Look out for new "Community Magazine": Update

I've just received my copy of the "Community Magazine" - and our bit is pretty impressive. A full colour, two-page spread with pictures of both the U15s and U18s, including a big full-page job featuring Jess. We are also the only sport featured! Really well worth getting a copy, presumably from The Comet offices if you do no actually live in Letchworth.

The article itself is based around Katie's now world-famous speech, edited down a bit. It reads very well - we could never hope to buy publicity as good as this so... fingers crossed that we get some interest from it!

Letchworth Girls Calendar 2008

It's that time of year again - the time when, if you're anything like me, you sit in desperate gloom contemplating the awful question of what can you possibly buy for granny this Christmas? Or uncle John? Or countless other family members who, for one reason or another, are so difficult to find an appropriate present for.

Well, stop your fretting! Help is at hand in the shape of the 2008 Letchworth Girls calendar. Following the success of the 2007 version, we have produced this calendar with even more pictures - a total of 53 full colour pictures taken during 2007 are presented; 46 of which have not been published anywhere before.

As last year, the calendar is approx. 11" wide by 8" high which opens out to 11" x 16" when hung on the wall - the upper half being a collection of photographs and the lower half giving the calendar dates and adequate space to jot down important fixtures, training, etc. So for your money you get the cover picture shown above plus the 12 multiple picture panels shown below -

The calendar is available from the printer at www.lulu.com/content/1495619 at £9.99 plus postage & packaging from the USA or from Mike Alcock (mikealcock@lineone.net) at £10. Please note that, if you need Mike to post one to you in the UK, it will cost an extra £1 for First Class post & packaging.

All proceeds go to Letchworth Rugby Club Girls.

'Tis the season to be jolly!

With Christmas just a matter of 23 days away, it's high time you Letchworth Girls got yourselves some serious training organised - Simon is suggesting a visit to Pizza Hut followed by a game of bowling on Wednesday, 12th December and needs to know who will be coming along so he can make the necessary bookings.
Please let him know as soon as possible (and definately by Thursday 6th) if you will be there.

Injury crisis grows: Herts County U18s pull out of Newark

We knew we were having problems here, but the news that we are not alone has been confirmed as injuries at Letchworth and Welwyn have forced Hertfordshire to pull out of the U18 section of Sunday's East Midlands festival in Newark. Apparently the county squad are down to only 14 fit or otherwise available players out of 25. With Hertfordshire U18s due to play Canada's U19s (at Welwyn on 29th December - see here) the county managment felt they could not risk any more injuries by having such a small squad play every game without rest.

The plot, meanwhile, thickens as we learn that Westcliff also have an unusually high number of injuries to the extent that they will not be able to make the game at Letchworth on the 9th - Heather is looking for replacement opposition. Is this all just bad luck?

Anyway - this means that it will be training FOR ALL on Sunday at Letchworth 10.00 (t0 11.30).

Who broke all the mirrors?

Not that there is any evidence of large amounts of broken silvered glass everywhere, but there must be some explanation for this - for now, as well as Jess being out for several weeks following Sunday's game, Carla is now out until February due to some undisclosed off-pitch aggravation of her shoulder injury.

The curious thing is that I hear that we may not be quite alone in all this. Swaffham withdrew last weekend mainly, as you will have seen below, due to injuries suffered at county level, and I hear one or two other clubs may be experiencing raised injury levels. I grant you this is hardly a scientific survey, and one will tend to hear the bad news stories, but I wonder.... what's going on?

The age ranges changed this season - is this a co-incidence? That would be an irony because one major reason to change the age ranges was to improve safety. Could any aspect of the new age ranges be less "safe"? Fact is that I can't see what... and anyway at least half of our injuries have been off-field.

So, just bad luck then? Or.... any ideas, anyone?

U15 Training on Thursday

Please note that, as Katie is unavailable this Thursday, U15 training will start at 6.00pm (rather than the usual time of 5.30pm).

