5/11/09 - TOUR TOUR TOUR !!
Check out the new page on the website dedicated to the Stoneham 2010 Tour !!
29/10/09 – Early Season Review
Well we are 8 games into the season now, which is 8 weeks of blog entries I have missed ! so sorry guys !
I think its fair to say every game has been a tough match up and we have come through some fixtures better than others. We took a depleted team to Fawley and Ventnor and the results showed this lack of experience on the park.
Against the likes of Verwood, Lytchett Minster and Pumas we have been competitive and scored points, unfortunately we are still making early mistakes in matches giving teams a lead which we struggle to overcome.
In training we are working on tidying these areas up and we have seen vast improvements in our organisation and defence on the park.
Our poor backs have not had much ball which is something the pack need to acknowledge, the forwards need to work the ball into the right positions on the park sucking in the numbers to give our backs more freedom to express themselves and score points.
Peter and Tiernan are leading try scorers at the moment, Sholto has vowed not to pass to anyone until he catches them up.
Club Captain James has not played very much this season yet what with a crazy 100 mile cycle ride and windsurfing in egypt, but he is now back in the land of Stoneham and committed to leading us to the 1st league win.
Club Vice Captain Paul RJ is also back on the “Boil” after his summer surgery kept him out of action for 6 weeks.
New recruit Pete has had a monstrously positive effect on the team, leading the pack forward on rampaging runs over the opposition, scoring tries and taking forwards training on wednesdays, keep up the good work Pete !
New players, the likes of Alistair, Brian, Steve and the Aarons have laid down serious challenges to existing squad members staking a place for the starting 15.
This is great for the team because there is serious competition for places now and team selection is based on performances at training and in matches so if you want to start, get down to training pronto and smash those tackle bags !
All in all, these 1st 8 weeks of the season have been great for the club, the squad numbers continue to grow, numbers at training are getting better each week, we are seeing clear improvement each week in our performances and scoring points, lets just cut our a few conceded points and we will get that 1st league win of the season !
T
19/10/09 – Stoneham RFC Rugbyworld Team of the Month
YES YOU HEARD IT RIGHT, WE HAVE BEEN NOMINATED AS RUGBYWORLDS TEAM OF THE MONTH AND HAVING WON THE AWARD THERE WILL BE A FEATURE ON US IN NEXT MONTHS ISSUE.
THE PRIZE IS A FREE KIT CONSISTING OF 22 SHIRTS
We were nominated for our determination, passion and commitment to rugby.
When being interviewed Tiernan was asked why do your players carry on playing when you lose every week ?
Tiernans reply was “we dont get hammered every week, we are in games to win them, we know in some game we are more competitive than others, we realise we have a lot of hard work to do to be in that position but everyone at the club is friends and does not want to let anyone down, everyone gives 100% on match days and at training to help make us a better team and we remain a team by keeping focused on the goal of getting better as a squad to earning that elusive win”
Make sure you pick up a copy next month for keeps !
17/10/09 – CHRISTMAS CLUB DINNER
The club Xmas dinner is booked for Saturday 19th December at the Cricketers, Wills is sorting it out, any queries please contact him on 07889 313979.
11/8/09 – Pre- Season Update
Pre Season training is in full swing now, its great to see so many new faces down at fleming park on wednesdays.
As numbers have been so good we are now training Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm at fleming park for the pre season. If you have been down recently you will have seen T has been online finding some pretty funky drills for us to do which hjave been fun. Please give Tiernan a buzz if you need any details on training or have any questions/suggestions etc 07709 418708.
We are having a pre season squad training match on Wednesday 26th August at fleming park, its an opportunity for us to try out some different combinations and put into practice everything we have been doing over the past month, so please put that in your diary.
Training has been excellent so far guys, keep up the good work !
5/8/09 Annual Summer BBQ
The Summer BBQ has been set for Saturday 22.8.09 in the New Forest, neat Ashurst where we have had it before, details are being circulated on email, if you have any questions etc please ask Wills.
13/6/09 – Annual General Meeting
We had the agm today, quick summary as follows :-
Big thanks to everyone for their hard work last season, especially everyone on last years comittee.
Club Comittee for 2009-10
Chairman – Phil Evans
Secretary – John King
Treasurer – Tiernan Simmons
Fixtures Secretary – Noble Argue
Recruitment Secretaries – Adam Whittacker & Paul RJ
Marketing & PR Secretary – Dean Purse
Social Secretary – Will Fuller
Coach – Tiernan Simmons
Captain – James Fuller
Vice Captain – Paul RJ
Pre season training has now started, down fleming park, 7pm on wednesdays, please let T know availability.
Leaque structure has changed, hamp 3 merged with bottom half of hamp 2, so more league fixures next season.
Club membership and subs need to increase slightly, details to follow (i cant remember the figures)
We put the world to rites, especially our lions selection & had a fun afternoon !
