More positive news from Nottinghamshire

[Northern Eel]

Just now, DoubleD said:

Are there any other girls teams at that age in the midlands?

No, just us for now. 

[DoubleD]

Just now, Northern Eel said:

No, just us for now. 

Makes it doubly impressive. Let’s hope it’s a catalyst for other teams in the midlands. Trailblazers

[Northern Eel]

4 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Makes it doubly impressive. Let’s hope it’s a catalyst for other teams in the midlands. Trailblazers

Thanks.
 

I know Sherwood are looking at competitive girls teams for next season too. They’ve got some girls training at the moment, as I understand it, but at older age groups. 

[OriginalMrC]

On 02/07/2023 at 21:23, Northern Eel said:

No, just us for now. 

Brilliant work guys getting a competitive girls team off the ground. Coventry Bears have now got u12s and u14 girls sections in training. Getting games has been an issue. Hopefully next season they'll get some games 

[Northern Eel]

Next part of the growth? Masters RL...

 

[Northern Eel]

Terrific day for the Midlands Junior scene, with the introduction of a new awards programme.

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/62293/inaugural-midlands-junior-rugby-league-awards-winners-revealed

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

How many teams do you run and how easy or difficult is it for you to attract players?

[Northern Eel]

4 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

How many teams do you run and how easy or difficult is it for you to attract players?

As a club, we are running 6 junior teams, including our U13 girls, plus a X-League and Masters team. Only 5 years in, we are still growing, as you might imagine. 

The girls travelled over 800 miles this season to compete in Yorkshire and overall, we managed to fulfil over 100 fixtures as a club across all the age groups. We have some volunteers who run our school's programme, but in an area where participation in any sport (inc RU) is limited, it has been a really tough ask.

That said, we continue to have ambition to grow further, and will not let barriers get in the way of achieving that.

Thanks for asking, and for your interest.

[Eddie]

29 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

Terrific day for the Midlands Junior scene, with the introduction of a new awards programme.

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/62293/inaugural-midlands-junior-rugby-league-awards-winners-revealed

Brilliant mate, sounds like the Bulldogs and a fair few other clubs in your region are thriving  

[Northern Eel]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Brilliant mate, sounds like the Bulldogs and a fair few other clubs in your region are thriving  

We've got a platform in the Midlands to build upon, and we are slowly realising that we need each other to enable that to happen. It is very much volunteer driven, but there's some good folk involved.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Northern Eel

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

Thanks for initial reply and sorry for reasking but do you find it easy to attract players. Reason I ask is I wonder why the game seems to find it difficult spreading.

[Northern Eel]

1 minute ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Thanks for initial reply and sorry for reasking but do you find it easy to attract players. Reason I ask is I wonder why the game seems to find it difficult spreading.

I think kids have a lot of options these days as to what they might take up/get up to. There always seems to be a battle with other groups/sports/events to get ultimate buy-in. It is only possible through hard work and perseverance, especially for those clubs not reliant on their core membership being from local RU clubs.

It is also quite difficult to engage schools. Even though we offer our clubs/festivals free of charge, some schools are really slack on getting involved. 

One of the things we want to do in the Midlands aligns in many ways to the IMG stuff. How can we improve the experience for our players in a way that puts rugby league first on their list of things they want to do? I think much of this comes through how well clubs show they are well set-up and how 'professionally' they operate. 

[Northern Eel]

A brief update from the Bulldogs. We are running teams this year as follows:

Pups (3-5 yrs), U7s, U9s, U11s, U12s, U14s, U16s, 12s girls, U14s girls and Masters RL.

Today, our volunteers ran our first of three school's festivals for the Spring term, focussing on recruiting for our girls teams.

 

[langpark]

On 13/01/2024 at 07:22, Northern Eel said:

A brief update from the Bulldogs. We are running teams this year as follows:

Pups (3-5 yrs), U7s, U9s, U11s, U12s, U14s, U16s, 12s girls, U14s girls and Masters RL.

 

Great work! Which league(s) do you play in? Are there enough teams in your area at all those age levels, or do you usually have to travel?

[Northern Eel]

3 hours ago, langpark said:

Great work! Which league(s) do you play in? Are there enough teams in your area at all those age levels, or do you usually have to travel?

Midlands Development for all junior activity, and RFL national competitions for girls and Masters.

Midlands juniors is growing again, but it’s hard work. 

 

[Yorky]

32 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

Midlands Development for all junior activity, and RFL national competitions for girls and Masters.

Midlands juniors is growing again, but it’s hard work. 

 

Out of interest, what other teams compete at junior level? Trying to plan for the future, I have a 2 year old I would like to get involved playing sports when he's a bit older.

I'm based in Leicestershire but can't see any league teams in a short commutable distance 

[Northern Eel]

13 minutes ago, Yorky said:

Out of interest, what other teams compete at junior level? Trying to plan for the future, I have a 2 year old I would like to get involved playing sports when he's a bit older.

I'm based in Leicestershire but can't see any league teams in a short commutable distance 

There’s very little your way, unfortunately. I’d imagine Nottingham to be the closest to you, but their youngest team last year was u15.

Funnily enough, on my role with the Regional board, I have been banging the drum for more easy access to this sort of information for wannabe participants. We will be developing a new website in the coming months to ensure this happens, and is accurate, as the RFL one is not. 
 

In the East Midlands in 2024, there looks to be primary-aged activity at:

Bassetlaw Bulldogs, Immingham Wasps, Google Vikings, Bolsover Bulls, Sheffield Forgers and Isle of Axholm. 

Edited January 14 by Northern Eel

[Yorky]

35 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

There’s very little your way, unfortunately. I’d imagine Nottingham to be the closest to you, but their youngest team last year was u15.

Funnily enough, on my role with the Regional board, I have been banging the drum for more easy access to this sort of information for wannabe participants. We will be developing a new website in the coming months to ensure this happens, and is accurate, as the RFL one is not. 
 

In the East Midlands in 2024, there looks to be primary-aged activity at:

Bassetlaw Bulldogs, Immingham Wasps, Google Vikings, Bolsover Bulls, Sheffield Forgers and Isle of Axholm. 

Thankyou for the info, unfortunately for me personally although I'm willing to put in a longer drive for my kids to try out league than other sports, the round trips to those places are unfeasible long.

Hopefully accessibility increases soon in this area

[Northern Eel]

1 hour ago, Yorky said:

Thankyou for the info, unfortunately for me personally although I'm willing to put in a longer drive for my kids to try out league than other sports, the round trips to those places are unfeasible long.

Hopefully accessibility increases soon in this area

In the West Midlands, Coventry Bears may be your nearest club, followed closely by Leamington Royals. They both run Primary age groups.

The Midlands is a huge geographical area. I have added the clubs onto a google map to show just how spread out we all are!

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1hUDxCWX3joTRb3SQ0vMsagiCjtvFDRg&usp=sharing

Edited January 14 by Northern Eel