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Chairman’s Report – August 2016

Chairman’s Report – August 2016

Jeff Ball15 Sep 2016 - 13:08
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Winning the Lottery, more nominations than you can shake a stick and at suitcases full of rugby balls.

The schools are definitely back, aren’t they? The swarms of traffic clogging the roads now given ample opportunity to reflect on the month that was, which included our last Bank Holiday until Christmas.

August is in many ways a mid-season break. After the fun of July and the various Grand Finals, the club scatters on holiday across Europe and beyond it seems, going by the #RocketsonTour photo fun we ask everyone to do. Basically they go abroad and send us photos of them in their Rocketswear or with a rugby ball in a suitably glamourous location to make the rest of us jealous. I am sure many an airport security were perplexed at suitcases full of rugby balls.

On Rockets on Tour by the way, we are still promoting our trips to two Four Nations matches, including England vs New Zealand where eight lucky Rockets are set to be mascots!

One of the biggest news stories was we received funding from the Big Lottery Fund for the first time. The biggest supporter of good causes there is donated £10,000 for us to continue to develop our community work, something we were very grateful for both to them and the RFL who put us forward and supported us in the length process.

Rockets Camps returned as promised to close out the school holidays, with good numbers from those who had already returned, resplendent and tanned and looking forward to returning to school, I’m sure.

Rocket Tots is one group that didn’t have a break and has now reached capacity (and then some) of 60 kids. We were not planning to run through the summer but everyone wanted to and the coaches to their credit gave up their own breaks to make it happen. Above and beyond once again. The Tots sessions are definitely getting more eye catching, helped by the latest batch of Rocket Tot T-Shirts arriving. They are the height of couture, naturally.

To while away a sunny day, I shared my latest column from Forty-20 magazine. The good people there are kind enough to publish my witterings on various subjects from time to time and my latest piece was about Magic Weekend back in May. Amongst all the record crowds and noise, I decided to focus on Daniel, one of our U8s, who was the first mascot out the tunnel at this year’s event. The fact he was taking so excited to take his Sky Try t-shirt to show and tell at school is a glimpse of how exciting it was for him, and what it is all about really.

One Rocket at another flagship event was Deb Senior, who was at the Challenge CUp Final as a guest of honour after collecting her award for North East Schools Match Official of the Year. Deb came to the club as a Rocket Mam and caught the volunteering bug and has not looked back. We will be sharing more about her story later this year...

Looking ahead and in fact coming up this week, we have the North East Rugby League Awards where no less than 21 Rockets have been nominated across the 13 categories, which is amazing and promises to be a great night.

And then of course in October we have the big one, and yes yes, I know, it isn’t the right month to mention it but come on, you don’t get shortlisted for National Club of the Year every day. That’s right. Club of the Year. How amazing is that! We are off to Old Trafford next month for the ceremony and are up against Siddal, an excellent club from Halifax. Fingers crossed…

There is loads to report on in September too but for now, have a month and let’s finish the season on a high!

Yours in sport

Jeff Ball
Chairman
Cramlington Rockets RLFC

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