Farewell to the personification of Letchworth Girls'

And so, at last, we come to the final farewell. Delayed slightly as there seemed a chance that our subject might play at the abortive Rugby League festival last weekend. But it was not to be.

What is there to say about Nikki Alcock that has not already been said? No-one has played more games for Letchworth Girls, scored more points, made more tackles, or represented the club better. And chances are (unless they tinker with the age bands again) no-one ever will again. From the small, rather shy, girl who came to see what her sister as doing at tag rugby, to the strong, confident captain of teams at both age groups, its been a long journey. Indeed its not far to say that Nikki has grown up playing for Letchworth - you do wonder what she will do to fill in the gap. However, those shorts were not going to last forever and maybe her retirement came just in time...

Normally when writing these articles the task is to find a good photo from a few dozen, but when you look through the various archives it is amazing how many pictures there are of Nikki - illustrative, if nothing else, of how throughout her rugby career Nikki has been at the centre of everything.

As well as many action shots (including several tries, like the one of the right), there are a number that illustrate Nikki's determination (ie. a range of interesting injuries) - none more so than this picture (left) from a game at Kettering in 2007, a memorably physical and well-contested game played on a close to liquid pitch. The mere problem of a bit of blood running down her nose was no reason to stop playing - in fact I can't actually recall a game where Nikki came off early.

Nikki also expressed the values of the girls' section at Letchworth better than anyone else.

She always played fairly, but to her highest ability - even when playing for the opposition. Lending players to the opposition can be a problem sometimes - some players from some clubs have shown a certain reluctance to play a full part at times, but early one season Nikki was briefly Ampthill's top scorer, thanks to several tries scored against Letchworth while guesting for the Bedfordshire club. And it wasn't just at the glory end of the field - Nikki defended hard as well, and if that meant tackling your own sister into touch just short of the line, then Nikki was not going to hesitate to do it!

And so the last of the Originals has pulled on a Letchworth shirts for the last time. Its now up to a new generation of players to take forward the team that Nikki helped create. As for Nikki - hopefully she will soon be pulling on a new shirt for a new team. The game needs players like Nikki, and its hard to imagine Nikki without rugby!

Letchworth's lioness

Lioness? Well, if there is one distinctive and memorable feature of Natalie Threlfalls' rugby its probably this (in this case Natalie is in a Ampthill shirt)...

Its not exactly textbook, but its very effective - even against the biggest of opponents. The above tackle was hardly unique. Natalie took second place in a "Tackle of the Year" in 2006-7 for this vital try saver in the final of the National Sevens (right)!

What is shows is one of the great features of Natalie's play - she never gives up. Her name frequently appears on the scoresheet, but she has probably save as many tries as she has scored, chasing down "lost causes" and making remarkable one-on-one tackles, often securing the ball as well. And its not a technique that she was caught - this was all Nat's own invention.

Nat was part of a talented intake of new players in our second season - but uniquely she had already started her medal collection as part of our second tag team at Herts Youth Games in 2005 - the last year that the Games included a Girls U14 competition.

Lead by Nikki, the team included several experienced players - which was useful when East Herts attempted to field someone who had played for East Region, which was against the Games' rules. It was an early introduction for Natalie to the some of the less savoury aspects of the game!

With that kick-start to her rugby career, Natalie became the star of the 2005/6 U14 team - a feared player who ran in stacks of tries, right from her first game (against Milton Keynes, left). Nat went on to play for the county and region, was chosen as the U14s Player of the Year, and even selected to join the county's summer Athlete Development Programme. Unfortunately Natalie's experience of representative rugby wasn't something she enjoyed, and it was only in past couple of years that she put herself forward again.

The county and region's loss was our gain. As Natalie moved up to the next age band she became a vital part of the successful U17 team - from scoring crucial tries in the 2006 Rochford 10s win to making vital tackles in the final of the 2007 National 7s plate, Natalie was always been at the heart of the action.

