Community Teams that have ceased in the last year or two

[Hopping Mad]

36 minutes ago, Defender1 said:

It keeps coming back to haunt us, but as David Gent said “The strong will survive” springs to mind.

Less clubs means less players ultimately 

In the next 25 years or so there's going to be a massive process of 'consolidation' (i.e. clubs closing) across all team sports, even football. Unfortunately, rugby league has many fewer clubs than most. I can see UK rugby league ending up with one (possibly two) fairly small divisions of pro/semi-pro clubs and maybe three divisions, of similar size, of well-organised amateur clubs.

[SSoutherner]

8 hours ago, Chamey said:

That system is also a massive screwup. Firstly, it concentrates power in the hands of a few clubs, which increases dependency on a few clubs instead of many, which is stupid when no clubs are clearly ahead of the others, and solidifies the league structure. If one academy is faltering the entire area falters. Secondly it also means that smaller teams have $#€¥ all incentive to develop female youth players. Thirdly, great women’s RU teams, who are massively successful off the pitch (like Litchfield) have been torn apart in favour of bigger men’s brands, who have done nothing for female participation. 

The majority of England RU centurions (2/3, 3/6 90+ cap players) come from one little club in England, who had this massively dedicated coach who was one of the first to put effort into treating women’s rugby (of either code) as equal. Following his side not being awarded a ‘postcode’ he basically been fired, as the club have had to scale back his job due to the fact that the only one to benefit from him would be the local franchise. 

If yo want to see how to run a domestic game at any level look as far away from the RFU as possible. They are intent of making as many clubs as possible totally reliant on a few super clubs*, so that the RFU find it easier to govern. 

* I could rant much further, but it’d get shifted to CCF, but involves forcing dual reg on lower leagues, despite them voting against it, not funding lower tiers adequately, and binning RFU development officers in favour of the aforementioned super clubs running development. 

I sort of understand what you are saying re Litchfield (and have spoken about it with 2 Red Roses who played there) but it is infinitely better then the RU boys set up where the boys play for the academy of the prem club and are only seen again by their home club if ditched (when a lot are disillusioned and so leave rugby completely). The Tyrells prem CofE's are not even based at the home club (Quins is being run from Worthing to cover the Hampshire/Sussex girls) - the prem clubs have to pay for the CofE's as part of their licencing deal. No they wont be ideal but they will be better than the old 4 divisions set up and it "shouldn't" adversely affect the local teams as they are not playing games at the CofE

It should give more opportunity for girls to play for their local team and still feel they have a chance without having to go to team the local divisional coach favours. 

Whatever you say about it the RU Women's & Girls game is growing in a way that League can only dream of - in my area 4 years ago to put out a U15 county team even they were giving dispensations for girls to "play up" an age grade from u13, this year there will be 5 teams running u13's + 3 U15's which will mean c120 girls up from c25 in 4 years. Ladies Union has gone from 3 (sort of 4) to 7 clubs (one running 2 teams) in the same timescale

[Marauder]

10 hours ago, Chamey said:

That system is also a massive screwup. Firstly, it concentrates power in the hands of a few clubs, which increases dependency on a few clubs instead of many, which is stupid when no clubs are clearly ahead of the others, and solidifies the league structure. If one academy is faltering the entire area falters. Secondly it also means that smaller teams have $#€¥ all incentive to develop female youth players. Thirdly, great women’s RU teams, who are massively successful off the pitch (like Litchfield) have been torn apart in favour of bigger men’s brands, who have done nothing for female participation. 

The majority of England RU centurions (2/3, 3/6 90+ cap players) come from one little club in England, who had this massively dedicated coach who was one of the first to put effort into treating women’s rugby (of either code) as equal. Following his side not being awarded a ‘postcode’ he basically been fired, as the club have had to scale back his job due to the fact that the only one to benefit from him would be the local franchise. 

If yo want to see how to run a domestic game at any level look as far away from the RFU as possible. They are intent of making as many clubs as possible totally reliant on a few super clubs*, so that the RFU find it easier to govern. 

* I could rant much further, but it’d get shifted to CCF, but involves forcing dual reg on lower leagues, despite them voting against it, not funding lower tiers adequately, and binning RFU development officers in favour of the aforementioned super clubs running development. 

If you notice there has been a decline in amateur clubs where you have a NCL club and this has been the case since the NCL started, it's a problem but a problem that can't be solved in winter or summer, when the Super League clubs start running an `A` team league we'll be seeing more amateur pub teams disappearing as the guys who are playing in the lower levels suddenly fine themselves of the required standard. 

[johnmatrix]

I think women and girls rugby on the north is making giant strides forward, 4 years ago there was one women's team in my are there are now three and all three have at least two girls teams some have 3. 

 

[SSoutherner]

22 minutes ago, johnmatrix said:

I think women and girls rugby on the north is making giant strides forward, 4 years ago there was one women's team in my are there are now three and all three have at least two girls teams some have 3. 

 

In general girls are getting more into team sports and there are few other (legal) outlets for teenage girls to let out violent frustrations - have seen it help some with anger/adhd issues hugely. You just have to watch more for concussions (females more likely to suffer and to suffer more than males).