Pictures from Kettering, Basford, and Paviors published

The Threlfall Archive now includes pictures from both the Kettering game, and yesterday's triangular. Not as many as usual, but apparently Phil's trainee has a tendency to get too excited and occasionally forgets to press the button...

Messages ....

It was a day of messages on Sunday as Letchworth, Paviors and Basford played a three way tournament at Legends Lane. At first, both teams seemed to be looking to the sky for inspiration ...

...but it wasn't long before Basford had their cunning signalling system in full working order -


JOG? You must be kidding : Basford never slowed to a jog all afternoon! Obviously the Basford code was more complex than we had expected.

Of course, some people were looking for other kinds of messages : while a battle takes place for the ball, Nikki scans the horizon for any sign of the hoped for hot pie seller -

Better not say too much about the next photo (because we don't want our future opponents to get too familiar with our methods) ... but there were also signs that Simon's coaching regime had introduced a radical new messaging system for the Letchworth girls -

There are, of course, some messages that are just too difficult for most people to decipher. Would any passing genius care to tell us what they makes of this anagram?

F J K Q D B H - quite a toughie, isn't it?!

Results

Letchworth 0 Basford 27

Letchworth 0 Paviors 12

Basford 5 Paviors 0

So congratulations to Basford for winning both their matches (and the anagram contest!) and to Paviors for their victory over Letchworth.

Finally, and most importantly, everyone at Letchworth Girls wishes Basford's Sarah a full and speedy recovery from the serious leg injury she suffered in the final match of the day.

A long, tough afternoon

An unpleasent injury to one of the Basford players brought a slightly premature end to an otherwise competitive afternoon's rugby. Obviously we will keep an eye on the Basford blog to see how things go, but based on Sasha's account it sounded like a serious leg injury.

Up until then the day had gone quite well. Our patched together team had, with the aid of a few borrowed players, performed well - starting better and maintaining a far more consistent performance than in some recent games. Unfortunately we didn't get through the afternoon without adding to the injury list, Jess's shoulder problem reviving itself in the first game against Basford but no before Jess had put in some good runs that had threatened to cut through Basford's defence. Jess went to hospital where the injury was diagnosed as a chipped collar bone - so that is Jess also now out for at least the next two weeks.

Admittedly Basford were already a couple of tries up by this stage, but the loss of Jess's speed in the centre hardly helped our cause. Explosive speed would seem to be the best weapon against Basford, and Sasha and Natalie both came close (particularly in the second half), so if Jess (and maybe Hayley) had been on the field then maybe we might have crossed Basford's line for the first time this season... but in the end I think most people were happy with a performance that held a far stronger opposition to only five tries.

Next up was Paviors, a very different side who have always run us ragged in the past. This proved to be a very close and exciting game, 0-0 at half-time, with the deadlock only broken mid-way through the second half by Paviors, who only doubled the margin from the final move of the game. It was disappointing perhaps not to record a score on the afternoon, but in practice this would have been a pretty tough afternoon with a full strength team. Basford finished off the afternoon with a victory by a single try over Paviors, the injury bringing things to an early close.

So... a final county day next weekend, with training at Letchworth for everyone else, and it would obviously be a big help for the rest of our season if we could return from a county day with as many players as we send!

Basford & Paviors on Sunday : UPDATE

Quite a busy Sunday in prospect this week with the visit of 2 other clubs.

For the U18s, we have Paviors and Basford visiting for a 3 way tournament. All sides seem to have a few injuries and, if you haven't done already, it is really important that you let me (Mike) know as soon as possible whether you are or are not available to play so that we can advise the visitors accordingly.

For the U15s, we had invited Swaffham and Basford but, unfortunately, all three teams are ravaged by injury and the fixtures have had to be postponed.

So, for those of you who are still fit, there will be the regular Sunday training at 10am

Injury problems continue

I think its worth recording on the blog our incredible run of injuries this season, both for U15s and U18s. In the past we have had the odd injury that has meant someone missing a weekend of two - indeed in our first season we only had one in-season injury that caused anyone to miss a game (Katie's concussion against Welwyn), though we more than made up for that with the carnage of National Sevens!

