC side to victory!
All support
would be welcome and highlights the superb working relationship that continues
to grow and benefit both of our clubs. We have always been made to feel
very welcome at Adams Park and regularly welcome London Wasps to Braywick.
Please check
www.wasps.co.uk
for all home fixture confirmation and also details of Wasps' 'A' Team
games played at Henley Hawks RFC.
U11s
in England Prep School trial
Three of
MRFC's U11s - Ben Ward, Tom Ballinger and Jake Jenkins - were invited
to trial for the South-East England Prep School Barbarians at Harrow School
last month.
Invitation
is made by a panel of school coaches of who have watched them at school
matches over the season and 40 boys attended the initial event of tests
and matches. Jake and Tom were subsequently selected to represent the
South-east versus South-West Barbarians at a 40 minute match on a full
size pitch at Millfield School last Sunday.
In
a hard game on a wet pitch with several hundred spectators, the South-east
won 26-0 and Jake scored a try. Selection was then made for a Southern
England team to face the North at Rugby School, being held on 7th February.
Jake has made it through again and been selected to play as centre.
Jake
and Tom are wearing their school green and white socks in the photo.
Note
from the Chairman
I am delighted to report that we have been able to buy some much needed
equipment for our Physiotherapy room. We have just received our new Ultra-sound
machine and are awaiting delivery of our new hydraulic rehabilitation
bench. Hopefully this equipment will enable the Physio’s to provide better
treatment to our injured players and get them back to full strength and
on the pitch sooner. The money to pay for this equipment came from the
proceeds of last year's Ladies Calendar, plus a generous donation from
one of our long standing playing members (You know who are - Thank You!).
I would like
to thank everyone involved in last year's Calendar and hope we are able
to produce an equally high quality one this year. If anyone has any ideas
or themes for this year's Calendar, or wants to get involved please let
me know.
Maidenhead
hosts its annual Youth Tournament this Sunday where we expect around 3000
players and visitors to Braywick Park. We are delighted that O2 are the
main sponsor this year and the London Irish community team will be supporting
the event. I would like to thank this year's organising Committee led
by Kieron Franks and Cameron Miller who I know have put in a tremendous
amount of work to ensure the Tournament lives up to its well deserved
reputation as one of the best Youth events in the Country. I would like
to remind everyone that this event is hosted and organised entirely by
volunteers from the Club, so if anyone is willing to help out on the day
please let the organisers know. Your help would be much appreciated.
Finally I
would like to wish all of our players success on the weekend, especially
our Elite 1st team boys, who despite being the better team last Saturday,
were robbed of a well deserved victory in the last minute. Good luck against
Chippenham Lads!
John Wanklyn CEO & Chairman, Maidenhead Rugby Club
Online
Payments launched
Forget
old fashioned cheques and brown envelopes of cash given to Sean in the
bar, you can now pay your annual subscriptions online via our new online
payment system.
Currently
only for membership but payments for events and other things will be added
in due course.
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MRFC
Supports Help for Heroes and Wooden Spoon
Maidenhead
Rugby Club is proud to announce that this year we will be supporting 2
charities, Help for Heroes and Wooden Spoon.
Help for Heroes is in recognition of the outstanding work done
by our forces all over the world, allowing us to live our lives to the
full and free. Help
For Heroes
was the idea of Appeal Chairman Bryn Parry and a group of friends and
relations, many of who have connections with serving servicemen and women.
Bryn and his wife Emma wanted to do something to help the wounded and
came up with the idea of a sponsored bike ride. They mentioned it to some
friends who mentioned it to some more friends and suddenly Help For Heroes
was born and growing fast. A flurry of visits to various offices led to
the campaign being blessed by the head of the army, Chief of the General
Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt.
Wooden Spoon is a children's
charity founded in 1983 that is dedicated to helping underprivileged children
and young people all over the UK and Ireland to live happier, richer lives.
We comprise over 40 regional
volunteer committees as well as a central national team and we boast more
than 10,000 members across the UK and Ireland. The regional committees
undertake local fund raising activities and ensure that the money is spent
on projects in their community so that the benefit of our work is always
immediate, visible and lasting.
During our first 25 years,
over half a million young people benefited from more than £15 million
pounds of charitable support thanks to the efforts of our staff and volunteers.
We are proud of our legacy, the work we do, and our ambitious plans for
the future.
Maidenhead Rugby Club will
be doing various fund raising events throughout the season for its two
charities. Please keep an eye on the web site for these or donate directly
through the above links.
Ryan
Long in Wasps' 1st Team Squad against Dax
Our
own Ryan Long was picked for the Wasps' 1st team squad playing against
Dax in their 1st pre-season game. Link
for match report is below.
http://www.wasps.co.uk/matchreport.ink?matchid=3102§ion=home&type=M
**
SEASON TICKETS **
Highly
discounted season tickets for stand entry to ALL home matches.
