OLD NEwtonians
to only four playing members , the team is now fully restored and playing again .
The most recent outing on May 12th was a memorial game for Jasmine Mitchell , a university student who tragically died in May 2015 at the young age of 22 . Jazz was a valued player with the club and part of the successful 2014 / 15 league / cup season . She is sadly missed by all who knew her . The game was a good close one with representatives of both the clubs she played for taking part .
Money raised goes to the Laura Centre which supports children who have lost parents and parents who have lost children and many local businesses in the surrounding villages and ladies team supporters contributed raffle prizes . The club paid for mounting Jazz ’ s shirt to go on the wall in the club and Jazz ’ s parent ’ s and family were extremely grateful , they were also presented with her away shirt similarly mounted . Thanks to all volunteers .
Charity support is very important to us and over the years various fund raising games have been staged and we are proud to have raised £ 9500 for LOROS , the local hospice in memory of our team manager ’ s son and club member who sadly passed away aged 30 in 2013 after a brave battle against cancer .
Friendships are often made for life in rugby and we have a strong belief in encouraging children to participate in the benefits of the playing and social side of rugby and see this as a positive step for future development and growth .
Some years ago Old Newts was home to an extensive mini / junior section which produced a strong colts side many of whom progressed through to the 1st XV remaining friends and supporters of the club after retirement . Three of these long standing members have expressed a wish to resurrect the Junior section with their own children and those of other explayers and have our full support . Thanks must go to them for all their hard work which now sees plans well underway for this to start at the beginning of next season with ages ranging from micros to Under 11s .
We regularly host the Leicester Tigers junior weekend coaching sessions which involve young teams from all over the country and receive many compliments from visiting sides about the welcoming atmosphere and character in the clubhouse so it will be doubly pleasing to extend this to our own Juniors and visitors in the future .
To sum up , in today ’ s world challenges for Junior clubs are numerous and volunteers aren ’ t as plentiful as they once were but looking to the future we have a rapidly expanding housing development under construction in the club ’ s locality and as this becomes populated we will look to use the opportunities it gives us to publicise our club to a wider audience with the aim of expanding our membership and becoming a sustainable community sporting and social facility .
To quote the motto : Not for us but those who follow !
Old Newtonians has a long established history as one of Leicestershire ’ s grassroots Rugby Clubs although in common with others has recently endured some testing times , struggling to maintain player numbers and team positions in the league . Much effort and hard work was put in by a dedicated few to redress the situation and it was therefore most uplifting to be asked by the Local District Council in 2017 to nominate the club for a Community Award as part of their Annual Sports Awards Event . We duly responded and were delighted to find that we were chosen as winners on the night in the Outstanding Achievement by a Community Club category and were presented with a trophy and certificate to display in the clubhouse . The subsequent publicity and social media exposure has had a positive effect on the club and coupled with finishing in third place in the new league we ’ d entered added to the feeling that things had turned the corner and the club could once again look to the future . While acknowledging the difficulties that lie ahead maintaining momentum in progress there is a cautious feeling of optimism that the club is now in a better place to move slowly forward by consolidating and growing the senior men ’ s team , recruiting players for the Ladies section and managing the newly reinstated Junior Section which is due to start with micros to Under 11s . Regarding the latter , it ’ s pleasing to note that the initiative and facilitation of this comes from former players who themselves came up through the ranks of the club ’ s original Juniors who phased out in the 1990s and are now carrying the legacy forward . The club prides itself on integration across all sections and although lack of sufficient volunteers is always a problem it ’ s gratifying to see the initiative and time expended by younger members who also have demanding jobs and busy family lives . Overall , the club is in a markedly better place now than it was two years ago and with continued effort and determination we hope to sustain this .
Article provided by Club Development Manager , Adrienne Catcheside www . rugbyclubmag . com 21