Saturday 6th April – From the Director’s Chair
From the Director’s Chair
It has been a long season and here we are at the last home league game. I hope it has been as an enjoyable one for you as it has been for me.
Getting our brand new AGP has really been a game changer for the way Blaydon as a whole play and train. A big thank you must go out to the RFU and everyone involved in the process of getting it to the Crowtrees. For me it has allowed us to play a brand of rugby that is enjoyable for the spectators as well as the players as shown by a record number of try’s scored this season and we are still going.
Another pleasing aspect to this season is the huge development of the players joining and coming through. Some mentions have to go out to Alex Clark who I met for a coffee to try and convince him Blaydon was the place for him to play his rugby. He was a little apprehensive to begin with as he did not know if he was up to the standard but he really has developed into a cracking player and is pivotal to our very exciting backline. Alex Dodds is another who has pleased me with his work ethic on and off the rugby field. His willingness to learn has seen him play many times for the 1st XV and is looking like a great asset for the future. Rob Lenderyou has come on leaps and bounds from first joining the Club developing into a future leader with an outstanding skill set.
It was brilliant for the club to have two International rugby players in Anthony Harvey (Malta) and Andrew Steinberg (Latvia) recognised. Well done lads.
We have also a great amount of blaydon youth players who have come through overtime and after a hard last two seasons have really learnt a lot and grown into exciting rugby players hopefully for many years to come. Such players as Cam Bell, Liam Wright, Jack Davidson, Matt Charlton, Frazer Wilson, Nathan Horsfall, Hugh Mongan, Dan Taylor, Alex Charlton, Matthew Jenkinson, Nathan Bailey, Jack Appleton and Dan Marshall as well as many others. Our defence coach and Captain Keith has coached and led the team tremendously all year and am hoping he decides to continue for at least one more season as he has been outstanding.
This then leads me into a special mention to our centurion today, James Cooney. Although he constantly drives to the club even though he lives 100 yards door to door he is ever present and brings so much enthusiasm and energy at training and game day. James is a future Blaydon captain for certain. He is a pleasure to have at the club and hope to have him for another 100 games in the future.
Finally I would like to welcome Kirkby to Crowtrees. Our away fixture was in my opinion our best performance all season in very testing conditions. Hopefully we can match that performance and result this Saturday and get one step closer to a playoff place.
