Sunday 21 July, we’ve been invited to do an open tag session, alongside Haringey Rhinos, at Alexandra Palace park, as part of the Palace’s 150th year anniversary. Lots going on, pop over & enjoy the festivities. I should imagine the rugby sessions will be similar to our Open Day we recently held.

Please find a few sample shots of that day.

AGM is on Tuesday 11th June…

FROM 7PM AT WHITE HORSE. FIXTURES ETC ARE THRU & ITS A TOUGH START TO
THE SESAON FOR ALL TEAMS. WE NEED TO IMPROVE OFF THE FIELD AS WELL AS
ON IT. WE NEED YOUR HELP & INPUT, SO WOULD LIKE TO SEE A BIG TURN OUT
PLEASE.

City Dip is this Saturday (8/6) at the Lido – need a team of 5 to swim an
hour between them (not each). Our slot is 10.30am. On Sunday (9/6) it’s the
Tug-o-War, team of 8 required. 1pm at the bandstand, just down from
the track. Being involved in these events really helps with ongoing
negotiations with the Heath, so if can particiate, please let Brunty
know – jim.brunt@hampsteadrugbyclub.co.uk

This Weds (5/6 – 6.30pm) – Touch league starts. If wish to participate & / or help
out on the evening – please go to -

http://www.hampsteadrugbyclub.co.uk/touch/

The Ealing B pool of the festival was a step up for everyone and as is often the case with Hampstead teams we started slowly losing the first two games against Welsh visitors Llanishen and Hackney Bulls. By the time we played Wasps we were firing on all cylinders and beat them by two tries to nil. Our last match was against a very strong Harpenden who went on to win the festival  and we were unlucky to lose by a single try.

The squad (and scorers) for this tournament where Charlie Brett, Louis Cudworth, Louis Gilbert (1), Tommy Hayes, Fionn McGuiness, Milo Myers, Sam Nathan, Etienne Royer-Gray, Thomas Linden (5), Oscar Therond.

With the team strengthened by newcomers Rupert Evans, Sonny Gayer and Etienne Royer-Gray, it was a stronger squad who took part in the clubs first ever junior home games on Sunday 2^nd  December.

We played two games  against Haringey Rhinos, with both teams playing good rugby and fittingly honours where even with both sides winning one match.

The squad (and scorers) for these games  where Thomas Linden (3), Charlie Brett, Rupert  Evans (1), Louis Cudworth, Louis Gilbert (4), Tommy Hayes, Fionn McGuiness (1), Milo Myers, Sam Nathan, Max Rizutto, Etienne Royer-Gray, Laurie Taylor, Oscar Therond.

Bad weather lead to several matched being cancelled and it wasn’t until the 16^th February that the U10’s played in their second festival of the season which was played at Saracens new home, Allianz Park on their new artificial patch.

This was a “A” festival  and even though they were up against some very strong and well drilled teams everyone showed great determination, spirit and never gave up. The Hampstead U10 team was Tommy Haynes, Max Rizutto, Louis Gilbert, Louis Cudworth,  Oscar Therond, Thomas Linden, Sebastian Sakia, Laurie Taylor, Henry Chadwick, Charlie Brett, Sam Nathan and even though they didn’t score or win any games they can all be very proud of what they did.

Just a week later the U10 where back at old rivals at Haringey Rhinos and what an incredible difference a week has made. The team quickly put last week’s tribulations at Saracens Match day Festival behind them and they won all three games. Key to Hampstead’s success was a far better passing game which added to their excellent attacking running shows the U10’s have the makings of a very good team. The squad and scores for these games was Tommy Haynes (1),  Charlie Brett, Bas Sakia(1) , Louis Gilbert (3), Laurie Taylor, Robin Bonomo, Ganesh Hamilton (1), Henry Chadwick and Thomas Linden (3).

On the 3^rd March we finally managed to play the fixture against Regents Park Royals which had been cancelled three times before and on a firm dry pitch ideal for running, Hampstead U10s  showed that they were starting to gel as a very good team by winning both games. Regents Park where competitive throughout  the session especially considering the inexperience of their team and they contributed to a very enjoyable morning. Hampstead’s scrum of Louis Cudworth, Louis Gilbert, and Milo Myers was a major factor in these victory’s and they were excellent in both matches with Louis Cudworth dominating at the front of the lineout. The squad and (scorers)  for these games was Henry Chadwick (1), Louis Cudworth, Louis Gilbert (2),  Sam Nathan, Etienne Royer-Gray (1), Thomas Linden (2), Laurie Taylor,  Milo Myers,  Tommy Hayes .

