35th Mini Tournament Results

 Amersham & Chiltern 35^th Mini Rugby Tournament results

 Amersham & Chiltern 35^th Mini Rugby Tournament - 12^th October 2008

The sun shone on Weedon Lane for the 35^th annual Mini Rugby Tournament. Teams from Beaconsfield, Hemel Hempstead, London Irish, Marlow, Saracens, Upminster and Windsor joined squads from the home team to ensure a day of high quality rugby played in the true spirit of sportsmanship. 

Over 20 organisations sponsored the event, led by Land Rover, who paraded a number of vehicles on the day. Supporting sponsors included GE healthcare that generously provided the PA system, and Graphite Capital, PA Consulting and Protocol Education who provided Age Group tents.

This year Rob Andrew, the former England and Wasps star, and current Director of Elite Rugby at the RFU, together with Zinzan Brooke, the New Zealand All Black back row forward kindly agreed to hand out the cups and medals to the Tournament winners which had been kindly sponsored by Osborne Samuel, the London art gallery.

Amersham & Chiltern strives to ensure all players of mini rugby are safe, develop some rugby skills and have fun. To encourage this philosophy in each age category, a “Fair Play” shield is awarded for to the team whose players, coaches and supporters upheld these values. Encouragingly this philosophy was upheld throughout the tournament, resulting in no serious injuries and Beaconsfield and Saracens demonstrating these values by each winning the “Fair Play” award in 3 out of 11 age group categories.

As it turned out, the spoils of the day were shared around various teams with most clubs winning either an “A” or “B” age group tournament. However, Amersham & Chiltern dominated the day by winning 5 out of the 11 age group categories and coming runners up in 3 categories, showing that mini rugby at the Club is thriving. 

Amersham & Chiltern won the “A” team Tournament in every age group except at Under 7s where Windsor dominated and Amersham & Chiltern were runners up and Under 10s where Beaconsfield were the winners.

Both the Under 11A and Under 12A sides from Amersham & Chiltern went through the whole Tournament without conceding any points at all in any of their five games. 

In the “B” team Tournament, Hemel Hempstead won at the Under 8s and under 10s with Saracens and London Irish winning at the Under 11s and 12s respectively.

Commenting on the Tournament, Stephen Lawrence, Chairman of mini rugby at Amersham & Chiltern, said “Our philosophy is for all players to be safe, learn some skills and have fun. Today we saw the fruits of that philosophy with over 970 children and their coaches and about 1,500 supporters, enjoying an excellently organised day. The standard of rugby was extremely high in all the age groups which is a testament to the dedication given by the volunteers who coach both at A&C but also at the other clubs each Sunday. For A&C to have two teams (Under 11A and Under 12A) not only to win their age group categories but to do so without conceding any points is an outstanding achievement. 

Events such as this do not just happen and I would like to thank Laura Kilbey, the Chair of the organising committee, and her army of helpers for organising such an excellent event. I would also like to thank all our tournament sponsors, and in particular Land Rover for all their generous support, and GE Healthcare for the PA system.

We very much look forward to welcoming everyone to next year’s event.”

Splash photos provided a photo service on the day. They have come up with some innovative offers this year which could make great Christmas presents. Follow the link to find out more. To view photos after the event go to www.splashphotos.net

Our Winning Teams

Under 12A



Under 11A



Under 9A



Under 9B



Under 8A