Available
from 15th August until end of September. From Jean Kingsley or behind
the bar.
Maidenhead
Rugby Club debuts new entertainment system for the London Irish Guinness
Premiership final party
To
help celebrate London Irish getting to the Guinness Premiership final
for the first time in their Club's history, the community team led by
Zoe Bishop contacted Maidenhead RUFC to ask if we wanted to host an Irish
party to support the team for the final.
Zoe and Academy coach David Williams came to the Club and provided a whole
pack of goodies to deck the bar out in Irish Colours. The Club looked
fantastic and many thanks to Zoe and David for the effort and support
you have given the Club this year.
After much anticipation I am also delighted to say that we were able to
show case our new entertainment system that has been kindly provided by
Audio Venue Ltd. The system includes 3 new 50 inch flat screens, upgraded
signal quality to our main hall projector, a cabinet full of state of
the art gadgetry and a sound system that can really get the Club rocking.
There is also an integrated PA system that operates across all speaker
zones including the stand.
We only decided to host the London Irish party on Tuesday and asked Nimish
and the team from Audio Venue if they could get at least one of the new
big screens operating by Saturday. Audio Venue rose to the challenge and
completed installing all of the inside systems on Saturday afternoon.
At 5.30pm, approximately 100 members and visitors were treated to watching
the match on any one of 4 big flat screens, the main hall projector and
with a sound quality that would rival any venue in Maidenhead.
I would like to thank Nimish and the Audio Venue team for this fantastic
system and for pulling out all the stops to get it installed in time for
last Saturday's match.
David Williams of London Irish commented that Maidenhead must now be the
best venue to watch a Rugby Match in Berkshire, and hopefully will be
joining us to watch some of the forthcoming Lions' matches.
Maidenhead RUFC will be open for all of the Lions' matches and we have
organised specially themed events for each of the Test matches. There
will also be a stamped loyalty card system in operation, whereby those
who attend multiple games can recoup prizes (beer and food) . The more
matches you come to, the more free beer and food you can enjoy. The new
entertainment system is truly fantastic and will benefit the Club, our
members and visitors for many years. Thanks again to Audio Venue and please
come along and watch the Lions matches at the best venue in Berkshire.
John Wanklyn CEO & Chairman, Maidenhead Rugby Club
Clubhouse
development plans
Since taking
over as Chairman last year I have been discussing with the Main Committee
and members of the Commercial Sub Committee the feasibility of extending
and improving the facilities of the Clubhouse. Like all large projects
with multiple stakeholders, it is easy to either omit key requirements
or allow the scope to become so extended that the project becomes impossible
to deliver. Therefore it is extremely important that all members have
an opportunity to provide input early in the concept stage to ensure that
we have captured and appropriately prioritised all requirements.
In
consultation with other Clubs who have undergone similar projects and
with the help of a local design company we have produced the above set
of drawings for you to consider and provide feedback. I would reiterate
that this is very early in the process and all we are trying to do is
ensure that our scope of requirements accurately reflects the needs and
opinions of the members. The results of this consultation will need
to be consolidated and a specific scheme drawn up for planning.
And last but not least we still need to raise the money to fund the project!
On
this point, I am pleased to say that I have already received some provisional
but significant pledges for money and assuming we can attract some external
grants to match these amounts we should be over half way to funding a
project of this scale. This does however leave the other half to
find and in this regard I would like to ask for your help:-
Maidenhead
is an amateur, community Rugby Club, and our whole club ethos is built
on the very best sporting qualities of teamwork, respect, honesty, commitment,
friendship and winning. I passionately believe these are excellent
life qualities to coach into our youth and senior players alike, and this
is why Maidenhead Rugby Club is such an important part of our local community.
As
such we are seeking to raise the balance of funds from local businesses
that have a vested interest in supporting a healthy local community.
The Commercial Committee has drawn up a list of local companies who we
believe have the scale, reason and resources to potentially help us.
If
you work for a local business or have a strong personal connection with
anyone who does, we would really appreciate it if you can provide a personal
introduction for us to talk about our plans and ambitions here at Maidenhead.
To put this into context, we would only need 15 companies to become Silver
or Gold sponsors at £5000 and £10,000 respectively, and our extension
project becomes a reality.
Please
feel free to contact me directly if you can introduce us to someone in
your company who may have an interest in becoming a potential sponsor.
John
Wanklyn
Chairman & Chief Executive (jwanklyn_home@hotmail.com)
Your
News and Events
If your squad or age group has any events or news to promote please send
information and details to 
and we will add them to the web site.
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