“IN TOUCH”

NEWS LETTER OCTOBER 2016

All

Here’s October’s newsletter. As always, your feedback is very welcome.

RFU Disciplinary Hearing

On the 28th September we had to attend an official RFU disciplinary hearing to answer a charge of bringing the game into disrepute. The hearing came about as a result of an official complaint from Waterloo concerning our "approach" to one of their contracted players, which they considered to be in breach of RFU Regulation 7, the pertinent section of which is detailed below.

7.1 Approaches to Players
No Club or Constituent Body may directly or indirectly, approach any player who is under contract with a Club, Constituent Body or Union to induce or attempt to induce such player to leave that Club, Constituent Body or Union unless such approach is made with the other Club’s written consent or in the final six months of the term of that player’s contract. Any Club or Constituent Body wishing to make such an approach may contact the RFU for details of when a particular player’s contract is due to expire.

Needless to say we strenuously denied the charge, and we felt we had a very robust case which was expertly presented by a local solicitor, Phil Bramhall. (The RFU’s case was presented by a barrister from London.) You can follow the link below to see Phil's written opening submission which will give you a flavour of our stance.(Link to statement)

The hearing began at 7.00 pm and finished just before 1.00 am the following morning, from which you can safely deduce it was a complicated and hard fought case which centred on contract law and employment law, particularly the Minimum Wage Act.

Regrettably, despite giving the panel an enormous amount to consider, the RFU found us guilty as charged. As you can probably imagine, we were (and continue to be) extremely disappointed at the conclusion reached.However, thanks to the strength of both our case and mitigation, the sanction handed out was comparatively lenient and one we can reluctantly cope with:

  • £5,000 fine suspended for one year
  • £1,300 damages to Waterloo
  • £200 costs.

Following confirmation of the sanction, Waterloo stated they would release the player from his obligations to them, so he is now free to play for us in the future - which frankly in my opinion questions their motivation for raising the issue in the first place and makes something of a mockery of the entire episode.

However, there is little we can do now other than lick our wounds, absorb the lessons that came out of the process and move on accordingly.

I would like to record my thanks to Phil Bramhall for stepping in at very short notice to help and doing a wonderful job for us, despite the result; to Peter Rhodes for his concerted and insightful work throughout and to Steve Bate, who truly did go far beyond the call of duty to help put our case together.

Funding

I’m pleased to say wehad a very encouraging meeting at the club regarding funding on the 22nd September. Attendees were Guy Bilgorri and John Berry from Sport England, Charlie Dewhurst from the RFU and local MP Chris Matheson.(Can we include a photo of Chris?)

Indeed it was Chris who facilitated the meeting and persuaded those guys to travel from London specifically to meet us. Chris really is a great supporter of the club, and we should be extremely grateful that we have someone in his position who is so firmly in our corner.

At this stage I have nothing definitive to report, as we are only at the beginning of the process as far as Sport England are concerned. However, there’s no doubt those present were very impressed with both our current set up and the scope of our plans for the future.

I shall keep you informed over the coming months regarding any developments in this area.

Financial General Meeting

The financial general meeting will be held at the club on Wednesday 9th November, starting at 7.30 pm. As ever, this is the opportunity for club members to be appraised of both the current financial position of the club and the club’s strategy for the immediate future.

I would urge you to attend this extremely important meeting and I’m hopeful many of you will do so.

Squash (from Ian Walton)

With the squash season now in its third week, the newly promoted Second and Third teams are finding life a bit tougher than expected in their new divisions. However, it’s early days andbeing an optimistic bunch we have high hopes of retaining our positions in the leagues.The First team, which always looks good on paper with a veritable constellation of superstars, should retain Division 2 status (or at least they better do!) and there is a real danger that the Fourth team could get promoted.

Fitness and coaching sessions are still in progress, run by Rachael Chadwick (Wednesdays6pm – 7.30pm; Saturdays9.30am - 10.30am; £4 per session). They are open to anyone and no booking is needed – just turn up and get fit. In addition we have our regular club sessionson Mondayevening (6pm to 9pm) andSaturdayafternoons (4.30pm – 6pm); again these are open to all.

FB Sports & Clothing

We have just renewed the Club’s agreement with the shop and there have been some changes to the way the arrangement will work.

For this season, the shop has exclusivity onlyover the supply of the club’s branded clothing, including tour shirts.

However, it is imperative this exclusivity is complied with by everybody, with no exceptions please.

Please be aware FBS&C require a minimum of 12 weeks lead time from design sign off to ensure tour shirts are ordered and delivered before each individual tour begins.

By implication, other equipment can now be purchased elsewhere. However, it would seem to make sense to give FBS&C the first option in such circumstances as it is clearly in their best interest to be as competitive as possible.

If they can’t be compete in terms of price, quality or delivery then customers will be perfectly entitled to obtain their equipment from an alternative supplier, it’s as simple as that.

I’m sure this arrangement can work to the benefit of all parties, provided there is a will from all parties to “give it a go.” I trust everybody will.

And finally for this month......

If there’s anything worse than a pub with no beer it must be a rugby club with no beer – and we came preciously close to that unhappy situation last month when the cellar cooler blew up!

Thankfully we were able to find a local guy who did a fabulous job installing a brand new, state of the art system, so thankfully all is now well – although we could have done without the £2,000 expense.

Guided tours of the cellar, incorporating a detailed presentation of the new cooler, can be arranged via House Manager Karon Davies......

See you in the Sin Bin!