And so she has remained - as this slide show demonstrates! Natalie has been the ideal all round player, a match winner at both ends of the pitch, feared and respected by opponents, loved by team-mates - the fearless lioness of Letchworth Legends.

And here's to you, Jess Robinson*

Of all the many girls who have played for Letchworth in the past six years, only two who started their rugby careers at Letchworth have gone on to be picked for the RFUW's summer HPAs†. One was Hayley Guilder, and the other Jess Robinson. Yet, if you look back at reports on games played in Jess's first year at Letchworth you'd never have thought that Jess was to become one of the best players that Letchworth would ever produce.


Not that Jess was ever in any way a poor player - within a few weeks of taking up the game she found her way into the county U14 squad - but its not her name that appears in match reports. Jess was fast, but it was Natalie that defences feared most in that first season as she ran off with the U14 Player of the Season. Jess, however, took "Most Improved" - which sums up what has made her a great player.

Jess was always looking to improve. She was determined and really wanted to become a better player, to get into county and regional teams - and year on year she succeeded, becoming a better and better player.

In Jess's second season she became part of the new U17 squad - a real "dream team" with Jess and her ex-U14s helping to turn a promising but forward-dominated squad into a superb all round team that began to rack up the medals and trophies, almost as much as Jess began to rack up the tries. Though disappointed that she missed out on county selection in her first U17 season, Jess showed that determination throughout the season - and from that "dream team" it was Jess who became Player of the Year. By the following year she was back in the county team again - and picked for regional trials.

In fact the only problem Jess faced became where to play. In the U14s she was mainly a wing - she was fast, but very slim - however, as Jess grew she soon showed she could play full-back, and centre, occasionally fly-half. But if she was to make the regional teams she needed to decide where she would settle.

It was Simon Shutler, when coaching the county team, who came up with the answer, and an answer again that would never have occurred to anyone who saw Jess start. Jess should become a forward. Not in the front row (though it did happen - see left!), but as second row or flaker. Its a position that was new to Jess, but she took to it - and in 2008 she made the East Region team as a forward, and it was as a forward that she was picked for last summer's HPAs.

Jess is a star - but what is brilliant about her is that she has made herself a star. Her determination and will to improve has made her the brilliant player she now is - quite simply, and based on the judgement of coaches from outside the club, one of the best players Letchworth Girls have ever had.

*With deepest apologies to Simon & Garfunkel.
† By all rights it should have been three this summer, but RFUW cancelled the U15 HPAs.

Brief lives: Bubbles and Chloe

We've never encouraged girls from other clubs to join Letchworth - indeed our policy has always been to discourage players from moving to us if at all possible as we've always believed that it was in our best interests - and in the interests of the game as a whole - to have as many teams playing the game as possible. We've always preferred to encourage girls to guest for us, or maybe be "shared" with their original club, but sometimes - in literally a handful of cases - this has not worked and players, who have learnt the game elsewhere, have decided to move to us. And this season sees us saying farewell to two such "imports".

Laura "Bubbles" Barnard learnt her rugby at Ampthill, and played against us on several occasions, as well as joining us as an occasional guest. However, Bubbles was not entirely happy at her club and the risk was that she might stop playing altogether. So eventually, in the 2008/9 season, Bubbles moved to us permanently.

Once the move was made it was really great to see how Laura's confidence and performances improved, week on week, over the season, becoming a key member of the side that picked up several awards, most notably the plate at the National 7s.

This season she deservedly gained her county cap, putting in several excellent performances, especially in Petersfield where she was unlucky not to get her name on the scoreboard, having a try disallowed for what some spectators saw as "a bit of a technicality". Unfortunately injury meant that she did not quite see out her final season, but hopefully the game, and the club, has not seen the last of Bubbles and we will see her again at Legends Lane.

Chloe Baker has had an even shorter Legends career. Already a regional player, ex-Sudbury and Suffolk Sabres, Chloe decided to join us or this season, her final season in junior rugby.

