Under 5/6
The U5/U6 group has been really well supported this year, with numbers regularly over 40 on a Sunday morning. Our main aim is for all of the kids (as well as coaches and parents) to have fun while taking on board some basic rugby skills such as running, passing, scoring tries, tagging and game orientation. We've seen an improvement in both year groups already this season and we are getting ready for the U6 group to start playing some training matches in November. Bulldog remains the favourite choice for starting and finishing our training sessions; we have come to admire how resourceful some players are at finding additional tags once their initial two have been removed! We are starting to see some more coaching volunteers which is much appreciated as managing a large group can be quite labour intensive. We're always looking for more coaches so any interested parents should get in touch with either Head Coach Rob or Coach Dave.

Under 7
The U7's attended their first ever festival at Windsor 3 weeks ago. The level of excitement was palpable across the 24 children, their parents and the coaches. 3-4 hours later the kids were all wearing their Windsor T-shirts with pride and were completely exhausted. Pretty much the same happened at our own home festival, 30 kids this time and at both Beaconsfield and OA where we sent a squad to each. The feedback from parents and coaches, ours and the oppositions was noteworthy. We were described as strong in attack, solid in 'rush' defence, passed well, tagged well (at times brilliantly) and played with a smile on our faces. Every one of our playing strength (43) bar 1 took part in 1 or more festivals.. As a group kids, parents and coaches passed the festivals test with flying colours and are looking forward to the rest of the season. Finally a big thank you to the Under 14s for your kind donation of the A&C tournament marquee

Under 8
A brilliant kick off to the season for the Under 8s with nearly fifty players at our first training session!!
We were confident going into our first festivals at Windsor and Richmond, but we were still surprised how well we did. Winning nearly all our games (even though we don’t keep score obviously!!) against some much bigger clubs. Time and time again Amersham & Chiltern punches way above its weight in minis and junior rugby.
Then straight onto a fantastic home festival, with a “summer carnival” atmosphere, helped by the unseasonal good weather.
Our development squad also played extremely well at Old Albanians Development Festival recently, half the team being made of up our girls, which is great to see. They are enjoying their rugby and scoring lots of tries, I think we have some future England Ladies Rugby “Red Roses” on our hands, long may it continue.
Under 8s are looking forward to rest of the season. Many thanks to all our volunteers, coaches and parents for all their support.

Under 9
The U9s have seen a great start to the season with over forty players and ten coaches involved in training each week since the start of September. This is arguably the most difficult season with the transition to ‘contact’ and the children have steadily built their confidence, including through a number of additional mid-week training sessions. We have had huge support from the U9 Parents both on and off the pitch and extend our thanks for this.
On the first weekend of festivals we entered 4 teams into 3 different festivals, a logistical challenge but one that ensured all the available players were selected. The subsequent weeks of festivals have seen huge progress and whilst we are (of course) not keeping scores, the teams have performed superbly and we have won most of the games played! We see a return to training for the next few weeks and would be happy to welcome any new faces to the squad. We look forward to the next few months, which will include some indoor training sessions and we are now planning an exciting Tour to Gloucestershire in April.

Under 10
The U10s have enjoyed a fine start to the season with 30+ players most weeks.
The subsequent festivals have seen huge progress and the teams have performed superbly and we have won most of the games played. We look forward to the next few months, fingers crossed for good weather.

Under 11
It has been a great start to the season for the U11s. We have had several new boys join the squad taking our numbers to 49. Building on the work of our ex-head Coach, Ben Mercer, who is still actively involved with the team, our new head coaches, Stephen Garrett and Rob Harrison, have introduced some exciting new drills that the boys are loving, with the highlights being shape, support and communication. We have had a great session with Matt Allen and look forward to him returning to us later in the season.
Participation in this season’s tournaments has been great with the coaches having to make some difficult decisions on who to leave out to make sure everyone who has been available has had a chance to play. The boys are very motivated, and with some great rugby and generally positive gamesmanship – defensive resolve paired with some great attacking verve - we have won the vast majority of our matches.
Whilst the coaches are aware the basics need more work, going forward we will build on our successes, as when things click we are awesome.

Under 12
The boys have had a great start to the season and are progressing well with the additional 3 players on the pitch and unlimited numbers in rucks and mauls. Four tournaments have been attended, the highlights of which have been the performance of all the players at the OAs development festival and retaining our A&C title at our wonderfully organised home festival (run by the under 12, so no bias in our opinion). To finish our minis unbeaten at our home festival is a record to be proud of. The under 12 age group contain are a great set of talented kids and they are a pleasure to coach.

Duncan Yarroll
Minis Chairman