On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Chinnor RFC hosted a Schools’ Tag Festival for year 5 & 6s. This event was co-ordinated by Nick Todd of England Rugby, Jamie Hazeldine and Steve Trenchard of Chinnor RFC. The event was sponsored by Star Hotshots who provided the 3 trophies, and medals and goodie bags for every competitor. An army of volunteers helped with refereeing, marshalling, and goffering not only from Chinnor RFC but also some from the PACK, a legacy from the Rugby World Cup 2015.

John Hampden and Barley Hill from Thame, St Andrew’s from Chinnor, Long Crendon and Testworth schools were able to attend this day which was rescheduled from last term, postponed because of bad weather. This Wednesday, the sun shone on these 5 schools who between them fielded 6 teams. Each team played 5 matches in the preliminary rounds. As the matches progressed, the skills improved with confidence and the rugby flowed. After the 5 matches, each team progressed to compete for either the Cup, Bowl or Plate. The final results saw St Andrews winning the Cup, John Hampden the Plate and Tetsworth the Bowl. Every player went away with a medal & goodie bag

One team are worthy of special mention. At first they didn’t even know each other’s names, but they quickly put their sporting skills in practice to become a credible team. The “Federation” was made up of a mix of players from John Hampden and Tetsworth.

Hopefully every player, teacher, parent, volunteer and spectator went away with a positive view of competitive sport and England Rugby’s message of Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship.

Carol Bradbrook-Taylor