Without doubt the most gifted "import" we have had*, Chloe's strength, speed and (normally!) excellent handling saw her immediately selected for Hertfordshire and the East Region. Perhaps her own worst critic, even when playing "badly" Chloe could still get on the scoresheet - as at the National 7s last weekend.

Chloe's commitment to Letchworth Saracens this season has been a great bonus in what was always going to be a difficult season - though injury meant that she missed several games near the end, returning just in time for the Nationals.

Personally I am really sorry that I did not see more of Chloe, as - short though her Letchworth career has been - Chloe is clearly one of the best, most naturally gifted, most brilliant players to have ever pulled on the black-and-amber.

Hopefully we'll all get a chance to see her playing adult rugby somewhere, sometime in the future - the game would be so much the poorer without stars like Chloe.

*Before you say anything, Sasha, you were shared with Sudbury so you weren't an "import"!

Hayley Guilder: A legend amongst legends

What do you say about Hayley? How do you get over how important she has been to the girls section at Letchworth? Her ability to lift the whole team just by being there - if Hayley was in the right mood (and most of the time she was) anything was always possible.

The memories are so many. Telling off her coach at Herts Youth Games because she disagreed with the tactics (that attitude started early - and she was probably right too!)... the multi-coloured shorts... the taste in music (make it LOUD!)... the team's only ever red card... three scores in (about) a minute in one sevens game... the toilet stops (no journey home was complete without one)... the vision... the tackles... the tries...

Whatever she is like to play with or against, one unarguable fact is that Hayley is without question an incredibly exciting player to watch. Hayley can sidestep with the best of them - but when that is not an option there are fewer players (especially of her size) more capable of simply crashing through the opposition line. Utterly fearless and incredibly strong it often takes about three players to stop her (as above!) - and even then her ability to break out of a tackle and continue to take the ball on is astonishing.  

Over 100 points in her first season (not bad for someone who played most of that year at prop!) - and well over 500 points in her Letchworth career - but there was more to Hayley than a try scoring machine who could rack up a hat-trick in a minute (against Wasps at the 2006 Herts Sevens). She is amazingly versatile for starters - in five years Hayley has played in every position, except that of hooker!

Her tackling could be pretty impressive too - never more so than against Kettering in the 2007 Herts Sevens. Defence troubled by a three on one overlap? No problem if the "one" is Hayley...

Three tackles in maybe five seconds and its overlap? What overlap?

All this makes Hayley's representative selections all the stranger. 

In 2005 Hayley was East Region's "player of the year", but a year later Hayley's main role at county seemed to be restricted to this (left).

Despite the then county coach's lack of faith in our star she was still selected for the HPAs - and then initially dropped from the regional squad the following season (an event that sparked a fair amount of controversy before the decision was changed!). Then once again she was selected for the HPAs! 

National coaches have always been aware her talent - narrowly missing out on the England U20 squad it was at their insistence she trialed and was selected for the senior regional squad only weeks after her 18th birthday.

But then there has always been more to Hayley than rugby. Angry Girl is also Party Girl committed to enjoying herself. And if that means tackling practice on a bouncy castle on the day before the regional finals then that is what has to be done and to heck with the consequences (a broken hand, in that case). And as for the late Saturday nights and playing with a hangover on a Sunday - isn't that what all real rugby players do anyway?

Letchworth will miss Hayley - and as Hayley's "chauffeur" for what must have been thousands of miles over the past five years I miss her as well - including the way she was always ready on time(!), the lost gumshields, the music, and the legendarily inconvenient toilet stops on the journeys home. At one awards evening I said that this was one player I'd happy pay to watch play, which I guess I did over the years! And I don't regret a penny of it. Stars like H are rare indeed.

Mel Hobbs: Its all been YOUR fault!

I guess everyone knows about Mel's pivotal role in getting all this off the ground. So much of it was down to her determination to play - a determination never frustrated despite, first, the sudden collapse of the Scorpions girls team based at Datchworth (only weeks after Mel had gone along to a training session) and then Hitchin's refusal to run the North Herts girls tag team for Youth Games.

