Lankelly-Fowey
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Lankelly-Fowey
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
Lankelly-Fowey RFC has enjoyed a season to remember on the
field this time around, clinching the league title and have also
been progressing well off the pitch. We recently caught up with
their Chairman David Swiggs to find out more about the good
work that they’ve been doing.
Involvement
He told us, “I’ve been involved with
the club on and off for the last 16 years.
I returned to the club midway through
the 14/15 season following an 18 month
layoff due to a knee injury. The coach at
the time, Harvey Jones convinced me to
try a run out to see if I was ready to get
back into playing again. Since that day I
haven’t looked back.
I was first attracted to the Club for
a number of reasons but mainly Fowey
is my family’s home town, My Dad, his
brother and cousins have all played for
the club and some of my closest friends
showed me what a fun loving tight nit
group the players really are.”
Recent Years
“At the AGM in 2015 I put myself
forward as Club Captain and got voted
into the role. Harvey also made me
1st XV Captain for the 15/16 Season.
Our expectations for that season were
ambitious to say the least, after several
seasons of finishing in the bottom half
of the league, due to the influx of our
first wave of players who have come
up through our youth section we fully
expected to be amongst the favourites
for the league title. That wasn’t to be that
year and even though we had competed
in every fixture we lost more games than
we won albeit most of our loses were
marginal.
Unfortunately Harvey had to leave
the head coaching role part way through
the season and I approached Sion
Williams, a former coach and Lankelly
Fowey veteran to see if he would be
interested in seeing out the season with
us as Head Coach. Thankfully Sion
agreed and stayed on as our Head Coach
for the 16/17 Season. Also for the 16/17
Images courtesy of Susanna Stables Photography
18 Issue 71
season I stepped down as Club Captain
as I thought I could offer the club more
as Director of Rugby, thankfully I was
voted into this role at the AGM.”
The Role
“Off the pitch, the most challenging
part of my role is probably that I tend to
take on too much. I’m currently 1st XV
Captain, Director of Rugby and I manage
the Club House Bar. Trying to balance all
of these responsibilities along with my
job and family life can often land me in
hot water with the misses!
On the pitch, I’d have to say I’m
constantly battling trying to keep my
own discipline while leading the younger
players by example. My disciplinary
record has never been great but with the
laws of the game tightening each year it’s
getting tougher for back row players like
myself to “push” the boundaries.”