The third festival of the year was Middlesex County U10 festival and the U10s demonstrated just how far they have grown as a team by being crowned county champions and winning all of their games.

In the first game Hampstead were far too strong for London Welsh and won by 7 tries to 1 in an suburb display of open running and good ball retention.

The next game was a far closer affair and Hampstead beat local rivals Hackney Bulls winning by three tries to two.

We then took on Pinner who are a large, strong and well drilled outfit and Hampstead went behind for the first time in the tournament. But showing great grit and determination as well as excellent tackling from Henry Chadwick and Tommy Haynes, Hampstead won by two tries to one.

The final against Ealing was a very tense affair and both teams played some very good rugby. Ealing are a very well drilled team and excellent at rucking and mauling but Hampstead showed that they were a match for them and at the end of the first half both teams had scored two tries. Hampstead’s tackling was again excellent and they went into the lead thanks to Thomas Linden who ran the length of the pitch and went over in the corner to score his third try of the match.

The squad and (scorers)  for this festival Charlie Brett, Bas Sakia (2), Fionn McGuiness, Henry Chadwick (1), Laurie Taylor(1),  Louis Gilbert (2), Max Rizutto , Milo Myers, Oscar Therond, Rupert Evans, Sam Nathan (1), Thomas Linden (9), Tommy Hayes, Louis Cudworth.

Our last match was against Barnes and this was an opportunity to try some players in new positions. Sam Nathan did an excellent job at scrum half showing much improved tackling and passing and also in a new game position was Charley Brett who also made a big impact at fly half and the whole team showed how far they had come  by beating a very strong Barnes team  by 5 tries to 3 in a well contested match. The Squad and (scores) for this game was Charlie Brett, Etienne Royer-Gray, Fionn McGuiness , Henry Chadwick (2), Laurie Taylor, Louis Cudworth, Louis Gilbert (1), Rupert Evans, Sam Nathan (1), Thomas Scott-Linden (1).

The U10’s  played 20 matches, winning 12, losing 8 and scoring 52 tries and having  39 tries scored against them. The U10s are a small but very motivated group who have all played very well at times and who have all contributed to this success so it was very difficult to decide who should win the end of year awards. The eventual choices where;

• U10 Player of the Year: Thomas Linden
• U10 Most Promising Player of the Year: Louis Gilbert
• U10 Most Improved Player of the Year: Henry Chadwick
• U10 Team Manager’s Award: Sam Nathan

The individual results in the games the U10’s played where

This Chart  shows the tries scored and the games or Festivals played in by each of the main team members.

So it was a great year and the U10s are County Champions – I hope you all come back next year when we have a stronger and even more competitive team with the likes of Yas, Luke and Max joining us.

Thanks to all the parents who supported the U10s so well and also thanks to all the other coaches who worked so hard and contributed to the success of this team.

See you in September and thanks

Matt

However, we never stay still. If we are to maintain our progression we need your help. We have achieved a lot, but have only scratched the surface on many issues other clubs see as standard practice. Therefore if you can assist in any way, admin wise, off field help, coaching, bit of phoning around, fund raising, anything, then please be at the Junior AGM on Saturday 15th June, White Horse, 1.30 – 3pm. We really do need your help!

So Summer here, but so many things going on. There will be a Club v Parkies Summer Cricket Match, followed by BBQ. There is a Golf Day. There is also a several ways to stay / get fit. The club runs its Mixed Touch Rugby League every Weds night from 5/6/13 – 10/7/13 inclusive (open to all o15, however experienced. If keen – http://www.hampsteadrugbyclub.co.uk/touch/

The Heath host a 5K Park Run every Saturday morning. 14 & over I believe? If register re a Hampstead Rugby member, it will go along way, PR wise, with our Landlords.

If you have kids U12 with too much energy, direct them to Quad Kids. Our neighbours, Highgate Harriers, host this 2 hour ‘try athletics’ event every month, with one being this Sunday (26/5 – noon) at the track – http://www.quadkids.org/Clubs/London

Finally – The Lions. The White Horse are showing all matches, & will open early for the Tests. Being part of HRFC, you get 10% discount. What better way to watch quality rugby, get the kids interested, all within a club environment. A bloody good club at that!

8 June am – City Dip – Juniors & the Ladies entering teams, be good to get one from Men . Teams of 5 at the Lido. Its swim an hour – whether thats 5 stints of 12 mins, continuous relay or whatever.
9 June 1pm – Tug-o-War. Defence of the trophy. Has the club got a team to take on our lardy legends?

