Back from the brink

Good news that Gloucester 10s looks like taking place next season after all. The winding up of the previous organisers - Gloucester Girls' Rugby Trust - seemed to suggest the end of this popular and well organised event, but it seems that neither the county's RFU, nor the "home" of the event - Hartpury College - were willing to let it go.

The two bodies have therefore called on an ex-Hartpury student and county girls manager called Joe Randall (you may have heard of him) to take on the task of organising Gloucester 10s 2011. It'll be a challenging task as next season's calendar is so different to anything that has gone before that all of the "traditional" slots that have been used by the likes of Thornbury 7s, Gloucester 10s, Worthing 10s, Herts 7s - and even the National 7s - have all disappeared. All of the organisers of these competitions will be looking for new dates - perhaps trying to cram them into a season that is now a month shorter, perhaps trying to get permission to continue to play in May. Hopefully they will all be talking to each other - it would be a disaster for the game is any of these events clashed!

On the subject of competitions coming back from the dead, the Thames Valley Cluster League will still be played next season. A matter of weeks after it was announced that it would not continue, it seems that the RFUW are going to allow the organisers brand their division of the National League as the TVCL. What is not yet revealed is whether or not they will also have to abide by the National Leagues as yet unannounced rules, or whether they will be able to keep to their own.

It will also be interesting to see what the organisers of other former leagues will make of this. Will there be pressure now to allow some of these leagues to reform themselves as part of the National structure? It was always a mystery (one of many!) why RFUW decided to break up tried and tested successful competitions to  create the new untried leagues. Have they, maybe, seen sense? Is this another sign of the edifice cracking? Of a last minute outbreak of common sense? Probably not, but you never can tell...