New squad pic

 Back row, left to right: George Briscoe, Hedley Copplestone, Tom Sheridan, Jack Webster, Alastair Hughes, Alexander Ghanbouri, Oliver Ross, Tom Scott, Alex Storey, Jerry Shepherd-Moore, Thomas Thirkettle, Jack Brady.
Front row, left to right: Harry Simmons, Sam Crafer, Jali Packer, Miles Jamieson, George Robson, Ben Corney (Captain), Thomas Casburn, Harry Jenkins, Dean Stolworthy, Oliver Boldero, Theo Durban.
Not pictured: Fin Kemp, Robin Locke, Callum Mackenzie, Harrison Nolan,  

Norwich 10s Tournament

Well done to everybody for yesterday, a much improved performance from last week with spells of some very good rugby. Still lots to work on but you wouldn't want us coaches to be idle on a Sunday morning, would you?

The tournament gave us plenty of opportunities to try different combinations out and also to ensure as many players as possible got as much pitch time as possible. Due to the healthy size of our squad we were also able to loan several players out to other teams, well done to everyone who was 'volunteered' for this. Never an easy thing to do but very valuable, to not only the individuals but also the other teams and the tournament as a whole.

Game 1. Holt v West Norfolk
Holt came out the winners in this first game, looking sharp and awake. Simmo scored the first after Theo took the ball in deep into the West defence and the recycled ball was spun out through Jack and back to Simmo. Ally then added a second after a couple of great scrums. A few changes at half time and straight from the start Simmo had a chance to stretch his legs and break through to score. West pegged one back late on with a good run from one of their stand-out players.
Holt 3 - WN 1

Game 2. Holt v Norwich.
With a virtually completely re-jigged team for this game it was going to be interesting to see how certain combinations would work. Dean certainly made an impressive start, making a great straight run to be held up 2 metres short. However Jenks soon got the scoring underway following some good quick re-cycling. Dean then got his first and well-deserved try for the club. For someone who has only been with us for three weeks and never played before this was very encouraging. Miles off-loaded to Shed, who passed it on to Dean, who ran a great straight line to score in the corner.
At the beginning of the 2nd half Norwich pegged one back and then added an equalising score coming from behind a scrum 5metres out. Lots of positives in this game. Alex made some great tackles along with Harrison, strong, hard and more importantly finished them off. Tommy T got stuck in and made good use of his height in the lineout. Shed was very involved, making breaks and popping simple good passes to continue the momentum. Ollie Ross looked strong, driving into the opposition in the loose. Very pleasing performance all round.
Holt 2 - Norwich 2

Game 3. Holt v North Walsham.
This was going to be by far the toughest game of the morning and was very evenly matched for a long period of the 1st half. Jack made a great break through the middle of the NW team and the move should have produced more but he had no support. If someone had been running off him a simple offload could have produced a score. Every runner should have a wingman! NW scored a try breaking up the wing, however the player was clearly in touch but the ref, unsighted, gave the try. To everybody's credit the players accepted the score and moved on. Well done. NW did then add 2 more tries, another break down the wing and one where we were clearly standing off and not attacking them in defence.
The second half was a much better half and everybody upped their game, tackling hard, particularly Callum and Simmo and also players always looking to break. The scrums were good, the lineouts well contested with George hitting his man and more than once Holt winning the lineout on a NW put in. The game ended with no further scores being added by either team. The area most evident of needing improvement is the ruck. We had many promising situations that were turned over by poor body positions. Something to work on in the next few weeks.
Holt 0 - NW 3

Game 4. Holt v Wymondham.
A slow start to this game cost Holt 2 early and easy tries. Wymondham were pegged back by a try from Dean after Caz distributed well in the line. The props were very evident,  Jerry working well and making several breaks in the loose, Alexander continued to make big hits all morning.
More changes were made at half time and although Wymondham scored a further couple of tries, including one right on the final whistle, the game was however far less one-sided than the score suggests. Take away the gifted early tries and this would have been a much closer game.
Holt 1 - Wymondham 4

Overall a lot of good rugby, some very encouraging signs and plenty to work on. Well done everybody, hopefully nobody too seriously injured, a few knocks and bruises but we were playing rugby, not girly football.

