Loughborough pulled out of our Papa John semi-final, so we are now through to the national finals at Knights Castle Park, Doncaster on Saturday. There are eight finals over the weekend and we are playing in the Counties 1 North Plate Final which kicks of at 3.00 on Saturday. We have booked a coach which will leave from the club at 11.00 - after bacon rolls and coffee from around 10/10-30. We hope to take as many supporters as we can and they are welcome on the coach for a small fee of £5.00. There is no admission fee to the ground. You can book your coach seats though the link below
https://leamington-rfc-players-fund.sumupstore.com/...

Our opponents are Peterlee and Horden who play at the same level as us in North East Counties1. They finished third in their league with 16 wins and they have put out Stockton (43-37) Beverley (33-27) and Newcastle Staffs (36-29) in the Papa John - all close games

Situated between Sunderland and Hartlepool, Horden RFC was formed in 1925 and the New Town of Peterlee was later added to their name. The club celebrates its centenary in July. It was one of several village colliery sides formed in the 1920s, at a time of great difficulty in the County Durham mining industry. The club was one of the few in the area to survive those times and then like us they closed down for WW2 and then reopened, expanded and developed their playing strength during the 1960s and 1970s. The introduction of leagues gave them an added boost and they have been able to enhance their reputation and clubs such as Halifax, Beverley, Keighley and Doncaster have appeared on their fixture list. Their main local rivals are Hartlepool Rovers and West Hartlepool

Saturday saw a new look Royals team, with 9 debutante players, in a friendly against Staffordshire Quantums at Moorefields. Royals are now officially part of Leamington RFC and this was their first game of the summer season. The game opened up quickly with the Royals scoring two quick tries which were duly converted. The Quantums the struck back with their big forwards hitting with two unconverted tries to bring the scores level. The Royals then pulled away, playing the ball quickly and managing to score 3 more times before half time to lead 30-8. With so many new players and interchanges, the game lost a bit of shape in the second half allowing the Quantums to score 3 tries, but the Royals’ pace enabled them to counter with 4 more themselves, all of which were converted, resulting in a final score of 54-24

Senior men and ladies (17+) training will be every Wednesday. Juniors (U13's to U17) is also on Wednesday from 7pm. Primary (U7's to U12) is every Sunday from 10.30. The Fixture List is below

Mens.
May 17th Birmingham Bulldogs H
May 24th Telford Raiders H
May 31st Sherwood A
June 14th Coventry Bears H
June 21st Nottingham Outlaws A
June 28th Quantums A friendly
July 12th Telford Raiders H
July 19th Nottingham Outlaws H
July 26th Coventry Bears A
August 2nd Birmingham Bulldogs A
August 9th Sherwood
August 16th Finals day Leamington hosting the day. 2 games

Ladies
June 15th Hurricans H
June 22nd Hurricans A
July 20th Sheffield A
July 27th Nottingham H
August 3rd Telford A

U15's and Juniors – Dates for your calendars
31st/ 1st june Away U15's v Knights
7th June Home U15's v Sherwood
15th June Sherwood open festival
21st/22nd June Away U15's v Ravens
29th June Ravens open festival
5th/6th June Away U15's v knights
19th July Home U15's v Sherwood
20th July Sherwood open festival
26th/27th July Home U15's v Ravens
17th August Nottingham open festival

Last Saturday also saw our Walking Rugby team open their summer season and they went over the hedge to take part in the Warwickshire Cup which comprised 9 teams. We won 8 of our 9 games and came back with the trophy, yet again

For this year’s autumn internationals, England are playing 4 games at Twickenham – Australia (Nov 1) Fiji (Nov 8) New Zealand (Nov 15) and Argentina (23 Nov). We have a set allocation of 28 tickets for each of the 4 games. Our tickets have been purchased as usual for the Australia and New Zealand games in the expectation that we will have the required demand. The arrangement is different this year for the Fiji and Argentina games, in that previously we have had no allocation for them but we could order as many as we liked, subject to availability. Given the high prices of the Australia and NZ tickets and the more modest prices for Fiji and Argentina, with the option of a reduced price for juniors, there may well be the full demand, but I intend to order them on a first come first served basis. Applications for Australia and NZ should be made by the closing date of Monday 16 June. Applications for Fiji and Argentina should be made asap whilst the RFU still has availability at different prices. An application form showing eligibility and prices is attached

Johnlizlyons@btopenworld.com