Minis Festival Round Up

Keynsham RFC Minis Festival 2018
With festival entries confirmed, pitches repaired and marked out, toilets delivered, BBQ’s set up, First Aiders standing by and rain driving down .... it was time to kick off the 2018 Keynsham RFC Minis Festival.
The cars began arriving just after 8:00am being professionally marshalled by Rich and Neil’s team to the new car parking area on the bottom fields. Very quickly the car park was filling up and queues began forming at the BBQ’s.
Our wonderful band of team managers were set up in the bar frantically registering 125 teams and handing out 1300 medals for all the players.
As the rain increased marquees were erected and rapidly became filled with players, coaches and parents alike trying to avoid the worst of the weather. 10:00am approached and the coaches reluctantly gathered on the pitches to discuss how the weather had ruined their hairstyles and the best way to manage the rugby ahead of them.
With all systems in place at 10:15am the first whistles echoed around Crown Fields and the ground shook with hundreds of boys and girls chasing rugby balls in every direction. As the rain continued to fall the rugby was played in disobedience. Teams began adapting to the conditions and raised their handling and kicking game with lots of fantastic phases of play as a consequence.
The rugby and rain continued through the morning with players becoming muddier and muddier as games went on and yet they persevered driven by the love of the game. Final whistles were blown between 1:00pm and 2:00pm with well-earned medals being awarded to all players.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved during the day. The coaches and team managers, the volunteers running the car parking and BBQ’s, the cake bakers (I happily past each variety through the taste test!) Bill & Natalie working so hard in the kitchen, and all the very special bar staff.
In particular I would like to thank David Brown and the team at Farmdrop for sponsoring this years’ festival.
However, the biggest thanks go to all the boys and girls who brought us at Keynsham RFC some wonderful rugby and more importantly the spirit of the game in very tough conditions.
Paul Clarke
Keynsham RFC Minis Chairman