BALA
BALA
Bala enjoyed a terrific season on the field last season, winning
the North Wales League which was a superb achievement.
Rugby Club Magazine caught up with the club’s Chairman
Tony Parry to find out what has been behind their success.
Involvement
“I’ve been involved with the club for 34 years now and there are so
many memories over that time. I’ve been Chairman for 13 years
now which has been hard work but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.
We’ve had some great nights out and the triumphs we’ve managed
on the pitch are great. One of my favourite moments was winning
the North Wales League last year.”
Atmosphere
“As you can imagine with winning the league last year for the
first time in our history the mood here is very good. We’ve made
changes to make junior and youth rugby the foundation we built
upon and many of the players playing last year have come through
our youth system which is very positive. A lot of volunteers and
members have worked hard to achieve what we wanted and we’re
very fortunate to have a great set of volunteers who give up a lot
of time and effort.”
Youth
“We started a policy around 10 years ago so that anyone in the
youth team at 18 would be amalgamated into the first or second
team so that the progression is quite natural. We are a community
club in a small area meaning everybody knows each other which
also helps. We are well supported by the local community and
that’s been picking up with the positive results that we’ve been
getting and we hope that that can continue.”
Community
“We’ve just formed a partnership with a local school and they’re
employing a rugby development officer and we’re involved with
that and are helping in the funding for the work that’s being done.
We’ve already seen the benefit of that with an influx of new players
coming in especially from U11s down.”
Challenges
“The biggest challenge for us is keeping the club financially secure.
We don’t have a bar at the clubhouse and so we have to work hard
to meet our costs. Commercially, it’s very difficult being in a small
area as it’s difficult to gain funding and it’s hard to bring in new
sources of revenue. Division 1 North is the top level that we can
reach so hopefully we will be able to retain our position here and
we’d like to challenge for some of the major cups through Wales.”
Ambitions
“We’ve played 3 games, we’ve won 2 and drawn 1 and so we’re
happy with the start we’ve made. Anybody can beat anybody on
their day in this league so you can’t rest on your laurels at all.
Division 1 is very competitive and is improving so it’s important that
we are on our game in order to finish as high as possible.”
Bryan (Yogi) Davies
“Bryan (Yogi) Davies was a real mainstay of our club and he sadly
passed away in August of last year and was a big loss for the
club. He broke his neck playing rugby in 2007, but even after his
accident he came back to the club and carried on coaching the
youngsters which was truly inspiring.
When Bryan broke his neck the club got together and raised money
for him so that he could come home and the support for the appeal
from the local community was fantastic and we managed to raise
£250,000. He was instrumental in setting up the yogi foundation
and any donations will be greatly received.”
http://www.yogifoundation.org.uk/
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