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This weekend's game against Westbury represented a couple of special Minety milestones - first of which was David Cooke's 100th league game for Minety 1st XV. Now admittedly 91 of those league appearances were down to his Dad filming the games, and the other 9 were down to injuries impacting our ability to pick our strongest side. But! This milestone is dedicated to all the other less-than-average players out there that turn up to every match not having a clue what they're doing, and somehow still score the odd try purely out of fear of getting tackled. Thanks for sticking around!

A big congratulations to Kieran Tillotson for his 50th league game for Minety 1st XV - achieving it whilst captaining the side away at Melksham on Saturday 11th December 2021. Kieran came to Minety in 2017 having been a long-serving player at Chippenham playing up through their juniors, academy, and breaking into their senior teams. However the lure of finding friendship drew him to Minety and as it stands he's so far scored 1 more league try than the number of his friends he's made - currently totalling 1 league try at the time for writing. Unfortunately for Kieran, every time he gains some popularity within the club a different vet tends to turn up who is better looking and with better craic. Anyway! Cheers Kieran, here's to many more hopefully! #minetyrfc #50thappearance

The 50th Anniversary dinner will be held at Cricklade House Hotel on Saturday May 28th. Tickets will be on sale soon with menu options. For further information please email minetyrfcchairman@gmail.com

We were so very happy to have been able to share with the Minety Minis children a WONDERFUL Match Day Experience at Gloucester RFC (@gloucesterrugby https://twitter.com/gloucesterrugby) this month. Our thanks to all who supported this - we had so many compliments from the staff at Kingsholm about how great we are as a club and how well behaved our children were! But we were proud, not surprised - our boys and girls were the PERFECT ambassadors for Minety Rugby Club (https://twitter.com/minetyrfc) and to see how the older children were being sure to involve the younger children during the sessions with the Gloucester coaches on the pitch before the big match saw the rest of us fit to burst with pride! We couldn't have done it without a bit of financial support from the Coop (@coopuk https://twitter.com/coopuk) but their help was entirely down to those of you who assigned Minety as your preferred community fund - thank you.

Minety 3 - 8 Frome II Minety hosted Frome 2s in a top of the table Dorset and Wilts 1 North league match on Saturday 4th December 2021. The match was played on Minetys 2nd team pitch and the weather was dry and bright, good conditions for rugby. Minety, led by Kieran Tillotsen in the absence on club captain Ben Scott, won the toss and decided to attack up hill in the 1st half. The 1st ten minutes saw some concerted Minety pressure and following some strong driving runs from Hugo Beanfield, Tom Claxton and Andrew Hibbard, space was created on the left wing. One more forward drive, however, saw the referee award a penalty to Frome and allowed them to clear their lines. Frome, having gained some possession, launched some strong forward drives. Strong defence stopped them short of the try line several times, but an injury to center Jack Howse and several penalties against Minety eventually saw an away try in the left corner, which was unconverted. Score 0-5. The remainder of the half saw similar play, periods of Frome pressure and solid Minety defense. Eventually Minety made their way uphill towards the Frome try line and despite a season ending shoulder injury to scrumhalf Mark Glew, a penalty was awarded to Minety in front of the Frome posts following a strong run by Hamish Brook. This was kicked by Kieran James. Half time score Minety 3-5 Frome 2. The second half kicked off with Minety attacking down the slope, and hopes were high that Minety would make use of what is traditionally seen as a 3 try advantage. Frome were very physical and well organised in defense and despite having most of the possession Minety were unable to score. The only points of the half were scored when the referee awarded Frome a penalty during a rare visit to the Minety 22 which was kicked. Final score Minety 3 – 8 Frome 2s Minety team 1.Hugo Beanland 2. Tom Claxton 3.Andy Darrall 4. Keir Hamilton 5. Matt Chisholm 6. Dylan Daybell 7. Kieran Tillotsen 8. Andrew Hibbard 9. Mark Glew 10. Kieran James 11. Chris Rule 12. Hamish Brook 13. Jack Howse 14. Will Seaton 15. Charlie Webb 16. Ryan Walker 17. Shaun Tillotsen 18. Bram Coleman 19. Ben Scott 20. Tom Waldron

