In the spirit of the Queen’s Christmas Message, it has been suggested that I should start a tradition of sending festive greetings to all our players, members and supporters and so I have taken the opportunity to share a few thoughts at the end of an incredibly busy year for the club.

In my experience, we all tend to focus far too easily on the negative aspects of life and the things that we haven’t achieved rather than reflecting on the positive issues and the distance we have travelled.

Over the last 12 months we have come a long way together in the delivery of our key strategic goals:-
• Creating a Family Friendly Atmosphere in which all feel welcome
• Strengthening the Club’s Finances
• Developing the Club’s Facilities for Players, Spectators and Social Members and
• Improving the rugby strength of the club through enhancing the player development pathway from Minis to Juniors and on to Senior Rugby via the Academy

With the help of a growing band of volunteers, we have run some fantastically successful Social Events including a phenomenal Fireworks Night, the 2nd Annual Ale and Cider Festival and an inaugural #OneClubSocial – a great evening in the clubhouse in October. With regular music nights following 1st XV home games, Lily Hill Park has become a thriving place to spend some memorable Friday and Saturday nights.

With the Clubhouse also becoming a popular venue for local residents with our Hall being regularly booked for parties, we have seen our financial position improve sufficiently to gives us the opportunity to re-invest further in our facilities following the completion of the Disabled-Access Viewing Platform and improved pitch-side access. With the on-going support of members from all parts of the club we are hoping to be able to purchase a new e-Scoreboard and surround for Pitch 1 in the near future.

We have also seen some fantastic rugby played by all our teams during 2017; our 2nd and 3rd XVs finish the year at the top of their respective leagues which means fierce competition for places in the 1st XV should hopefully see us climb back up the SW Premiership table in 2018 starting with a crucial match away to Newbury on 6th January. Our Junior teams continue to provide evidence of the ‘Golden Generation’ currently being nurtured in the club with league titles / cup wins for U16s and U14s respectively and all age groups including the Academy being able to regularly field both A and B teams. Along with our Minis these represent the 1st XV players of the future so enormous thanks go to the many parents who give up so much time to help develop core skills and pass on a love of this great game.

It is disappointing that we have ended the year being told that there was insufficient support from other local clubs for RFU to justify building an Artificial Grass Pitch at Lily Hill Park. This does though gives us the opportunity to review how we could improve the pitches, the car parking and the clubhouse. Please look out for more information in the New Year and please give serious consideration to how you could get involved to help improve the Club for both the current members and those yet to come.

I am enormously grateful to the many individuals who already give up their precious spare time to help the club be what it is today. Whether coaching, team management, safeguarding or fundraising, the club survives on ~400 voluntary hrs / wk. To all of you who enjoy rugby and being part of the ever-growing Bracknell RFC family, I would ask you to consider giving up a few hours occasionally (or regularly) during 2018 to get involved and ‘make things even better’; oh by the way, it is also great fun and a fantastic way to make new and lasting friendships.

So I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and the whole Executive look forward to welcoming you all back to Lily Hill Park in 2018

Clive Field
Chair – on behalf of Bracknell RFC Executive Committee