It really does help with our relationship with the Heath, so to have a presence at these events is high on the club’s priority too. If wish to put a team together for either of the above, please feed back to me or Brunty.

THE AGM – 11 June; 7pm – 9m, White Horse. It is vital we get a good turn out for this. Ambitions for the club going forward meant the next 3 years are key. We want the 1st to be promoted next season & then establish themselves in London 1 over the following 2. After the debacle of The Shield, the 2s are re-entering the HMMT competition & by the sounds of it, the division will be much stronger than when we won it the previous season. This will mean the 3s will be in a division that they will be able to compete for honours. On top of that the Heathens & Hussars will be in higher divisions & all that that entails. We need to hit the ground running & be better organised off the field. We can only hit these targets with your help & input. If the Lions have a successful tour then interest in the game & new recruits will be aplenty. We need to be able to act on this & it would be great to re-establish the Hurricanes.
PS – For those who wish to help the Juniors next year in any small way, their AGM is St 15/6; 1.30 – 3.00 – White Horse

Touch league commences Weds 5 June – James Shirley & Tim Martin are looking for help in running this. Please contact them direct or thru the link below. We already have about 70 people up for playing , so any assistance would be appreciated. If wish to help or play click on TOUCH tab on Home Page

Anyone with, or have friends with toddlers, maybe they would be keen to pre-register with Ruggerbugs. This is a pre-school rugby scheme that the Club is supporting from September. More info, please click on tab on Home page.

Pre-season commences 2 July – new coaching set up, so if think you can just drift back to training, think again. Next season is all about success on & off the pitch!

Anyone wishing to get / stay fit at weekends – Park Run at the Heath , 9am, every Saturday – 5K run – http://www.parkrun.org.uk/hampsteadheath/
The mighty amongst our ranks – Highgate Harriers would welcome throwers at their meetings. We are building better & better relations with the athletics club. If we can help them at meets, they could help us with a couple of sprint training sessions etc. Anyone keen, please email Graham – highgateharriers@hotmail.co.uk

Finally, keep an eye out for socials etc, e.g. the Club v the Parkies Summer Evening Cricket Match & BBQ; Plus the Golf Day

All the best

Simon Taylor
Chairman, Hampstead RFC

Hampstead RFC started up its junior section a mere two seasons ago, and this year saw massive growth through most areas of the juniors, with competitive matches for most of the year groups, but one of the crowning achievements must be the creation of the Junior Girls team. At the beginning, for the first month or more, there were only a couple of girls wanting to try out the game, but a surge of interest from the Haverstock school, championed by Miss Mason and Mr Collier, saw an influx of new players that formed the basis of a handy training squad throughout the first half of the season.

In January, the team went to their first ever tournament down at Grasshoppers RFC, training with the other teams present before playing in a round robin Sevens set of matches, winning against Teddington but losing to the hosts. Soon afterwards, the girls, under the guise of Haverstock school, attended the RFU All Schools’ Tournament at Staines, training under the expert eye of the RFU coaches before playing games against the other three attending schools. Towards the end of the season the girls had many further weekends of matches, such as back to Grasshoppers and up to Harlow at the end of the year.

As with all sports players, the best learning is always done in competitive matches, where the drills that coaches run through every session are finally given perspective and they players realise why certain things are repeated so much. I think coach Des said it best with “We’re old men, we’ve done this drill thousands of times. Alex is an old girl, she’s done this thousands of time, but you girls have only done it once before.” After a few matches, when the girls realised thus, they were quite excellent in training, wanting to learn more, willing to repeat same drills and try new techniques to the point that we had to ease off the sessions if they had joint training and matches the following day. As a group, they are also very personable and very positive though very noisy as well, so they are already on their way to mimicking the extremely successful senior Hampstead Ladies in those respects!

With a great group of players to take into next season, the future is promising and we are hoping to build towards more matches and players next year. For this first season, the following players were recognised in the end of season awards:

Player of the Year: Esther

Most Improved Player of the Year: Gloria

Most Dedicated Player of the Year: Tayla & Olivia

A huge thanks must go to Miss Mason and Mr Collier for all their hard work in getting the big contingent from their school down on Saturday mornings, as well as taking coaching sessions throughout the season. Unlike most junior clubs, we train on Saturdays so we have been lucky in getting many of the Ladies down to help coach, so thank you to all who came down: Alex, Debs, Ella, Hannah, Hannah, Kikes, Simon, Mr Mason, and any others I have forgotten. Also, the support of the parents have been exceptional as well, from Charley taking on the team manager role as well, to Steve egging Tayla on at both matches and training every week! The biggest thank you is for the players themselves – without the girls turning up at training and at matches we would not have a team, so well done and thank you for putting the effort in this season. Now enjoy the summer, good luck with the exams and see you all in September!