But now... I lose count. Mel, Megan, Emily, Hayley A, Anna... and now after yesterday Hayley G. Add to that the "walking wounded" - things like Rosie's knee - and its all a bit worrying. Less than half of these injuries have happened on the field, I think, but those that have - even some that seemed minor - are taking ages to heal!

Hopefully things cannot carry on like this - well they can't as a couple more and we'd have practically no team left! - but for the time being can everyone wrap themselves in cotton wool or somesuch as fate seems to have it in for us at the minute!

Coach Natalie leads her team to triumph

A couple of recognisable faces among the county girls U12 team, winner of their tournament at Hitchin on Sunday. Our own Philippa played a major part on the field, while the team was molded into shape by Natalie who put into practice everything she has learnt from Joe and Simon over the past couple of seasons to build a winning team.

Perhaps as a result the team that played a bit like Letchworth, starting their first game against Kent to score by allowing the opposition to score two tries in the first minute before finally waking up to win 30-10. The second game saw them beat Middlesex 20-0.

It should not go without mention that there was a third Letchworth contributor to the triumph - the stylish county shirts the girls wore being produced by Mike Alcock.

EXCLUSIVE!!!!! Undercover report from Harlow

Tonight we have exclusive news from our undercover reporter in the Hertfordshire camp at the Essex Inter-County tournament at Harlow. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words but never before has that expression been more deserved.

Our startled reporter (right) has returned with stunning photographic evidence .....

... OK, Hayley, is there anything you want to tell us?

I almost forgot - the results! In a four county tournament, Herts U18s beat Leicestershire (12-0), drew with Eastern Counties (5-5) and narrowly lost to Essex (0-5) and finished the day as runners-up to deserving winners Essex. In the U15s tournament the top two places were reversed with Herts retaining the title they won last year and Essex being runners up.

Combine rugby and Christmas shopping?

Doing anything on Saturday 8th December?

Anyone fancy a team day out to Watford to watch Saracens take on Viadana (from Italy) in the Heineken Cup... and maybe do a bit of shopping as well?

Saracens are inviting anyone connected with women's and girls' rugby in Hertfordshire to come along and enjoy it for HALF PRICE* - that's JUST £10 for an adult ticket, and £5 for juniors (U16). Kick off is at 3pm at Vicarage Road Stadium, Watford. . To buy your tickets call the Ticket Team on 01923 475222 quoting "Ladies Rugby Offer". Offer closes 5pm, Friday 7th December.

There will be World Cup stars in action, plus there's as much entertainment off the pitch as there is on it, including cheerleaders, face painters and giveaways, meaning there's something for everyone!

What is more, if you haven't been before the stadium it is barely 5 minutes walk from the centre of Watford and the Harlequin Centre - so it is a great chance to combine a team "day out", top-level European rugby, and a bit of Christmas shopping.

So - who is up for it?

*Half price tickets will be situated in the South Stand and offer a 50% saving on the matchday price.

U15s & U18s Training on Thursdays

Following a number of problems with the current arrangements where U15s & U18s train in a single group, from November 15th we are changing the training time for U15s to start half an hour earlier so that we can provide a special session for each age group as well as some spending some time with all players together :


17.30 - 18.00 : U15s training with Katie
18.00 - 18.45 : combined U15 & U18 training with Simon
18.45 - 19.30 : U18s training with Simon


Of course, we will only gain benefit from the new arrangement if players actually turn up on Thursday evenings so it is really important that everyone comes to training regularly. This is especially true for the U15s where Katie is hoping to be able to bring along some new players in the near future.

Girls' team tour 2008

Following our very successful tour to the South-West last Easter, we are now trying to finalise plans for the 2008 tour to the North-East where there are a very large number of thriving girls teams.

The most important part of any tour is, of course, the players that go on it and, in order to progress the planning further, we need to gain an understanding of how many players are likely to be interested/available for a tour during the Easter holiday.

