What I love most about our club is the dedication that true ‘club’ members bring, the life long friends you make and the journey’s we all go on. I love standing next to players I played with watching their grandchildren play. I love watching players I played with, take the field with their sons, and I love watching young men and women become parents and ingrain themselves and their families within the fabric of our club.

At our most recent AGM, we had a first, we had a group of incredibly well behaved young children, some who are young players and members of our club. This is the essence of what our club is about.

A great example of this is our retiring Honorary Secretary, Chris Emery. Chris (Crispy to those that have know him as long as I have) has been with this club for many years and has been our ‘Hon Sec’ for 10 years. To be honest, how he managed to maintain his composure and his commitment during that length of time is beyond me. It is an admin heavy, detailed orientated role that requires a high sense of urgency. Chris has been our Hon Sec whilst building a family and balancing as many volunteers do, work, life and rugby without rugby taking over our lives (most of us fail).

Chris steps down knowing that there are time when priorities need to be applied and tough decisions made, but he also knows he steps down leaving the club in a far better place than it was 10 years ago. Chris at some point can tell you his story, but receiving letters about an AGP, receiving a letter from England Rugby asking if we would host an U18 international have got to be at the top of his list of responses he had to make.

I would personally like to thank Chris for all that he has done for our club during his time as Secretary, but in line with typical Club humour, he’s not dead (he has a pretty good survival record), he hasn’t emigrated or packed up being a member, and he will still be around, getting his fair share of abuse and his fair share of ‘me time’ as we all do.

Chris, thank you for your last 10 years and I look forward to having a pint with a more relaxed Crispy in the coming weeks. PS it’s your round.

Mark and your grateful Chairman