 

The girls who play gain loads of self image/positive outlook on life from playing

[Defender1]

5 hours ago, SSoutherner said:

In general girls are getting more into team sports and there are few other (legal) outlets for teenage girls to let out violent frustrations - have seen it help some with anger/adhd issues hugely. You just have to watch more for concussions (females more likely to suffer and to suffer more than males).

 

The girls who play gain loads of self image/positive outlook on life from playing

Everyone uses the other distractions which is why team sports are down,  play stations, girls/boys beer, festivals, holiday etc these are all available to girls and trust me girls really enjoy 4 of these 5 examples  so why is female sport growing when male is declining, football, netball, hockey, RU and you say RL are all increasing, that is an open question not specifically to SShoutherner

[Bedford Roughyed]

6 hours ago, Defender1 said:

Everyone uses the other distractions which is why team sports are down,  play stations, girls/boys beer, festivals, holiday etc these are all available to girls and trust me girls really enjoy 4 of these 5 examples  so why is female sport growing when male is declining, football, netball, hockey, RU and you say RL are all increasing, that is an open question not specifically to SShoutherner

Male sports are decreasing from a high point.  Female sports are increasing from a low point.  

[Defender1]

8 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Male sports are decreasing from a high point.  Female sports are increasing from a low point.  

I agree so when percentages are used it will show a dramatic increase, but still an increase. I don’t know the figures but suspect Hockey, Football, Netball figures for women actually exceed male figures for RL, I think last figures showed RL was 29th most popular sport by participation 

[SSoutherner]

i was talking girls RU, down here in the south only uni's & military female RL near me i think

Here is a sport england study into female participation https://www.sportengland.org/media/3323/understanding-participation-among-15-19-year-old-girls-summary-report.pdf

 

Personal experience tells me the biggest thing is friendship groups - if a bunch of the "influencer" type girls at a school start rugby (or hockey or tiddliwinks) it becomes a "cool" thing to do or at least accepted, then girls who might have been worried about their social status through doing rugby become happy to give it a go. Once a core group at a school do it it becomes normalised.

There is a state secondary near me where the PE teacher is a high level RU player, he started girls rugby about 6 or 7 years ago and that single school put 25 girls to county u15 & u18 girls RU trials last Sep (that is combined number across the 2 age groups). 1 inspirational teacher is all it takes. 

Boys are less socially worried i think than boys but I would say the big difference is 20 years ago the "buff" boys the girls went after were the ones playing Rugby etc now they are all down the gym pumping iron. Not sure what the solution is unless clubs are able to offer gym facilities cheap/free to members which make it financially attractive for boys to go there rather than another gym and get them into it by stealth

[Impartial Observer]

9 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Male sports are decreasing from a high point.  Female sports are increasing from a low point.  

There is a lot of money available from Sport England for female sport hence NGBs are giving a lot of attention to it

[bbfaz]

On 7/12/2018 at 8:19 PM, Impartial Observer said:

You forgot to say Brixton had put two teams out and a womens team this season

I didn't forget, it just didn't make much of an impression on me.  I'm pretty sure Brixton played more 2nd team friendly games last season than they played league games this.  TBH,  the Merit League is light on teams at the moment.  A grades aren't viable, kids teams aren't stepping up, open age teams have folded.  As I outlined in a previous post, RL has essentially collapsed in the Home Counties.

As for the women's team, I can't be fully impartial.  There was grant money for a team in London and there was a plan in place as to how to spend it.  However, there was a change of structure at the RFL so the money was given to a development officer to assign and he stuck it into his long-term pet project at Brixton.  As an administrator of a rival club, I found it strange because, at that point, Brixton Bulls were not a viable long-term club.

Brixton will lose their home ground in the next couple of years.  London Borough of Lambeth has a school places crisis and, a few years back, it was decided that Woodmansterne Primary School - the Bulls' home ground - would be rebuilt so as to expand from a two-form primary to a four-form primary with a secondary school and sixth form.  The only way to stay at the site is to raise money for a high-end 4G pitch, which wasn't happening back in April.

EDIT: Asked around to see what has changed since April and the RFL have put 100k into the sports facilities at the school to secure the Bulls' future.  Hopefully, they negotiated better than they did last time.

[bbfaz]

I've read back and don't want to come across as bitter because I'm not.  I support the game as a whole in London and have tried to stress to other clubs the need to support each other and to grow the game as a whole.

There needs to be a club and a permanent playing and training presence in that area.  Yes, they botched it with Lanfranc school but that was part of a strategy based on one borough; Croydon.  However, it's difficult to assign that catchment area to one borough, it spills over Croydon, Merton, Lambeth and Wandsworth.  The players are often reliant on public transport to get around.  It's easier to move a team 3 miles if everybody gets around by car, it can be very difficult when it's buses and trains.  I hope the minis and the ladies and the open age have helped create this compelling business case.

[Hopping Mad]

Stainland Stags, of Yorkshire League Division Two, have packed up (possibly only for the season), according to a spectator at this afternoon's King Cross Park-Wibsey match.

[Hopping Mad]

On 7/28/2018 at 6:19 PM, Hopping Mad said:

Stainland Stags, of Yorkshire League Division Two, have packed up (possibly only for the season), according to a spectator at this afternoon's King Cross Park-Wibsey match.

An incorrect rumour, clearly, because the Yorkshire League website now indicates Stainland played on Saturday (28/7), and won 30-16 at Newsome. Good news.