Sunday 3rd October at 15:00 in St Leonard's Church, Upper Minety There will be players past & present who will have fond memories of Mark and may wish to express their condolences to his family. There will be a joint memorial service held for Mark & Wendy Wallington on Sunday 3rd October at 15:00 in St Leonard's Church, Upper Minety. Following the service a celebration of their lives will continue back at their home (Lynwood, Flistridge Road, Upper Minety, SN16 9PR). All their friends are warmly invited by their daughters Chloe & Esther to attend both events.

Minety 1st XV 33 – 26 Minety Old Boys 4th September 2021 View Fixture This weekends game saw the new Minety players face off with ex-Minety players from years gone by. The game was played in three twenty minute periods. The first twenty-minute period kicked off with the 1st XV kicking to the old boys going up the hill. The old boys caught the ball and ran it hard at the 1st XV’s lines. The difference in size made an impact in these opening exchanges. The ruck area became important to both sides with the old boys contesting every ruck and every half chance at a turn over. The old boys pushed hard in the opening twenty to take three tries down the hill. The 1st XV took a bit of time to settle in attack, but Garin Garland managed to help the 1st XV stay in touching distance with two well taken tries. The second twenty the 1stXV had the hill and settled into their attack pattern, with the forwards forming their pods and helping to pin the old boys back into their 22. Although the attack didn’t lead to a direct try the fact that the old boys infringed so often close to the line and preformed a dangerous tackle that stopped a try lead to the referee losing patients with them and awarding a penalty try to the 1stXV. The old boys answered with a try of their own. The final period saw the 1stXV kicking back up the hill to the old boys. Having found their attacking form, the 1stXV pushed up the hill to put Matt Stone in the corner and then Garland went over for his third of the day putting the score at 33-26. The old boys attacking hard down the hill were looking to level the scores in the dying minutes of the game but the 1stXV had found their defensive shape and managed to to hold the line despite the ferocity of the attack. The player of the match went to Charlie Webb. He led the defence having worked on it in the week. Speaking of the game after the match Captain Ben Scott said: “The lads did really well today against a big strong side. We didn’t start as strongly as we would have like but found our feet in the mid 20 and finished well. With two more games to go before the season starts for real, we will look to address the slow starts we have had and keep building into the season.”

Minety 12 - 54 Chippenham II View Fixture Minety RFC took to the field in the opening preseason game having not play a game of competitive rugby in over 500 days and with a mix and match team of players playing out of position. Kicking down the hill to open the game Minety looked to put pressure on the Chippenham pack and had some limited success in building that pressure and creating knock ons to get scrum ball. However, through a lack of match fitness and rustiness the host failed to capitalise on the few chances that came their way. The hosts where hindered further when they lost vice-captain Sam Hughes and had to go down to 14 men for the remainder of the half. Chippenham opened that score early in the first half and dominated for the first 40 minutes scoring 40 unanswered points with Minety struggling to find rhythm in attack or defence. The second half couldn’t have looked more different. Minety going up the hill got their defensive sets right and lead by the pack and the addition of a 15 th man in Garin Garland managed to push the visitors back up the hill and pin them there for large swaths of the second half. Minety scored first in the second half after Minety won scrum ball in the opposition half and a break from Garland and swift offload to Dave Cooke saw the host score next to the posts. Garland converted. The second of Minetys tries came from another dominate showing from the forward pack picking up some penalties to get a lineout in the corner. A well-executed lineout catch and drive allowed space for Garland to ferret his way over in the corner. Unfortunately for the hosts a few mistakes lead to a answering try from Chippenham that spurred them on to push hard and finish the half in the lead at 12-14. Speaking of the match after the game Captain Ben Scott said: “I am proud of the lads who turned out to day with many playing out of position it was always going to be a tough game against a well drilled Chippenham side who have already had some games under their belt. I would however like to pick out a player of the match, and this week that has to go to Anton Sieluzycki. Today was his first game of Rugby and his first taste of the front row. He played well in the loose carrying when he needed to and offering support lines to others. His lineout was solid and helped build a platform for us to play off but where he shined was in the scrum. With him, Matt Park and Andy Darrall winning us scrum penalties in the second half it allowed us to relieve pressure and get out of our half to really get stuck into Chippenham and to play the way we wanted.”

