More positive news from Nottinghamshire

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, Northern Eel said:

There we are. All finished.

 

Is that owned by the RL club?

[Northern Eel]

54 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Is that owned by the RL club?

No, we are one of two sports clubs who are tenants. We have a long-term arrangement for its use. The RL World Cup Legacy Fund gave us £15k to contribute to the build. In all, £130k was raised by myself to fund the project. 

[gingerjon]

Just now, Northern Eel said:

No, we are one of two sports clubs who are tenants. We have a long-term arrangement for its use. The RL World Cup Legacy Fund gave us £15k to contribute to the build. In all, £130k was raised by myself to fund the project. 

Brilliant. Looks excellent. You must all be really pleased and proud.

[dealwithit]

Brilliant 

[Martyn Sadler]

On 05/06/2022 at 07:10, Northern Eel said:

There we are. All finished.

 

Well done to you and all your colleagues. I hope you can now go from strength to strength with this new facility.

Hopefully one day we'll be hearing Super League players with Nottinghamshire accents.

[Northern Eel]

It has been a busy close season for Bassetlaw Bulldogs as we plan for our 5th year. We are growing at quite a rate, having begun from a standing start in 2018. This year, we will be rolling out 8. 

• Mixed U7, U9, U11
• Boys U13, U15
• Girls U11, U13
• X-League social touch

This means that our volunteers continue to be extremely busy. We've just launched our 2023 fundraising campaign to provide a mini-tractor to attend to our pitch and to help volunteers set up and clear up after games. You can have a peek here at our campaign. 

It is fronted by Bazza the Bulldog, our new mascot. He will be heading into both primary and secondary school settings in February to drum up some more trade. Two of our coaches are offering some after-school sessions in local schools this term too, to get more pupils involved in the game locally. 

This growth is organic, and self-funded, but it looks like the ground is pretty fertile at the moment. 

 

Edited January 19, 2023 by Northern Eel

[Hello]

33 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

It has been a busy close season for Bassetlaw Bulldogs as we plan for our 5th year. We are growing at quite a rate, having begun from a standing start in 2018. This year, we will be rolling out 8. 

• Mixed U7, U9, U11
• Boys U13, U15
• Girls U11, U13
• X-League social touch

This means that our volunteers continue to be extremely busy. We've just launched our 2023 fundraising campaign to provide a mini-tractor to attend to our pitch and to help volunteers set up and clear up after games. You can have a peek here at our campaign. 

It is fronted by Bazza the Bulldog, our new mascot. He will be heading into both primary and secondary school settings in February to drum up some more trade. Two of our coaches are offering some after-school sessions in local schools this term too, to get more pupils involved in the game locally. 

This growth is organic, and self-funded, but it looks like the ground is pretty fertile at the moment. 

 

Great work, "can do" people are what all sports need, not the other types.  Best of luck

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

On 19/01/2023 at 19:06, Northern Eel said:

It has been a busy close season for Bassetlaw Bulldogs as we plan for our 5th year. We are growing at quite a rate, having begun from a standing start in 2018. This year, we will be rolling out 8. 

• Mixed U7, U9, U11
• Boys U13, U15
• Girls U11, U13
• X-League social touch

This means that our volunteers continue to be extremely busy. We've just launched our 2023 fundraising campaign to provide a mini-tractor to attend to our pitch and to help volunteers set up and clear up after games. You can have a peek here at our campaign. 

It is fronted by Bazza the Bulldog, our new mascot. He will be heading into both primary and secondary school settings in February to drum up some more trade. Two of our coaches are offering some after-school sessions in local schools this term too, to get more pupils involved in the game locally. 

This growth is organic, and self-funded, but it looks like the ground is pretty fertile at the moment. 

 

Great stuff, N Eel, and I wish you and all at the club continued, steady progress and success.

[Northern Eel]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but the club are currently attempting to raise £2500+ for a mini-tractor to help our volunteers with their long list of ground-based chores. We are well on the way, but have got a bit stuck this last week on our crowdfunding page.  https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/a-tractor-for-our-grounds

We have a pledge of £750 waiting in the wings from Sport England, which they will only add to our total once we reach 25 donors. We so far have 20. 

Whilst we have a couple of fundraising events coming up at the beginning of March, we would really appreciate it if anyone on the forum could spare a quid, or two, or more, just to get us over the magical 25 donors mark. You can donate as little as £1 and it can be anonymous should you wish.

