HISTORY A brief history of Kelso Ladies is that they were establish in 2015 , mainly as a social team and a way for ladies to get fit .

Kelso ladies attracts players from all over the borders right to down to Berwick , ranging in age from 18 to 50 years old .

In the time they have been together they have been on a great journey of achievement .

Kelso Ladies completed 1 year in the development league before moving to National 2 league and finishing an impressive 4th in their first year in that league .

The following 2 consecutive years they went on to win the National 2 league . In 2019 the ladies made it to the Regional Nat 2 / Nat 1 playoff which they narrowly losing out on to West of Scotland in a hardfought match .

At the start of the 2021 / 22 season , Kelso ladies got the chance to move up to Nat 1 . This was following some movement from teams dropping out of Nat 1 . The offer was put to them due to there narrow loss in the Nat 2 / 1 playoff at the end of the 19 / 20 season .

The ladies are now 3 games into the season and with a cancellation , an away loss and an impressive home win are looking to get at least a mid- table finish in their first season in Nat 1 .

Following on from the Ladies , Kelso have recently established an u18s girl ’ s section . The girls are attracting very impressive numbers to training . They have also had the opportunity to experience games with other local youth teams .

The ladies ’ section is very excited for the girls to continue to play and establish themselves into the future senior ladies ’ team , hopefully continuing the ladies ’ section for many years to come .

Fingers crossed for the season to continue Covid free and for rugby to make a permanent return to Kelso .

Kelso Ladies would like to thank all their followers for the continued support and hope to see you all at our home games soon .

HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME INVOLVED WITH KELSO RF AND

LADIES RUGBY I first became involve as a player when kelso ladies established 6 years ago . I did 2 seasons as captain and have now moved on to director of ladies rugby along side still being a player .

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING RUGBY YOURSELF ? I have been involved with rugby in many ways for the last 18 years . Playing on and off over the years .

LADIES RUGBY A KELSO HAS SPANNED 6 YEARS NOW CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT ITS DEVELOPMENT OVER THIS TIME AND , OUT WITH THE COVID DIP , HOW THINGS ARE GOING ? During lockdown Kelso Ladies took part in several team challenges , the first being a inter team Forwards v Back challenge to see who could produce the most miles within the month of June . This was a hard-fought battle with the backs winning by a very small margin .

Being such a competitive team , we decided that the next challenge should be for charity . We chose Border Water rescue and ended up raising £ 900 after achieving just under 5000km in 1 month by walking , jogging , running , and cycling .

Back Training ( 1st time ) The ladies got back training in socially distanced groups at the end of July . This provided some much-needed interaction and fitness . With the hope of playing some rugby a long way off the ladies trained hard and started

to look at team structure for when rugby can return . Sadly , this was interrupted by another lockdown in Dec .

Back Training ( 2nd time ) With lockdown easing the ladies returned once again to training .

Again , in socially distanced groups , followed by full group fitness and skills , touch rugby and finally into full contact . With the interruptions and no rugby played for over a year , the ladies have managed to maintain good player numbers and have welcomed a few new players .

DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO INCREASE PLAYER RECRUITMENT AT THE CLUB ? We are always on the look out for new players . Even if people just want to join for the fitness / training aspect we always encourage them to join us .

We have a girls section which is continually growing and is a positive for the ladies section and the club as a whole as it means the future of the ladies will hopefully continue with the youngster feeding through to senior level .

WHAT ADDED BENEFITS DOES PLAYING LADIES AND GIRLS RUGBY OFFER THE INDIVIDUAL IN YOUR EXPERIENCE ? Playing or even training as part of a ladies / girl ’ s rugby team in my experience , provides people with that team environment where we have each other backs on and off the pitch like one big family . It is always a laugh a minute but we have each other for support at the hard times .

WOULD YOU SAY KELSO IS A COMMUNITY CLUB ? Kelso RFC is very much a community club . There is always events running to encourage the whole community to join in .

The different sections of the club also help out within the wider community with things like litter picking and community gardening .

WHAT MAKES KELSO RFC SUCH A GOOD CLUB TO BE PART OF ? Kelso RFC follow the slogan ‘ one club ’ this is to involve all the sections equally . I feel this is the case in most of what Kelso promote .

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