Melksham
Melksham
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Melksham
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
Melksham RFC moved into a brand new purpose built facility in
January 2017. Rugby Club Magazine recently caught up with Chairman
Pat Holtom to find out how things have been coming along.
Involvement Atmosphere
He told us, “I joined Melksham RFC in 1985 and played for
the U18’s; I’ve not yet 100% hung my boots up – hoping for
two or three games this year and then call it a day.
During those 33 years at some point I have
been 1st XV Captain, general Committee
member, secretary, fixture secretary
and, for the last ten years, Chairman.” “The mood at the club is fantastic. In 2017, we moved from
our old facility which was an old converted coach house as
a clubhouse, we used the cricket club’s changing
rooms and had one full size pitch for three
senior teams and fifteen mini and junior
sides. This project had been ten years
in the making and with the help of
our partners Wiltshire council, The
RFU, Melksham Town FC and the
Football Foundation in January
2017 we moved into a brand new
purpose built facility with three
full size pitches (2 of which are
floodlit), one junior pitch, four
changing rooms and a large club
house.
Because of the new facility we
have seen our general membership
grow and with that it has brought
more volunteers into the club which
was needed. Unfortunately, we
have not seen the playing membership
grow in the way we had hoped but we
are working to improve that. One area that
we have grown is with the participation of more
women and girls playing rugby. This is down mainly to our
ladies Coach Hannah Berrelly and her team and because of this
we are planning on holding our first Women’s fixture.”
The Role
“At the moment, the most
challenging part of my role is
player retention at all levels. It’s
not just playing members, when
I first started playing, it was
taken for granted you played
every Saturday throughout the
season (barring injury) but now
away from the 1st XV more players
tend to dip in and dip out as the
season progresses, where one week
we can have sixty players available and
then the following week 35.
What I find most rewarding is watching a
game at home, at whatever level or age group and
everything just clicks on and off the field – a good win, a great
atmosphere and people enjoying doing what they are doing.”
74 Issue 77
Derek Everden of club sponsor Colder Refrigeration
Services recently took the time to tell us more about
his association with the club, saying, “I played for the
club as a scrum-half for around 12 years and was also
a junior coach there with my son also playing as a
fly-half.
As a sponsor we have been supporting the club for
the last few years and also installed the cellar cooler
for them. It is great to see them doing so well and I’m
sure they will continue to prosper. Everyone there really
does do a great job and I’d like to take this opportunity
to wish them all the best for the future.”
Commercial Refrigeration &
Air Conditioning Wiltshire
Refrigeration - Fridges, Freezers, Walk-in Cold Rooms,
Ice Machines
2017/18
“On the field we were hoping to push for promotion but we
came up a bit short in 2017 and also struggled in fulfilling all
are 3rd team fixtures which was a first for Melksham.
For 2018, our main focus is player retention and growth
at all levels. I think, because we were so focused on the new
facility, we took our eye off the ball a bit with the playing side
and are only now putting plans into place to improve our
player base.”
Youth
“Youth rugby is key to the future of the club, the majority
of players that we have now in the first and second XV are
players that started their rugby playing for our mini and
junior teams. The other great things about the mini and Junior
rugby is that it brings different people through the door who
otherwise would never come to watch a game of rugby or get
involved in local sports groups.”
Community
“We are very much a community club and all our focus
is to grow the club organically within the community. We are
trying to forge better links with local schools and sports groups
and helping out where ever we can, that could be asking our
coaches to help out with training sessions or offering our
facility for other community groups to use.”
Challenges
“Moving to the new facility has
created its own issues, at a guess the
hours needed to run the club have
more than doubled and as we are a
volunteer run club this has put a lot of
pressure on our key volunteers with
increased demand on people’s time
and re-source.
Cellar Cooler Systems
Air Conditioning - Split Systems, Ceiling Cassettes, VRF Systems.
On Call 24 Hours A Day
Proud Sponsor of Melksham RFC
01225 709536 | 0800 0238 394
www.colderrefrigerationservicessw.co.uk
[email protected]
24 Sangster Avenue, Melksham, Wiltshire. SN12 7PL
We are mindful that at some point volunteers will walk
away as it becomes all too much so we are very much focused
over the next two to three years is to grow our volunteer base
and spread the workload.
Unfortunately, after ten years in m y role along with the
secretary Andy Cadwallader we are both stepping down. We
will both be involved in some capacity but definitely in a lesser
role, for me I think I will join the groundman’s team and take
my turn in mowing the pitches.”
Ambitions
“We have several goals on the playing side,
for the seniors our aim is for the 1st XV to
move up to the next division and stay there!
We want to field a 3rd XV every week and
sustain the women’s team and hopefully
enter them into the leagues. For the
mini’s and junior our aim is to field
teams in all age groups and again grow
our girls section.”
www.rugbyclubmag.com
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