Town youngsters well pleased with their rugby tour (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Town youngsters well pleased with their rugby tour

Cirencester RFC U13s and U14s returned from their recent tour of Belgium and the Netherlands Tour in happy mood after showing their hosts the finer points of the game.

It was an early start on the Saturday for the party of 41 boys and 14 fathers and, after an excursion via the southern outskirts of Brussels, they were greeted by heavy showers on arrival at Ottignies.

The U13s played a 12-a-side match, which turned into a bit of a rout as they ran in ten tries, but the U14s did not fare so well.

With their hosts using superior power and speed, Cirencester were beaten by a combination side ranging from 14 to 16-year-olds.

The party was up early to travel to the Netherlands for Sunday's match against RC Bekkaro.

Although the hosts had trouble rustling up an U13s side, with the help of another local side, they finally produced a team.

On a beautiful pitch, Town were restricted to just a couple of tries from Luke and Ashley who converted to turn round 12-0 up.

The big boys of Bekkaro were no match for the experience of Cirencester and the performance and quality of play was some of their best this season.

A final score of 37-0 emphasised the dominance of the Glo'shire boys.

The U14s fared much better in this country than the last with a fantastic 72-nil win over the Dutch lads.

Tries for Cirencester U13s versus Ottignies were by Henry Bird (4), Luke (3), Scott, Ben Barton and Tom; v RC Bekkaro: Luke (2) Ashley, Dan, Henry Bird, Rhys, Joe; conversions Ashley.

U13s squad: Joe and Harry Jones, Josh Hillman, Ashley Scrivens, Ben Bishop, Adam Gibbs, Scott Brandreth, Dan Timbrell, Toby Burgess-Smith, Luke Fisher, Rhys Owen, John Cima, Tom Evans, Rory McCarthy, Henry Bird, James Ford and Ryan McCormick.

U14s squad: Ed Alderman, Jon Lane, Henry Bew, Matt Boulton, Mark Assenti, Addison Tailford, Richard Hatchard, Mike Cox, James Rollet, Sam Lawson, James Fisher, Jamie Muir, Fergus Kilby, Richard Woolven, David Townsend, Sam Woods, Sam Webster, Nick De La Coix, Dan Meradith, Dan Spencer, Dan Wilson, Warren Stubley and Mike Robinson.

Final match at The Whiteway this season saw Cirencester entertaining their first touring team from Tavistock in front of a reasonable crowd.

With Town unable to apply the the killer touch in the first half, they spent much in the visitors' 22 .

In the end, Luke broke through and slipped the ball to Scott who put the first try on the board.

For the second half, both teams went back to their tried and tested line-up, although Tavistock looked more menacing.

The game see-sawed with both defending well before Tavistock drove over to level the scores.

The forwards had done the hard work and got the ball out for the backs, but it needed a good flowing move and they would have broken the tourists' defence.

With a draw looking increasing likely, Rory broke through a few tackles and streaked for the posts An easy conversion put the game out of Tavistock's reach and Cirencester took a well won 12-5 victory.

Cirencester team: Joe and Harry Jones, Ashley Scrivens, Ben Bishop, John Cima, Scott Brandreth, Dan Timbrell, Ryan McCormack, Peter Illman, Luke Fisher, Rhys Owen, Rory McCarthy, Henry Bird, Toby Burgess-Smith, Josh Hillman, Richard Collins and James Ford.

Peter Ford generously donated trophies for the annual presentations as follows: best forward Richard, best back Rory and most improved player Scott, noisiest player Luke.

Poor Archie, whose injured knee-cap prevented him going on tour, was given a tour polo shirt, and Tavistock were presented with a CRFC shield.

Cirencester RFC Youth Sec-tion's AGM was held last Friday with a summary of the 2002-3 season, presentation of club awards and election of officers.

Highlights of another successful season for the Whiteway Mini's and Juniors were the County Festival triumphs by the U9s, U11s and U12s.

Over 250 boys have participated for Cirencester during the season and a total of 240 matches been played with wins/draws amounting to 80 percent success.

Tours have taken place to Dorset, the Lake District and Belgium with over 200 boys and parents making the trips.

Kingshill School and RAC were thanked for their kind loan of pitches during the season.

The Gavin White-Thompson shield for Coach of the Year was presented to the U9s coaches, Henry Corp, Simon Collyer-Bristow and Kerry White.

And the Marshall and Jarvis shield for coaching was presented to Tim Woolven and Graeme Muir who took the U14s squad under his wing.

Bunie Loveridge Fair Play Shield was won by the U7s and was received by their coaches, Haimish Mead and David Doyle.

Most Improved Player Cup was won by Sean Loveridge who played for Gloucestershire U15s throughout the season.

The majority of the Youth Officers are continuing in their current roles and, in a new appointment, Haimish Mead was made vice-chairman.

Peter Barefoot, who is standing now from his role of fixture secretary, received a vote of thanks.

Club chairman Simon Collyer-Bristow thanked youth chairman Mike Timbrell and his committee for all their hard work throughout the season.