2008/2009 Season

9/1/2008 3:40:42 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Notice of Annual General meeting

HEATHFIELD & WALDRON RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB (“the Club”)

NOTICE is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the above-named company will be held at  The Club House, The Hardy Roberts Ground, Cross - in - Hand, East Sussex TN21 0TA on Tuesday 29 July, 2008 at 8.00 pm when the following resolutions will be proposed:-

ORDINARY RESOLUTIONS

1. “THAT the draft accounts of the Club for the year ending 30 April, 2008 which are laid before the Meeting be approved.”
2. “THAT Watson Associates of 30 – 34 North Street, Hailsham, East Sussex BN27 1DW be appointed as Accountants to the Club.”
3. “THAT Mike de St Croix, be re-elected as President of the Club for the forthcoming year.”
4. “THAT Dave Rhodes, be re-elected as Chairman of the Club for the forthcoming year.”
5. “THAT Tim Ball, be re-elected as Secretary of the Club for the forthcoming year.”
6. “THAT Chris Hicks (Treasurer), Michael Baird (Minis Section Chairman), Helen Goatcher (Juniors Section Chairman), Chris Jones (Seniors Section Chairman) and Sasha Hunt (Club Commercial Director) be elected to the Management Committee together with the Chairman and the Secretary be elected to the Management Committee for the forthcoming year”.
7. “THAT Mike de St Croix, Dave Rhodes, Paul Wilson, Ron Powell and Peter Mercer be confirmed as the Directors of the Club for the forthcoming year”.
8. “THAT, on the recommendation of the Management Committee, all existing Vice Presidents of the Club be re-elected for the forthcoming year.”
9. “THAT the following be elected Vice Presidents of the Club:

Michael Morris (President of Cypress Oil)
Lewis Marshall
Simon Walker
Paul Hookway
Anthony Mannion

Dated the 3 July 2008

Tim Ball
Secretary

Registered office:-       
Fifth Floor
Old Change House
128 Queen Victoria Street
London EC4V 4BJ

Note:- A member entitled to attend and vote at the meeting is entitled to appoint a proxy to attend and vote instead of him; a proxy need not be a member.

7/6/2008 2:19:49 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

50 Club Latest

February 08

£50 R Wood

£25 M Brown

£10 B Burdett

March 08

£50 P Wilson

£25 S Wilson

£10 A Wates

April 08

£50 D Hesketh

£25 S Sherlock

£10 B Taylor

May 08

£50 P Mercer

£25 P Jarvis

£10 M Hassall

June 08

£50 D Cooley

£25 G Woods

£10 M Baird

Please collect your winnings from Dave or Mel at the Bar.

7/5/2008 4:37:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Heathfield Boars win in France

Boars win twin town tournament

A strong Heathfield Boars team travelled to their twin town Forges Les Eaux to participate in the local rugby tournament. The usual end of season tour preparations (i.e. drinking too much way too early) had been curtailed by a change of travel plans forced on the team by the closure of the Dieppe port by striking French fishermen. The alternative trip via Eurotunnel proved successful and less taxing on the liver.

A jaded but functioning group of players gathered on the Saturday morning and set about recovering their rugby playing skills in advance of playing.

The Boars opened the tournament and their first opponents were Grand Couronne (a team from near Rouen) and they proved stubborn but quite subdued opponents. At first it was as if neither team had quite warmed up but the Boars hit their stride first. Late in the first half the forwards gained good position and then Matt Skinner took a pass after several phases of play. Anyone who has seen him in ‘broken play’ will know how dangerous he is and he ran the width of the field plus the remaining 25 metres to score the opening try. In the second half the Boars had to resist a lot of pressure from the French before scoring the second try with a lovely breakaway move. Started on the left the ball was spun right through hands and out to right winger Dave Groom who made a lot of ground before cleverly offloading as he realised that two defenders were closing on him. Who was on hand to collect the pass, none other than Matt Skinner. That effectively closed the contest and the clock ran down without any additional scoring.

The next game saw the hosts Forges les Eaux hold on for a ‘surprise’ scoreless draw against last years champions Racing Club Paris 15.

After a long delay for two ‘youth matches’ (Forges Les Eaux have some promising young talent coming through) the Boars were up to face Paris in a match that the Boars had targeted as “The Big One!” It was thought that Paris had the edge in the backs and that the Boars could win the forward battle. The only problem was that the opposition had worked this out and committed men and fought hard to deny the Boars yards. This led to a dour ‘defence dominated’ match that was played mostly in midfield. Neither team showed the guile nor the brute force necessary to break through, so the match ended scoreless.