Simon will be discussing this at training on Thursday and it would be a big help if you could let him know if you are likely to be interested and when you are available.

A game of two halves...

It was not a great first half, was it? Perhaps best forgotten - but then maybe not because this is not the first time this season we have started a game half asleep, and then paid the price. We have to stop doing this - do we need to look at our pre-match routines, maybe?

Okay - we are suffering from more long-term injuries at present than we have ever had before, but our patched-together pack of forwards actually did very well, at the set-pieces at least. But from the start of the game - where we gifted Kettering a three-player overlap by not being ready for our own kick-off - through to the "full and frank exchange of views" at half-time it was, lets be honest, a bit of a shambles and probably the worst we have played since the visit of Mid-Warwickshire in 2005, if not before. 34-0 was not an unfair scoreline by an means.

It took a passionate appeal from Katie at half-time, plus a talking to from Simon, to turn things around. And what a different team that produced, only narrowly shaded out 10-5 over a second period that was far more even - and which, if the ball had gone to hand just once or twice, might have gone the other way.

We can play well, but half the time this season we are choosing not to. We need to start games like we finish them, and be fired up from the start of the first half, not the start of the second. And to do that we need some good turnouts at training - including next Sunday when we want everyone not at county to attend. So that gives us three sessions to put this right - before we face Paviors...

Letchworth 5 Kettering 44

Being Remembrance Day, the match was preceeded by a two minute silence -

And then the action began ...

Letchworth scorer : Try : Katie

Kettering U18s at Letchworth

Arrangements for Sunday are as follows : please meet at the club at 12.45pm to be ready for a 1.00pm warm-up and 1.30pm kick off.

Can those few players who have not yet told Mike, John or Simon of their availability, please let us know a.s.a.p. as we need to advise Kettering of our squad size for the match.

Availability for matches/training

This weekend we have an U18 match against Kettering at Letchworth and the U15s, who are also at Letchworth, are training with Ampthill in preparation for the matches against Swaffham and Basford on November 25th.

It is essential that we get a good turnout for the weekend - and for training on Thursday - because we will need to be at our best to take on Kettering, Basford and Swaffham over the coming weeks.

Also please note that we intend to take a 2007/8 Girls' section photograph (combined U18 and U15 squads) before the match/training on Sunday.

Will all players please confirm their availability/non-availability for both Thursday training and Sunday 11th November to Mike as soon as possible.

RFUW want to hear from you

The RFUW want to hear from anyone involved in women's girls rugby and have prepared six surveys, each tailored to paticular groups - Administrators, Coaches, Parents, Players, Supporters and Volunteers.

Please find time to fill in an appropriate surveys (below) - there is prize draw with a chance to win:

• Women or Girls team coaching session with Gary Street (England Head Coach)
• Improve your coaching session with Club Coach Officer (CCO)
• Museum of Rugby and Twickenham Stadium Tour for up to 15 Members of your Women or girls team
• Pair of branded rugby boots plus 2 Women's International Tickets
• Signed Ball & 2 Women's International Tickets
• Signed England Women's Shirt & 2 Women's International Tickets
• Selection of Canterbury Kit
• Gilbert Training balls & ball bag
• £15 Rugby Store Gift Voucher plus 2 Women's International Tickets
• £20 Rugby Store Gift Voucher plus 2 Women's International Tickets
• £25 Rugby Store Gift Voucher plus 2 Women's International Tickets
• Pair of Asics Trainers plus 2 Women's International Tickets
• Pair of Asics Trainers plus 2 Women's International Tickets

You have until the 18th January 2008.

• Administrator
• Coach
• Parent
• Player
• Supporter
• Volunteer
  

Training at Letchworth this Sunday!!

With the majority of you not involved in county action this Sunday several girls have asked if we could have a training session at Letchworth this weekend, and potentially on the other two county weekends coming up before Christmas.

If you can make it on Sunday please let Simon know.

