England V Senegal, football world Cup, Sunday, doors open 6.30. I know some of us are not that interested in football, but many others are, so we are showing the game in the clubhouse so please come along and cheer on England.

We are holding our New Year’s Eve party obviously on December 31, 8pm to 1am. Family tickets (2 adults & 2 children) are for sale for £20, Adults tickets are £7 each and child tickets are £5 each. Included in the ticket cost is a buffet. Tickets are on sale at the club bar. This is a great way to see out the old year and see in the New Year with your family and friends, especially if you are a family and want to go somewhere safe and secure for your children and for you to have a great time as well. Get together with some friends and bring them along as well, everyone is welcome, but we can’t sell tickets to groups of young people under the age of 18 unaccompanied by their parents.

As we approach the end of 2022 maybe it is a time to reflect on the past year at your Club. I certainly will not recall everything but here are some that spring to mind.

The 2021/22 season ended with our 1st team still in National 2, which is some achievement for a Club of our size. I think we all forget just how much of an achievement it is for us to be playing National League rugby, especially when you look at the history at some of our opposing clubs. Many have previously been in the Championship and Nat 1, very few have come through the leagues in recent times as we have. We are I am sure very proud that our Club plays in the National Leagues and we will do all we can to ensure we stay here so that our very talented up and coming young players have a very good level of rugby to play in and have no real reason to play rugby at any other clubs, unless of course it is for a higher league-based club.

This season the 1st team squad are still missing some key players who have not returned from last season due to injury and they are Wouter Roters, Matt Needham, Will Ferrier and up until last Saturday, Sam Cappaert. add other long-term injuries such as Sonny Gay, George Griffiths, Mark Ikhifa, Pat Jennings, and Lewis Brunger, Taylor Randall has been away at uni (but returns for the Christmas holidays) and recent concussions to David Rufai, Craig Strachan and Nathan Lockwood it is clear to see that with all these players missing from selection just how much commitment to the club the other squad players are giving this season.

As I write this the 1st team lost another game which really, we could and perhaps should have won. Our next game is away at Henley, another game we can win, just as we did last season, then we have two massive games for us to end the year on.

December 10th, 3pm kick off, we are at home to North Walsham. It is also our annual Christmas Jumpers pre match lunch, which is sold out. We have a DJ playing late into the evening and we invite all club members to come along to our Christmas Party after the game.

Going back to the game, as North Walsham sit below us in the league, they will be desperate for a win. When we play Westcliff at home, we get a lot of club members along supporting us, which is great. Well, we need all you to come along on December 10th and cheer the team on. Your vocal support really does make a big difference to the players.

Then on December 17th we are away at Westcliff, with a 2pm kick off as they do not have floodlights. This is another game we simply must win. If we can beat both North Walsham and Westcliff, then our league position looks a lot safer for the rest of the season. These really are two big games, and we need all the support we can get.

On December 17th we are having a curry at the clubhouse as none of us are invited to the Westcliff pre match lunch. We are having beef madras, chicken tikka massala, various vegetable side dishes, lamb samosas, onion bhajis, rice and naan bread, all for £15 per person. We will also be using the Club minibus to transfer people from the club to Westcliff and bring them back again after the match. To book your curry, served from 12 noon please email HOSPITALITY@ROCHFORDRUGBY.COM.

The Rochford Hundred Vixens really established themselves and for 2022/23 are now in a women’s league and the squad numbers are growing, which is great to see. We started the Rochford Hundred Roosters, and they are attending a festival at Hertford RFC this coming weekend with 8 other clubs. We also launched the Rochford Hundred Little Rascals after ending our relationship with Little Scrummers. Stevie Reid and Lydia Lacey are now the driving force behind our very own Rochford Hundred Little Rascals and with over 20 little ones aged from 2 years old to 5 years old they are doing a fantastic job. Our youth and mini section continue to grow in numbers.

