Sun Shines on Theale Green
5th December 2009by Dan Whiteman
The listing was posted by Berkshire County RFU - Schools
On Thursday 3rd December 2009, the first dry day in weeks the sun and forty Year 7 School teams arrived at Reading Blue Coat School for the 2nd Berkshire School’s RFU U12s tournament. 31 schools (9 of whom brought 2nd teams) came from both state and independent schools to play in the 10s competition, the laws of which are designed to encourage running rugby whilst minimising some of the more technical elements of the game. The intension is of allowing schools with limited rugby programmes to participate. Following the initial pool rounds, every team progressed into a subsequent competition resulting in all teams having something to play for during the latter stages of the competition.
Following some superb rugby, Theale Green (above) won the Cup competition to be crowned Berkshire Champions 2009 beating a spirited Desborough side in the final and in doing so went one better than their 2008 runners-up performance. Other winners included; Plate - Blue Coat A, Trophy - Waingel’s College, Vase – Prospect College, Shield - Blue Coat B and Bowl - Blessed Hugh Farringdon.
Such an event could not have happened with out a huge amount of support behind the scenes. Working in partnership with the Berkshire Schools RFU’s Bill Voice, Richard Jones and Richard Pryor the following organisations/people were involved and without whom the event could not have happened; Reading Blue Coat School (RBCS) provided the facilities with additional parking being offered by Reading RFC and Berkshire Sports and Social Club. RBCS also provided half of the tournament referees by utilising their ELRA qualified sports leaders who were a credit to their school, the remainder of the referees coming from Redingensians and Bracknell RFC’s. RAM Rugby provided match ball sponsorship and the Berkshire Competition Managers, along with the Berkshire RDO, provided tournament management.
Commenting on the event Senior Competition Manager Tim Dancer said “This year’s competition has been a fantastic event and shows how rugby can enthuse and inspire young people from many different schools. When you consider that Berkshire only has around 60 secondary schools, to have over 30 in attendance here today is a great testament to all the work done by the Berkshire Schools RFU and their partners.”
Discussions are already taking places about how to improve the tournament for next year with the major headache being how to accommodate any extra teams that want to participate especially if the same level of growth is seen (30%) as there was between the 2008 and 2009 tournaments.
Discussions are already taking places about how to improve the tournament for next year with the major headache being how to accommodate any extra teams that want to participate especially if the same level of growth is seen (30%) as there was between the 2008 and 2009 tournaments.