The spirit of rugby

I think this is a superb photograph - expressing everything rugby (and sport) should be all about. Two teams smiling, shaking hands and mixing well at the end of a hard game. Brilliant.

This and a few more photos from the camera of Joan Threlfall are now available - click here

U15s in November

With two of the next four weekends taken up with county tournaments November will unfortunately be a bit thin for anyone not in county teams. In addition Kettering do not (as we know from last season) have a U15 team.

But its not all bad news. There is a great weekend to build for at the end of the month when both Basildon and Swaffham will visit - both with U15 teams - so you are guaranteed some good rugby.

For the Kettering weekend we have suggested that Ampthill bring their U15s over (after being unable to do so this weekend) partly so that we might have contact session together ahead of the Basford/Swaffham game. Their U15 coach was not around yestrday, but the U18 coach did say that the younger girls at Ampthill are desparate for a game - so it is something we will be working on.

Mission accomplished

It can be quite difficult playing a game against less experienced sides. Everyone expects you to win easily, so whatever you do - in a way - you "can't win". Its also a difficult balancing act as you do not want to completely destroy an up and coming club.

Despite that I think we got it about right yesterday. Charlie and Nikki in particular were brilliant ambassadors for our club, playing the full game for Ampthill as hard - if not harder! - than ever, with Charlie scoring a try and Nikki on just falling short - Jess catching her just before the line.

But it was not just them. Ampthill clearly have the potential to be a good side - there are some talented players there who lack only experience, experience that meant that they often reacted just a fraction of a second slower to situations - which makes all the difference, especially with someone like Natalie around, grabbing two more tries by simply reacting faster to loose balls. It was noticeable how much they improved as they game went on - the second half was fairly even until the final few minutes when perhaps match fitness told. If the Ampthill girls are given regular fixtures I think we will find that future meetings will be much closer.

For Letchworth, it was a chance to use various back moves and it was good to see the ball moved wide. Jess was always dangerous - and not only in attack, but her tackling was good as well - while Sasha showed a remarkable turn of speed for one of her longest sprints to the line ever. Ruby also made her mark ("their fly half is really aggressive!" I heard one of the Ampthill girls say). The pack was predictably dominant, though a few scrums were lost maybe because people relaxed a bit - a dangerous thing to do against any opposition.

Finally a word of praise for everyone's behaviour after the game as well - it was good to see both teams sitting down and mixing together so well afterwards. Rugby is more than just what happens on the field.

Looking ahead just as we are getting going its county for two of the next three weekends, but other than that November promises to be a taxing month with home games against Kettering and Basford - we won't be able to relax against them!

Letchworth 46 Ampthill 5

It was a rather dull and drizzly afternoon (which is my excuse for the rather blurred pics, of course) but I thought you might like to see a few of them. Particularly since some of them seem to be in need of a little explanation ....

Here Katie looks surrounded by Ampthill players while Nikki appears to be distracted by someone mentioning free ice-cream or somesuch.

Anybody know what dance this is ?

Letchworth's new winger breaks away for a try - well done, Dasha!

Sorry, that should read 'Sasha'.

Is it a plane? Is it a bird?

I don't recognise this dance routine either, Nikki ...

Letchworth scorers :

Tries : Hayley, Jess, Natalie (2), Sasha (2), Katie, Ruby

Conversions : Sasha (3)

Ampthill scorer :

Try : Charlie

Charlie and Laura join the county squad

Two more of our players have been added to the county squad - Charlie (or should that be "Charlotte"?) Hughes and Laura Watson - giving us six representatives in the squad overall.

In addition there will also be one player each from Old Albanians and Tabard, with the rest of the 24-player squad all now being from Welwyn - the two girls orginally selected from Saracens do not now appear in the final list.

Full details from here.

Ampthill at Letchworth this Sunday : UPDATE

This Sunday there is an U18s home game against Ampthill. Will all players please meet at the club at 1pm for a kick-off at around 1.45pm.

Unfortunately, as neither Ampthill nor ourselves have many of our U15s available, the U15 fixture has had to be cancelled.

