Six teams turn out for Manor Park's March Madness
Manor Park RFC recently ran out six senior teams for the first time in the club’s 64-year history.
Having 121 players involved, with five of the six fixtures played away as the club only has one pitch, and lacking a mini and youth section made the achievement even more impressive.
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The club’s 1st and 2nd league teams secured a 34-5 win at home over Old Leamingtonians in Counties 1 Midlands West South and a 40-29 win away at Harbury II in Warwickshire II.
The four other teams’ friendly fixtures saw the Green team winning 50-24 at Nuneaton Saracens, the Reds winning 55-5 at Keresley Kestrels, the Growlers succumbing to a 29-3 loss at Barkers Butts II and the Veterans XV losing 42-0 at Nuneaton Old Edwardians Veterans.
The biggest result, however, was managing to put out six teams, the players all having had a great experience.
A game for anyone who wants one
The driving force in securing six matches was Fixtures Secretary Lee Joyce, who oversaw months of hard work to create the initiative known as March Madness after the club’s social third team began playing regular monthly fixtures. Former players and friends of friends created a team with a reputation for giving anyone who wanted a game a go.
Player numbers increased, leading to efforts to field a fourth team which snowballed week on week to ultimately field six teams for the first time this weekend.
Social media spread the word and friends and family of the 1st and 2nd XVs, former players at the club and even some players from the walking rugby side were soon signed up, intent on being part of the March Madness.
Culture of the club
Bobby Bridge, social media manager, said: “Through word of mouth, the perseverance of a couple of remarkable clubmen and via social media, the March Madness project grew legs and became a reality.
“We also announced the teams in our local paper, the Nuneaton News, as we used to do back in the day. It was a great nod to the past and made some old legends of the club very happy.
“We’ve had players who have been re-engaged by the third team who have gone on to play competitive rugby for 1st and 2nd teams.
“Another positive from the day was, yes 121 people wore Manor Park shirts, but also, all the other teams we played had the chance to field a social rugby side and the atmosphere generated at each fixture was just a celebration of grassroots rugby union.”
Matt Martson, Chairman, said: “March Madness was one of the biggest and most special days in our club’s history. We had six senior teams with more than 120 players aged 17 to 60+ pulling on a Manor Park shirt. What a day!”
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