On Saturday 30^th April, 16 teams from regions across England gathered at Walcot RFC to compete in this year’s highly anticipated, BRF Mixed Ability Cup 2022 tournament.

It was a day to celebrate the many success stories of the season coming from every team that participated - for BRF, we were proud that several of our Walcot Warriors and Bath Ladies Trojans who were present at our launch training session in 2017, played in this year’s Mixed Ability Cup tournament. It's crazy and exciting for us to think that the first session we ran in 2017 had around 15 players present, fast forward to Saturday, and we have been thrilled to have welcomed over 250 players to the tournament - maths doesn’t need to be your strong point to see the incredible increase in participation here!

Excitingly, this year’s team sign ups were double the previous year, meaning we were able to run two tournaments alongside each other, (touch and contact) therefore be truly inclusive in offering opportunities to both those who are very new to the game, as well as those looking for something a little bit more competitive within the tournament.

The spirit of rugby was truly alive throughout the entire day, the place was abuzz with players, coaches, supporters, and spectators all enjoying a great day of rugby – it was great to see families making the most of the fun zone in-between matches, as well as players taking the opportunity to refuel with food and drink served from the supporters tent and Walcot RFC clubhouse.

A big thank you to all the volunteers and staff who made the day such a great success, with more than £1500 raised through kit sales, food and drink sp and programme and raffle ticket sales. This money will be reinvested back into our Mixed Ability activities for the coming season. 

What is apparent is that an unstoppable and vitally important wider community is building, not only within Bath Rugby Foundation and the Mixed Ability clubs we support: Melksham Stags, Walcot Warriors, Bath Ladies Trojans, and Yeovil Mixed Ability but also through the wider community: Worcester, Longlevens, Dragons, Berkshire, and Wasps Community Team who we've now met numerous times throughout the season. A special thank you to Worcester, Berkshire, and Wasps for their welcoming us to their festivals earlier in the season, our teams made some very special memories at these festivals and so we were delighted to be able to return the favour to them at the weekend. 

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to all who took part in the tournament, for many it was their first ever tournament which took great courage for them to step up and participate - this bravery didn’t go unnoticed by our coaches, we were extremely proud of everyone who stepped onto the pitch throughout the day and are pleased that they could all walk away with a medal and goodie bag, (kindly provided by Irwin Mitchell) as a memento of the day. 

A special congratulations to our Mixed Ability Cup 2022 Winners

 

Mixed Ability Cup 2022 Contact Champions - Walcot Warriors

Mixed Ability Cup 2022 Touch Champions - Yeovil Mixed Ability

Bowl Champions - Worcester RFC

Contact player of the tournament - Jonny Flower (Melksham Stags)

Touch Player of the tournament - Rhodri (Dragons Allstars)

Thank you's

PREMIERSHIP RUGBY
GALLAGHER
BATH RUGBY
WALCOT RUGBY CLUB
IRWIN MITCHELL
JOLLY JUMPERS
BRISTOL FUN HIRE
ROAR SOUNDS
PAUL GILLIS PHOTOGRAPHY
SOMERSET REFEREES SOCIETY
MILSTED LANGDON
EVO CLOTHING
MARSHFIELD FARM ICE CREAM

A look back on the BRF Mixed Ability Season 2021/22 and what’s still to come….  

It has been a busy year for Bath Rugby Foundation with the launch of Melksham Stags, who are quickly becoming established and really championing the spirit of Mixed Ability Rugby. Walcot Warriors have gone from strength to strength by growing the awareness of the sport and team while Bath Ladies Trojan's remain one of the only fully established Ladies Mixed Ability teams in the country. 

They haven't been able to play as many fixtures because of this but their pool of regular training players continues to grow, now between 15-20 players and we really hope that we can support them with more fixtures soon to rival the amount that our men's teams enjoy.

Yeovil Rugby Club have been leading the way off the pitch by providing new social opportunities to all their participants to build their independence and support their social development - they've even been lucky enough to be invited to Exeter Chiefs rugby matches Outside of the team's playing today, BRF have been working hard in setting up the new Under 16 Mixed Ability team and developing our relationship with IMAS.

We are also looking forward to attending the International Mixed Ability Rugby Tournament 2022 in Cork in June - we'll be using our learnings from this to further support our existing teams and to strengthen the set-up of new ones in and around the area.

If you would like to take part in Mixed Ability Cup 2023 or are interested in setting up your own Mixed Ability team within your grassroots rugby club located  in the Bath/Wiltshire/Somerset area, please get in touch with us – [email protected]