Norton
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/RUGBYCLUBMAG
Norton
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
N
orton RFC is a fine example of the important role that a club can
play in their local community. We recently caught up with their
Chairman Jeremy Chandler to find out more about the good work that
the club has been doing lately.
He told us, “From the very beginning,
It was my idea to form a Rugby Club at
Norton after a ‘drunken conversation in
the local pub’.
“This was with fellow local Sam
Phelps. We both felt that there was need
in our village for a Rugby Club as we both
played for clubs that were far away.
“We were watching a bunch of lads
kicking a rugby ball around in the car
park and we thought who did they play
for? The barman answered that they
didn’t play for anyone! We also agreed
that wouldn’t it be nice to able to walk
home after a home game!
“It snowballed from there; we held a
meeting in the pub and gave out flyers to
locals of all ages, we found quickly about
58 Issue 63
26 players, most of which were either new
to Rugby, hadn’t played since school,
were new to the area or had retired from
playing. There were only four players
including myself that were playing
regularly.
“The parish let us have the old football
pitch which we converted, and we
originally had solar showers and a gazebo
for changing rooms.
“There are many high and challenging
aspects to my role. The most rewarding
aspect of the club is that we have
managed in five years to pull a team
together, develop facilities (new purpose
built changing rooms) and compete in the
leagues.
“As we are relatively low in the
leagues we currently struggle to a certain
extent with player retention, however
what really hurts us can be commitment
as players these days don’t want to play
every weekend as in years gone by.
“However, we solely focus on making
Norton a fun place to play Rugby and
provide the following for our players:
• training from Gloucester Rugby
Club (this year we had Greig Laidlaw,
Billy Twelvetrees, Gareth Evans, Dan
Murphy and ex-Gloucester legend Terry
Fanaoloa coach us)
•
Tour buses for away games
• Everything needed for the team
including Shirts, Coaching, Food after