The Day the Circus came to Holt!!

The Under 9s were on Tour to Norfolk last weekend. The theme was clowning around, and they did just that!

Each year the club takes the mini section from under 8s up on tour. This year the 26 boys that could make it were on the coach to West Runton for the weekend. The fun started before we even got on the bus! This year Tour Master Hefford chose "Clowning Around" as the theme so the boys had to dress up as did the coaches.

On the bus, the singing started before we left the county, introducing the under 8s who were with us to certain tour traditions. Anyone bothered about the lyrics of "Delilah" should not worry as during the open mike slot, "Once I was Seven Years Old" was murdered by several of the lads!

We knew we were on for a good weekend when the driver was forced into a field as we spotted a circus in town, stopping for a quick photo amongst other things, it was back onto the bus for Kingswood. Over the weekend the boys enjoyed go-karting, climbing, abseiling, caving, archery (I beat Kelvin - who is an instructor apparently!), pool party, zip wire, leap of faith however they put up with Nightline!.

More importantly they had great fun sharing dorms, getting the coaches up early and running around with their mates. Tour Court was a must, with all of the squad in the dock at some stage. Eventually everyone, including the coaches got fined, one in - all in!

The coaches had there black tie (from the waist up) dinner on Saturday night although it was pointed out I looked like I was about to play snooker rather than eat :-(

Sunday the team grabbed their kit, shoved it in their bags and we were off to the Holt Festival. Three teams (Jokers, Tricksters and Jetsers) took on the other teams from around the region playing 4 matches each as a festival - no finals. A great day, the weather held, lunch was kindly provided by Clare and her gang along with the T-Shirts for the three teams.

All in all a great weekend. Tour is a great part of rugby, which continues its values off the pitch. The boys learn to play and gel as a squad, they learn to face a bit of adversity (activities, court, being away from home) and find that with your mates around you, you can do anything. Pushing themselves to try new things.

They showed great sportsmanship, being the only team to hand over a gift to every team they played, a commemorative rugby ball sponsored by Bluefish, Crossfit East Northants, Camloc Security, Doodles Popcorn, Craig Withey and Shoosmiths & Ravensden.

The player of the month was awarded to a much deserved Thomas Bates, player of the week went to an exhausted Jack Bates (shows the effort put in!) and George Berry was awarded Man of Tour! A big thanks went out to Andrea for all her organisation and of course the parents for paying!

"The Book" has begun to fill for next years court already as a few haven't learnt the term "what goes on tour stays on" but with so much fun I can't blame them.