Well, by now we should have finished our pre-season training, had a few warm-up games and be eagerly anticipating the first game of the season with all of the excitement and trepidation that involves. Of course, for very understandable reasons, that is not to be. But the Club does not rest.

On the adult front, we have for some time now had the squad out training albeit they have a two week break underway as it is clear the next possible start date is not until November. The Wildboys regularly attend joint sessions with the Senior Squad as Richard continues to expound on the ‘one Club’ mantra. I popped in briefly on Saturday to their social and was greatly encouraged by some of the older playing members telling me how good the buzz is around the feeling of inclusiveness.

The juniors have been back training for a little while and it is great to see their coaches and parents hanging around after training in the Marquee to discuss the finer points of how they can improve things for their players often until way into the night! The minis start their training on September 6, so then we will have the full suite out there.

Indeed, there are not many days - if any - when you can go up the Club and find nothing much going on. Richard is a permanent fixture in his DoR office and I haven’t found out yet where Will has his mattress as I am convinced that he must be sleeping there.

This morning I popped in to find our beloved members of the Friday Club who seemed to be around every corner. One of my favourite Chinnor pictures is of Mike Pearman sitting on a chair painting a section at a time of the age-old post and rail pitch perimeter fence that the Friday Club have nurtured through many more years than its natural shelf life.

Most mornings and afternoons, we also have members of Powerhouse Performance Club jogging around the outside of the Clubhouse and being put through their paces with weights.

One of the genuinely most pleasing developments in my time at Chinnor is the formation of the Women’s team now known as the Kites and to see Fran’s team turning out for training on a Thursday night is a pivotal moment for our Club. We know Fran and her squad feel welcome here and long may it be the case.

Will and Stewart have done a brilliant job getting off the ground some inaugural events such as the quiz night and the curry night – both great successes - and other events are being planned as we speak. I know they would welcome anyone with an initiative that they would like to start up in respect of a social event stepping forward.

We have regular management meetings in the Marquee and it is great to see people wondering in to have a drink around 6pm.

The AGM was the best attended I can recall with people hanging around for a good wee while afterwards and boosting bar takings.

The last two weeks the Community Department, with help from players, has had record numbers of children at their Skills Camps. I bumped into Matt Goode yesterday who is enthused about the need for our Community Group’s services as schools come out of lockdown with one-to-one mentoring of special needs pupils coming to the fore. We currently have Soane Tonga’uiha and another coach carrying out 30 hours tuition a week at Ashfold School and as other schools open up, we anticipate a large demand. We are also in the vanguard of many excellent initiatives. My thanks to Amanda Pearce Higgins and Matt for bringing our Community work to the fore.

Our social media continues to be informative and inclusive and we are nearly always in the top 5 Pitchero club sites and regularly number 1. Many thanks to Jack Johnson for that.

Sorry for the slight ramble, but I hope I have conveyed that despite no rugby being played in anger there is so much going on at the Club and a really great feel and some fun being had. The key focal point in all of this is the Marquee which is enabling safe events to be held even if the weather turns. I would urge all of you to pop in for either a scheduled event or just meet up there with friends.

We have taken delivery of our new tractor courtesy of Kubota. Many thanks to Dave Hart and Alex Dymott for sorting this out. It shows that even in these tough times our sponsors are solidly demonstrating their commitment to the community. We have agreed to further invest in the cutting and groundcare equipment to take us up to gold standard again with a substantial contribution from one of our sponsors. After years of making do with ageing, not for purpose machinery, it will be great to provide John and Brian with the right equipment to make their lives easier and to provide a top-class playing surface.

Turning to the serious side of first team rugby, Richard is making great inroads with the formation of our new squad. He and we are adamant that we only want players that want to be here for the right reasons and no longer will money be the principle reason. It is the case, of course, that once the RFU significantly reduced their support for the Championship for this coming season that those clubs would have to revisit their models with most of them converting to the semi-pro version perhaps somewhat like our model from last season and preceding years. They were not able to adapt their agreements with the fully professional players overnight, so many of them have not had their contracts renewed. The easy fix was therefore to turn to a Club such as Chinnor and approach their semi pro players and offer a similar package, but with the opportunity to play in the Championship.

Now, of course, under our new financial model we would not wish to continue paying them at the old rate, but our ability to renegotiate was taken away with the Championship’s new model. We have lost some 12 of our first-choice players to Nottingham and London Scottish alone. We will no doubt see a fragmentation of the Championship with the three or four full-time clubs breaking away from the remaining eight part-time clubs. We may also see that in National League 1 where there are three or four clubs forging ahead of the others. This will continue unless the RFU impose salary caps at these two levels and make the sanctions worthwhile as opposed to a slap on the wrists.

However, if you are going to reset then a near clean sheet is not a bad thing and Richard is able to bring in a new band of enthusiastic players. It is also great to see the likes of Bertie, Gossy, Oscar and Caolan staying on. And whilst we may be cutting back on expenditure on the cost of players, Richard is creating a first-class coaching and support set-up.

Oh, and talking of old faces, it’s great to see Jerry back at what he does best - being rude to our sponsors. Welcome back Jerry!

As to a start date for league rugby, Richard is hopeful for November but I reckon not before the end of this year. I will see you on the touchline whenever that is and hopefully in the Marquee for a beer soon.

In the meantime, we would appreciate you taking a look at the membership payments section on our website as it would be good to get some subs rolling in to support everything that is going on.

Best wishes,

Simon