I appreciate times are hard, and totally understand if it's not something you feel you could do.

Thanks in advance, friends.

PS - If you do find yourselves inclined to donate, don't feel compelled to leave a tip for the platform provider. You can just select 'other amount' and stick '0' in the box! 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Northern Eel

[Northern Eel]

…And just like that, your help rockets us on. Thank you very much indeed. 

[RP London]

Pretty much confirmed the Sheffield Tigers will be putting a League team out again this season with U16, U15 and a combined U13/4 team (1 more squad than last year).. Hope we get down with our U15 League team again this season, we went down last season but sadly it was a weekend I was away so didn't go with them. 

[tim2]

My grandson lives in Harworth and is currently with the U5s at Doncaster Knights. I'll keep tabs on your progress so we can perhaps get him playing the better code at U7.

[Northern Eel]

7 minutes ago, tim2 said:

My grandson lives in Harworth and is currently with the U5s at Doncaster Knights. I'll keep tabs on your progress so we can perhaps get him playing the better code at U7.

We do have some opportunities at younger age groups (U5/6) this year, but without fixtures...

[Northern Eel]

We've begun our schools work for the year today. We've developed a good relationship with the local secondary school and over the next two weeks are delivering information sessions to pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 in their year group assemblies. We will be running a 6-week after-school club for those kids to try out the game. The hope is that, as the sessions are run by our coaches, we can then coax a few of them down to the club for the 2023 season in March.

We've also got them to provide a 4g pitch for the day to help us run a Primary School festival at the start of March. There is a hope that we can then run a fledgling Primary School Tag League in the summer term. All of these initiatives are aimed at player recruitment, but it is always great to see kids play rugby league, whether through school, or a community club.

All of this work is self-funded and supported by our gang of volunteers. It's hard work, but it can be done. 

[Eddie]

8 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

We've begun our schools work for the year today. We've developed a good relationship with the local secondary school and over the next two weeks are delivering information sessions to pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 in their year group assemblies. We will be running a 6-week after-school club for those kids to try out the game. The hope is that, as the sessions are run by our coaches, we can then coax a few of them down to the club for the 2023 season in March.

We've also got them to provide a 4g pitch for the day to help us run a Primary School festival at the start of March. There is a hope that we can then run a fledgling Primary School Tag League in the summer term. All of these initiatives are aimed at player recruitment, but it is always great to see kids play rugby league, whether through school, or a community club.

All of this work is self-funded and supported by our gang of volunteers. It's hard work, but it can be done. 

Brilliant mate (clap emoji)  

[jacobus]

On 09/02/2021 at 21:05, The Daddy said:

How are the Nottingham Outlaws doing these days? 

Did I read somewhere they are getting a facilities upgrade? 

[del capo]

On 19/01/2023 at 19:06, Northern Eel said:

It has been a busy close season for Bassetlaw Bulldogs as we plan for our 5th year. We are growing at quite a rate, having begun from a standing start in 2018. This year, we will be rolling out 8. 

• Mixed U7, U9, U11
• Boys U13, U15
• Girls U11, U13
• X-League social touch

This means that our volunteers continue to be extremely busy. We've just launched our 2023 fundraising campaign to provide a mini-tractor to attend to our pitch and to help volunteers set up and clear up after games. You can have a peek here at our campaign. 

It is fronted by Bazza the Bulldog, our new mascot. He will be heading into both primary and secondary school settings in February to drum up some more trade. Two of our coaches are offering some after-school sessions in local schools this term too, to get more pupils involved in the game locally. 

This growth is organic, and self-funded, but it looks like the ground is pretty fertile at the moment. 

 

 

On 02/02/2023 at 18:01, Northern Eel said:

We've begun our schools work for the year today. We've developed a good relationship with the local secondary school and over the next two weeks are delivering information sessions to pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 in their year group assemblies. We will be running a 6-week after-school club for those kids to try out the game. The hope is that, as the sessions are run by our coaches, we can then coax a few of them down to the club for the 2023 season in March.

We've also got them to provide a 4g pitch for the day to help us run a Primary School festival at the start of March. There is a hope that we can then run a fledgling Primary School Tag League in the summer term. All of these initiatives are aimed at player recruitment, but it is always great to see kids play rugby league, whether through school, or a community club.

