The Lighter Side

RFU GRAND DRAW

Tickets have now been returned to the RFU for the Grand Draw, and this year thanks to the hard work of Thomas Turnbull, the club has made a net profit in excess of £3000, that is after sending the RFU their 10%. This is our best year yet, with the Percy Park Vice- Patrons being the group selling most tickets (55%).
Sadly the mini and junior section did not “buy into” the fund raising efforts selling less than 10% of the total number, which is disappointing.
The Marden Leek Club (with a little persuasion from Brian Scorer) sold a staggering 145 books and the U7/U8 age group sold the most books in the mini/junior category.
The draw will be made on 30th March 2010, and a full list of winners will be posted on the web site as soon as the details are made available.

RUGBY FIRST


Rugby First is a game-wide, internet-based tool to help run rugby at all levels, with details of more than one million coaches, referees, players and volunteers held on a single system. The system was implemented by the Rugby Football Union three years ago to help clubs manage records of their players, coaches and referees, and although there were a few teething problems, these have now largely been overcome.
Percy Park has now fully embraced Rugby First as the main database for all our club members young and old, which helps us communicate by email and letter, and also allows each club member to update their own information for example when they move address or change email or telephone number. Access is password protected and fully complies with the Data Protection Act. If you wish to access your own records to update them or even add your own photo you can obtain your log in and password by contacting mick@percyparkrfc.co.uk

Rugby First's main page is at

http://clubs.rfu.com/clubs/portals/webmasters/

Percy Park's page is at

http://clubs.rfu.com/Clubs/portals/PercyParkRFC/

You can also subscribe to the following RFU publications free of charge.

RFU Newsletter - A general interest newsletter for the RFU

England News  - Information about England Rugby

Coaching News -  A general interest newsletter about Coaching

Referee News -  A general interest newsletter about Refereeing

Touchline -  A general interest newsletter for Players

EZine  - A general interest newsletter for Players

If anyone has any questions/concerns about Rugby First, please feel free to contact us either at mick@percyparkrfc.co.uk or stu@percyparkrfc.co.uk

FACEBOOK

Those of you who are regular visitors to the Park website (www.percyparkrfc.co.uk) may have noticed that we now have our own “Facebook” page, for posting messages, photos, half time and full time scores. You will need to register with Facebook and become a “fan” of Percy Park to post a message on this, but it is easy to do even for a luddite like me. There are over 200 active members already, in particularly  the younger club members who seem to embrace modern technology a little more readily than us older members. We even have members as far a field as Italy, USA, Cayman Islands, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. If any of the 2nd’s, 3rds or 4th teams would care to post their results on the Facebook page, this would be greatly appreciated.

Our Facebook page is at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Percy-Park-RFC/227945612557

The Forum on the web site is also still available to use for messages and general banter.

PERCY PARK PROGRAMME

The club is looking for a willing volunteer/volunteers to take over the programme for next season. Mick Ishida has looked after the programme for the last four seasons, and it is time for a change.
The programme is a good money earner for our club, which provides income not only from the advertisers, but also the sale of the programme on 1st XV match days.
If you can help or know someone who would be interested in helping out please let the president Albi Duhrin know.

Pitch Care

It’s early days I know, but as the next newsletter won’t go out until summer, (assuming we have one this year), here is advanced notice that the pitches will be out of bounds at the end of the current season for important pitch maintenance.
The 2nd XV and Junior pitches will be out of commission from 3rd May 2010 until the end of July, and the 1st XV pitch from 17th May 2010 until August. This is to allow, re-seeding and sanding to the pitches to ensure they are in tip top condition for season 2010/11.

 

 

News

1st XV – Rearranged League Games

Due to the severe winter weather, as you know the games against Hartlepool Rovers and Old Crossleyans were postponed. The Rovers game has been rearranged to Easter Saturday 3rd April 2010, KO 3pm at the New Friarage.

The Old Crocs game is yet to be rearranged however, and should have been on the 17th April 2010, but they have fared worse than we have with the weather, so they already have a game scheduled for that day. We are free on 24th April 2010, but Old Crocs are on tour that weekend and have requested that the game be played on 1st May 2010. If the league promotion and relegation issues are settled by then, the game may not take place.

So as it stands we could be playing on 17th – if the RFUNCC ask Crocs to play us instead of Morpeth (which is unlikely as they are currently below us in the league). We could be playing on 24th if the RFUNCC don’t look favourably on them going on tour, or the 1st May 2010, or not at all!

 Keep watching the web site www.percyparkrfc.co.uk for more information.

SENIOR COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
Percy Park is pleased to be hosting the second of Northumberland’s home games in the North Group Division 1 of this year’s County Championship when they will be competing for the Bill Beaumont Cup. The full list of Division 1 North fixtures is as follows:-                      
8th May 2010     
Northumberland v Yorkshire   
at Tynedale
15th May 2010       
Northumberland v Lancashire  
at Percy Park
22nd May 2010      
Cheshire v Northumberland      
at Chester

COUNTY CUP NEWS

The Lions and Marauders are through to the semi-finals of their respective cup competitions after beating Ashington II and Alnwick IV at Park on 20th February 2010. The Pumas let a healthy first half lead slip and lost 20 – 24 to Ponteland II.
The semis are to be played on Saturday March 13th and the Lions will play Tynedale Hoppers at home, and the Marauders will play Ponteland Vets at Pont.
The Senior Cup dates have been changed due to the bad weather and league games taking precedence. The 1st round will now be on Wednesday 14th April, with the semis on 21st April and the Final on 28th April 2010.
The full draw is as follows:-
Ashington    v          Alnwick
Northern      v          Morpeth
Tynedale      v          Gosforth
Wallsend      v          Percy Park

UNDER 15’s in County Cup Final

The Percy Park Under 15’s have made it to the County Cup Final for the third successive year, and will play Tynedale on 14th March 2010 at Druid Park. Last season the team defeated Morpeth 38 – 5 to take the trophy at Under 14, and the year before as Under 13’s defeated Alnwick 13 – 0.
 It is no coincidence then, that eight of the squad have been selected to play for Northumberland Under 15’s and Joseph Atkinson has also been picked to join the Newcastle Falcons U16 squad.

MINI RUGBY COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
The County Championships will take a slightly different format this season in that they will be played out to a conclusion on the day, rather than the four top sides competing in semi finals then finals on a different day and venue.

This year the Championships will be held on Sunday 21st March 2010 at the following venues:-

U7      Tynedale
U8      Ponteland
U9      Rockcliff
U10    Percy Park
U11    Novos
U12    Alnwick

It is a sign of how popular mini rugby is now in the County as a whole, in that for some years each age group plays at a different club, with some teams entering two or more sides. I remember the day when all age groups for all the clubs in Northumberland played their County Championships at the same venue on the same day, but that was 20 years ago!

Touch Tournament – Percy Park RFCPercy Park Pirates will hosting a Social and Youth Touch Tournament on Saturday 8th May 2010.
The 6 a side, social tournament will be open to mixed teams and will require 3 men and 3 women to be on the field.
The 6 a side, youth tournament will also be for mixed teams where all players must be aged 16 and under. 
The minimum ratio for the youth tournament will be 4 male and 2 female.  Bonus points will be available to teams playing with a 3:3 ratio, male:female.
There will be music, food and entertainment throughout the day with trophies and prizes being awarded in the bar at the end of the tournament.

For further information, contact Lesley Mc at lesley@mccallion-physio.co.uk or on 07816 220167