Writer wanted

Junior Stag - the club's junior newsletter - is seeking articles. Match reports, mainly, but I guess they would more than welcome other items.

Given the amazingly low level of participation in the girls section by daughers and sisters of other club members, the Junior Stag's readership can be seen as a prime source of new recruits. And rather than having the usual suspect write stuff, I wondered if it might be more effective if it came from writers with more direct on-field experience?

So - would anyone be able to write something for Junior Stag? If so drop a line to the editor, Keer McPhee.

Fern makes the grade... and unearths an error

Confirmation has now come through that Fern has made the East Midlands county team.

The news (or at least the earlier trailing of it) has resulted in a small flurry of email exchanges as apparently the initial draft of the "Regional Rationale" (ie. the document that describes how the regional programme will run this season) stated that Bedfordshire was in East Region - not East Midlands.

The mild mayhem this would cause (Beds not being a CB in its own right, but part of East Midlands county along with Northamptonshire, would have no-one to run their regional selection!), not to mention the complete lack of prior consultation, resulted in some of us suspecting that something was amiss when the new regional management at East brought it to our attention.

And the good news is that RFUW have not taken leave of their senses and that Claire Sanderson from RFUW has confirmed that it is indeed a mistake. Phew! However, if Fern had not been selected for East Mids from a Hertfordshire club then who knows how long it would have been until someone had spotted it!

New arrangements for post-match food at home

The club have announced that there will be new arrangements for dishing out the post-match meals, starting next Sunday (when we are at home to Ampthill).

The home team captain will now have to go to the food hatch before warm up and will receive two blocks of tickets - one block for the home team, one for the away team. Either before the match or after the match, the home captain will hand one block of tickets to the away captain. Each captain will be responsible for handing out the individual tickets to the players. The players will then go to the hatch for a swap of ticket for a meal. No ticket, no food.

Ups and downs in the counties

The "final" trial for the Hertfordshire U18 squad a bit of a disapointing yesterday - only around 12 players attended, of whom only Charlie (I think) was not already in the squad - which will make the finalisation of the county squad a shade challenging. As you will have seen from the county blog there is a special session for backs tonight at OAs, starting at 7.30 - after yesterday the door is definately still open, so if you can make it you stand a good chance of making the final team.

Better news from other counties is that Sasha has won her place in the Eastern Counties squad, and some similarly good news from East Midlands is expected once the selection there is made official.

I also hear that Eastern Counties demolished Middlesex yesterday (score awaited) - looks like the title of leading county in East Region could be a very close three-way battle this year!

Important: county rugby survey

Hertfordshire are carrying out a survey about what you think of the county teams, training, selection, and development days generally (see here).

Please spare five minutes to reply. I know from previous experience with similar things like awards and the like that you are a modest lot and most disinclined to express any opinion at all (on paper at least - such reluctance to tell us what you think tends to vanish when we see you in person!) but this realy, really, really is important. And it also half-term, the weather's miserable, and you've nothing else much to do - I mean there's a whole week to do that homework - so come on..., please?

The survey is most definately NOT just for those of you who are in county squads - or even just those who have attended county days this season. It for anyone who is Hertfordshire qualified. The county structure exists to serve you - the players - and no-one else, and county officials need to know what is working... and what isn't. Without that feedback everyone is working in the dark by guesswork. Ask Heather for copies of the survey (though she'll probably give you a copy anyway!) and return them to her.

Needless to say this is a purely Hertfordshire county exercise. East Midlands and Eastern Counties players need not reply.

Letchworth Girls Rugby DVD hits the USA!

The promotional DVD we produced at the end of last season is about to have it's North American premiere!


The email below is from Bob Cluckey who is the head coach of the East Aurora Girls High School's rugby team in New York state :

"Mike,
The DVD you sent me is terrific. It certainly is images of girls’ rugby that our girls can relate too. I intend to use it this Friday at our first recruitment meeting. It will be particularly helpful for parents, who have no idea what rugby is, to get a feel for the game. Again, many thanks and best wishes to you, your family and your team.
Regards,
Bob"

Not yet firing on all cylinders?

