Youth Section Presentation Evening

On Saturday, all the boys and girls teams in the junior section of the club were invited to attend the 'Junior Presentation Evening' which is a popular annual event held to recognise the achievements of players, coaches and everyone else connected with the junior teams. As in previous years, the head coach of each team gave a brief presentation of the key points of the season which, in the case of the girls section, would bring Dave Rae to the microphone. But before Dave was called forward, club chairman, Dave Sharp, presented girls teams manager, John Birch, with a club blazer in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of the girls game in the club, county, region and nationally.

In the club, it was John who first formed the girls team in spring 2004 and he has been constantly involved with this section ever since. Having completed such a marathon stint in charge of the girls game, he has seen the original band of players graduate through the age bands of junior rugby into the women's game and has decided to retire from the manager's role at the end of this season. John will be very much missed by everyone involved in the girls rugby section.

Then it was Dave's turn ....

Although, as everyone who knows him recognises, Dave is a quiet, shy, retiring individual, he gave a polished performance and (surprisingly) didn't embarrass himself hardly at all as he recalled many highlights (and a few lowlights) of the season so far.

This year was a little different from previous occasions in that the main awards for the girls section of "Most Improved Player", "Players' Player" and "Player of the Year" were not presented on Saturday because the girls are not yet halfway through their games this season! The U18s, for example, have played a total of 20 matches and still have 4 tournaments involving at least another 20 games to go.

However, there was no shortage of trophies being presented with the girls who have played representative rugby each receiving a commemorative award from club chairman, Dave Sharp. This year, eight of our U18 players have been selected to play for Hertfordshire -

Nikki Alcock

Hayley Guilder

Charlie Hughes

Eleanor Morris

Jess Robinson

Natalie Threlfall

Emily Vivian

Laura Watson

and two of these players went on to represent the RFUW East region -

Hayley Guilder (Senior team)

Jess Robinson (U18s team)