Herts Sevens moves to Tring in 2010

It has just been announced that this season's Herts Sevens will take place at Tring RFC on 16th May.

Its great news for the game in the county. This will be the sixth Herts Girls' Sevens (or seventh Herts Girls rugby festival, depending on what you count!) and the great thing about the tournament is that - not only has it been a huge success, growing (almost) every year - but it uniquely moves around the county, encouraging the game to develop and grow.

This will be the first time that the tournament has been to the west of Hertfordshire since the first festival in 2004 - which was a tag tournament held at Hemel Hempsted. This evolved into a proper Sevens in 2005 when clubs mainly from Hertfordshire and Essex competed at Cheshunt, with our U14 team only losing in the final to a combined team from Welwyn and Saracens.

In 2006 we hosted the Sevens, with the number of entries doubling. Clubs came from as far away as Nottinghamshire (I think I am right in saying that Emily Scarratt played for Paviors) and east Norfolk, and we even had TV coverage (see if you can spot some of the current U18s from several local clubs, all looking very young!).

By 2007 at Welwyn the tournament had become a key date on the national fixture list - effectively a "warm-up" for the National Sevens, and as such this tournament attracted teams from even further afield, including then national champions Worcester.

In 2008 the competition moved to Tabard - the first club (then) without a girls team to host the tournament. Unfortunately the RFUW decided, at the last minute, to organise a junior equivalent of the Super Fours on the same day as Herts 7s which pulled key players from several clubs and reduced the number of entries slightly - but the tournament was a great success again - and we reached the U18 final for the first time, losing to the combined Basildon and Rochford team from Essex. And last year Old Albanians were the hosts of the biggest tournament yet - with a U12 competition for the first time.

And so to Tring in May- a day that will be a highlight of the season, and quite special for one person in particular, because only one player not only played at Hemel in 2004, but also at Cheshunt, Letchworth, Welwyn, Tabard, and Old Albanians - and will be playing at Tring. Step forward Nikki Alcock - the only player to play at every Herts Girls' rugby festival!