A bit quiet on here this summer?

Compared with previous years - yes - there is less on here than before because most (but not all!) of my summer coverage of the international women's rugby circuit is now on appearing on ScrumQueens.

Come over and follow all the women's rugby news on there!

Needless to say, anything on the junior game - or anything that is rather more opinionated - will continue to appear here!

Okay, okay - I am not going to stop!

Gosh - that was a heck of a response!

Thanks everyone - I am really flattered. I know people read this, but that so many people see this as an important source is gratifying (for me at least. Others may have another view).

I really have no intention of stopping this so long as you are reading it, and so long as there is stuff to write about - and, all things considered, it seems unlikely we will run out of that! What I was really just clarifying is that the Letchworth connection with this blog is now really just the title.

So please keep sending stuff in - rumours, suggestions, complaints, confusions, and maybe even the odd good news story as well! - and this will carry on in the (accidental) role of being that annoying fly that keeps buzzing round in the corner of the room that you cannot quite get rid of...

So... Where now with the Letchworth Girls' blog?

A new season has begun, and its time maybe to review where this blog is going.

It was originally created as a news system for the players of the Letchworth Girls teams, but that purpose has rather ended. I don't have any real link with the girls teams (well, team - there is just a U15 section this year) now. None of the girls I knew now play for the club - everyone is now too old! - so I get no news about what they are doing - and I am not sure how many of them read this (if any).

However, lots of "former legends" do still read this, and it is a great reminder of six or so incredible years we had, starting - as it does - during the second season, and taking in all the triumphs and enormous fun we all had. Every player - certainly from the "originals" - appears in here, somewhere or other. Its packed with memories and so needs to be preserved just for that. The fact that articles from four or five years ago are still being read shows that some people value it, anyway!

Its also a great way of letting everyone know about what former legends are doing now, in the rugby careers, and if we are ever going to get that mythical reunion then this is where it would be organised.

But more important than that the blog has always been read - and still is read two or three thousand times a month - by many people with no connection with the club at all. The little filler stories have taken over and without doubt what appears on here gets noticed. Quite why I have no idea - why the national governing body would even read a small club blog never ceases to amaze me, but they have always done and (going by the feedback on my reports of the summer's Nations Cup) still do!

Reason being, I guess, that communication - true communication (in the sense of a two-way exchange) - within the game in England remains lousy, especially the junior game where even the most basic information tends to be transmitted by rumour as much as anything else. And as for exchange of views - criticism, discussion, debate - there is none of that. There remains a centralised control-freakery when it comes to the domestic game in England that remains astonishing (and no, Julia Hutton, I do not mean you - you are wonderful. My absolute hero. And I mean that - honestly). Coaches, parents and players really are scared to speak their minds, and at least this blog allows them to do that - even anonymously.

If I am proud of anything that this blog has achieved it is to hear that it these debates have, from time to time, annoyed those at the centre - at least that means they have had cause to think about what they are doing. Anyone who ever writes a blog (or magazine or newspaper) that a central authority likes should pack it in immediately! Doesn't mean that any policy has ever been changed as a result - indeed from time to time Twickenham has gone out of its way to say how they have not listened to any internet blogs - but I live in hope that it might have had some subliminal influence. Maybe.

Yes, at times I get things wrong - almost invariably because of the need to fill some vast unbridged chasm caused by a complete lack of information (again, not your fault JH). It is amazing, but true, that - for example - England autumn tests with France have still not be officially announced (at least in England - they have been an openly discussed fact in France for months), and as for the U13 nonsense... So I guess and speculate and try to make some sense out of smoke-signals emerging from TW2. Better that than silence - and just occasionally it does seem to spark some movement. Mind you, these days its just as likely to be Dublin 2 that raises the ire, though the IRB obviously have more sense than to take any notice of this at all, Indeed is anyone St Stephen's Green knew that this blog existed I'd be ever so slightly worried about them.

