During the evening over £3000 was raised from the auction which was kindly carried out by Kieran Payne. A special thanks goes to all those who bought the fantastic prizes! Would also like to say a BIG thank you to SOUL'd Out for the live entertainment and to Maggie, in all the organising and running around to ensure we all had a brilliant evening, thank you. You can click here to view ALL the images from the evening.

Colchester RFC Sponsors' Evening took place on Wednesday 14th June.

Thank you to all our sponsors who attended such a great evening, hearing from our guest speakers and the delicious buffet spread done by Dawn. Thanks also goes to Dr Tom Vine for his presentation on "From Sportsmanship to Businessmanship: The valuable lessons business can learn from sport". To view the images from the evening, click here.

As you are probably aware Colchester Rugby Club raises money for four local charities within our community. There are; Holiday for Heroes Jersey, Headway Essex, The Tom Bowdidge Foundation and RFU Injured Players Foundation. Over the past year we have raised a total of £5,000 which has been equally shared among them. We had guest speakers from three of our charities attend our Sponsors' Evening on Wednesday 14th June, where we heard a bit more about what each charity does. In case you missed it please click here to read all about where your money goes and how as a club we make a difference.  

NatWest Rugby Force Weekend on Saturday 17th June - Sunday 18th June.

A fantastic turn out of volunteers for our rugby force weekend where we 're-vamped the clubhouse' with a new manager's room, installed bike racks, refreshed the paint work in the clubhouse and painted all the smaller changing rooms and BBQ area. Thanks goes to ALL who came along and helped, to Dawn Cook for feeding us all and to Kim Waters in organising a fun and great weekend. You can view the images from the weekend by clicking here.

CRFC had live coverage of the LIONS game during, Saturday 24th June, Saturday 1st July & Saturday 8th July.

Over the three weekends CRFC had over 200 people come and watch the LIONS game. Many thanks goes to Dawn and the kitchen team for providing breakfast along with thanks to Claire and the bar team. Great food, great company and a great game!!!

Colchester RFC had a change of kit and scenery as they played Frinton Cricket Club on Friday 23rd June!

Captain Liam Pickett and CRFC players played Frinton Cricket Club on Friday 23rd June where CRFC won 146-145 in the last over!!! Thanks to Liam for sharing the news.

The Trafalgar Cup

Wednesday 19th July Mill Road hosted The Trafalgar Cup. The Parachute Regiment took home the cup after winning 30 - 18 against The Royal Marines. A fantastic atmosphere with over 400 people. Images are available on line by clicking here as well as on The Parachute Regiment Facebook page.

Pre-season for our senior teams has began!

Pre season started Tuesday 18th July. Senior Training takes place every Tuesday and Thursday evening (7.00pm to 8.30pm).

Message from our Senior Chairman, Jon Smith.

"Relegation was a sobering experience for everyone involved with Senior Rugby at Colchester RFC, but it has also provided us with the opportunity to review our way of working and it is safe to say that we have learnt a great deal from last season.

Crucially, we have a very committed and dedicated squad of players who have decided to stay with Colchester, despite relegation. Players will come and go, but over the close season we have not lost swathes of players due to relegation – if anything there is renewed determination to get back into the National Three (Level 5). We now have a core of players who are experienced Level 5 competitors – players who have a proven track record and have shown that they can compete, for significant periods of a game, with teams like Wimbledon, Juddians, Westcombe Park and Hertford. We have to go into this season with determination and self-belief, but we will also have to work exceptionally hard to earn every single point.

Returning to London 1 will be challenging, there are a number of very strong sides in this division desperate for promotion and investing large sums of money paying their players, but our players are focused and they play for one another, not for financial gain. As a club, we need to support our teams. Support at Mill Road will be crucial to our season and as a player there is nothing better than knowing you have your supporters at your side – it inspires you when you have doubts and raises your spirits in adversity.