Forges were then beaten by Grand Couronne who showed considerable ability in the forwards who dominated play in that area and laid the platform for their two try to nil victory.

This set up a final round of games with the tournament wide open as any of the four teams could win the trophy. Next up were the unbeaten RC Paris 15 team up against an improving Grand Couranne side. This was an open flowing match with exciting attacking flair and good defence. Paris took the lead when their inside centre anticipated a pass and intercepted to race away to score. Shortly before the end of the game Grand Couranne were allowed advantage for a Paris knock on halfway and broke through a weakened defence to equalise. A draw did no favours to either side and promoted the Boars to tournament favourites.

It was now simple so long as the Boars did not lose to their hosts, Les Forgerons, they would win the tournament. If they lost the trophy would stay in France.

The final game was the most attractive of the tournament for spectators and even the home crowd cheered the Boars play when it was deserved. Forges gave it all they had and left the field with heads held high but it was the Boars who clicked into top gear. The opening try was an absolute corker. It was a classic entry into the line at speed from Matt Skinner after centres Hesketh and Farrell had pulled their opposite numbers away with dummy runs. Skinner blasted through on the Forges 10 metre line and no one got within 10 metres of him as he placed the ball between the posts. A second Skinner try before half time gave the Boars some breathing space and they weathered the Forges pressure early in the second half before driving up field through the forwards as a means of running the clock down. This gave a lovely platform for the backs to time their attacks and this led to the final score of the tournament when a Skinner break was nicely finished off by Dave Groom.

This was a very enjoyable finale to the Boars season and makes Tony Rose even more secure in his “Most Successful Boars Manager Ever” guise. To say that the party went on long into the night underestimates the stamina of some of these guys.

Man of the Tournament was between Matt Skinner for his 4 tries and general brilliance, Duncan Hesketh for battering any opponent who came his way and Jono Sharp for non stop effort coupled with good decision making.

Boars Squad – M. MacLeod, J. Sharp, B. Togher, J. Geesin, J. Cumming, J. Parsons, S. Barrow, T. Rose, K. Lewis, I. Schleider, B. Burdett, N. Newport, D. Hesketh, A. Farrell, D. Groom, M. Barber, M. Skinner

6/11/2008 12:02:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Cypress Field - A letter from the Chairman

Dear All

Work will start on the new field to be named the Cypress Field (due to a sponsorhip deal) on the 19th of this month. The intention is to flatten an area large enough to accomodate 3 mini's pitch on a Sunday which can be turned into a full size  pitch on a Saturday. There will be new entrance from the main road  onto a new carpark for 60+ cars. A plan of the pitch entrance and car-park will be going up in the clubhouse. Because the pitch will be used possibly on both Saturday and Sunday we need to create a pitch with drainage as good as the main pitch. The cost of this project is in excess of £250,000 and whilst we have raised a large proportion of this , your financial help is still needed. When the final cost and amount raised is finalised , the details will also be put up in the clubhouse.

Because of the complexity of creating the new pitch , car park and entrance , the field will not be available for the entire next season , but will be ready for the season starting 2009 . This will give agrifactors (the same company who did the main pitch) chance to prepare us a surface comparable to the main pitch and give the grass almost a full year to grow . With proper ground management we will then be able to move the weekday training around such that we take more care of the training area during the very wet months.

We will still retain use of the pitch's at Waldron , but the addition of this new pitch means we can play more games at Cross-in-Hand and with the addition of the new car-park , our parking problems can be alleviated.

This is fantastic news for the club and is the result of a lot of work put in by club members.

If you have any questions , would like to help in the fund-raising or can contribute to pledges that club members have committed to please do not hesitate to contact me

Dave Rhodes - Club Chairman

5/12/2008 3:31:50 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Sponsor of the New Pitch at Cross-in-Hand

A major Club project in 2008 has been the purchase of a plot of land at Cross-in-Hand for redevelopment as a new second pitch. The new pitch, to be called the “Cypress Field”, is being sponsored by Cypress Drilling who have issued the following message:

Cypress Drilling is delighted to be a sponsor of Heathfield & Waldron Rugby Football Club and to be able to contribute to the development of the Club’s new pitch at Cross-in-Hand. Although we are headquartered several thousand miles away in Texas, USA we take a keen interest in Sussex’s leading rugby club.