So... where now? If there were a range of other, real, news sources; if the game was open to discussion and people were not afraid to let their views be known; if the media at large gave the women's game a fraction of the coverage it deserves; if two- to three-thousand people a month were not reading this "irrelevant little blog" (that is the right quote, RW?) then I'd be more than happy to stop. But - apart from ScrumQueens - we are no nearer all that than we were in 2004.

A change of name? Ideally, yes - but regular readers know the blogs name, and those that don't find it via subject searches anyway. And it also honours the achievements of greatest bunch of young people you could have ever wished to meet.

So, we go on. If you want fact and information about women's and girls' rugby in Hertfordshire (and occasionally England generally), use the Herts Girls' blog. If you want to follow the international game, turn to ScrumQueens. If you want discussion, debate, speculation, rumour, opinion, and "occasional sage-like ramblings" (thank you anon from TW2) then come here. And if you want to start or contribute to any rumours or discussions yourself... carry on sending the comments. Good or bad. I welcome criticism...

100,000 ... and counting

Sometime late this evening - or possibly early tomorrow morning -  small celebration is maybe due as this little news service, supporting a small girls team in north Hertfordshire, will pass 100,000 hits - achieved in just under four years. Remarkably the number of daily hits is still growing - even on relatively quiet days it can pass 100 (at the time of writing there are only 41 hits to go to the 100k). And we are - according to Wikio - the number one rugby blog again (which I find hard to believe, actually) - probably a short term thing due to coverage of Emily Valentine, but also due to Invicta, which has generated a lot of traffic!

Quite a lot of the hits have been due to this being - for a long time - pretty much the only independent source of information on women's rugby, including international rugby so one good development is that we are no longer alone. At least two "proper" news services, devoted to the women's game, have now started up (Scrumqueens and women's section of Heavensgame) who are now almost invariably beating this blog to the stories (as they should!). Its great, long overdue, and with the World Cup hopefully just the start.

• For the record the 100,000th reader logged in at 21 minutes after midnight, and appears to live in Brazil...

News from the other half

A reminder that our "other half" this season - Saracens - also have a blog (http://sarriesgirls.blogspot.com/) which has just started up this season with a short welcome message.

Drop by and say hello....

"Confident players with good skills having a really good time"

Believe it or not, but the above statement (which would look great on any promotional posters/leaflets anyone is planning methinks) refers you.

And its not the words of someone from the club, or even someone that knows you - but a rugby follower from Australia who has put together a website of the best sources of information on rugby and - as well as highlighting this blog - has watched the video (top right) and been very impressed by what he has seen.

Okay, the video is a couple of years old now and many of the girls featured have moved on - but those of you moving into their places are more than capable of playing as well as these girls did. Bear in mind that most of the girls in those clips had not picked up a ball much more than two years before!

Countdown clock

Though I say so myself, I'm rather pleased with this season's countdown clock (see above). Its based on some free clocks that can be downloaded from http://www.ohiok.com/. However, their designs were all based on US sports - but with a bit of tinkering I've found a more appropriate image.

If you want to include this on you own site or home page or whatever then the HTML appears below. You can also change the picture by changing the highlighted text - but if you do note that the image needs to be 300 x 200 pixels.

To use the code first type a

<

then immediately after that enter/paste in the following:

embed src="http://www.ohiok.com/sports-countdown-clocks/show.swf?clickURL=http://www.ohiok.com/&clickLABEL=Sports Countdown Clock Generator&

flashLABEL=Letchworth Girls Rugby&

skin=http://johnlbirch.googlepages.com/untitled3.jpg&

text=Start%20of%20the%20season&untilColor=6724095&textColor=0&

datesColor=0&year=2009&month=8&day=6&hour=10&minute=0&second=0&x=6&y=77"

quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="300" height="200"

name="countdown" align="middle" wmode="transparent"

type="application/x-shockwave-flash"

pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />

Improvements to the blog

You may have noticed a few small changes to the layout of the blog - including the photo slideshow in the column on the right. This is the result of various new and improved "gadgets" that have been released.

