Pre-Season Friendly ALNWICK RFC SATURDAY 19TH AUGUST VS GHA RFC
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to our friendly fixtures at Greensfield, ahead of the 2023/24 season of the Regional 1 North East League. I would like to thank all of our sponsors, ahead of our upcoming season, for their ongoing support. There will be a players presentation following todays game, for awards from our 2022/23 season. We invite you all to join us in celebrating the achievements of our players, teams and club. WELCOME! Andrew Bell Snr President
THANK YOU TO OUR PREMIER SPONSORS AND OUR MAIN CLUB SPONSOR FOR THE 2023-2024 SEASON
CLUB OFFICIALS Fraser Burn Vice Chairman & Vice President Dallas Allen Chair of Facilities Andrew Bell Snr President Hugh Burn Chairman & Senior Vice President Ian Bell Treasurer Alan Gardiner Chair of Colts Judith Burn Hon Secretary Andrew Bell Jnr Chair of Senior Rugby Tony Manners Chair of Mini & Junior Rugby Ruth Gregory Chair of Social Events Martin Straker Chair of Sponsorship & Advertising Gillian Apthorpe Club Safeguarding Officer Iain Stewart County Representative Rod Bell Chair of Health and Safety Michelle Hall Bar Manager
Richie Elliott Club & 1st XV Captain Ben Gothorp 1st XV Vice Co-Captain Gordon Smith 3rd XV Captain Charlie Davies 2nd XV Captain Becky Dyson Ladies Captain Cameron Cullen Colts Captain James Bird 1st XV Vice Co-Captain OUR CAPTAINS
N Alnwick RFC is an amateur rugby union club based in the town of Alnwick, Northumberland in the north-east of England. We are the most northerly rugby union club in English league rugby (although Berwick’s headquarters are in Scremerston, they play in the Scottish league system). The traditional colours of Alnwick are royal blue shirts and socks with gold trims and white shorts. Alnwick RFC was originally formed on 9th December 1880 under the name of ‘The Hotspur’ a reference to the famous knight, Harry Hotspur. Mrs Rennison of The Star Hotel offered a field on the outskirts of the town to play on known as Wagonway and a W. Newman was elected to captain the initial team. Their first game ended in a thrilling 0-0 draw against Jesmond. The Hotspur won their first home game, which was also the first game under rugby union laws, against Rockliffe by 1 goal and 3 touchdowns. In May 1884 a meeting between The Hotspur, Guild and other football clubs resulted in a decision to merge all parties to form the Alnwick Association Football Club. It took 50 years for the game of rugby to be reintroduced to the town. In 1933, under the presidency of Stan Anderson, whom represented England, rugby in Alnwick flourished; playing at Denwick Mill and using The Plough Hotel as the clubhouse. However, this was short lived as difficulties in getting playing numbers saw the game abandoned in 1937. After the second world war, another attempt to revive rugby in the town was made but to no avail. It wasn’t until the Duke’s School started playing rugby union, which provided a strong pool of enthusiastic players, that rugby caught on. A meeting was held on 12th April 1960, presided over by Bobby Robinson of Northern FC and the club was reformed and matches played in the following 60/61 season. His Grace, The Duke of Northumberland, agreed to be Patron of the club whilst S.O. Williams accepted the presidency. Alan Churchill was elected captain and The Plough Hotel was once again used as the clubhouse. The club obtained use of a field at Greensfield Moor which became their permanent headquarters when the Duke of Northumberland offered a long lease of land. THE HISTORY OF ALNWICK RFC
MATCH PREVIEWS Coming soon…. From the coaching team
8. KALVIN INGLIS 2. DUNCAN SMITH 3. MATTHEW JOLLY 6. ALI BLACKETT 1. RICHIE ELLIOT 4. JONNY YOUNG 7. WILL PETTIFER ALNWICK RFC FORWARDS 5. OLIVER TULIP Stephen Dickinson
10. EVAN MOIR 13. SAM EGGLESTON 15. JAKE WOODS 11. ANDREW SPARK 14. ANDREW ORD Guy Renner-Thompson 12. ALEX ROBSON ALNWICK RFC BACKS 9. JAMES BLACKETT
20. COLIN PHILIPS 18. ANDY FRANCIS HEAD COACH TOM BORTHWICK Victoria Bell PHYSIO DAVE ROSS The Muppets COACHING TEAM FORWARDS COACH ALLY HOGG Tom Bell 16. OWEN DAVIDSON SUBSTITUTES 17. BEN COURTY 19. CHARLIE DAVIES ALNWICK RFC 21. C REDPATH 22. J HILL 23. C FARMER 24. WARRICK 25. J HALL 26. J BALL
