Vipers
Vipers Leicester and Trepitjadors Binnisalem The story of our newly formed relationship between us and the Majorca based club
By Andrew ‘ Jock ’ Keenan , U15 coach and Vipers Stalwart
In 2007 , Keith Higginson Vipers player and Ex-Tiger relocated to the Sunny Isle of Mallorca , The town that he settled in was Binnisalem .
It didn ’ t take long for Keith to acquaint himself with local rugby minded people including an English teacher , Cesar and several local bar owners including Pepe the owner of BarS Hotel .
After several chats about starting a rugby club they took the plunge ; a local Bar owner became President , Cesar became Treasurer even though they had no money and Keith started to Coach . Tripjadors were born in 2012 It started with just a few kids turning up , then a few more , then even more !
They now have an U12s , an U14s and are building and building slowly slowly or as Keith says ‘ Poca Poca ,’ little by little .
After a brief conversation with Keith in 2014 during one of his visits to the Drogs we got talking about the possibility of a Vets tour in 2015 .
Salmon Allen was bought in as admin and organizer and I remained as liaison ; very quickly and simply the tour was put together and 22 upstanding Vipers made the 2 hour flight to Palma Majorca .
We were met at the airport by Keith in his works van as well as three other vehicles to ferry us over to Binnisalem . We were introduced to Catalina who owns a 300 year old farm house in the Town ; this was our lodgings for the weekend .
The Farmhouse is delightful and so relaxed ; there are no finer things or television , a complete cultural Tour .
We arrived in Binnisalem at around 12 midnight on the Thursday and a bar had very kindly stayed open for us !
The next day we nipped into Palma and had a wander round and returned to Binnisalem to carry on getting to know the locals and building those bridges .
Saturday was game day , the match was to take place in Binnisalem , the first time in the history of the town a game of rugby had been played on a 3G football pitch !
Our opposition was a team from Palma called Shamrock , we lost the game through a lack of backs and a worse for wear front row ! RUGBY WON THE DAY !!! The after party was a massive paella in bar s hotel , then a sit down to watch Tigers play , it was a great day . During this time I got speaking to the referee of the day , Stuart , a Kiwi that ran the sub 14s-16s of a team called Ponent , traditionally the strongest team on the island . This was the start of the next tour to Binnisalem .
The locals came out to play and more friendships were forged .
Sunday we returned home full of great memories and new friendships .
The next year , between Keith and myself has been spent sorting out the U15s Tour to carry on this Rugby bonding between our two clubs .
On the 8th of April 2016 , 20 players and 28 parents and siblings made the trip to Binnisalem , 19 parents at Catalinas Farmhouse and 29 players and Dads stayed at the Local Council owned
Youth Hostel called Can Arabi FREE OF CHARGE ! All I paid for was 25 sleeping bags which the lads have donated back to the Council for the local scouts . They will also be available for any side visiting in the future .
A Five day Tour with two games played Tuesday and Thursday evening with Rugby goal posts used for the first time ever ! Another first !
Beating EL Torro 38-14 but losing 28-17 to Ponent , with the boys being knackered !
For me watching my boys mixing with the kids of Binnisalem who put down their footballs and watched in awe as the posts went up and down , local mums and dads cheering on both teams , watching in disbelief as our 15 year olds stood up and took on 16 year old men with big beards and cars and did not let themselves down .
Trips to Inca , Palma and Alcudia in hired busses helped make the second tour a huge success with both home teams wanting to visit the Vipers and the Local Mayor insisting we return next year .
We are on the cusp of something huge with this Mallorcan town , they want us to send coaches to help out and they would like to send coaches to us to learn .
I for one will be nurturing this bond we have forged , and hope that the Vipers teams below us take the opportunity to visit Binnisalem . www . sportip . biz 47