One of the best of these is rather less obvious, however, and that is the search option (also in the right column). This is much improved - apart from anything else the results appear on this page rather than taking you elsewhere. It also has options that allow you to direct your search at just this blog, or sites linked to from the blog, or the entire web. Try it out and see what you think!

Closing Time...

"... every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

Thought that now might be the best time to let everyone know that I will not be continuing in any formal management position with the team from next season. Which many may have guessed anyway.

Why? Well I think if Mel had added "... oh, you do realise that you'll be helping to run the team until practically the end of the decade" to her "Do you know where I can play rugby..." enquiry back in late 2002 I might have been slightly less enthusiastic about helping out at the start! 

However my aim from 2-3 years ago was always to gradually step back from things and now seems the best time to step away, more or less, entirely.

More importantly it will also create a small vacancy for someone to work with Mike and Heather throughout what will presumably be their final season next year with the aim of taking over in 2010. So if you will still be a junior in the 2010/11 season now is the time to push a parent forward.

Seriously - this is very important. Such is the way this game works that running the girls team probably requires as much off-field effort as running virtually an entire boys' rugby structure from 6-18. Maybe more. Understanding the rules and the unwritten rules and the Ways We Do Things in women's and girls' rugby requires a bit of an apprenticeship. You need to know what you are doing and who to talk to - without which the team just would not get onto the field. So - and I guess this means our small band of U15s - start badgering now!

Not that its all hard work - it is, and has been, staggeringly rewarding (in the non-financial sense of the word!). Its quite strange to stand back sometimes and watch and listen to you all and remember when we or you first started. This season ends with so many of the girls who started the team moving on - next season only Nikki will remain (plus Ruby, if her back ever allows her to play again) - so its a good time for me to step down as well.

However, I won't disappear entirely. Mike has asked that I carry on managing this blog - which I will - along with the Herts RFU website, which I have just taken over (requires a lot of work!). And I'll certainly come along to watch the games!

But that is all in the future. We still have two months of this season to go, including five tournaments and - in one of them - our 200th match. Any idea how we might celebrate that?

Tweet, tweet

Anyone out there into Twitter at all? Just wondered as I've set up an account on it. This automatically adds a link to any posts appearing on here, plus other short messages. Twitter can be updated via text which means that short, urgent, messages can be posted on here (well, in a box to the left) via RSS (if you want to use the same feed yourself try this). 

How useful this will be I'm not entirely sure, but one of two other clubs have started to use it - including Denise Hodge (Devon, South West South, and driving force behind the innovative South West League) and Steve Watkins (Worcester and Worcestershire) - so clearly it is seen by some as a potentially valuable tool.

Back at number 1

There are times when this feels like a bit of nerdy self-agrandisment, but I cannot resist mentioning that the latest blog rankings are out shortly. Our good friends at Total Flanker have had a sneak preview of the new standings - and we are up again!

Though it does not show up yet, in a few days the official site will show that The Letchworth Girls Rugby Blog is now an amazing 5th in the nation's sports blogs - and back at number 1 again amongst the rugby blogs!

No sign of Sky or Rugby World beating a path to the door yet armed with large cheques, but we live in hope. 

Blog ratings - the good news, and the bad

With this - our 1,000th blog posting - I can report an exclusive preview of tomorrow's new blog rating shows us that we are up again -  this time three more places, so we are into the top ten of Wikio's list of the most influential UK sport blogs!

Unfortunately this hasn't proved quite good enough to hang onto the "top rugby blog" title as Total Flanker has done even better as its shot up seven places to sixth. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. Still, together we are leaving several soccer sites behind - in fact we, Letchworth Girls, are ahead of the fan sites of every football club other than Arsenal*.

1	Arseblog	8	Formula One Blog	15	Cycling Info
2	SoccerLens	9	Letchworth Girls' Rugby	16	Women's Rugby Review
3	F1 Fanatic	10	West Ham Till I Die	17	Footie Blog
4	King Cricket	11	West Ham Fans	18	FCB News
5	Gunnerblog	12	The Corridor (a cricket blog)	19	4sportsake.com
6	Total Flanker	13	BlogF1	20	BBC Sport Editors' Blog
7	Line and Length	14	Suave's Republique Cricket

*Not that I generally give a hoot for the round-ball game**, but it is fascinating to see which football clubs do not feature even in the top 100 despite - allegedly - having the largest fan base. I wonder what it says about the relative literary abilities (or lack thereof) of each club's supporters?

