Our first triumph behind the scenes this season was to run Safeguarding Courses for all our coaches and volunteers. Over 3 evenings in November, we employed a professional company to train our coaches resulting in 98% of them now trained in “safeguarding” to at least level 1. And 100% are DBS checked – great result!

On 27th January we had arranged for the team from England RFU to come and talk to all our minis coaches about a course to help the coaches get the best from our young players.
CARDS.
Creativity, Awareness, Resilience, Decision making and Self-organisation.
When we asked for them to run it for all our coaches, they said fine, how many have you got? 50ish came the reply!
How many?? We haven’t ever done it for that many we better bring a team!
It was the biggest single course they have ever done, not in Cheshire…NATIONALLY!
They came, they were amazed, 48 coaches turned up! They were SO amazed and enthused by our response they even live tweeted the event.
This response from our dedicated coaches is making us a better place to play, creating a fun environment for the players and coaches and developing our rugby community. Let’s celebrate our success and continue to improve.
The guys loved the input from Delta and her boys so much and had so many new ideas to try out that the disappointment when they couldn’t train in the snow was palpable!

Last month, the RFU ran a "refereeing" course at Bowdon, resulting in all our mini teams now having two qualified refs, which is fantastic. That has meant they have been able to get involved in the festivals and represent Bowdon within Cheshire.

Finally, we also held a CARDS Course developed and run by John Fletcher from The Magic Academy for the RFU. An Ex Sedbergh old boy and Ex England U18's head coach, he brought Owen Farrell and numerous other household names through to the seniors and is generally an interesting man! We had 25 coaches from Bowdon attend and watch him train 30 of our boys. The rest of Cheshire were invited, and 20 or so came along! It was an engaging and useful course for all.

Now for exciting news on the pitch!!!

Bowdon RUFC had more than just a passing interest in this years Six Nations Championship.

For not only was our resident Sale Shark’s coaches Josh Strauss and Byron McGuigan tearing it up for the Scotland senior side, but three of our club’s younger players made the grade in the Six Nations Under 20’s Championship.

Scrum half Gus Warr, hooker Ewan Ashman and back rower Jack Hill, who all played in the mini and junior section, were called up for international duty. Warr was selected for the England Under 20’s with Ashman and Hill getting the nod for Scotland 20’s. All three lads played together in the same team at Bowdon RUFC with Warr and Hill enjoying two Cheshire cup final wins at 15 and under 16 age groups. It is a remarkable achievement for us as a local club to develop and produce three international age grade players… and even more so from the same team.

Coach Andy Rink said “We are all so delighted to see Jack, Ewan and Gus do so well at national Under 20 age group. They are a great example to our current crop of youngsters of what can come from hard work and commitment. They always wanted to improve, never got ahead of themselves and always played their hearts out for Bowdon”

After their junior years at Bowdon the three teammates played for Sale Sharks Under 18 Academy before Warr and Ashman signed professional contracts with the club and Hill went on to Durham University to play in the SuperBUCS league.

All three will be throwing their hats in the ring for selection for the 2019 Under 20 World Rugby Cup to be held in Argentina this June with Hill and Ashman, still currently under 19, eligible for next years event as well.

Events

• We had a nomination for Cheshire Volunteer of the Year and have a table of volunteers attending the dinner on 30th April

• U17’s Cheshire Junior Colts Cup - 28th April
Bowdon v Sandbach at Caldy

• U13's hosting a festival on the 5th May
This is another feather in the Bowdon M & J cap, as not many clubs get to host two festival days (we also hosted the U7’s Cheshire Waterfall Festival in April)

• Cheshire Junior Cup Finals Day – 5th May
- U14 are in the plate final at Wirral v Southern Nomads.
- U16's are in the Bowl final v Macclesfield at Crewe and Nantwich
- Colts coming of age game v Their coaches and dads! 3.30pm KO

All will be returning to the club to celebrate a fantastic season whether they have won, lost or drawn!

• 17th May is Colts and Juniors Presentation Evening. This year is a whole juniors event and will be open for parents to attend.

• 19th May is Minis Presentation Day including a BBQ, bouncy castles, stalls and ice cream for the afternoons entertainment!

Exciting Plans

New girls section to be developed

When girls reach U12’s they then have to split off from the boys and play in all girls teams. So, we are planning an open afternoon for local high school girls to come and see if they would like to have a go on 09th May. Capturing enough girls to develop a team would be a great achievement.

Engaging girls from a younger age in the sport would make it easier to develop an effective “girls section”. So we are also going to look to encourage primary age girls to come and join in the mixed age groups, U6 - U11 as well.
Is your daughter interested in trying to beat their brothers at their own game?

And to round it all off, Mandy Cartlidge is also keen to start a women's team; probably starting with a mother and daughter tag rugby group to run over the summer – please get in touch if you would be interested in joining in.

Colt’s Academy from September 2019.

Next season we have a new coaching team joining us to help develop our Colt’s Academy.
Dafydd Rees, currently playing at Macclesfield, a qualified physio and Welsh international youth player combined with the wisdom of former Senior Director of Rugby and first team coach at Bowdon, John Linkman will combine to bring a unified system to both the junior and senior colt’s and give them both successful seasons before they graduate to senior rugby.

I would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the volunteers, coaches, managers, parents for all the hard work that is put in to make this club as effective and successful as it is. We have such a great culture and club environment, which is respected and admired by other clubs and the RFU, and I feel it is something to treasure and look after!

Have a great summer and I look forward to seeing you all back here for the start of 2019 season

We have a big surprise for 01st September, put it in your diary now!

Si Kelly

simon@sikellyphotography.co.uk or 07973 918774