Haddington
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Bathgate and Cliff Livingstone. We are playing CYM in
the oldest surviving Scotland v Ireland club fixture for
the Friendship Cup. The fixture dates from 1949 and
this will be the 70th anniversary of our first trip. We
will have great craic with our hosts and all being well I
hope to don the boots and therefore be able to claim that
I have played senior rugby in six decades.
Our targets this season are to continue the positive
start to the regrouping at Senior level and see where that
takes us, to keep up our good work at School of Rugby
and Minis, hopefully building up to getting a girls team
and as always to enjoy our game on and off the field.”
Youth
“Youth development is vital to us. It is the production
line for our Senior Rugby: as a small town club away
from the cities we produce most of our own players. Our
difficulties of the last few seasons stem from a spell 4-5
years ago when we had trouble fielding a Colts team.
Our successful periods have been built around a strong
youth team which then stayed together in the seniors.”
World Record
“In August 2018 we set the world record for the most
players in a game of touch rugby, 467. In the wettest day
of a fine summer we had players of between five and
seventy-four years old celebrating our great game in a
match which lasted nearly six hours. Everyone had to
play for at least ten minutes and have influence on the
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game. We had several examples of three generations of
families playing including a remarkable total of eighteen
from the Snodgrass family with an ex-President and two
ex-Captains.
Fellow World record holders include internationalists
Stuart McInally and Sarah Law, and a certain ex
Footballing internationalist Sheila Begbie MBE who were
there in support as part of the SRU’s Rugby Force Day.
We also raised money for our partner charity Wooden
Spoon.
The record was only recently formally verified by
Guinness World Records, given the complexity of the
record keeping required. We got great help from the
SRUs sponsors Royal Bank of Scotland who provided
a professional video team and staff for record keeping
assistance. One of the great days in our long history.”
Mark Becher is the Headmaster of the Compass
School which is a unique and independent
primary school for children age 3-12 located
in Haddington. Over the past 57 years it has
acquired an outstanding reputation in East
Lothian and beyond for providing its children
with a firm foundation for their life-long learning.
Mark told Rugby Club Magazine, “As a rugby
fan myself I am fully aware of the benefits of
the sport and the advantages it offers to those
involved. I am delighted that both school and
club have such a positive association grown over
the past years and the club’s mini rugby section
offers a great compliment to our children at the
school, many who you will see at the club on a
Sunday morning. It’s also great to hear how well
the seniors are doing, unfortunately I don’t get
down to the club as often as I would like due
to my own family commitments. The Compass
School are a club sponsor and we would like
to wish Haddington Rugby Club the very best
of success in all areas of their club particularly
in the continued development of young people
into this great sport!”