The 2009 Maidenhead Tournament was superbly organised and run by the U10 age group parents. The preparation, planning and organisation was outstanding which made the whole day run smoothly, enabling all 1600 competitors and 3000 visitors to enjoy a wonderful day of Youth Rugby. On behalf of Maidenhead Rugby Club, and all of the visiting Clubs that have since commented, I would like to say a heartfelt "Thank you" to the organising committee and crew led by Tournament Directors, Kieron Franks and Cameron Miller.

Our tournament this year was supported by the London Irish Community Team, with their famous mascot, "Digger" giving all of the players great encouragement during the day. The winners were presented their trophies by the London Irish front row pairing of Alex Corbisiero and James Tideswell and all Tournament attendees were offered reduced price tickets for the Heineken cup clash between London Irish and Scarlets on 17^th October. This is fantastic commitment from our local Berkshire Premiership Club, so thank you to Alex and James for taking time out to present the winners trophies and to Zoe and the rest of the community team for all your hard work and support.

This year the Club took on responsibility for catering and provided a superb section of quality BBQ food in the outdoor food marquee as well as providing very welcome hot meals in the Club house. Many thanks to Sally Day and her team for managing this on behalf of the Club. We also secured an outside bar license for the day so well done to Billy and his team for keeping everyone suitably refreshed.

I would also like to thank all of our sponsors and advertisers who helped to make the day such a success. Without the support from Grundon, who provided all of the bins and refuse collection, Enigma Marketing who again produced the superb Tournament program, Hawkinsport for providing the winners trophies plus the myriad of other sponsors, we simply would not have been able to host such a quality event.

However our special appreciation goes to our Main Tournament Sponsor, O2. O2 are huge sponsors of England Rugby and hopefully their support of grass roots events like the Maidenhead Youth Tournament will help produce more elite stars of the future. Thank you Tracey and the team from O2.

As ever, a huge vote of thanks goes to the tournament referees and the first aid support provided by First React, without whom these events simply could not take place.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all of the players who contributed to a fantastic festival of highly competitive and quality rugby, details of which can be found in the individual age group reports on our website. All of the Maidenhead teams performed well, but a special mention must be given to the U16s, who entered two mixed teams in their age group competition and ended up winners and runners up for the second year in a row. What a fantastic squad and a great result.

Well done everyone.

John Wanklyn
CEO & Chairman, Maidenhead Rugby Club