See you all next week for plenty of training and official match photographs. Please wear black shorts and socks, we want to look our best for our sponsors.

Sponsored Walk

Tommy Ross has been working very hard to organise the next fund raising effort for the Holt under14s tour to Morocco. He even has a clipboard.

Everyone who came to Fakenham last week was given an envelope, which contained your sponsorship form and the details below. Tommy will hunt down anyone else not ticked off. Then tick them off.

Below are the brief details of the walk, it's a very good route and will be a challenge but we don't want to make it too easy. You might even enjoy it. Please look to get as many sponsors as possible, this is the boys chance to do their bit for the tour.

From Tommy.

As part of our fund-raising initiative for the Under 14s Morocco Tour during the Easter holidays in 2012 we are planning a sponsored walk on Sunday 30^th October.

The walk, which will total 15 miles, will begin and end at Holt Rugby Club and we hope that as many of you as possible can take part with your son. We are planning to walk as a team but ideally need parents/guardians to walk with their own children.  Please let me know by Sunday 16^th October whether you intend to take part or not,  so we don’t leave anyone behind on the day,  and if need be can assign children without a parent to another adult.

We are meeting at 10.00am for a 10.15am start and will provide a map on the day. The route will take us over Kelling Heath, passed the Muckleburgh collection, through Weybourne and back up to cross the A148 towards Lower Bodham.  From there we will head towards Baconsthorpe and on to the Hare and Hounds Pub at Hempstead for some well-earned refreshments. Fully refreshed,  all that remains is the home-stretch back to Holt RFC.

Most of it is on public footpaths so it is important that everyone has sturdy footwear and appropriate clothing and it is advisable to bring along a supply of water and snacks as there are no check points along the way.

There is a £50 cash prize for the lad who collects the most sponsorship. Don’t leave it till a couple of weeks before – start getting your sponsors NOW!

Any questions either see me on Sunday mornings up at the Club or ring me on 07889958008.

Regards

Tommy Ross

10s practice match v Fakenham (11.09.11)

With the 10s tournament at Norwich next week, it was decided to use this ‘training’ fixture as a bit of practice for that and we played x3 20minute games. This did mean lots of changes and several players playing out of position but everybody got on and had a chance to shine...

Fakenham have always been the kind of opposition that Holt have felt they can beat. However, they were the better team out there today. They were better organised, keener and wanted the ball more. We may have better individual players, match-winners in fact but rugby is a team game.

There were positives to take from the day but there were many negatives and areas to work on. I’ll do the negatives first:

Too many players turned up either still asleep or like they hadn’t slept all night.

Too many tackles were either not made or not finished or too high.

Lack of support for the runners. In fact lack of support all round.

Our stamina was very poor, we need to manage ourselves better through a game.

Rucks were not cleared. Low and hard please. This gives us quick ball to use our pace.

I shouted too much.

And now for some positives.

We scored 7 tries.

Callum scored 3, in one match.

Alex stormed into the game, taking out their receiver.

There were several tries saved on the line. Simmo saved a certain try by chasing back.

Dean made a very encouraging start.

Jali worked hard in defence.

Jack and Shed worked hard and combined well in the centres.

Jenks put a lot of effort in, all morning.

We got better as the morning went on.

The shirts looked good.

New season. New sponsors.

First of all a massive 'Thank You' to Stuart's Taxi & Travel for all the support over the past few years. Not only have they sponsored the shirts through the latter years of our age group as Minis and many a tournament's success but most importantly they were the name on our shirts when we won the Norfolk Cup.

This year we will not only be wearing a new set of shirts, matching the senior sides with the new 50th Anniversary logo, we will also be brandishing new sponsors.

As you will see from the pictures below we have Boldero & Co, courtesy of Ian Boldero, father of Ollie sporting the right arm and on the left a graphic to symbolise the Norfolk Cup win.

On the front you will see we are sponsored this time by TalkTalk. Something you lot are very good at, unfortunately we couldn't find a sponsor called ListenListen. We are of course very grateful to TalkTalk and their investment into rugby at grass roots level. Let's make sure we wear the shirts with pride and give our sponsors something to shout about.