Crewe Touch Rugby's Blog

At the moment a venture into the NTS would probably be one step too far. Therefore we are hoping to create a regular 4 way tournament between; Macclesfield, Sheffield, Crewe and Wrexham. A round robin style format over four weekends next summer (where each of us would host the others). We can have a fairly flexible player policy, for example if you have to play 4 men and 2 women on one occasion then that’s fine (we may have to work out some kind of handicap system), anything to get the teams on the field.

We can also look to invite guest teams to individual tournaments in an attempt to drive up standards, or if you have any other ideas for how things may work then give me a shout.

Each team would have to provide at least three player referees of whatever standard at each tournament. (I can get a Level 1 course organized for your nominated refs) and we’d all contribute to each others teams exchanging ideas etc and eventually (perhaps) put together a composite NTS side called the North Wales, South Yorkshire and North East Cheshire Barbarians (or something!)

Would any of you be interested in having a mini tournament (at Crewe?) on either the 4^th, 11^th or 18^th September

Just wondering if any one is interested in playing touch in Manchester on Monday  nights at Trafford Park.

The Manchester Chargers are planning to enter 2 teams and myself & KA will be heading up on Monday nights. Its only a 45 minute trip and you will get 2-3 games a week. It will cost £35.00 per person for the 10 weeks.

For further info check out this link.

I wanted to let you all know the date of the Mixed Tag Seven’s tournament that I run with Crewe and Nantwich RUFC. It’s on the 3rd July at the Vagrants with 16 teams playing through the day. Food is on offer and a bar runs late into the night with a disco into the evening in the Marquee! It’s a great day out and it’d be brilliant to get a touch team playing tag. The main difference is having to catch hold of a velcro tag in order to make the tackle. I also think it’d be a great recruitment opportunity for Touch rugby as there are always people who ask me at the end of the tournament about doing more events.

Anyway let me know what you think and hope you can come! See you soon!
Helena xxx

Who fancies playing in the WTS on the 10th of April in Cardiff? KA and I went last year and it was a really good event. The standard is high and the games are 40 mins long. So if you want a challenge I’d really recommend this one. You certainly wont be complaining about not getting the ball or not having much to do.

Please can you let us know if you are interested ASAP so we can start training and recruiting (if necessary!). If we could get 8 players that would be brilliant since Wrexham said they can supply a few as well.

For those of you that want some additional reading or to brush up some two player moves check out this website: www.touchmoves.com

At long last we claimed our first piece of silverware at the inaugural Manchester Social Comp by winning the Plate competition.

Thrown in at the deep end against the UK’s Touch champions the London Galaxy we learnt fast and under the guidance of Messrs Hobbs and Revel we progressively got better. By the time the Plate final came around against Oxford (a bonified NTS side) we had mastered the squeeze defence and our drives were down to a fine art. Eventually winning 4-1.

I’m sure everyone will agree that the improvement from start to finish was huge and just shows how far we can go as a team with some more practice and experience. Hopefully we can take what we learnt and put it into practice during training.

Things I learnt;

• Negativity doesn’t get you anywhere!
• Communication is 90% of the battle the other 10% is remaining calm
• Subing is crucial and a skill that we need to work on.
• We’ve got some skills – flying TD’s from Debs, shut downs form Lexi and diving touches from Louis!

Finally a mention must go to the Manchester Chargers for arranging a great event. Jules and Gregg pulled of a master class in event organisation. The pic’s from the event should be on their website soon: www.manchesterchargers.com

You can’t possibly complain about not knowing what’s happening and when, once you have opened this PDF: Manchester Chargers Invitational Touch Comp – FULL INFO PACK. The Chargers have done an incredible job!

Additional stuff. Its going to cost £10.00 each, anything left over will go in the kitty but I think we should pay for Hobbs and Revell since they are coming up from Wales! Does that make them semi-pro?!

Also, wrap up warm!

As discussed we have decided to cancel the session this Saturday in Nantwich and just have a training session and some matches against Wrexham and the Manchester Chargers on Sunday (in Wrexham)

Venue - Wrexham Rugby Club: www.wrufc.org, (Bryn Estyn Rd, Wrexham, LL13 9TY)
KO - 11am (try and get there for 10.30am)
Opposition - Wrexham, Manchester Chargers & A Barbarians side!

Everyone is welcome, in fact if we get more than 10 players we can make a Barbarians side between the three teams.

The matches will be 40 minutes long and on full size (70mx50m pitches). Prepare to be shattered! Full FIT rules will apply.