Mel was going to play one way or another, even if we had to build a team just for her. Which is what we did. Which is why you now spend your winter Sundays and Thursday evenings covered in mud and interesting bruises - its entirely Mel's fault!

She was there from the start - as naive and green as the rest of us. Who can forget, for example, her attempts to play with her glasses on - and against Welwyn too!?

Mel was a regular player for the first two or three season, generally at centre, without perhaps making a huge impact. She picked up awards - Most Improved Player in 2006/7, for example - and was in the Herts 7s finalists in 2005 - but its interesting that there are not that may photos of Mel in action in the early years.

There may have been other pressures, but I think I'm right in saying that Mel began to feel (rightly or wrongly) that she didn't have a set place in the team, and began to drift away so that she never appeared for us from the middle of the 2007/8 season.

But that all changed this season. Persuaded to come back by new captain Nikki, Mel also leapt at the chance to take on a new role (and one that some of us had always thought she might do). 

After four years with Katie as scrum half the team suddenly needed a replacement. Mel stepped forward, and immediately began to play as if born to the role.

Her confidence did not so much as bloom as explode. She had never been a bad player - indeed she was always far better than she herself would ever accept - but now she was everywhere on the field. 

Opposing scrum halves (regardless of size!) had to move pretty smartly to stand any chance of getting the ball away, while anyone else who came too close to Mel would find themselves in trouble.

But perhaps it was when she got the ball in her hands that Mel became a revalation. Incredable speed, lightning change of direction, huge strength. A sniff of a gap and she was gone...

And now she is gone - well, from playing for the U18s anyway. Because it seems that Mel will be back next season - with Carla - as coaches for the U15s (and, if they are lacking in numbers, maybe as a player too - no-one would notice!). It promises to be an awesome coaching team - between them they have played just about every position on the field. U18s loss this season will definately be the U15s gain. Go Mel!

Rosie Randall: Number One

Rosie joined the section at the beginning of 2005. Linking up with Jade Randfield she was the last piece in the creation of a remarkably powerful scrum for a team of novices.

We were very much a forward based team in those days. In practice age bands were rather more flexible and most of the time we were able to put out a single all-age team with five-player scrum featuring Rosie and Jade as props, Carla as hooker, and two from Nichola, Nim and Hayley in the second row. With Katie at scrum half what the team lacked in skill and experience, it more than made up for 

with guile and power. It was undoubtedly why that team did so well in its first season - and Rosie was a key part of the success.

But Rosie's greatest game in that first season came in one of the few "legal" U14 games in the first Herts 7s at Cheshunt. 

Lining up alongside Carla and Nichola, her first great contribution was to release Hayley into the backs to cause havoc. However, it was in the semi-final that she came into her own. 

That first Herts 7s was a bit smaller than those that have come later. Only 7 teams in the U14s, and our semi-final was against Chesham - who we had already beaten in a mildly controversial pool game (not our fault - the referee mucked up the rules and wanted to declare our 20-10 win a draw. We objected). 

The game was desparately close - and was Rosie at the centre of a heroic defence of a one try lead in the second half that saw us into our first final in our first tournament.

Rosie was originally less confident about going forward with the ball - a tendency to use the ball as an air cushion when going into tackles being a slight problem. 

However, encouraged by her coaches (not least her brother, Joe) she improved year on year and year so that Rosie is now an important attacking option now, drawing in the defence while taking crucial yards. Rosie can take some stopping - as Ampthill discovered (right).

Rosie's tackling can also be pretty impressive (as left against Worcester) - in fact she is now the perfect prop. 

When it came to 10s and 15s - real rugby - Rosie was deservedly first name down on the teamsheet - a number one Legend!

Charley & Mel: They came from the East...

...of Hertfordshire, and they have been pure gold (without the need for any other gifts).

One of our prouder boasts is that we are, at heart, a "local" team - almost all of the girls who have played for Letchworth have come from the Garden City or its neighbouring towns and villages. In fact it is not going too far to say that any rugby club could (even should) be capable of building a girls section like we have - they just need to make the effort. Unfortunately not all clubs do - and even some clubs that do build viable girls teams seem to be too willing to allow those teams to fall apart when the main driving force leaves.

