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SENIOR RUGBY
Another tough couple of fixtures greeted our men on Saturday. The 1XV played their first home game of the season against Shoreham. A fantastic match day lunch ensured the large crowd was well fed and in great voice (Although a little irritated that the scoreboard wouldn’t work!!). A big win for G’s would take them top of the table, but Shoreham had easily dispatched Jersey the week before. Who would win this tussle? Click here to read Brimo’s match report: Match report

To see Ben’s pics of the match, click here: Match pics

Meanwhile, our 2’s travelled to Burgess Hill to take on their 1XV. What a match to take on! How did they do? Click here to read Idz’s report: Match report

Our three senior sides are all in action next weekend. On Saturday, our 1’s travel to Brighton, while our 2’s host Worthing 3’s. While on Sunday our Women travel to Crawley.

AGE GROUP RUGBY
Sunday saw the 1st of our junior home festivals. With 40 teams arriving from across the neighbouring counties and a huge home contingent fielding 9 teams, it was always going to be a busy day. Expecting around 600+ players and parents, it was all hands to the pumps! October in the UK is not noted for its temperate weather, but the gods smiled down on us and we were treated to a mild and in parts sunny day. This followed a dry week to ensure our pitches were playable and the hoards of visitors were not treated to a mudfest!

With the car parks and clubhouses full, it was time to get down to a couple of hours of junior rugby covering every blade of our pitches.

U9
With a couple of late drop outs from Hove and Edenbridge, the G's stretched themselves to field 4 teams and head coaches Tim & Ky did an amazing job of filling in the schedule with some impromptu fixtures to keep everyone playing.

This was going to mean a big shift from some of the G's players who ended up playing back to back matches.

This is definitely a section with some stars in the making and there was some great play in these games. Big tackles, offloads and powerful runs. Considering most players have only had 5 sessions at contact level, the tackling was phenomenal.

Player of the tournament and recipient of the 'Hard as Nails' trophy went to Arlo.

U7
Sunday, marked the start of the U7s’ first competitive rugby matches — and competitive they were!

EGRFC entered three teams into our home festival, welcoming sides from Haywards Heath, Edenbridge, Crawley, Hove, Heathfield, and Seaford. On a beautiful autumnal Sussex Sunday, a superb morning of running rugby was on display.

The two Albies, Finley, Grayson, Harry, Henry, Ivy, Jacob, Louis, Luca, Oliver, Ollie, Roman, Sam, Thea, and Zach were all fantastic. Our hour-long Sunday morning sessions of organised chaos over the past five weeks came together with some brilliant running, passing, and of course, try-scoring!

At U7 level, our main focus (beyond remembering to pass backwards!) is to have as much fun as possible and I think we achieved that on Sunday. The only thing that matched the children’s enthusiasm was the encouragement and fantastic support from our parents — who, I’m told, could be heard all the way from Standen National Trust, nearly a mile away! Friendships were formed with our neighbouring clubs, and future joint training sessions and fixtures are already in the works. It was a day our U7s will remember for a long time.

Special thanks to Tom Goldsworthy and the club for hosting such a brilliant day. We’re already looking forward to the next one… watch this space! It was a brilliant day and we have received a large number of notes of praise for the day so all in all a great success.

I would like to thanks all the coaches who kept the focus of the day, kids rugby running smoothly and helping with setting up pitches etc. Ryland, Ollie, Julie, George, Yazzy and all the team for keeping the endless streams of people fed and watered. With the scale of junior festivals, club staff can only do so much so a big thanks to all the U9 parents who stepped up to help out. The events are important to the club and grassroots sport and they don’t happen without your help.

U11
The U11s enjoyed a super morning of rugby down at Horsham, at their U11 AGP festival. We are immensely proud of all 12 players; Seb, Owen, Theo, Erikas, Harry, Ivy, Bradley, Ethan, Finlay M, Jack, Albert and Sam.

