County Champions 2011-2012

By Andy Done-Johnson. Picture by Lisa Tipping.

Months of training and hard work paid off on Sunday (November 20) for Derby U-11s as they stormed to victory in the Derbyshire County Championships. The competition - which took place at Ilkeston Rugby Club and secured Derby a place in the NLD finals in Newark next March - saw nine teams from around the county battle it out for supremacy.

The 17-strong squad - selected from the side’s 38 regular players - faced tough opposition in their opening game with Dronfield, but secured a convincing 10-0 win with some robust forward work from Rohan Weatherburn and Max Morley, some inspired running from Adam Hopkins and Harvey Loomes, and some courageous play from Lewis Klein.

The Derby squad next faced a determined Chesterfield side, but again won with a comfortable 15-0 margin, with good runs from Harry Shakesheff and strong support from Jim Hather and George Borzykh from the forwards.

The boys then made light work of a depleted Buxton side, putting six tries past them in the first half, with some crunching tackles by Oliver Done-Johnson, and good support from new-comers Ben Siddle and Joe Coupe.Tom Graham and Matthew Wolfe also showed some slick passing in the back line. Bakewell offered stiffer competition, but Loomes and Hopkins again stepped up to the plate, aided by strong running from Alfie Tipping, Parras Joshi and Johnny Salloway. A 20-0 win put Derby into the final against long-time rivals Melbourne.

Melbourne came ready for the fight but never managed to penetrate Derby’s impressive defence, and a try from Billy Willis seconds before the half-time whistle gave Derby a well-deserved 5-0 win. Head Coach Simon Willis said: “I am absolutely delighted with this convincing victory from our boys. It was a real team effort. It is testament of their hard work and dedication over the past few months and the guidance and leadership demonstrated by all our coaches."

Pictured celebrating their victory are Billy, Oliver, Jim, George, Max, Ben, Joe, Rohan, Harry, Adam, Harvey, Parras, Lewis, Matthew, Alfie, Tom, Johnny.

Tuesday 22nd November - NO Training tonight

With apologies, training tonight has had to be cancelled, as we have insufficient coaches available to do it. We will be training on Sunday 10am - 12noon.

Derbyshire County Champions 2011-2012

All that hard work on the training field paid off today as we stormed to victory in the Derbyshire County Championships @ Ilkeston. We played five teams and beat them all, scoring 16 tries and conceeding none. The win secured our place in the Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire (NLD) finals tournament in March 2012. Match reports will follow, but in the meantime massive congratulations from all the coaching team to Billy, Rohan, Max, Joe, Jim, George, Oliver, Ben, Parras, Lewis, Johnny, Tom, Harry, Adam, Harvey, Matthew and Alfie. Every single boy was a star.

Name your team

Voting closes at 5pm on Tuesday 22nd November. We need a team name - Derby "Somethings" - to carry through the age groups. It will help with bank accounts, a website adresses and build team awareness. Eight suggestions were received in response to a previous email and posting - now we need everyone to vote on their favorite. You can cast your vote for more than one name if you want but only one set of votes per family please. It is a simple first-past-the-post vote - the winner will be the name with the most votes.

Sunday 13 November - away at Matlock RFC

On Sunday, 13 November we are away at Matlock RFC. Since there is an under 9s and 10s tournament at Haslams all boys should come to Matlock and we will train and play twice. If you have not already told Jackie Willis about your availability please do so by email. The address of Matlock RFC is: Cromford Meadows,Off Mill Road, Cromford, Matlock. DE4 3RQ. Please arrive for 9.45am as usual.