MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL & HERE’S HOPING FOR A RETURN TO CONTACT RUGBY SOMETIME SOON IN 2021
Well, one thing is absolutely for sure and that is, we will all be relieved to see the back of 2020. However, before the year is drawn to a close, we should reflect on the positive news in 2020:
1) Flood Recoveryin February and March 2020, following which we received financial support in the guise of grants from the RFU and Sport England to help us repair the damage the flood caused and to restore our beloved Edgar Davies Ground
2) ‘Bridgnorth’s Biggest Garden’ ran for 13 weeks from 4th July 2020, involving many risk assessments following national guidance, which has enabled us to establish a new income stream for future years. This activity allowed us to gainfully employ around 10 employees during this period, which was gratefully received by the said individuals, given a 15-week period of a national lockdown had just been endured.
3) Successful on-going Furlough of highly valued employees– once the colder weather and shorter days arrived, we sadly had to come to terms with stopping the operation of ‘Bridgnorth’s Biggest Garden’, which we did at the end of September. Since this time however, we have been able to successfully furlough all the employees of BRFC, if they were eligible to participate in the scheme.
4) Community use of EDG Marquee- over the autumn and winter months we offered it to several other sports clubs, as well as to a knitting club and a sewing club. The clubs included Bridgnorth Taekwondo, Edge Gymnastics, Janie’s Pilates, Faye’s Boot Camp, as well as other gym clubs.
5) Return of M&J Training- since the start of September 2020, the M&J Section have been able to train up at Swancote, where Percy’s Pantry once again started to create his delicious breakfasts.
6) Excellent Implementation of COVID 19 Protocols- much time & effort was devoted by the M&J coaches & the Senior coaches in ensuring they followed the new Covid-19 safe procedures and keeping the Seniors, children and youth engaged in the game, so we cannot praise them highly enough – well done everyone involved.
7) New M&J Membership process– the parents have coped well with the new paperless registration system and they have continued to pay their subscriptions on a timely basis, as have other members, including our wonderful VPs, all of which is very much appreciated.
8) Women's Team Fund Raising- £1,300 raised by virtually visiting 7 clubs in their league, of which they donated £400 to the Bridgnorth Food bank, so well done the gals, who continue to lead the way in rallying around for our local community.
9) Thank you to our loyal Sponsorswho have continued to sponsor us, notwithstanding the lack of competitive rugby being played, so we owe them a debt of gratitude.
10) Touch Rugby, a life saver for rugby lovers!– for some months now, we have been able to play Touch rugby and several fun tournaments have taken place, all as allowed by the new regulations, given Covid-19. Indeed, the next tournament takes place at the Edgar Davies Ground on Boxing Day, starting at Noon.
11) M&J Fund Raising - inspired by Kevin Sinfield’s 7 Marathons in 7 Days, we raised £1,000 by running around the curtilage of Swancote Energy Park on Sunday 13th December 2020; the total miles covered were 182 miles.
The money raised has been donated £500 to Kevin Sinfield’s just giving page, in honour of Rob Burrow, who is an ex-Leeds Rhino Rugby League player, who was recently diagnosed with MND.
The other £500 was donated to Neil Williams, who is also suffering with MND. Neil is an ex-Shrewsbury Rugby Club player, and his family are raising money to go on a family holiday to Australia and New Zealand to visit their extended family members.
12) Planning for the Future– we have made 2 individual planning permission applications to build:-
a) new Club House on the Edgar Davies Ground
b) new multi sports facility on Bandon Lane:-
Both applications are due to be determined by Shropshire Council on 22nd January 2021. There is still time to support both applications, if you have not already done so, please follow the links above. You need to log in to make a comment and support these applications.
We cannot emphasise enough, our thanks to all who have continued to train and for the coaches who continue to add interest to that training, which is a tough job, given until very recently there has been no obvious end in sight.
Before closing, now we have the vaccinations coming on stream (more than 1,200 people have already been vaccinated at Bridgnorth Medical Practice at the time of writing), so long as we all limit our social contact, most particularly if this is taking place indoors, we should soon be able to play competitive contact rugby once again. Meantime let us all do our bit and restrict our social gatherings.
NB Please find attached updated constituiton to be discussed at the EGM in January 2021
Stay safe, stay local & low key & stay strong.
Yours in Rugby,
President - Alun Stoll
Chairman - Karen Sawbridge
Secretary - Liz Rochelle
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