There will be various age groups hosted at TJ's so please take that into account and allow extra time for parking (please find attached file with car parking information). Please meet for 9:45am.

Address;
Tonbridge Juddians RUFC
The Slade, Tonbridge,
TN9 1HR

The aim is to run a 'festival light'; which is a series of round robin matches with teams that don't meet each other often with the aim to finish at midday. We are playing Canterbury and TJ's, teams that we don't usually meet on the circuit.

As mentioned before, and if you haven't done so already, please indicate if you will be able to make the training session. If you have selected unsure option, we are assuming that you will not be able to attend the session.

Any questions, please ask!

Getting to Tonbridge Juddians & Parking

Tonbridge is just off the A21 which itself is off J5 of the M25. Take care as you leave the M25, J5 has an odd layout and the A21 turnoff appears very rapidly. If you are heading north up the A21 from Tunbridge Wells it’s a currently a mess of very large road works that may or may not be slow moving on a Sunday morning.

The centre of Tonbridge used to form part of one of the pilgrimage routes to Canterbury. This religious heritage will be obvious to you; as the extremely simple road layout has a series of traffic lights, usually out of synch, designed to test the patience of the faithful. Whilst waiting at the lights you will at least have an opportunity to marvel at the 1960s planning process that was so determined to offset the ascetics of the many ancient buildings.

Our address is:

Tonbridge Juddians RUFC
The Slade, Tonbridge,
TN9 1HR

Unless you are planning to get here before 9.30am and plan on leaving later (as there is usually a queue) we recommend you consider parking elsewhere. We would suggest you aim to park in one of the various car parks, which are about a 10-15 min walk away, on:

Sovereign Way, Tonbridge, TN9 1RG

http://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/tonbridge/
Whilst the first car park you see is shared between Waitrose and Iceland (which tells you everything you need to know the ‘uneven’ nature of the town), there are more car parks just beyond that.
The club is basically on the far side of the castle from the High Street (B2260). So, walk back the way you came until you reach the High Street, and then turn right, cross the bridge across the Medway. Then take the footpath immediately to your left after the bridge, so the river is on your left and the castle’s battlements on your right. This should lead you to the town swimming pool. The rugby club is directly across the car park from the swimming pool.
A simple map is below. Once you get past the soaring artistic majesty of my map the suggested Sovereign Way car parks are in purple, the walking route is in yellow.

For those getting here early

For those that like to gamble, there are about 250 parking spaces next to the club itself but they fill up early plus there tends to be a queue on the way out when everybody tries to leave at once. If you do get here early, I personally would aim for the car park in Upper Castle Field (see Parkopedia link above) which has about 50 places and its only about 100 metres from the club.

On the day
• The clubhouse opens about 9am and it will start serving doing traditional breakfast 'fayre' by 9.30am at the latest. The heartburn usually takes 20 mins to kick in.

• Unless you have heard otherwise from your respective coach, if you could aim for 10am with a 10.15am start at the latest it would be great. There is no ref’s briefing as it’s not a formal festival and is up to the various coaches to decide how they want to run it on the day. The club is expecting it to be a series of inter-club matches; please let us know if you are unhappy with what it being otherwise suggested.

• Often an area of about 10 metres between the clubhouse and the pitches starts to get very boggy around this time of year. So it is advised to wear wellies to get to the pitches.

• In the – obviously, highly unlikely - event the late November British weather is bad, your first thoughts upon going onto our pitches are not going to be: a.) that they were used for jousting in days gone by nor b.) The obvious recreation opportunities in cycling or sailing up the Medway but c.) a physical and vocally expressed emotional response to the fact that they are flood plains in a river valley. So it’s a very good idea for the kids have an underlayer and some warm clothes to put on if they have to hang around between games.