Loosehead Prop Joshua Low Hooker Luis Barron Tighthead Prop Michael Fox Second Row Sean Callaghan Second Row Daniel Kilpatrick Blindside Flanker Daniel Lizzeri Openside Flanker Dario Ewing (C) Number 8 Luke McCutcheon Scrum Half Rory MacFarlane Fly Half Andrew Goudie Left Wing Scott Derrick Inside Centre Max MacFarlane Outside Centre Glen Little Right Wing Kyle Dixon Full Back Grant Mollison Substitutes Daniel Sutton Cameron Stewart Cole Stirling Ruari Campbell Sam Faulds Boris Boum Ross Hay Will Alton Ruari O’Keefe George Baird Fergus McCross Gregor Drummond Tom Lonergan Michael Hughes Lewis McCormick
START OF SEASON B B Q Saturday 2nd September £15 per person BBQ pack & salad bar Tables of 10 or Individual tickets available BBQ fired up at 1pm Names to Michelle
Pre-Match Lunches September 2nd - First Game of the Season BBQ September 9th - Open Lunch September 23rd - Ladies Day Lunch October 14th - End of Harvest Lunch November 4th - Open Lunch November 18th - Open Lunch December 16th - Christmas Lunch January 13th - Wooden Spoon Lunch February 3rd - Farmers Lunch March 2nd - Prostate Cancer Lunch March 23rd - Ovarian Cancer Action Lunch Pre-Match lunches will be held on before all first team home games. All table bookings should be given to Michelle in advance, along with any dietary requirements. Confirmation of final number is needed by Thursday. Advanced payment is appreciated. For lunches in September, October, March & April, meet at 12:30pm for a 1pm start. For lunches in November, December, January & February, meet at 12noon for a 12:30pm start.
MEET THE PLAYER COMING SOON
Look out for our updates on all senior teams in our upcoming programmes. Keep those eyes peeled! SENIOR RUGBY
On behalf of the entire Alnwick Minis and Juniors, I am delighted to extend a very warm welcome to you. We are thrilled to have so many kids and volunteers enjoying what we have to offer on Sunday mornings, and we are looking forward to an exciting season ahead. Rugby is not just a sport, it is a way of life that fosters teamwork, camaraderie, and personal growth. Our mission at Alnwick is to provide a safe, fun, and inclusive environment for players of all ages and skill levels. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of rugby or have been playing for years, we are committed to helping the kids develop their skills, build character, and create lasting friendships. As we embark on this rugby adventure together, we encourage the kids to embrace the core values of rugby, Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline, Sportsmanship. These values are the foundation of everything we do, and they will shape us into not just better rugby players but also better human beings. We have 14 sides in the Minis and Juniors this season, which is testament to all the hard work of coaches and parents from previous seasons turning up on sometimes wet and cold Sunday mornings some time nursing hangovers from the night before. Finally, we wish all the Senior sides the best of luck for the forth coming season and hopefully we can continue to support them on Saturdays as ball boys and girls. MINI & JUNIORS Tony Manners Chairman Minis & Juniors
Its fair to say that we are starting to get excited about the prospects for a packed season of Colts rugby once again here at Alnwick. The boys from both U17’s and U18’s year groups have started to get to know each other as we picked up our pre-season preparations mid-July. We have a wealth of homegrown talent coming through this year with an anticipated squad of 30 + which is a great relief as we struggled with player numbers last season. The older and younger boys have come through Alnwick’s excellent and very well supported Minis and Junior teams, many starting at age 5 or 6. There should be a good combination between the two age groups with the older lads sharing their rugby experience and some very exciting talent coming to colts from the younger boys. The one thing they all share is a commitment to rugby and our club and an excellent atitude which will certainly seem them do well. We continue our pre-seaon with a couple of friendlies and then the season starts in earnest on Saturday 2nd September when we travel up to Gala RFC for the first of our Borders League matches for this season. We will also be entering the Northumberland County Cup where we came in as runners up in the final last season and the RFU National Cup. A number of the boys will also want to put themselves forward for consideration for Northumberland County team again and continue Alnwicks excellent representation within County Rugby. COLTS Alan Gardiner Colts Commitee Chair
