Club News

Eastleigh RFC - AGM

23rd April 2023

Eastleigh Rugby Football Club Annual General Meeting

Thursday 11th May 2023 at 7pm. Club House Bar at The Hub.

1. There are a number of Committee roles available as people are stepping down.

(The important role of Facilities Manager Ian Smith has devoted years of his time & effort is available & could suit a VP) (Alun Jones would welcome any assistance in the Sponsorship & Marketing cause) A full list vacancies will be finalised and shared before the AGM.
We need as many people to attend the AGM as possible to vote please.

2. Future of the playing side of the Club Ladies / Mens Seniors & Juniors.

3. Presentation on the results of the recent Club survey.

4. Presentation on the refurbishment of the Club’s social spaces & toilets.

Eastleigh RFC Member's Survey

8th April 2023

Please follow the link below to complete our Member's Survey.

Thank you.

Mark Jones

Chairman

https://forms.gle/JdrrqtR5Sm5fw7uM9

Ray Jones

29th September 2022

We are sad to announce that long-standing Eastleigh RFC member, Ray Jones, passed away peacefully aged 91.

Ray, father of Mark, was a Dorset & Wilts, Hampshire and England Schoolboys coach and selector in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He taught at King Edward VI, Southampton, Swanmore School, Deputy Head at Millbrook and Head at The Grange School, Aylesbury.

The funeral is to be held at 1pm on Monday 10th October at Wessex Vale Crematorium, West End, Eastleigh. SO30 2HL followed by a gathering at The Concorde Club, Stoneman Lane, Eastleigh. SO50 9HQ.

All welcome, donations to Age UK Portsmouth Joining Forces.

Age UK Portsmouth - JustGiving https://www.justgiving.com/ageukportsmouth

AGM 2022

26th April 2022

To All Eastleigh RFC Club Members:

AGM - at The Hub

7pm Thursday 28th April, 2022

Please make a huge effort to attend.

We need everyone to be aware of the challenges ahead and the opportunities that can result from being successful across all aspects of the Club.

We need to fill some crucial positions and are seeking new faces to join the Committee and make a difference.

Kind regards

Mark Jones
Chairman

Thursday Special

10th April 2022

The Club is open Thursday evening 14 April ( 7-10) for pie and ale.

This is to celebrate the success of yesterday's 1XV match, kick start the Easter weekend and be available to sell tickets for the End of Season Dinner on 23 April.

£4.00 for a PINT of Ale and a PIE!!

VP Lunch Saturday 5th March 2022.

3rd March 2022

VP Lunch Saturday 5th March 2022.

Supporting the 2nd & 3rd XV (life Blood of the Senior Playing Club)

Bar opens from 12.30pm,

Shelagh’s Menu

Casserole surprise

A variety of Cheese’s on the Board.

(Vegetarian options are available by pre order please)

Sit down for lunch at 1.15 pm.

Cost £10 per head.

Please pay with cash.

Seating will be not be allocated unless on request.

Eastleigh 2nd XV v Locksheath Puma’s 2nd XV

Eastleigh 3rd XV v Alton 3rd XV

Kick off at 2.30pm. (TBC)

RSVP asap to assist with catering purposes.

Many thanks if you have already replied

Cheers

Tony

0777 644 1644.

Tony Hastings
VP Secretary

Walking Rugby is back

3rd March 2022

Members, VPs, Parents, Gentlemen, and Ladies.

We are planning to revive our ‘Walking Rugby’ programme on Saturday 12th March at 10.30am

Please come along and join us for an hour of Walking Rugby followed by a casserole lunch and an afternoon watching Eastleigh v Chobham (KO 2.30pm).

Happy hour at the bar from 12.30pm.

Please let us know if you can make it so we can cater for everyone interested.

Mark Jones
Chairman

Bill (William) Davies

19th February 2022

Eastleigh RFC is sad to report the passing of Bill (William) Davies at the age of 92.

A long-standing Eastleigh RFC member, VP and Hampshire referee.

Bill was an athletic UK record holder for 1500 metres, 3000 metres and 5000 metres for the over 80 years age group and could often be seen running around the playing fields at Bishopstoke.

The funeral is taking place at Wessex Vale Crematorium, Eastleigh on Monday 7th March, 2022 at 3.15pm.

This will be followed by refreshments at Eastleigh RFC.

Our deepest condolence to Bill’s family & friends.

Mark Jones
Chairman

Code of Conduct

10th February 2022

To all Players and Spectators:

Can we please remind all players and spectators of the Club code of conduct and our high expectations while both watching and playing rugby at all levels.

The RFU and Hampshire RFU are concerned at an increase in the levels of verbal abuse aimed at players and match officials across the County and will take decisive action to eradicate this behaviour.

Any abuse towards any individual is completely contrary to the ethos of our Club and of Rugby Football and is totally unacceptable.

Mark Jones
Chairman

Eastleigh RFC Club Update

8th November 2020

In these unprecedented times, Club Members can be reassured that Eastleigh RFC is in a strong position to overcome the current difficulties and thrive in the future as restrictions are eased, providing we all work together and take responsibility for the well-being of our Club.

We are in the process of finalising our 2019/20 accounts (our Year End is 30th June) and we'll probably show a loss of around £4k. This is very positive considering the final 4 months of our year were without the use of the bar and no matches took place but we still incurred full operating costs. The current year will obviously generate a much bigger loss (around £25k depending on EBC lease and Government support funding) but we are in a good position to manage this and maintain our long term goals. However, we will need to completely re-evaluate funding and operational functions for 2021/22 and we will rely heavily on the support of ALL members to play their part.

