Woz On - An update from Honiton Rugby Club

Well hello everyone! Just thought I'd restart the "woz on" at the Ton. What a horrendous few months we've all had and I fear the issues and the fallout from the virus is going to continue for a while yet.

As you all know the playing of rugby fell off a cliff in March and rugby and life as we know it has ground to a halt. Typical of us, the week before the lock down we wisely (or unwisely as it turned out ) put in a large beer order for the remaining games of the season, only to painfully watch it all go out of date as we couldn't sell it.

The brewery tried to help with a scheme to recompense clubs/pubs but as is the way with these things, the process for claiming it back is very difficult and half of the stock isn't included in the scheme anyway and I'm still trying to actually get our claim agreed.

It's not going well and I'm still awaiting a call back. Frankly, customer services for many organisations is in my opinion, appalling! If anyone else says "your call is important to us" I'll explode. Clearly it isn't or they'd answer the phone! Stopper had to take pictures of me throwing the beer out and the pictures had to be uploaded onto the claims system website, very odd, farcical and a real pain in the Khyber Pass for sure.

We had a full programme of events within the club house, booked throughout the summer but unfortunately one by one they fell by the wayside. You know the score with that as you've all had things cancelled and for us this has meant revenue has been non-existent all summer.

Now not all doom and despair as Andy C has been working tirelessly to get any grants that have been available for us and we have been lucky with that, which has helped greatly and in true community sprit we let the "random kitchen" people use the club during the crisis months to help out the vulnerable in the community.

Since we got it back we have done a bit of a spruce up on the old girl and my chums Gordon, Stopper and Dave Lee have done bits and bobs to keep things ship shape, so big thanks to them from the Ton.

So on to what's next? Well rugby starts next week! Oh no! Actually it doesn't! By now we would have had a couple of trial games under our belts in readiness for next week's proper start but it ain't happening and we are now in limbo, awaiting some sort of a green light to allow rugby to start but I fear it's a little way off yet and of course this only means no good bar takes to help with the coffers.

Playing wise we are just trying to do as much as is allowed under the guidelines and basically this means training and playing touch rugby. Regarding the bar this is also tricky as ordering lots of beer is a no no as we don't want it to go off if we can't have crowds.

The juniors have been encouraged to start in a similar vein and dates for the age groups training are being sorted between the managers and coaches. Churchie and Brendon have been managing the seniors and we have a club risk assessments in place. There are now forms and sanitizers for everything we do. No point moaning and if we want to play anything, it's just got to be done.

Now some good news, we have appointed a new head coach who is called Dan Woods. A newbie to the Ton, we found him on the internet and he's been coaching up north at a university. He's moved down and Andy is in the process of trying to sort out a job for him. He's very keen and even though we can't do much at the mo, he has a programme of training organised and he's keen to help with the junior coaching as well. All very positive and it gives a bit of light in what are dark days.

Now, on Saturday we have one of these tidy up days and we entered the Natwest scheme and were awarded £500 to carry out the work. Payment is on the condition bods turn up to help so that's over to you all!

We're down there on Saturday with lots of odd jobs for everyone to help with, please come on down and we will allocate. There might be a cider in it for you as well and even if you can't stay long it will be a chance to ask questions as to 'woz on'and just say hello and welcome back.

We'll start at 10am, bring the kids and we will smother everything in sanitizer gel and socially distance at all times. If you can't do Saturday the 'wall' guys will be there on Sunday and we can do other odd jobs then.

The week after that the seniors are down on the Saturday doing tests etc and again it is a chance to come and have a beer. We have to get people used to coming back down.

Regarding lunches etc, obviously it's all is on hold at the moment but I'm pleased to say Ally is still on board as our head honcho and as soon as we can, we will do some things.

We've got to sort out an AGM but this is difficult sat the mo but a starting point will be if you are in a club post or position at the mo, can you drop us a line saying that you're ok to continue and we'll go from there.

Finally no doubt things are going to be tough this year and we will be relying on the members, VP's, valued sponsors and benefactors to try and keep us afloat especially with the much lower bar taking situation. So if you were on board last year please stick with us as you know we are a volunteer organisation that is solely here to benefit the community as best we can.

If you have any thoughts suggestions on what we can do to generate money, do call or drop us a line. I think, thinking outside the box is going to be key this year and the more volunteers we have just doing things, the better it will be.

So welcome back and #UTT

Yours

Jez