This season we welcome Joe Reid to the playing and coaching team. Joe has been recruited as a player/coach with a specialism in scrummaging. Joe (prop forward) brings with him a wealth of rugby experience having competed in the upper levels of the National League with Cambridge and Bury, and the RFU Championship with Birmingham Solihull. Joe is really keen to launch his coaching career at Colchester and on the pitch he will inject solidity into the pack, provide competition for front row places and bring experience to a maturing team. On the pitch, Liam Pickett will continue as 1st XV captain for a third season. Liam has earned the complete respect of his team and has shown superb leadership both on and off the pitch. Liam is fiercely loyal to Colchester RFC and alongside a group of senior teammates he has helped shape and plan our approach to the 2017-18 campaign to ensure that our preparations are the best they can be.

This season we hope to see lots of new, younger, developing players take to the field across the senior set-up as we set about the task of ensuring the future of our five senior teams at CRFC. We have so many experienced and skilled players in our senior set-up and it is important that younger players learn from them and come to terms with the demands and physicality of senior rugby. In order to facilitate these changes we brought the Colts (Under 17’s and 18’s) in to the Senior Rugby fold. This means that the Colts will benefit from the experience of training in a senior rugby environment, enabling them to make the transition from junior to senior rugby more effectively.

Our wider aim as a club is to make the rugby playing experience at Colchester the best it can possibly be. We will achieve this by engaging with all our teams, providing access to rugby at a range of levels for our members and ensuring that the young people of Colchester have the opportunity to fulfil their rugby ambitions."

On Saturday 19th August we travel to Bury St Edmunds RFC for a pre-season triangular against Bury and Old Albanians. The season officially kicks off on Saturday 2nd September as the 1st XV launch their London 1 campaign at North Walsham RFC. The senior fixtures have been published and are NOW available on our website, click here to view them.

Home game lunches

Below is a list of all our home game lunches, if you would like to book then please contact Maggie. The full fixtures are now available.

Beer & Cider Festival ~ Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th July

Colchester Cricket Club are holding a Beer & Cider Festival on Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th July. All welcome from 11am to Midnight. For more information please visit our website or contact Matt Parker.

Dates for your diary...

* Tuesday 15th August ~ International psychic medium Ronnie Buckingham 7:30pm. £15 a ticket (must pre purchase)

* Saturday 2nd September ~ Ladies Night! All proceeds are going to help for heros. Tickets are £15 and the doors open at 7pm. See flyer for more info.

* Saturday 23rd September ~ CRFC does OKTOBERFEST!! All day and evening .. more information coming.

Also coming up:

* Mini's & Youth 'Back to School' disco ~ September 2017.

* Curry and Karaoke night.

* Italian Night ~ Italian Dinner and wine at the club.

* Gentlemans Evening ~ November 2017.

* Club Quiz night ~ Autumn 2017.

* Children's Christmas Party ~ December 2017.

* Tribute Act night ~ Winter 2017.

* Comedy Night ~ Winter 2017.

* CRFC New Years Eve Party ~ Details to follow.

O2 Touch ~ NEEDS YOU!!

We’re looking for a new group of ambassadors to help lead and run one of the largest O2 Touch centres in the area. If you are interested please contact Rebecca Hare.

Grown out of OR got a second hand pair of boots to donate?

Help farm workers in South Africa play the sport we love ...

Libby Turners sister in law has given a piece of her land in South Africa in Hermanus to enable the black and coloured community of farm workers to set up a rugby pitch. They used tree trunks to make goal posts and the land is a little wonky but it has been a major success. What they are desperately in need of are rugby boots!! Can you Help ?
If you have grown out of any old boots or have a second hand pair and are willing to donate then please bring them along with you in the first and second week of September where a collection bin will be under the stairs. Contact Maggie if you are interested.

Colchester Rugby Club gets social...

There's plenty going on across our social media all the time. Keep up to date with all CRFC news, Throwback Thursday as well as notices and video highlights. If you head over to our YouTube channel you can witness all the tries from Colchester this season.

So, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop. You can also find videos of all the tries from this season and last on our YouTube channel and all the behind the scenes action and live game highlights are on our snapchat: colchesterrugby.

Wishing you all a great summer!

Regards Megg Flexman, CRFC Press Officer