As you read this our 1st XV are already on route to Guernsey RFC for their final match of the season. When Colchester hosted Guernsey at Mill Road, for the first home game of the season, despite a strong performance by Colchester we were narrowly beaten by Guernsey 23 - 29. Last game of the season it is our turn to make the distance, jetting off for the weekend and hopefully bringing a win home.

"Guernsey is the highlight of our season in that it gives us a chance to enjoy each other's company in a focused environment. It is always a good marker of our level as well. Their DOR Jordan is a great guy and the club it's self is a very nice place to be. I always look forward to this fixture and it will be missed next year. Of course we hope to cause some upset and take the win which I have every confidence in us to do so. It's been a hard season with many regrets and near misses but we can't forget the fact that in occasions we have played the best rugby of our time together so far." DOR, Anthony O'Riordan.

"I think this weekend is a good opportunity for us to enjoy our final game in National 3 this season. Our aspirations next year are to get promoted immediately back into this league and a win this weekend will be a a great way to show that we belong in this league, as we have shown all year that we are able to challenge most sides." Danny Whiteman, Number 8.

Can't make it to the game? Not to worry, we'll be live tweeting and snapchatting the action, so make sure you follow us on Twitter @ColchesterRFC and snapchat: colchesterrugby Why not send our players some support using #ComeOnCol

RAVENS game is no longer on this Saturday against Canterbury Pilgrims II's. Our Cavaliers and Roundheads have finished for the season, enjoy your off season!!

Youth this Sunday ...

WHAT A WEEKEND WE HAVE IN LINE FOR YOU ALL!! This weekend we have our Colts Academy traveling to Woodbridge for the Eastern Counties Final, if you are making your way there kick off is at 12:30pm.

Mill Road is hosting the U15's Festival, with 20 sides and 4 girls team. This is the first year our girls are taking part. The main Trophy for the senior winners is the Ron Hatch Cup. Ron Hatch is a very old friend of the clubs, a former long serving Secretary of Colchester RFC. Ron has been a supporter for many years, from our annual youth festivals to every senior team home game. Visit our website to see all the teams who are visiting. See below our full WEEKEND ROUND UP.

Good luck to all players this weekend! Wishing you all the best!

#ComeOnCol

Eastern Counties U21 / University Returners Festival

A great Easter Sunday where our U21's / University Returners played in the festival at Southwold. For all the results and photo albums visit our website here.

Announcements;

We are approaching the end of the 2016-17 season and this is when we start the process of allocating roles and responsibilities for the new season.

One of the roles vitally important to the club is that of the MINI RUGBY CHAIRPERSON. Jon Smith has been temporarily holding this post over the course of the current season, but we would like a permanent Mini Chairperson installed ready for the new season.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, or you are already a volunteer but would like a new challenge, please let us know; we welcome new people and new ideas. If you’re interested, please get in touch…

CRFC DOUBLE CENTURION CLUB - IT'S MUCH MORE LIKELY TO BE YOU!

You might not know that CRFC runs its own lottery. And because it only has 200 members the odds on you winning are vastly higher than the one run by Dale Winton. Even if you don’t win the money goes to a cause we all love – Colchester Rugby Club.

DC membership costs just £5 per month and half of all money collected is returned in big monthly prizes. We’ve got a few vacant spaces and if you’re quick you can snap one up before the BIG annual draw of £1,500 on Community Day on 30th April. Yes, that’s £1,500!

To join just email DC Supremo Kim Waters and she’ll do the rest. 'And hurry, spaces are limited and ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’!

Upcoming events...

DON'T MISS OUR AGM ~ Colchester RFC Annual General Meeting is taking place Thursday 27th April at 7:30PM in the clubhouse.

Find minutes from 2016 Annual General Meeting and 2017's agenda by visiting our website.

Message to pass on to you all;
Even though no concrete consent has been given for the go ahead of the impending move of CRFC, our Chairman Karl O'Brien will be able to give an informed update on the progress so far.

You can contact Maggie here to submit items of agenda or apologises

Community Fun Day ~ Sunday 30th April

Only 9 days till our annual Community Fun Day for St Helena's Hospice!

With a day packed of fun; awards for our mini's rugby, touch rugby taking place and proudly introducing RUGBY 7's tournament and a Hog Roast with much much more..

A Raffle will be taking place, tickets can be purchased now and includes prizes such as an iPad and 2x Rugby Autumn International Tickets.

Whitehall Resources are proudly sponsoring the Rugby 7’s tournament that is taking place on our Community Day, next Sunday 30th April. Many thanks to Trem and Ricky at Whitehall Resources.

Please contact maggiew234@gmail.com to purchase your raffle tickets.

More upcoming events ..

The Ron Hatch Trophy ~ Sunday 23rd April

Colchester AGM ~ Thursday 27th April

Colchester Brewery Trip ~ Friday 28th April

Community Fun Day ~ Sunday 30th April

Summer Ball ~ Friday 9th June

Rugby Force Weekend ~ 24th/25th June

For more information on the upcoming events visit our website.

Throwback Thursday

A's Finish Strong in the Sun..

With all this glorious sunshine recently it takes us back to one of the sunniest days last year that rugby was being played... 348 days to be precise.

It was the A's playoff game against Harwich & Dovercourt in the scorching sunshine with a record breaking crowd for an A's match EVER!

The A's had not been defeated in all of their league games and (spoiler alert) were not beaten by Harwich in a tough encounter. Winning 19-17.

Winning the game and thus winning promotion to Eastern Counties 1, in the glorious sun!

The full match report and photos can be found here, be sure to wear sunscreen when viewing..

The A's managed to stay up in a EC1 this year in a league consisting of first teams. Notably traveling all the way up to Wisbech winning 5-6 in a brutal game, now renamed the Battle of Wisbech. After a long travelling season they have now earnt themselves a good long break!

Thanks for the throwback! Please keep them coming in here!

Colchester Rugby Club gets social...

There's plenty going on across our social media all the time. Keep up to date with all the action live on match days, behind the scenes at training sessions as well as Throwback Thursday and video highlights. If you head over to our YouTube channel you can witness all the Colchester tries from 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.

Good luck to all our players in action this weekend!

Regards Megg Flexman, CRFC Press Officer