The Senior section has decided to request 50% Membership fees for the current season from ALL playing members who have benefited from the excellent Coaching and Physio facilities that we have continued to supply and will resume when we come out of the current situation. For those that have already paid in full (or found personal sponsorship) you will only be expected to pay 50% fees for next year. (Please contact Gareth Jones with any queries.)

As a consequence of the Covid crisis, our reserve fund will be severely depleted and we need to focus on limiting our expenditure and gaining as much income as possible. With this in mind, as we have much more free time without fixtures, please can we address the following areas:

1. Community support - create and support initiatives where members provide help and support within our local community. This will raise our local profile and enable us to develop community links and help with future sponsorship and fund raising.
2. Crowdfunding - many other Clubs have followed this route and raised over £10k. Our friends at Gravesend raised over £35k towards pitch and facility improvements. (Please contact Mark Jones directly if you can help with this.)
3. Sponsorship - each individual can be an ambassador for our Club and instigate relationships with local business. (Please contact Alun Jones who can give you guidance into what the Club can offer in return.)
4. To raise the Clubs profile - support Instagram / Twitter / Facebook and all social media promotions. Pictures on Instagram are proving particularly successful at the moment for local sporting Clubs.

(Please contact Lloyd Bennett to add any pictures/ ideas.)

5. Fund raising events - any initiative to raise funds is important and so please work together and create working parties to generate income.
6. Support Club functions - Our social team are working very hard to utilise our bar and club facilities when we come out of the lockdown. It is vital that we back them up and use our bar at all possible occasions and raise income for us rather than other pubs and bars. (Please contact Andrew Black to offer any support in Fund raising and Club functions.)

Please keep safe and support our families and friends. Together we can look forward to a very exciting 2021.

Contacts

Mark Jones - 07860 686637 mailto:markbjones63@gmail.com markbjones63@gmail.com

Alun Jones - 07713 502572 mailto:avj1951@hotmail.com avj1951@hotmail.com

Gareth Jones - 07788 995522 mailto:garethdvjones@gmail.com garethdvjones@gmail.com

Andrew Black - mailto:Andrew.a.black@gmail.com Andrew.a.black@gmail.com

Lloyd Bennett - Lloyd.bennett15@gmail.com mailto:Lloyd.bennett15@gmail.com

Eastleigh RFC Committee

AGM - Results

26th June 2020

"Following a successful virtual AGM held on 17th June using Zoom, attended by 30 members all candidates proposed were voted into their roles for the 1920/21 season. These will be ratified at an EGM in October (hopefully face to face)".

Club Officers 2020 - 2021

President Nic Mucci
Chairman Mark Jones
Hon. Secretary Stuart (Wally) Randall
Hon. Treasurer Vikki Quilter
Treasurer Consultant - tba
Asst. Secretary Shirley Smith
1st XV Captain Matt Lovell
1st XV Manager Caroline Clark
2nd XV Captain Adrian Payne
2nd XV Manager Lloyd Bennett
2nd XV Coach tba
3rd XV Captain Tim Grant
3rd XV Manager Mitch Williams
4th XV Captain Vacancy
First Aider Steve Bodey
Facilities Ian Smith
Bar Manager/tba
Membership Secretary Gareth Jones
Fixture / Match Secretary Stuart (Wally) Randall
Referee Co-ordinator Mark Jones
Recruitment Russell Smith
Sponsorship and Marketing Alun Jones
Social Media Russell Smith, Lloyd Bennett, Luke Baker
Social Andrew Black, Tom Legge, Russell Smith
Webmaster Ian Smith
Disciplinary Andrew Browning
VP Secretary Tony Hastings
RFU Accreditation Malcolm Pain
GMS Co-ordinator Gareth Jones
Committee member – Kirsty Bridges
Committee member – Emma Bottomley

Stuart Randall
Secretary

AGM - 17 June 2020 - 7:30pm

6th June 2020

We are holding our AGM on Wednesday 17th June, 2020 at 7.30pm via Zoom. Secretary, Wally Randall, will circulate the link details and all of the relevant voting information.

Under the current circumstances the aim is to approve all candidates who have volunteered their willingness to stand for election. Hopefully, this will be a ‘thumbs up’ process but please make us aware of any objections or contentions to the elected positions prior to the meeting. We hope that this AGM will allow the Committee to operate on behalf of the Club until our scheduled EGM in October. The intention is to be transparent to all members and interested people and then give an opportunity to assess the process in October 2020. If this is not possible we will hold a further GM 3 months later in January 2021.

Our financial year runs from June 30th each year and we expect to end the 2019/20 year making a small surplus. This is largely due to receiving a ‘rateable value’ grant of £10k from EBC in May. Without this we would have made a significant loss due to the lack of income in March, April and May. We usually expect to make good profit in June, July and August as we hire out the Club with very few playing costs. Obviously, this year that will not be possible.

However, we have made good contingency plans for exactly this sort of unexpected event and have funds available to mitigate for these circumstances. This will allow us to operate positively as we progress to a new season. Our latest worse case cash flow forecasts predict that we will consume 30% of our reserves in 2021 and so we need to be very mindful of raising income when we are able. This means that we all need to be very focussed on the opportunity of sponsors, collection of membership fees, match fees, and supporting Club events when we are eventually allowed to resume activities.

Following the recent departure of Phil Osman we are hopeful of announcing the appointment of a new Club coaching team in the next few days which we believe will allow the playing side of the Club to continue developing.

We are also intending to invest significant funds into the maintenance of our pitches which have been over used in recent seasons due to the huge number of Senior and Junior players keen to play for Eastleigh. Hopefully, we will shortly be launching a crowd funding page to raise funds, please do contribute and encourage friends to do the same.

Current thoughts are that next season will run from January to June 2021 but this may well change as the Covid-19 situation develops so we need to be prepared for any outcome.

Mark Jones
Chairman