Their tackling and rucking was superb, (and several opposition coaches congratulated the team on this), excellent handling skills, using the whole width of what was a big pitch and, above all, great teamwork and communication. This was our first festival with kicking and the team did so well, sharing the responsibility between them. We have some keen, and confident, fly halves and full backs emerging - great to see all our summer skills practice paying off.

A special well done to Ivy on her first festival.

5 games and 5 wins. Well done U11s. We hope to continue this next week at Eastbourne.

It was also a debut outing for our smart new gazebo. A massive thanks to all the parents that dug deep to pay for this. No doubt it will be a godsend on those rainy days in January.

Intermediates
Our U14’s narrowly lost away to Pulborough, 24 - 20, but put in a brave and encouraging performance, while our U16’s beat the Uckhill BarBars away, 12 - 25.

SUNSHINE 7’s MATCH DAY LUNCH
An early heads up to get Saturday 8th November in the diary. Our Sunshine 7’s presentation lunch is always well attended and this year will be no different. We will be inviting all the charities that we support and many other dignitaries to the day.

All this and our 1XV will be hosting Lewes which will be a cracker. As an even bigger bonus to make the day even better, England will be taking on Fiji at 5.40. What a day!! Get it booked in.

AGP UPDATE
As you know, EGRFC is trying to raise the funds to build an artificial grass pitch (AGP) on the training pitch area, to vastly improve the training facilities at the club. We have made good progress but now the real work starts.

The current cost estimate is £850-900k and we have been advised that outside of foundation funding we would need to secure about 30% of this amount, say £270k.

There are many funding sources and grants available and there maybe members who can contribute. However, at this time we need to form a working party (not a committee) to chase down every penny of funding that is out there so we can show that the 30% is attainable. The working party will write our scripts for funding, seek out funding sources, record commitments, work with 3rd party users (football clubs) to get their support and meet frequently to update our system of record. In addition, we need members who can help finalise our plans and also work on other elements of the project such as planning applications.

Can you help? If you can, please send an email to: agp@egrfc.com or call Julie on 01342 322338

We will have the first meeting of all interested parties November 12th in the main room at the club starting at 7:30pm where we will explain our progress and look to allocate some activity.

Thank you

KENNY ROSER
Just a reminder that Kens funeral will take place at Wealden Crematorium, Horam Road, Horam, Heathfield, TN21 0FX at 3pm on Friday (17th October), and afterwards at the Club.

A MESSAGE FROM SUSSEX RUGBY
Sadly, in our game there is a growing trend for non-participants to be entering the field of play without the referee’s permission. The RFU are extremely concerned that such incidents more often than not inflame already difficult situations for match officials. As a consequence anyone entering the field of play without the referee’s permission could be subject to an immediate minimum of a 2 match day suspension.

Clubs are asked to remind all, that is subs, coaches, spectators and anyone else, that entering the field of play, no matter the intention, is strictly forbidden. The season is only a few weeks old and already we have had to deal with cases where non-participants deemed it fit to join an on-field melee.

Clubs who fail to control non-participants could also be subject to league points deductions.

Clubs are required to have first-aid cover. It is important that those tasked with this important role agree with the match official ahead of kick off the parameters for them entering the field of play.

If additional guidance is required please don’t hesitate to contact Linda or Graham Callard whose details can be found on the Sussex Rugby website.

SOCIAL DATES FOR THE DIARY
31st October - Children's Halloween Party, 2.30 - 4.30pm
To book your ticket, click here: Childrens Halloween tickets

1st November - Halloween fancy dress "Dead celebrities" & Disco 7pm onwards
To book your ticket, click here: Halloween tickets

7th November - Curry & Quiz Night
To book your ticket, click here: Quiz tickets

14 & 15th November Christmas Fayre (14th, 5pm - 7.30 15th, 9am - midday)

20th December - Adults Christmas Party

21st December - Childrens Christmas Party

OTHER NEWS
If you have any news about any aspect of our rugby family here at East Grinstead, get involved and email m.marriott@btconnect.com. See you next week!!