With our inaugural year behind us, Alnwick RFC Senior Ladies squad cannot wait for the 2023-24 season. Having started our preseason training in June, we have seen the players go from strength to strength, no doubt thanks to our fantastic coach, Gabs. Several new players have joined us recently, and we highly encourage anyone, any experience level, to come and give rugby a try. We are always looking for new players whether new to the game or returning. With some of our junior girls now joining us as they grow in to the senior game, we would love to see mums, aunties, grandmas and all those with children in our mini and junior section, join us at our training sessions! Ahead of us, we are entered in to the RFU Inner Warrior Development league. This league will give us a great opportunity to build the squad and develop our players, with potential to play games across the North of England. Fixtures will be announced as and when, so keep an eye on our social media pages and in match day programmes. Good luck to all our Alnwick RFC teams this 23/24 season, and we can’t wait to see everyone at Greensfield! LADIES Becky Dyson Ladies Captain
One of the great attractions of Touch Rugby, apart from a sport playable by anyone form 16-70yrs, was that you got to play and train in the summer, when it was warm and dry, as well as the winter. So cue the rain. Undaunted by the deluges that seem unerringly to arrive on a Tuesday evening a mixed group of men and women continue to train 6-7pm. We run men/women’s and mixed teams with mixed training on Tuesday and women’s training on Friday both 6-7pm. We are always looking for new players. No previous experience or just fancy a social run out with beer afterwards- not a problem! Miss a bit of competitive play but without waking up the following week full of hurt - we can do that as well! From social competitions like the Falcons summer of touch to international competition there are pathways for teams of all ages; and on that note… Congratulations to Tracey Graham who made it onto the England women’s 40’s team and Craig Auchinichie who made the Scotland men’s 40,s for this summer’s Euros in the South of France - Well done !! Don McLean also made the Scotland mens 45’s development squad and reached the England Nationals final earlier in the year with the North East Region mens 50’s team. There are opportunities for all, so if you fancy a try out you can pop down any Tuesday/Friday or contact Don McLean On 07860510623 or [email protected] TOUCH Don McLean
Regional 1 North East THIS SEASONS HOME FIXTURES 2nd September Alnwick V York 9th September Alnwick V Ilkley 23rd September Alnwick V Harrogate 14th October Alnwick V Sandal 4th November Alnwick V Scunthorpe 18th November Alnwick V Pontefract 16th December Alnwick V Blaydon 13th January Alnwick V Cleckheaton 3rd February Alnwick V Doncaster Phoenix 2nd March Alnwick V Driffield 23rd March Alnwick V Heath
The Muppets members have decided to sponsor our club physiotherapist Dave Ross for the 2023-2024 season. In addition, we wondered if Dave would like a bit of extra equipment to help him in his endeavours to keep the lads fit and get them ready to play as soon as possible. Dave has done some research and requested the MYO MASTER INFLATABLE AND COMPRESSION BOOTS. These will aid recovery, improve circulation, reduce pain and increase recovery time from injury and exercise induced soreness. At a cost of £700, we are sure this equipment will be a huge benefit to the players and help the club in the upcoming season. Having already fundraised well over £100 towards this, we hope that you will support us by making a FUNDRAISING REQUEST FROM THE MUPPETS £10 DONATION.