Such a club was Bishops Stortford. When we started in 2004 they were a significant team, but somehow things began to slip and some time into our second season it became clear that they were in trouble. We still managed to play them home and away, but by the end of 2005/6 they were not even capable of sending a team to our Herts Sevens. By 2006/7 they had disappeared. We hear that there are attempts to revive the section so maybe we could play them again next season. However, the one positive that came out of Stortford's failure was that as a result in 2006 we picked up Charley Hughes, a player who I think we all believe to be one of the best - and certainly the most overlooked - hookers in the county, if not beyond. 

Its a curious thing that the ability to actually hook seems almost irrelevant to the selection for hookers when it comes to representative teams. Its all about being able to thrown into the line-out  - despite the fact that the line out is the most over-trained and little used aspect of the girls' game. 

It is not unusual to see a girls match with no line-outs at all... but there are always scrums.  Yet the assumption seems to be that specialism there is less important because almost all scrums will be won by the team putting in, and that any hope of a strike against the head will be due to the pushing power of the props. No-one seems to value cunning, quick thinking (and quick feet) of a truly gifted hooker - like Charley

Which is not to say that Charley has not been backed up by strong and powerful props, but even so the ratio of scrums won against the head by front rows lead by Charley has always seemed to be incredibly high. In most games, and against all levels of opposition, we have always seen an opposition put-in with Charley as hooker as a 50:50 ball (and our own put in as close to a certain win as makes no odds!). There are any number of games where we (or more to the point Charley) has won every scrum. 

But like all great forwards her skill remains a closely guarded mystery - because from the touchline we often cannot see it. Quite how she achieved all she did it I don't think anyone outside maybe the front row can really know - perhaps she does not know herself - but I suspect that we may owe many of our victories to Charley and her frontrow team just as much as the girls whose names appeared on the scoresheet.

Her game elsewhere has also been good. She may not have had a spectacularly long throw, but it has always been accurate, she could be relied upon to get to just about every breakdown, her tackling has been good (and often try-saving - as on left against Suffolk) and, while she never seemed to relish getting the ball in her hands, her running (above)and passing could not be faulted. Off the field - quiet (well, quieter than some anyway!), but utterly reliable - and always (for someone so damn good at what she did) curiously lacking in confidence. So let's just put this down as a matter of record - Charley... you are brilliant. Stay in the game - because there are few out there with as much talent as you.

Charley is also responsible for giving us another member of the forwards union who is leaving us - Mel Whitfield. 

Second row and occasional prop, Mel has come and gone a bit over the two or three years she has been with us, but it was great to have hear back this season - just at the moment when we lost two key forwards (Emily and Laura Watson). A strong and potentially talented player, Mel perhaps hasn't been able to turn that potential into Charley's level of on-field success as she has not been able to play or attend training as regularly. But despite several months away she hit the ground running when she returned to the fold after the New Year. It is a pity that just at the moment she has returned to her old form, she must now leave again - and this time with not hope of coming back (unless she can forge her birth certificate!).

Charley and Mel. Stortford's loss has been our gain.

Ellie & Lizell: Brief (but memorable) lives

Some of our retiring Legends have been with the team for less time than others, but in their (relatively) short time in the Black and Amber they have still made a real impact - and will be missed.

Impact is actually quite an appropriate word for Ellie, who has actually been with us now for about a year and a half (so maybe not that brief!).  An answer to a prayer for more props, Ellie confidence improved every week so that she can now not only hold her own in the scrum against the best, but also developed a useful turn of speed to go with an ability to win the hard yards going forward.

Perhaps the most memorable moment was her try against Hertford in November - a 70 metre sprint to the line that rounded off our first win over these opponents at the older age group.

One lasting contribution Ellie has also left us with is the link she provided for us with her former (and future) club - Hitchin. Knowing where to go after 18 can be difficult, but by leading the way Ellie looks like making them the club of choice for other "retiring" Legends.