There were good points and points to work on from yesterday's Rochford 10s. A mid-table position was really what we deserved on the day, but we know that have the ability to do much better.

The positive is that we all know that we can play so much better and there are any number of ways we can realistically improve on our performance. And against Sudbury, and for part of the time against Aylesford, we were playing almost as well as we did last year - if we had maintained that standard thoughout we might have been in with a shout to retain the title.

Unfortunately we were dreadfully inconsistent. The dithery response to restarts continues to be a major Achillies heel, and was compounded yesterday by a remarkable reluctance to dive on a loose ball when kicked ahead by the opposition - something that cost us at least two tries. Both of these faults centre on the same thing - indecision over what to do when the ball is bobbling around at our feet, but hopefully we have now learnt that standing around in horrified fascination (as if it were some sort of unexploded bomb) is asking for trouble - as is leaving it to someone else to defuse. The solution is simple - in case of doubt dive on it! The opposition have to let you get to your feet, which means that you keep possession and gain a vital couple of seconds for support to arrive.

"I'm sure I saw a ball around here somewhere..."

The other negative was our tendency to take too long to "get our game heads on". Admittedly we were not alone and against Westcliff in the first game both sides spent the first period apparently trying to see who could make the most embarrasing errors (an inability to see from one end of pitch to the other didn't help). Our problem was that mist cleared from Westcliff's minds rather sooner than ours - they woke up in the second half of this game whereas we seemed to still be fast asleep until the second half of the following game with Aylesford!

This was a pity as once we did realise that the tournament had started - ie. the game with Sudbury - we were back to our best, playing as well as we did at Wimborne last month. But then - after a full lunch - it was (from what I hear) slumberland again when Basford hove into view (fundamental rule - you cannot run through Basford's defence, any more than you can run through a brick wall!), rounded off by a very tired performance against Welbeck College.

Maybe last year we did benefit from going to Beckenham after all? For all of it being a long way to go for not much rugby, it perhaps did allow us to wake up before Rochford and maybe we performed better as a result. I also suspect we a missing a certain inspirational 18-year old far more than we realise (and no, I don't mean Joe...).

Despite whatever some may have been saying, we are still fundamentally the same team as last season - and the good news is that with the Nationals 10s and National Cup now in the spring we now have plenty of time to find that form again.

A slideshow of photos from yesterday, taken by Natalie's mum Joan, are now available at http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=14th+October&w=98589557%40N00&ct=6&ss=2.

Rochford 10s Rugby Festival

This year's Rochford 10s Charity rugby festival was blessed with fine weather in pleasant contrast to the rain & mud last year! With the early start came a misty morning which had only just cleared sufficiently to allow proceedings to get underway by the planned 10am.

Letchworth U18s had a mixed day winning 2 out 5 games (the sixth game being cancelled when Hertford withdrew from the tournament due to injuries) :

Westcliff 12 Letchworth 0

Aylesford 10 Letchworth 14

Tries : Natalie, Katie

Conversions : Randy (2)

Sudbury 5 Letchworth 12

Tries : Natalie (2)

Conversion : Randy

Basford 17 Letchworth 5

Tries: Hayley

Welbeck College 22 Letchworth 0

and finishing 4th out of 7 in the results on the Basford blog :

Basford 23 points
Westcliff 22 points
Welbeck College 15 points
Letchworth 15 points
Aylesford 13 points
Sudbury 12 points
Hertford 1 point

... not sure I really understand this table! Obviously, Letchworth should be 4th - they were beaten by each of the teams above them - so no problem there - but did Basford win by virtue of a bonus point? All should become clear when the match scores are published.

Anyway, here's a few pictures from the tournament :

Finally, rumours of a radical new youth policy at Letchworth were confirmed when the new U18 scrum-half for 2008-9 was introduced to the team ...