Back in September, at the start of this season, the new U13s and U14s teams came together for the first time with the U13s entered into a league and the U14s hoping for some friendlies during the season against local opposition. At the time, there was a smattering of kids who had joined the club during our inaugural season the previous year, and many in the combined squad were new to the sport, but trained together, learning the new skills that would be required in these age groups.

In a couple of short months, at the start of November, the combined squad played their first game against Finchley U14B in a friendly, with maybe 20 players on the day, which was the majority of the training group from the Saturday sessions. Fast forward to the last weekend of the season, and the club had almost full teams for each age group playing in different matches, and a training group of well over 30, if not closer to 40 or more! This growth has been fuelled by the ongoing addition of new players throughout the year, be they friends of current members, or entire groups brought along to try out the game by teachers, and the fact that so many players of such differing levels of experience were so easily integrated together can only be attributed to the excellent attitude of the boys in training, working hard, willing to learn and make the effort to turn up on both Saturdays and Sundays. After Christmas, the winter weather proved challenging to say the least, causing both training and matches to be cancelled for much of January, but February saw us host the RFU Schools Development sessions. Many of the Haverstock School team were made up of players from the club and acquitted themselves admirably in freezing conditions on the Heath. The rest of the season saw an increasing amount of matches lined up all the way through to season end in May, including the U14s’ first ever match on their way to building an entire squad separate from the U13s. Whilst the results may have been disappointing, the standard of play has been the important thing to take away from this season – building new teams from scratch, of players new to the game, is never easy and it is an old adage that you learn more in defeat than in victory.

From a coaching perspective, the evolution of the playing mindset has been most marked once the matches began. As the players gained more match time, they began to realise why the coaches ran certain drills and what they aim of the exercises were, and the change in attitude during training and match warm-ups was very noticeable as they played more and more competitive rugby. The boys have shown a great desire to improve and win some matches, and most noticeably refuse to ever give up despite the scoreline. Personally, the highlight of the year has to be the Ruislip match, played in torrential winter rain, where the teams racked up an impressive 76 points between them, with some superb handling skills shown in terrible conditions, and despite being quite a few points down, scoring a few tries in the last few minutes to try to overcome the gap! The attitude and commitment shown was second to none in this and every other match played, especially when combined with the sportsmanship, politeness and courtesy of our teams, they have been a real credit to the club, as noted by all opposition coaches and referees this season. For both age groups, we will have a great core of players returning for next season’s competitive U14 and U15 leagues, and for those are leaving for new challenges, we wish them well and success and thank you for the season just gone, and they are always welcome back if they ever fancy a run out!

The awards given out at the end of the season were the following:

U13 Player of the Year: Thomas Massuyeau & Antoine Gussot

U13 Most Promising Player of the Year: Noah Ashplant

U13 Most Improved Player of the Year: Jonny Payne

U13 Team Manager’s Award: Callum MacLeod

U14 Player of the Year: Jack Dyer

U14 Most Promising Player of the Year: Charles-Antoine Argenson

U14 Most Improved Player of the Year: Christian Lenga

U14 Team Manager’s Award: Lewis Blackman

Of course, many other players were considered for these awards, such as Eilaaf, Hakim, Massi, Angus, Adam, Lorenzo, Alessandro, Dary, Tega… the list went on and on! We might have argued ourselves down to the ones above, but each and every one of the rest of the lads should all be commended for the sterling effort they put in this last season. A special mention, though, has to go to Luke, Will and Piers, who all stepped up from the U12 team to play for us.

Also, a special thank you to the team managers, Claire and Nigel, for organising the match day squads, as well as to all the parents who came down to give their support, especially Elaine for her tea and coffee, and Regis for his impromptu French lessons that had many an opposition coach confused! Thanks also to the teachers for organising their respective kids from their schools, Miss Mason and Mr Collier from Haverstock who introduced a huge contingent from their classes, Mr Halsall from St Aloysius, and Miss Sophie from CFBL, and anyone I have forgotten. I know their continued enthusiasm for the game keeps the players coming back for more! And a huge thank you to all the coaches who gave up their Saturday and Sunday mornings: Sean, Jim, James, James, Simon, Ella, Nadine, Des, Debs, Regis, Sylvain and to all the others who pitched in at some point.

So enjoy the summer off, enjoy watching the Lions, recharge the batteries, go throw a rugby ball around in the park and see you in September!

For more info please click here and register your interest at www.ruggerbugs.co.uk .