Our other retiring "newcomer" is certainly not new to the game, or to the club. Pretty high up on anyone's list of "most feared" opposing player, Lizell has scored a fair few tries against us for Kettering over the years but - in search of extra games when her club were not playing -she asked if she could join us earlier this year and has shown an impressive dedication to training and club activities since.

In practice a combination of representative duties, injury, and Kettering fixtures restricted her to only two run outs in a Letchworth shirt, but in those two tournaments (at Worthing and the National 7s) Lizell racked up a remarkable 11 tries - to go with two medals! 

Lizell next step onto a rugby field will be for one of the few teams to have even tighter shirts than us - England U20s - for the Nations Cup in June, and then a search for an adult team for next season (something that should not be hard as they should be queueing up to sign one of the country's most versatile 18 year olds). Our best wishes go with Lizell - both on and off the field she is a real credit to the game!

Carla Kelly: the bandaged wonder

"Okay then - just tell me which bit DOESN'T hurt.."

This Saturday will be the a day of goodbyes - more girls move on to adult rugby after this season than we have ever lost before - but for one of our number the end has already come.

Carla won't be with us at the Nationals. Her final game was the Herts 7s semi final last Sunday, and it was peculiary fitting that she should end her that match lying on her back on the field being attended to by Joe and various medical types for no-one has had a bigger impact on the team's first aid supplies than Carla.

This may partly be due to her unwillingness to follow medical advice too closely, generally converting a doctor's suggestion that she take a certain number of weeks off into a similar number of days. 

Carla's utter dedication to the game and her team was slightly later to get going than her contemporaries, for - although in the squad for the infamous HYG tag team in 2004 - she could not make the actual tournament. However, Carla did pull on a Letchworth shirt for the first time a few weeks later for a tag tournament in Harpenden - the forerunner of Herts 7s - and has missed very little rugby since. 

In fact she (along with Nikki) are possibly unique in having played both there and at every Herts 7s tournament ever held since (in fact we are possibly the only club that has been to all six editions of the county's girls' rugby tournament).

Carla is also probably unique in having been selected for the region - and not once but twice (at both U14 and U17 level) - but never for the county. Quite how Herts selectors could repeatedly overlook abilities that both we and regional selectors have so prized remains one of the game's great mysteries. In fact Carla was the only player from the 2005/6 East Region team not to be selected for the 2006/7 Herts county squad - a decision that ended Carla's regional career. In more recent years she did not even bother going to the trials.

But enough of such unimportant controversies - one effect was to give us unique access to one of our most determined, dedicated, brave, and versatile players in the game. Beginning in 2004 as a goal-kicking hooker, Carla has played just about every forward role available (and now there are suggestions that Hitchin may have her lined up as a back next season!). In every role she has made her mark, never letting us down, putting - even throwing - her body on the line at both ends of the field in support of her team and friends.

Perhaps one of her most memorable tries demonstrated this - the one of the tour against Exeter (see below) where she somehow seemed to shrug off tackles from half the Exeter team in a single-handed 40+ metre drive to the tryline. 

All this has not made her a stranger, shall we say, to the first aid kit - her first trip with East to the regional finals at Rugby School ended in the St John's ambulance and not much has changed since. This has had the effect of producing the following oft repeated touchline exchange...

A: "Quick - someone's down!"

B: "Who is it?"

A: "Oh its okay - its Carla. She'll be up again in a minute!"

And she (almost always) was - generally recovering instantly to the magical words...

"Do you want to come off then?"

Its difficult to believe that she will not appear again in the black-and-amber, but its great to know that she will be staying in the game - spearheading the Letchworth invasion of the Hitchin women's team. I just hope that their first aid kit is well stocked...

