Essex Man

quoting from figures on totalrl posted on 17th May an average attendance of >3000, would make a change to be watching RL in a nearly full stadium rather than an 3/4 empty one

A ground not mentioned is newly promoted Dagenham & Redbridge FC, easy to get by public transport, it's on district line (Dagenahm East) loads of local buses, nice ground, around 5500 capacity, lotsof local RU clubs that would welcome them for training/acadamey use eg Dagenham RU (home of the Hainault Bulldogs) and/or Barking RU, both have floodlights and excellent facilities already on site plus save a long journey to MK

Skolars C1 side take anyone and is for everyone if they good enough (ahem lol) there's the dual registration thing going on with Quin's now as well, 3 or 4 have played in the prem side too to give them game time but to be honest, you'd never know they were SL club standard. What we really need is an u18 then u20/21 league for players to go through, natural progression, I know there's a LondonRL U18 summer league but it's not very well supported as yet, could be another good reason for a major club to move into Oxford or MK or somehwere in Essex even (dream on) and set up a new player pathway system for youth. "I haven't heard enough to make me think that I need to," your seriousley ill-informed comments are very offensive, you really need facts before you speak out on subjects

Think you really need to apologise to the forum in general for your comments regarding the people at Essex Eels, to repeat myself yet again, you really have no idea what your talking about there. In reply to your second part, simply put, no, Skolars has existred for years and still hasn't managed to produce a junior or youth team in the whole set-up that actually turns up to play all game's in a season, from personal experience they just don't travel, when they played in partnership with Hemel in the NYL a few years ago, they rarely all turned up to play (but then neither did Hemel and still don't) The idea that 'Quins U20's are all local dosn't happen, it's made up of player's in the acadamey who are looking to be going on to University plus a few add on's to make the number's up, the 'player pathway' at Skolars takes in Southgate College, where they play in the national college league but not in NYL, they also play in the Daily Mail Union cup as well, the idea there is the player's are coached by bothLeague and Union people and encouraged to play for either Skolars premier or Saracens amateurs at colt level. Again from personal experience, they only want people from local area, Essex players have been told 'they live too far away' if the journey takes more than an hour. I think a move outside London would have it's good and bad points, good because they won't be competiing against a very old and established Union club with all the traditions that go with that plus it's next door to the national centre for Union too, so surely a move to where's there's little or no competition would benefit. I can't really see the junior development suffering because most clubs have been started and supported by RL people, Greenwich Hainault Brentwood Medway Elmbridge Storm to name a few all have RL experienced people there (as did Eels, it was 2 ex first team Skolars who started it all) and all these people do it purely for the love of the game. The next logical progression woul dbe to have an East or Essex based U18 NYL side, even if it was a joint venture and a service area out here too, there's so much untapped talent here (as am sure there is everywhere) that has nowhere to go unless you have the means to travel across London. Bas because we'll lose the London RL SL club, i'm not sure that the faithful two thousand or so people who support through thick and thin(ok,mainly thin) would suffer another move and possibly not outside the capital

I'm certainley not in any way defending what went on, you have absolutely no idea what your talking about with regards what happened at the Eels, you wern't there, you don't know anyone who was there and you have absolutely no knowledge about anything to do with the way the Eels was run, kindly stop insisting you know what was happening because you simply don't. Who, seeing as you seem to know so much, were the 'committee' for the first 3 years of the Eels? I'm not defending the eels, i never will either but you really have no idea what your talking about.

Good grief, your talking about a committee of people who you've never met, have no knowledge of and have absolutely no knowledge of the sponsorship deals or what happened. I do have to wonder why you have to keep bringing it up though? could you stop trying to guess what you think went on, no one's ever going to tell you, accept it, you know nothing. There hasn't been a ground that holds 5000+ in Romford since the old Romford FC's Brooklands stadium closed in the 1970's. LMAO@ Harold Hill, wonder if any unionites have read their beloved RU club has moved to South London

where on earth do you get your info from bowes? you seem to know a hell of a lot about the Eels "What's becoming increasingly clear in London is that development seems to be going on in two areas; south London and north-east London. There is very little in west, north-west, north or central areas of the city. I think we're moving towards two hubs and the pro club would be better off grabbing one of these and focusing on it." Excuse me??? the development in West London is entirely proffesional by Quin's/RFL staff, it's West London that is the main focus of Quin's activity in the community game, according to the londonrl website, there's 23 of them,the development in Essex, Kent, South East London is done entirely by volunteer's, if any of them get a visit from Quin's at all in a season they're lucky. Hainault Bulldogs did have an evening training/masterclass session at junior level with half a dozen or so first team Quins players, organised by Danny Orr's wife other than that, no help in the area what so ever. Should any player from over this side of Londonmanage to get into Quins acadamey, they have to travel to West London to train, ok when they're at school and finish earlyenough to make it round the '25 but once at college or at work, no chance, even on a good day it's an hour and half drive from the Elvers ground, even more so from Colchester,god forbid someone might make the journey out here

Thanks for the correction magic XIII, ~Ben played for St Albans, Sam for Hemel.

Indded I agree with you it would be better for development to dedicate more time/resources/man-power to Sth East, East, North East and South London, currently there isn't any copmmunity coaching going on in Essex or Kent or East/Sth East London but as I've pointed out on differen tthread, over half the teams playing in London Junior League finals are from Essex , Kent and Sth East London, Brentwood Elvers, Hainault Bulldogs, Medway Dragons and Greenwich Admirals, none of whom get coached by Quins or RFL community satff, entirely by volunteers, great job done by all concerend.

Tony Clubb - Greenwich Admirals RLFC Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook - Greenwich Admirals RLFC Ben Bolger - St Albans Centurions RLFC Lamont Bryan - South London Storm RLFC Olsi Krasniqi - West London Sharks RLFC Martin Smith -Crotdon Hurricaines RLFC Rob Thomas - West London Sharks RLFC