**I had to actually referee some soccer games at a couple of schools last week - first time I'd been actively invoved in anything to do with the sport for about 35 years. Had to restrain myself blowing for offside when the ball was kicked forward... Reminded of the story of when Hayley and Carla played the game for the first time at Highfield when apparently they took several minutes to realise that you could pass the ball forward.

The benefits of being No. 1

Without wishing to push this too much, I have noticed an interesting change in the responses I get when I take time out to write to this or that rugby-related organisation about something or other that may have annoyed or puzzeled.

Suddenly I am getting replies. And not just pro-forma automated acknowledgements either - I mean proper replies, and from quite senior people, by the looks of it. Okay, there are exceptions but generally its all rather good. As a result some mildly interesting stuff has come to hand which, with it being half term now, I should be able to find some time to write up (local teachers are falling ill in proper numbers of late, so I've had less spare time on my hands).

Incidentally on a related subject, while teaching PE yesterday I came across an AS/A2 PE textbook. If anyone is doing PE post-16 (or even, for all I know, GCSE) and is working on anything about women's/girls' sport, or sexual discrimination in sport, or similar, I do have a fair bit of stuff that would seem to support a sizable chunk of the curriculum on that subject. Let me know if I can help.

Now we get national press recognition

Seen the Daily Telegraph rugby page recently?

Its coverage of the women's and girls' game remains as near as invisible as makes no odds... but the "rugby links" section does now have links to two women's and girls' blogs.

Guess which blog is one of them?

Actually, nice though this is I'd be even happier if they gave the game itself a tiny bit of coverage - apart from anything else I suspect that most of the more controversial matters highlighted on here in recent months would never happen if the game received a higher public profile.

Still - of the 11 "private" blogs listed, to have two relate to women's/girls' game isn't bad (actually its rather good). It'll also be interesting to see if  the Telegraph's columnists log in occasionally...

Welcome to the UK's top rugby blog!!

Its amazing, but its true. The long awaited Wikio ratings for October are out and this blog has leapt up an incredible 10 places to no. 12 in the sport rankings... and number 1 rugby blog!!

That's not the number one women's blog. Or girls blog. Or club blog. No - we're the number one blog of any sort dealing with rugby.

Amazingly this means we have slipped ahead of not only Total Flanker, but also the BBC's Sports Editor's blog. We have also risen to 447 overall (out of around 10,000 blogs).

One reason for this sudden leap is that we seem to have benefited from a revision to the way the ratings are calculated. Several blogs which had "gone to sleep" were still hanging around - now a greater weighting seems to go to blogs that publish regularly, as well as being referenced by other blogs.

Swaffham (1904th overall) have jumped up the tables and have entered the top 100 sports blogs... or at least would have done if that were categorised as "sport" (for some reason they are listed as "other" - something for Spike at Swaffham to have a word with Wikio about?) - but checking the total rankings they must be somewhere between 44th and 76th. Other blogs have done less well - Basford have dropped down - but Worcester have appeared for the first time.

50,000 and counting

At just after 20 to nine on Sunday evening the blog had its 50,000th visitor. No idea who they were as they came in via Google and were looking for women's rugby videos so hopefully they found something of interest. They were followed by someone from Hitchin a few minutes later who went on from our site to visit the Basford blog (quite a few people do that).

Compared with the big American sites like Your Scrumhalf Connection I guess 50k is quite small, but for a UK club blog well over 1,000 hits a month isn't bad - and there cannot be many junior rugby teams that have the Twickenham amongst their regular followers (RFU.com logs in about once a week)!