Simon Hill : Letchworth Girls coach 2007/8

Just over 13 months ago, the girls at Letchworth Garden City RFC were introduced to their new coach for the 2007/8 season : Simon Hill. It was quite a day for everyone - not least because we all had to get to know the whole new language of Quasi-English (or Kiwi, for short). In the early days it was not unusual to see a training session grind to a halt when Simon called out a fresh instruction (at least for long enough for the girls to get an explanation of what he'd meant). It also took a while for Simon's more abrupt style of language ("... if you do that again I'm going to kick your arse!") to be fully appreciated. Like most significant changes, it takes a time to understand how things are going to turn out .....

Simon continued the inclusive approach of previous coaches Joe and John to make sure that all of our players get as much match time as possible while taking part in as many tournaments as we can and striving to do well in them. Individually, taking part remained the main ethos with the team striving to improve their performance collectively. In doing this Simon involved several first team players in coming to the girls training sessions to help them improve specific aspects of their play and this has had a major influence not only on the standard of play but also in building friendships across the club which is fantastic for the girls teams. The results certainly reflected the 'team performance' approach with the majority of good performances coming toward the end of the season. Overall, it was a mixed bag of victories and defeats (played 38, won 17, drew 3, lost 18) but there was a collection of good results in the major tournaments and the occasional trophy along the way :

RFUW Divisional 10s : 2nd
RFUW National 10s : 4th
RFUW London and South-East 7s : Plate runners-up
RFUW Herts 7s : 2nd
RFUW National 7s : 5th=

So, on the field, we saw the team working together better and better as the season went on. Meanwhile, off the field, Simon continued to impress with his vast array of special talents ..... for example, at the Awards evening, he showed himself to be the smooth, cultured chap we'd always suspected (you can see how pleased Wonky was by his expression) :

and who could forget the end of season party? Not just for the sartorial ellegance that threatened to overwhelm us all but mainly for the Haka that Simon and Mike performed ...

Quite a season ... but it doesn't end there. Simon is, we now know, always looking at the world and seeing how it could all be so much better so he is never short of ideas on what to do next. It's also just possible that a few people may have noticed that Simon has an occasional tendency to tell them in, shall we say, a forthright way if he thinks they are not getting things right! His attitude may well be summed up as "People do stupid things because they don't realise what a bad thing it is to do (in which case someone needs to tell them) or because they don't care (in which case someone needs to tell them that they ought to care)" Not that I've ever been known to have an attitude like Simon's, of course. Not me .......... well, not this week. So far ........

Anyway, Simon certainly 'got on with the job' himself : he coached the North Herts Tag rugby team for the Hertfordshire Youth Games, he provided coaching for secondary school girls in Letchworth and Stevenage, he organised a Tug'o'War team -

- and a touch rugby demonstation at Rhythms of the World -

- and he devised, organised and ran the Letchworth Schools Tag Rugby tournament which involved over 500 9-11 year old girls and boys at 6 different schools being trained and culminated in a 4 group, 28 team tournament at the Letchworth club in July. The feedback from all of these events has been great - the students, teachers, parents and sponsors have all let us know how successful they felt the events had been.

Of course, as it was the last event he was to be involved in this season, Simon also received a few gifts - a Wasps shirt and a Saracens shirt from the girls section and a bottle of something interesting from Katie who is similarly leaving the girls team this summer (in her case due to old age i.e. she's 18!)

So how do I sum up Simon? In Simon I see what I should have been more like when I was younger (... er, quite a lot younger in fact). I suppose I'd sum him up by saying that he is fun, honest, caring, generous, charismatic as well as being a complete looney ..... oh heck, he's just a really good bloke and the best mate you can have.

Today, Wednesday, I took Simon and Kirsten to Heathrow airport to catch their flight back to New Zealand. I'm really going to miss them. Fortunately, I won't have to miss out on the infamous text messages - I get more messages from Simon than from everyone else put together - and I'm hopeful that, eventually, I'll be able to understand one.

To Simon and Kirsten, I say "Thanks for everything you've done for us this year" and "Good luck" in everything you do in the future. I really hope that we will see you back in the UK before too long for there are many, many people who will miss you. Otherwise, we'll be coming out to Christchurch to find you!