Captain
1/5/09 – Newquay Tour
Tour leaders Wills and Sholto led us off on the merry bus of stink to the non family seaside resort of Newquay.
Dressed as Rock & Pop legends following our idols bad influence of copious amounts of alcohol, it was not long before items started flying out the bus window, in particular 1 Ziggy Stardust wig blowing down the motorway.
Arriving in Newquay at 10pm, the night was just getting started and we regrouped in the Walkabout pub where 2 Michael Jacksons, Ziggy Stardust (minus hair), Diana Ross, Phil Collins, Eddy Mercury, Rod Stewart, Suggs, Brittney Spears, ACDC Angus, the Ramones and John Lennon, just to name the ones i can remember.
It seemed everyone else in Newquay was in fancy dress aswell so it was quite an amusing evening ! i saw 30 Ghost Busters queing for a cash point, a Storm Trooper in the dance floor and a few female police officers!
After what can only be described as a night not to be mentioned for some (Wills howe come u slept in a field with sheep?) we were up nice and early for a morning swim before our 1st match of the tour.
Having 3 subs on tour is quite unheard of and there were some dissapointed faces upon naming the stsarting 15, but everyone played at least a half and although we were distinctively not at our best due to the previous evenings shenanigans, we put up a brave battle. The final score escapers me but it was in the region of 8 tries to 5, a good effort considering the team we played (whose name i have forgotten) play in Cornwall div 1.
That evening we thought we should revisit the local drinking holes just in case we missed anything, and i can safely say, we have covered Newquay by sunrise.
So Sunday morning off we set on the “Stinking Bus from Hell” for our 2nd fixture, we turn up, get changed into our stinking wet kit covered in all day breakfast (dont ask) to do battle all over again.
The story of this match was very similar the the 1st mathc, outscored by a very good team but held our own and not embarrassed, post match it was off the the local which the opposition did not seem to care for much, when we got there the front garden was beautiful, lovely flower beds, trellis etc, but by the time we left, out gracious opposition were clearly worse for wear than we were and had pretty much wrecked this pubs garden, as we pulled away in the “Stinking Bus from Hell” they decided to headbutt the bus like rhinos (oh well, it was the west country) So thus began our journey home which was quite somber considering everything that had previously gone on, other than the round of wedgies on the bush.
All in all, another fantastic Stoneham Tour, a great turn out, some very good rugby (considering the conditions), i personally cant wait till next year !!!
25/4/09 – Unders Overs & Chairmans Dinner
As an over this may be a slightly biased blog, I will do my best for it to not be ! obveously from that intro, the Unders won our annual Under 30s Versus Over 30s club match with too much pace for us older chaps ! A huge congrats to you kids !
Its always great to see what faces from the past turn up each year ! this year was no different with Nige making an appearance for the overs along with Rosser lacing up for the 3rd time of the season, (almost as often as Matty!!
For the unders, it was great to see Sean, ok it was hard to miss him as he has put a few pounds on since we last saw him, also Dynamic Glen pitched uop to score a try, well done, lets see more of that next year !
After the match we had our annual Chairmans Dinner at the Cricketers where awards were handed out to the well deserved winners listed as follows :
Player of the Year – James “Chainsaw” Fuller (Club Captain)
Runner Up Player of the Year – Paul “P” RJ (in only his 2nd season of rugby)
Most Improved – Adam “ pre=”Adam “>ASBO” Whittacker (be careful, he hands ASBOs out!)
Top Points Scorer – Steve Lines
Top Try Scorer – Tiernan
Comittee Member of the Year – Phil “Spitster” Evans
Clubman of the year – Tiernan
Well done the winners and to everyone who participated last season, last year was a real turning point for us as a club and things look very positive for the coming season in Hampshire 2.
1/2/09 -Stoneham v Verwood (lost 24 – 0)
Its good to see our score lines improving, yes another loss but when we played Verwood at the start of the season we lost 55 – 24. Okay in this game we did not score but our defence and organisation on the park are limiting opportunities for our opposition. Our team was quite severely affected by the loss of Skipper James Fuller for a few weeks after last weeks game against Chineham, but with Steve Lines moving to 10 and the versatile back rower Rich Legge stepping into 9 and Dean Purse replacing the absent Jamie Perfect at 12 we held up well considering the lack of practice. Over the last 2 weeks the opposition are only scoring against us when the play breaks up and gets loose, which is testament to our recent hard work at training.
Noble Argue played to his normal high level on the back row to tack man of the match.
Other positives were our scrum. holding up well against a big pack, we took a couple against the head and held our own well.
Areas to work on, 1, we need to speed up the play between 8 and 9 at the back of the scrum and get some back row moves going. 2, we need to get some attacking moves working in the backs rather than the tried and tested battering it up tight by the pack. 3, we need to stop taking quick tap penalties when we are not organised which again resulted in us not having support and getting turned over 5 metres out from the try line.
