03 View from the Chair Feb 12

View from the Chair…

Hello again!

Well, Christmas is now just a distant memory and, despite the snow and ice, we are looking forward to Spring and the days growing longer.

Shay Good and Andy Lyle have the unenviable job of deciding on the fitness of the pitches and pitch allocation. As with the referee for the recent cancelled France v Ireland game, I would ask you to support them in their task as, believe me, they want rugby to be played as much as you do. There are times when, in the long term interests of pitch preservation, they will make a decision which may be unpopular and, if it is your team that is affected, you have my sympathy but I do hope you will understand the reasons for their decision.

The bright spot is that the Browick Road pitches are looking good and one pitch has posts erected and has already been used for a competitive match while the second pitch is available for training. We are hoping to have the second set of posts up shortly so that will give us a further option.

In the long-term, we are determined to move to a more appropriate site with sufficient pitches and facilities to fulfil our needs into the foreseeable future. We continue to pursue possible options but, realistically, without a big slice of luck or a generous benefactor, the current economic climate is such that this is unlikely (although not impossible!) to happen in the near future.

In these circumstances, we must plan for the medium-term. We are in danger of suffering from ‘planning blight’ where we allow our present facilities to deteriorate to the point of being unfit for purpose in the hope or expectation of a move. Obviously, we do not want to commit scarce resources to work that could prove to be redundant a few years down the line but we must provide our current players and members with facilities that meet their needs. This is particularly true as our ladies and touch sections have come into being and are now established within the Club and our overall membership has passed 1300.

In the light of the above, we are putting together a proposal to improve the changing, shower facilities and kitchen at Tuttles Lane, while also preparing a remedial programme for the Tuttles Lane pitches and investigating the possibility of obtaining portable floodlights to allow us to train at Browick Road.

We will clearly have to budget accordingly and may well be appealing to members to help with fund-raising to realise some of these plans but we are also hopeful that we might obtain some grant funding from various sources.

We will be presenting our plans to the AGM (see below) but, in the meantime, if you have any comments, please do let us know.

David Ford, who has been associated with the Club for a number of years, has kindly agreed to take on the kit ordering and shop duties and recently presented his initial findings to the Management Committee. You will soon begin to see the fruits of David’s labour as he implements his ideas!

I would like to give special thanks to Ron Summers who, with Tracey, has kept the shop running on a voluntary basis alongside all his other duties and look forward to his continued involvement as we seek to develop this side of the Club’s activities.

If anyone would be interested in taking on the First Team Manager’s job, please have a word with Andy Lyle or me!

Formal notices will be issued shortly. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Chris Williams, our President, and I have decided that it makes more sense for us to write alternate articles in this newsletter so, the next edition will feature ‘Presidential Prose’ rather than ‘A View from the Chair’!

I find it difficult to believe that we will not see Eddie in his customary place at our pre-match lunches and I know that you will join me in extending our sympathy and best wishes to his family.