2020 AGM Minutes 2021 AGM Agenda AGM will be held at Minety RFC on Wednesday 30th June, 8pm

Rugby Training resumes Tuesday 30th March 2021 at 6.30pm at the Minety Playing Fields. Covid-19 Restrictions No scrums or mauls allowed, 25 mins of contact max Players should bring their own water bottles, sharing is not permitted Players to bring their own hand sanitizer No sharing of equipment Wash hands after inserting/removing mouth guard All players are requested to read the RFU guidelines; Pre-Training Changing facilities will not be available. Session Plan The session will approximately consist of; 10 minutes touch rugby followed by stretching 20 minutes fitness 20 minutes skills Team run through if numbers allow Touch game to finish Post-Training The club/bar will not be open, changing facilities/showers will not be available. Players to socially distance off the pitch in groups of not more than 6, hand sanitizing after every segment encourage.

Its been nearly a year since our last game. The 1s beat Frome 2s 38-0 on 14th March 2020. Then the season was the first postponed and then ended. We were not allowed to train again until June, and that was limited to fitness training in groups of 6. The regulations were slowly eased throughout the summer and autumn allowing some limited contact training and touch rugby. Games were due to start again in December under altered laws with no mauls and scrums, but the current lockdown ended any chance of fixtures. Training is due to resume after 29th March and it is hoped that the season will start as normal in September. This will be the last season of 12 team leagues as a restructuring by the RFU is moving us to a 10 team league for the 2022-23 season. I understand that the new leagues will be based on location rather than county, so we should be playing games more locally. Good luck to 2 of our players who are leaving us (temporarily) to join the armed forces. Kieron Tillotsen is joining the RAF and Del Murray the army. We have been unable to get together much this season due to covid regulations, but have been running regular zoom socials, quizzes and even a murder mystery. Thanks to Dave Cooke, Sam Hughes and Duncan Simpson for organising. One event we did hold was the annual golf day at Oaksey Park Golf Club. A good time was had by all despite it being cut short by torrential rain. Well done to James Stuart for organising. The new website, designed by Duncan Simpson, is well worth a visit. It has lots of great content , including past match reports, club news, game video etc. 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of Minety Rugby Club. The committee has decided to postpone the celebration until summer 2022. We plan to hold the event on site in a marquee. A 50th anniversary tie is also being produced. John Butler has been hard at work at the club throughout. Our main project for this spring/summer is upgrading the floodlights on the main pitch. A work party will be required when covid restrictions/weather allows. The club AGM will be held on Wednesday June 30th. If we are unable to hold it at the club, it will be held on zoom. There is currently a form on the club website www.minetyrfc.com for those who wish to stand for the committee. The person standing, proposer and seconder must be a paid up member of the club and you are illegible to vote in the agm unless you are a paid up member. Unfortunately we have also seen the untimely passing of club stalwart Mark Wallington who will be sorely missed.

Dorset and Wilts have distributed and survey on Covid-19; "The 10-minute survey below will ask you about your experiences within rugby union over the last 12 months and how you might take part in the future. It will focus on a few different formats in particular: XVs, O2 Touch, XRugby and Ready4Rugby, and we want to understand how you're feeling during the Covid-19 pandemic. " Find the survey here: https://bit.ly/36sP8Uo