Cotham Park
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Cotham Park
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
O
n 16th August 2016, Cotham Park RFC released a video calling out new
players to “Be Part of Something Special”, eight months on and we
are celebrating promotion for both our 1st and 2nd teams ... and it was indeed
“Something Special”!
Whilst standing shoulder to shoulder
with my team mates, this season has
shown me why we play team sports,
which resulted in our 1st team being
crowned undefeated champions of
Gloucestershire Division 3. To find the
reasons behind this success I will have
to go back to when I joined the club two
seasons ago, following an on/off playing
career in Yorkshire.
When I started with CPRFC, training
numbers were good and the skill and
heart that everyone showed in those
sessions were significantly higher than
what was happening on the field. This
brought confusion as to why the CPRFC
1stteam were facing relegation, which
inevitably happened at the close of the
2015/16 season.
With the realization that something
had to change, we brought in a new
coach in the shape of Bristol Rugby’s
hooker, Marc Jones, and this is where
everything turned around. Marc brought
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structure, confidence and better decision
making into our game which, with the
aforementioned skill and heart, proved
invaluable to the whole squad.
Throughout 2016/17 we became
stronger and stronger with each win we
put on the board, bringing a confidence
that makes us believe we can make a big
impact and surprise teams in the 2017/18
season. This campaign will start with
our some well-earned R&R followed by
sessions at the downs before pre-season
training officially kicks off.
However, before any of that happens
we have our Annual Mystery Tour,
Memorial Game and Awards Dinner to
close off an epic season, and one that will
undoubtedly go down in the 116 year old
Cotham Park RFC history book.
With regards to ambition for the
future, we want to keep building on our
squad numbers and the club facilities.
We have made some good progress with
the clubhouse and grounds but feel there
are still improvements we want to make.
We have some big plans for next
season with a new coach in the pipeline,
which we’re very excited about, and I’m
certain this appointment will attract some
great interest and talent. We currently
have tremendous momentum and the
boys are bringing a positive “we can”
attitude to every training session and
every game, teeing our next campaign up
nicely.
As I’m responsible for recruitment,
I am going to take advantage of this
opportunity to call out to anyone wanting
to play rugby. I can say from personal
experience that this is one club in Bristol
you definitely want to be part of. For
more details please search Cotham Park
RFC, or facebook.com/cothampark or
cothampark.co.uk.
By Adam Johnson, Recruitment
Officer