Apart from trying to recruit and keep all our players we as a club also try to look after all our supporters. You will all know about and will have seen our new stand. As a one off, just for the North Walsham game, we are offering on a first come first served basis, a free seat in the stand for all members. You of course can’t sit in any of the reserved seats, as they have been bought and paid for by members, but if we can fill ALL the other seats that will be 107 Rochford Hundred supporters in the stand. There is just one condition. You MUST vocally support the team as loud as you can. The full stand can generate a lot of noise and we want the players to hear the support for them in this crucial game. This is just a one-off free seat, so take the opportunity.

The new bespoke changing room should be completed by the end of year. When completed it will provide us with two bespoke changing rooms. These will be primarily used by the Vixens and their opposition, allowing other male games to also go ahead using the other changing rooms, plus it will be used by the men’s 1st XV team for their games, but of course other teams can use it as required.

We are all going through a cost-of-living crisis and earlier in the year it was clear that unless some things changed and changed quickly, our very existence as a rugby club was in serious doubt. The Government cap on our energy costs helped, but you as members really stepped up at the Special General Meeting I called in September when you all agreed to increase your subscriptions from October 1st, 2022, by £10 per calendar month. This has really helped. We are looking to reduce our electricity costs further by installing solar panels with a battery backup system. The total cost is C£20,000. We do NOT have C£20,000 to pay for it, so we need your help please. We have received £3000 in donations towards the cost with another £5000 pledged. I recently obtained a grant of just under £8000 towards the cost, so in total we are at £16,000, with another £4000 to find. If you wish to donate any sum towards the costs of installing solar you can do so as follows.

Rochford Hundred Rugby FC
sort code 090128
account no 05784620
ref SOLAR

We hope to start work in January 2023.

I have mentioned before about my intention to stand down as Chairman at the next AGM in May 2023. I asked that if anyone was interested in being the new Chairman of this great club and wanted to talk to me about it to get in touch. No one has as yet! That is not to say no one wants it, just that no one has told me, which of course they do not have to. We will also be looking for a new Hon Treasurer and a new Hon. Secretary as both Simon (and Caroline) and Alan will also be standing down. We are also looking to recruit a Facilities Manager, mainly running the Clubhouse in terms of repairs and maintenance. This is an opportunity for some new (younger!!) blood to run the club. It is your club; do you want to guide and manage us into the next stage of our progress? Without people wishing to undertake these roles the future operation of the club to be managed in an efficient and effective way does jeopardise all the work we have done in the last few years.

Given the current climate, and issues affecting the sport at all levels, it is timely to consider how we
as Club can further assist all our players. We are recommending to all players them considering
enrolling with a company called Return2Play (R2P). They are a medical company specialising in the management of head injuries and concussion. R2P have a team of over 40 sports Doctors who are considered the best in the UK and are currently working with several leading rugby clubs.

This topic is at the forefront of a lot of current conversations, in terms of how we can best protect
our players and make the game safer. We really believe that what R2P can offer to our players could
of real value. Players will have 365 days a year access to dedicated sports Doctors and concussion
specialists, and they will manage any hard injuries and concussions.

When a player registers, they get created for them an on line injury profile and access to book same
day or next day appointments with a sports Doctor to discuss their injury. The sports Doctor then
assesses them and advises what injury management is required. They then assess the player again
after an agreed rest period and will, when they are ready, give the player a Return to Play (RTP) date.

R2P offer an online platform that we can use for injury and concussion management. This will allow team managers and coaches to log in and each player has an injury profile on the platform. They will be able to see the RTP date. R2P have said that the age group they see with most concussions and head injuries are the 14- to 16-year-old age group currently.
As a club we are talking to R2P about a club wide package and individual players packages. We will
report back asap on this in a separate mail detailing how you can enrol for this service.

Lastly for this month, we have booked Chris Robshaw as the after-dinner speaker for our Annual End of Season Awards Dinner on Friday 19th May, please make a note in your diaries.

Best wishes

Ray Stephenson