This year we held our AGM and Club Dinner on 5th September - a couple of months after we usually do so, but 2020 is a year where nothing has gone to plan. A typical club dinner at Sulians' is a more formal sit-down affair, but due to the distancing regulations at the time we held it outside. We love a good brai up at Old Sulians and as always this was expertly attended by Louis Kingwill (pictured below). All in all, a great day at the club.
End of Season Awards
Pictured above: left to right; Ed, George, Dan, Sam
Player of the Year
Ed Stokes
The Players' Player
Sam Lewis
Young Player of the Year
Dan Bamber
"Rear of the Year"
George Wardle
Top Try Scorer
Dan Bamber
End of Season Report
By General Secretary, Terry Haines
At our previous AGM, we decided that Jon Wrigley continued as President and Tom Shaw continued as Chairman, while on the field James Raper continued as club skipper - despite injury preventing him from actually being on the field. Tom Shaw and Mike Richardson shared the coaching duties.
At the start of the season, the 1st XV were once again competing in Somerset 1 and with the prospect of half-a-dozen trips to South Somerset, a top-half finish would be a creditable achievement. We started with a difficult trip to Bristol Harlequins and ended up on the wrong end of a 68-12 scoreline. There followed a home defeat to Cheddar Valley and we handed a walkover to Chew Valley. We were up and running the following week with a 36-5 defeat of Crewkerne followed by a good away win at Midsomer Norton. The good run of results continued with home wins over Keynsham and North Petherton. A trip to Wellington ended in defeat before a good home win over Taunton. The short trip down to Bathampton was rewarded with a narrow victory over the old enemy. We reached Christmas in a decent league position despite a defeat at Bridgwater.
It all started going downhill in the new year with a string of defeats to Cheddar Valley, Chew Valley and Crewkerne in January but at this stage no one knew what was coming over the horizon. We were narrowly defeated at home by Midsomer Norton followed by Wellington failing to travel to Lansdown and giving us a walkover. By this time coronavirus was becoming a big problem. On Saturday 14th March we travelled to Keynsham and came away with an excellent 43-17 win and that was it - season over. The nation entered lockdown and all rugby activity ceased.
At that stage our league record was P17 W8 D0 L9 F293 A406 Pts34 and we were in seventh position. The final league positions were calculated by England Rugby on an average points per game basis for both home and away fixtures. It was calculated that we would have received 48 points, leaving us still at seventh position.
The Old Players’ Lunch was very well attended and thanks go to Dave Plumbridge for getting the old boys out. Unfortunately the Sponsors’ Lunch and the Annual Dinner were victims of coronavirus.
At the moment we are easing out of lockdown and the RFU has a roadmap for starting up the community game. Fixture lists have been compiled, but already postponed, so the shape 20/21 season and normal rugby club activity is currently very uncertain.