Rising up the charts

A new record high for the blog - we're now at 22 in the UK chart, a rise of two places on last month (a small rise numerically, but only one blog above us did any better - the higher you are the slower you rise). The rise was mainly at the expense of blogs on motor sport and football and puts us within only two places of the BBC's Sports Editor's blog.

Outside the top 100 I see that Swaffham Girls' seem to be on Wikio for the first time - which is good. Unfortunately they are currently classified as "other" rather than "sport" (as are Basford, curiously) so quite where either rank in comparision is difficult to say at the minute. However, you can get an idea by looking at all blogs on any subject (where sport comes well behind politics and technology - the highest placed rugby blog, 11th in sport, comes 481st overall). We come in at 888th, Basford 4,610th and Swaffham 4,813th. For their first month in the chart for the Norfolk girls that's a pretty impressive start (there are well over 13,000 blogs listed).

No sign of Worcester in the chart yet. Maybe next month?

Passing the baton

As you start training tomorrow I should be getting on a ferry somewhere, so for the next couple of weeks (aside from a couple of scheduled articles) its over to Mike to keep this ticking over.

See you on registration day...

A new sport for the internet age?

Is "blogging" (ie. writing this stuff) the new sport of the internet age?

I just ask, based on my reaction to seeing this blog hit the dizzy heights of 24 in the UK Sports Blog chart (up three from last month, and the highest climber in the top 25!). "Yay!", I thought, followed by "take that snooker!" and "eat dust, F1!" when I checked out who we'd overtaken. But a few months ago I didn't care, so where did all this wild competitiveness come from?

Early in the year Mike happened to pass on the news that we'd been placed in the top 100, which was all rather nice and pleasant and just a bit, well, mad really. A few months later idle curiosity revealed that we'd sneaked into the top 80. By the spring it was the top 50, then the 30s... When in June we hit number 26 it seemed worth a proud little logo (see right).

Then July came round and horror of horrors we fell one place to 27! Nooooooo! What had gone wrong - I know its not the rugby season, but where had we peaked too soon? Never mind, steady the ship, look at the positives, keep calm, play to your strengths. Get back out there and beat those green baize petrol-heads! So this morning was a time of sweet satisfaction

But does this mean that writing has become a competitive sport? Will there now be coaching sessions on getting your news in first, working out cunning tactics to get your article in ahead of the competition? Tactically linking to major rivals in the hope that they'll link back?

Madness. Rather fun though - and as developments go you do wonder if competitive blogging might make English GCSE ever so slightly more exciting (not a difficult task, one suspects). Why slave away over a critical analysis of Romeo and Juliet when your witty aside on ELVs could get a higher chart position? And who is to say that the ability to produce pithy and quotable one-liners isn't - in fact - a more marketable skill in the 21st century anyway?

One other thing the chart reveals is the very narrow sporting interests the UK actually has. Soccer (10 of the top 25), F1 (6), rugby(4), snooker and cricket (2 each) - the UK public really isn't interested in reading about much else. In fact the only other sports that even get into the top 100 are cycling and surfing. And only two of the top 25 are written by professionals - journalists need to look to their laurels, perhaps?

Oh - and the only blogs to concentrate on women's or girls' sport in the top 25 are both on rugby. No hockey, no netball, no tennis. Who said this was a minority sport?

The blog in summer

As you may have seen, there mere fact that there is no actual rugby is not stopping the 'blog from publishing new articles. The aim is - as last season - to try to keep things ticking over by publishing something new every two or three days... and at the minute we are exceeding that by a fair bit!

There is actually more being written about the women's and girls' game now - or at perhaps its just easier to find thanks to the growth in blogs. Either way, the more interesting and relevent news and links will appear here - so remember to drop by regularly.

In fact that is the point. There will be club news and information directly relevent to next season appearing over the summer - remember that county trials are on the second weekend in September - and the continung soap opera that is the ELVs will also be worthing keeping track of. By keeping a constant flow of interesting (hopefully!) articles the aim is that you will get at least some reward if you stop by - even if it will not always be club news - which will encourage you to keep coming back.

So remember to check out the blog regularly - it'll always be worthwhile!