Cypress is a company that drills for oil and gas in various Southern States in the US and we put together syndicates of investors to fund this exciting activity - to date several members of Heathfield & Waldron RFC have participated in our drilling programs. If you would like to join them, contact Kirk on kg@cypressdrilling.com

Additional sponsors for the Cypress Oil Field are welcome.

5/11/2008 3:43:41 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

U14's 2007 - 2008 Results

20/4/08: Tunbridge Wells B (H): 5 – 0 (W)

20/4/08: Crowborough (H): 34 – 0 (W)

13/4/08: Sunderland (A): 41 - 5 (L)

13/4/08: Old Christians (A): 5 – 7 (W)

12/4/08: Presentation Boys College, Cork (A): 74 - 10 (L)

30/3/08: Eastbourne A/B (H): 0 – 48 (L)

16/3/08: Uckfield (H): 0 – 39 (L)

9/3/08: Crowborough (A): 10 – 22 (W)

24/2/08: Tonbridge Judds A/B (A) 57-14 (L)

17/2/08: Westcombe Park A/B (H): 19 – 33 (L)

10/2/08: Lewes (H): 19 - 19 (D)

20/1/08: Old Reigatians (H): 7 – 76 (L)

13/1/08: Midhurst (A): 0 – 31 (L)

16/12/07: Seaford (A): 5 – 48 (W)

2/12/07: Horsham (H): 29 – 5 (W)

25/11/07: Hove A/B (A): 51 – 17 (L)

18/11/07: Midhurst (H): 15 – 10 (W)

4/11/07: Tunbridge Wells B (A): 48 –15 (L)

28/10/07: Cranbrook A/B (H): 0 - 46 (L)

14/10/07: v Lewes (A): 18-10 (L)

7/10/07: v Hastings (H): 69-0 (W)

23/9/07: v Hellingly (A): 0 – 40 (W)

4/20/2008 1:06:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Heathfield Boars 43 Hellingly 2’s 29

Some games are memorable for the fine play and others are forgettable for dull play. This victory will live long in the memory but only of those people who stayed away from the after match celebrations. This reporter’s memory of events is patchy at best.

"Twinkle Toes" prepares to mash and mangle apposing players with a trade mark run... this run saw him pip Bradley to 3rd place in the Top Gun listing - NICE!

Dave Rhodes marches another scrum towards the tryline...

The Boars won despite a comedy of errors in the back division which three times brought Hellingly back into the game by gifting them tries. An early try from Chris Jones settled the nerves and Dave Rhodes added another shortly afterwards. Even the next score being a Hellingly try did not puncture the general feeling that the Boars could win it. Julian Wates then scored an excellent try when he took a ball on the burst at the half way line and beat the defence to make the line near the posts. This seasons Boars top try scorer Rob "Top Gun" Woods then snuck in for another score before the Boars threw Hellingly a life line with a wild ball that was snapped up and run back for a try by a grateful Hellingly player. Simon Hollingdale then showed his power game when he scored from 30 metres out having trampled 3 attempted tacklers on the way. The last action of the half was when Cook, the Hellingly number 8 broke several tackles to score between the posts to take the score to 33-19 at half time.

yes... that was "Top Gun" making a tackle, the stunned look on everyone's face says it all...

The second half saw more errors creep into the Boars game and another wild ball saw Hellingly score again before Woods struck for his second try of the day. Hellingly also found extra effort in the forwards and gained more ground in the loose and parity in the set pieces. This led to a few nervous moments after another Hellingly forward barged his way over the try line. Wates calmed things down with his second try and the Boars held on to the final whistle and time for the celebrations to begin.

Now that looks like its gonna hurt!

"Action Man" takes another lineout...

It was very good to see Joe Geesin last a full match for the first time this season even if it was accompanied by many threats that he would retire immediately the game finished. Aficionados of the Boars scrum hope this is not true. Sadly this game also sees the final game for one of the Boars founding fathers, Simon Walker, who retires after 11 seasons at the club.

Man of the Match was Julian Wates who held a fragile Boars backline together and scored two fine tries.

Boars Team – M. MacLeod, C. Jones, J. Geesin, P. Hookway,  B. Groves (S. Walker – 50), J. Parsons (I. Jenkins – 35), D. Bird (J. Malewicz – 60, D. Cook, D. Rhodes (S. Hipgrave – 55), B. Burdett, J. Wates, R. Woods, S. Hollingdale (K. Lewis – 65), J. Henry (N. Sands – 40), M. Brown (B. Burdett Snr - 75)

Match report by Mike MacLeod

4/15/2008 10:16:10 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)