Please allow me to start by thanking a huge amount of people who all made this possible:
Colin Tall, Club Sponsor and owner of H4L for his huge generosity in presenting all the players and tourists with extremely generous gifts.
Christine and her crew in the kitchen. Not only did she prepare a fantastic lunch for the Club Sponsors and Volunteers plus Tour officials but then produced match teas for 50+ U16/Colts, officials and 40+ senior players. A fantastic achievement especially given the workspace at hand.
Cranbrook Sports Club for great hospitality.
Our fantastic helpers serving the match teas (Karen, Kate S, Sarah W and Vicky Mc) – At this point, I should stress, YOU made it a sexists “job” by awaiting woman only to offer to help out!
Tour Organiser Pieter Bruynseels and all his helpers and especially players from Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege from Belgium who made the day possible.
A fantastic number of spectators who stood 3 or 4 man (or woman) deep at the Grandstand at Moss. It was a massive honour for all players.
Robert W and Carlos for herding cats
Anyone else I have forgotten
Less positive notes:
It was made perfectly clear prior to the match, that every player had to change and stay behind to socialise with the Tourists. Sadly quite a few players left too soon afterwards!
We lost a brand new match ball (red/blue and white RRP £45) – I am pretty sure it was used for converting a try and ended up in the car park towards the end of the match. To retrieve the ball is down to any substitute available at the time and not to left to make its own way back to the pitch!
One of the water bottles, donated by a generous parent, did get broken when a player threw the bottle to the ground post drinking – no name mentioning but I am awaiting a replacement from the player concerned (pocket money can fund the replacement) – you know who are or I will remind you!
Whilst I applaud [some of] our injured U17 players for turning up and supporting the team (and fully understand several were away on holidays/work) I stress, injured or not, YOU are still very much part of the Team and support, injured or not, counts!
All the above-mentioned notes show lack of Respect and Team Work (2 of the 5 core values associated with Rugby)
Match report
Our tourist had spent the early part of the week in Wales were they played a match vs a School/College. Despite ending up third in a two-horse race the desire and willingness to turn up for the match vs Cranbrook RFC U16/17’s was not to be dismissed. This resulted in early pressure on the CRFC try line and a well deserved try. Suffice to say, despite strong opposition and defence CRFC managed to score a few tries some of which were an exhibition in running and supporting rugby. Half time score 19 - 7
In the second half, the match was extremely close and a proper end-to-end match.
Huge credits to all players who played the match in competitive spirit and mannerism therefore putting on a spectacle for all to watch.
Final Score (although only numbers and not a measure of effort from all concerned) 34 - 19
Going forward
The combination of extremely talented players from but U16 and U17’s is fantastic for the Club. Whilst the U17’s currently are performing well in the Kent U17 League the future is looking very positive.
The foundation for Colts Rugby at Cranbrook RFC looks to be reborn post quite a few lean years.
Next season (2019/20) I am hopeful we will be able to field a U17, U18 and COLTS team (the latter for Colts League commencing Spring 2020) – I know, for many, this is too distant in the future but we need forward planning to ensure the viability and longevity of the Club and Teams.
That being said, I am fully aware of GCSE exams for the U16’s (Spring 2019) and Mock A-levels for U17’s (Spring 2019) but we have been invited to Antwerp, Belgium for a re-match. I try to ascertain and collate dates for the said exams and find a preferred weekend in April 2019 for a U16/17’s Tour if there is enough interest (email to follow soonest possible).
Wishing all the Tourist safe travels today.