Mini Tournament Results- 14th October 2007

Spurred on by the success of England over their Gallic adversaries the previous evening, about 970 children aged between 6 and 12 descended on Weedon Lane for Amersham & Chiltern’s 34th Mini Rugby Tournament on Sunday 14th October, all trying to emulate the former Chiltern player, and current England and London Wasps hero, Josh Lewsey and score that winning try.

 

Although Josh could not be at the Tournament this year due to commitments in France, Wasps kindly brought one of their other top players, James Honeyben,  together with Sting, their club mascot, and the Heineken Cup, the European Cup of Rugby which they won last year, to meet the mini players and support the event. They also donated a signed shirt and Josh himself donated a signed ball to the raffle as well as providing a number of independent referres. Following the Tournament, Wasps highlighted the Community partnership they have with the Club by putting the details of the Mini tournament on their website.

www.wasps.co.uk/newspage.ink

 

Over 20 organisations sponsored the event, led by Stratstone Land Rover, who paraded a number of vehicles on the day as well as offering everyone an opportunity to win a coaching clinic with Josh Lewsey and Tom Rees. Supporting sponsors included Knight Frank whose sign boards ensured nobody was lost during the day, GE healthcare that generously provided the PA system, and Graphite Capital, PA Consulting and Protocol Education who provided Age Group tents.

 

The day was blessed with fine weather and teams from Beaconsfield, Buckingham, Fullerians, London Irish, and Saracens joined squads from the home team to ensure a day of high quality rugby played in the true spirit of sportsmanship.

 

Amersham & Chiltern strives to ensure all players of mini rugby are safe, develop some rugby skills and have fun.  To encourage this philosophy in each age category, a “Fair Play” shield is awarded for to the team whose players, coaches and supporters upheld these values. Encouragingly this philosophy was upheld throughout the tournament, resulting in no serious injuries and Fullerians demonstrating these values by winning the “Fair Play” award in 4 out of 11 age group categories.

 

As it turned out, the spoils of the day were shared around various teams with most clubs winning either an A or B age group tournament. However, Amersham & Chiltern dominated the day by winning 4 out of the 11 age group categories and coming runners up in 5 categories, showing that mini rugby at the Club is thriving.

 

London Irish were second overall by winning three of the age group categories, with local rivals, Beaconsfield, only managing to win two of the 11 categories.

 

Alex Rowe, the Harlequins front row forward and Chris Smith the Club president presented the prizes which had been kindly sponsored by Osborne Samuel, the London art gallery.

  

Amersham & Chiltern 34th Mini Rugby Tournament results

 

Age Group

Winners

Runners - up

Fair play award

Under 7

London Irish

Amersham & Chiltern

Fullerians

Under 8A

London Irish

Amersham & Chiltern

Buckingham

Under 8B

Amersham & Chiltern

Beaconsfield

Fullerians & Saracens

Under 9A

Saracens

Amersham & Chiltern

Amersham & Chiltern

Under 9B

Beaconsfield

Buckingham

Buckingham

Under 10A

Amersham & Chiltern Hawks

Amersham & Chiltern Eagles

Fullerians

Under 10B

Beaconsfield

Fullerians “B”

Fullerians “C”

Under 11A

Buckingham

Amersham & Chiltern

Beaconsfield

Under 11B

London Irish

Buckingham

Beaconsfield

Under 12A

Amersham & Chiltern

Buckingham

Amersham & Chiltern

Under 12B

Amersham & Chiltern

Beaconsfield

Amersham & Chiltern

 

 

For each of the age groups the tournament was their own World Cup. At U7’s, the youngest age group in the tournament the players from all sides showed off their recently acquired rugby skills demonstrating some fine running, passing, support skills and tagging.  The Amersham and Chiltern squad won four of their five games, and lost just one to the eventual tournament winners, London Irish. This result saw the Amersham team as runners up for the tournament losing by just one point.

 

Amersham and Chiltern's Under 8 teams both played good tag rugby with high quality passing, strong running with the ball, and tenacious tagging in defence.  A key rivalry emerged between Amersham and Chiltern’s A team and a strong London Irish squad.  Whilst both teams were unbeaten in the league, London Irish A were group winners having drawn fewer matches than Amersham and Chiltern A, the group runners up.  In this highly competitive group Buckingham won the Fair Play shield.  Amersham and Chiltern B team showed fantastic spirit and commitment to win their group, with local rivals Beaconsfield placed second.  All teams in the 'B' group were within five points of a maximum fifty for Fair Play, with the award shared between Fullerians and Saracens.

 

At Under 9s, Saracens fielded a team full of bulky players whose weight and skill dominated the A age group category. However the Amersham & Chiltern team battled hard and fairly to come runners-up and win the Fair Play shield. Beaconsfield took the honours in the Under 9 B age group with Buckingham coming runners-up and winning the Fair Play shield.

 

At Under 10s Amersham & Chiltern fielded two A teams, the Hawks and the Eagles, and a B team due to Buckingham being unable to provide a squad at this age group. In the A team tournament, both the Hawks and the Eagles played some aggressive rugby with the Hawks strong in the forwards and the Eagles having some great flair in the backs. The deciding game for Group winners was between the Hawks and the Eagles after all the other teams had been overcome. Like England the night before, the forward power of the Hawks dominated and coupled with some ferocious tackling from the Hawks’ backs ensured that the strength of the Eagles’ backs was rarely evident.

 

At under 11s, Buckingham won the A team event and London Irish the B team category. The home side battled hard to come runners up in the A team but missed out on a medal in the B team. Beaconsfield won both Fair Play shields.

 

The Amersham & Chiltern sides in the U-12’s age Group dominated by winning both the A and the B age Group categories. They also won the Fair play awards in both categories as well, demonstrating that the values of mini rugby are embedded in our Juniors of the future

 

Commenting on the Tournament, Stephen Lawrence, Chairman of mini rugby at Amersham & Chiltern, said “our philosophy is for all players to be safe, learn some skills and have fun. Today we saw the fruits of that philosophy with over 970 children and their coaches and about 1500 supporters, enjoying an excellently organised day. The standard of rugby was extremely high in all the age groups which is a testament to the dedication given by the volunteers who coach both at A&C but also at the other clubs each Sunday. Events such as this do not just happen and I would like to thank Katie Hemmings, the Chair of the organising committee, and her army of helpers for organising such an excellent event. I would also like to thank all our tournament sponsors, and in particular three local companies, Statstone Land Rover for all their generous support, Knight Frank for all the signage and GE Healthcare for the PA system.

 

We very much look forward to welcoming everyone to next year’s event.”