All of this work is self-funded and supported by our gang of volunteers. It's hard work, but it can be done. 

Have you contacted  your local Community Payback scheme ?

They are always short of work projects.

Here in Wigan a few clubs use them . St Judes in particular have them every sunday and they do a great job clearing the field areas of rubbish tidying up etc. Frees up their volunteers to do other work.....as well as ticking boxes with the authorities......

[Northern Eel]

On 31/01/2023 at 20:00, Northern Eel said:

I hope you don't mind me asking, but the club are currently attempting to raise £2500+ for a mini-tractor to help our volunteers with their long list of ground-based chores. We are well on the way, but have got a bit stuck this last week on our crowdfunding page.  https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/a-tractor-for-our-grounds

We have a pledge of £750 waiting in the wings from Sport England, which they will only add to our total once we reach 25 donors. We so far have 20. 

Whilst we have a couple of fundraising events coming up at the beginning of March, we would really appreciate it if anyone on the forum could spare a quid, or two, or more, just to get us over the magical 25 donors mark. You can donate as little as £1 and it can be anonymous should you wish.

I appreciate times are hard, and totally understand if it's not something you feel you could do.

Thanks in advance, friends.

PS - If you do find yourselves inclined to donate, don't feel compelled to leave a tip for the platform provider. You can just select 'other amount' and stick '0' in the box! 

I was looking at the stats on our fundraising page today and noticed that nearly 20% of our unique donors have come directly from the TotalRL.com forum. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you for helping us out in such a generous way. We are now only £362 short of our target, with a 12 days left. Will we make it? Fingers crossed...

Raising money this way means not only can we purchase our tractor to help set up training sessions and maintain our field, but we can channel other club funds into development activity. As I write, we have two coaches delivering RL sessions in secondary schools, using such funds. These activities are exposing RL to an audience who would never have been engaged in the sport otherwise. Thank you.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Northern Eel

[Eddie]

18 hours ago, Northern Eel said:

I was looking at the stats on our fundraising page today and noticed that nearly 20% of our unique donors have come directly from the TotalRL.com forum. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you for helping us out in such a generous way. We are now only £362 short of our target, with a 12 days left. Will we make it? Fingers crossed...

Raising money this way means not only can we purchase our tractor to help set up training sessions and maintain our field, but we can channel other club funds into development activity. As I write, we have two coaches delivering RL sessions in secondary schools, using such funds. These activities are exposing RL to an audience who would never have been engaged in the sport otherwise. Thank you.

Done. 
 

It’s weird that only 3 people have wanted the (effectively free) Wakey tickets. 

[Northern Eel]

 

[unapologetic pedant]

23 hours ago, Northern Eel said:

 

Quick question.

Last year on your thread in the women and girls section you mentioned that your under-12s girls team had "made it to the start line". Did that mean playing friendlies?

[Northern Eel]

1 hour ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Quick question.

Last year on your thread in the women and girls section you mentioned that your under-12s girls team had "made it to the start line". Did that mean playing friendlies?

Yes. That’s correct. We played a small number of festival games against other development clubs. This season signals a commitment to play weekly games an hour up the road in a formal league structure against established clubs in the heartlands. We’re the only club in the Midlands to have achieved this. We think that’s worth shouting about.  

[Northern Eel]

A quick update, to once again thank the good folk of Total RL Forums who kindly donated to our recent mini-tractor appeal. Happily, we met our target and the subsequent machine is now working hard for us. 

Largely, it is useful for carting training gear to and from the field, but is proving invaluable in keeping up on the quickly growing spring meadow! 

It's an invaluable resource for a young community club, and I thank you a great deal.

On the field, the club continues to grow. The girls U13s have had a tough start to the East Division fixtures up in Yorkshire, but I am sure a win is not far down the line. The Primary-aged teams are bountiful in number and are proving to be a strength of the club. It is proving slightly more difficult to maintain our older youth team numbers, but we struggle on with school's work in the coming term to try and up numbers there. 

All in all, this is a club on the rise, and patience is the key. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Northern Eel

[Northern Eel]

The girls finally mixing it with the heartlands. First win on the board at the 9th time of asking. Onwards and upwards from here hopefully. It’s been a challenge so far! 
 

 

[DoubleD]

28 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

The girls finally mixing it with the heartlands. First win on the board at the 9th time of asking. Onwards and upwards from here hopefully. It’s been a challenge so far! 
 

 

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