Melrose Rugby Bulletin 11/12/24

Evening Folks,

Well, that was quite the weekend wasn’t it!! If you braved the weather on Saturday, you were rewarded with some really good rugby from both teams. The Storm had a tough but close match against the Currie 2s and unfortunately came out on the losing side with a score of 24-33. The 1XV had a superb game of rugby & a great win. The final score was 43-29. Our ‘Schooner’ Man of the Match was Allan Ferrie, who had a cracking game! Congratulations to him!

Schooner Man of the Match - Allan Ferrie

To read Iain’s match report – please CLICK HERE .

We’ve had a really good showing in The Offside Line’s ‘Dream Team of the Week’ this week…no surprise about Al Ferrie being named to the team, and congratulations also go to Will Owen & Bruce Colvine with honourable mentions for Morgan Gabe, Roly Brett, Struan Hutchison, Jerry Blyth-Rafferty, Zen Szwagrzak & Angus Runciman – certainly the most named players I can recall seeing!

To read the Offside Line’s match report CLICK HERE

We didn’t have any junior rugby last weekend due to the storm, but we’ve got a busy week ahead. Here’s this weekend’s schedule:

This week’s game against Watsonian’s isn’t just a Premiership game, but it’s the inaugural ‘Bredalbane Cup’. Bredalbane are a supporter of both clubs & have offered a fabulous cup to the winners as well as donating to the club’s chosen charity! We look forward to continuing this tradition over the years!

So far no game for the Storm, but we’ll let you know if one can be arranged!

Hornets Party

As well as rugby last weekend, we had the Hornets Christmas party which was kindly sponsored by our friends at Baguette n’ Go Melrose, Santa made an appearance & got all the kid’s Christmas Wish lists – Good luck parents!!! All the children got a selection box & they all ran out to form the Guard of HoHoHoHonour for the teams - with Santa delivering the match ball – it was VERY wet, but our fabulous new flags were still very eye catching! Well done to this week’s mascots Anouk & Gus (sponsored by The George Crawford Legacy Trust) who did a fabulous job representing the hornets.

It wasn’t just the junior members of the club who enjoyed a bit of a party, but at the other end of the spectrum, we had our Concession members afternoon tea in the Ned Haig bar after the game. Thanks to all the volunteers who supplied the food for this, a special mention goes to George Runciman, who once again baked his delicious Carrot Cake – George, I’ve had lots of compliments for you! There was a little entertainment from Jake Dobie & Sarah Mozumbar which I’m sure was more tuneful than the karaoke that happened later that evening! After the little one’s headed home, the players were fed delicious stovies and we wondered why the Currie boys were hanging around longer than usual after supper, but it turned out their bus driver had stayed in the bus with the heating on and drained the battery!! Oops! One of their team started off the karaoke which was pretty sporting of him!

Saturday took A LOT of organising, the weather meant things kept changing, especially the hornets party – so a MASSIVE THANK YOU to the events team & helpers for pulling it all together – Paul Wheatley (organiser extrordinaire) who came up with lots of party games & did a heck of a stint DJing the Karaoke among other things) Sarah, Ally, Doug, Kirsty, Sue, Trish, ‘Santa’ Molloy, Santa’s Elf – Holly. Special mention to the Stewards, who were out in that awful weather for a double header in the freezing cold - Elise, Malcolm, Jim, Paul & Andrew (apologies if I've missed anyone!) So to everyone who helped or came down to spectate, THANK YOU for making it such a great day despite the conditions outside!

The Ned Haig Bar

The Ned Haig Bar has been under construction for a while now, and it’s taken another step forward this week, thanks to Louise Runciman for getting this done and a huge thank you to June & The Supporters Club for financing the soft furnishings, pop in the next time you’re at the club, I promise you that the seating is very comfy – here’s a sneak peak!

The newly refurbished Ned Haig bar

Quarriers

It’s great to have the Ned Haig back in circulation as it’s the perfect room for small to medium groups to gather, it’s used most days, either by outside groups or for club meetings – last week we welcomed an amazing group from Quarriers to the Ned Haig for their annual Christmas Hamper packing!

The Resilience for Wellbeing team focuses on prevention and early intervention to aid and improve mental health across primary and secondary schools in the Scottish Borders. They also work closely with the region’s rugby clubs as part of their ‘Breakdown the Barriers’ project to tackle the stigma around mental health.

You can find out more info about the service by clicking here   

Well, I think we've covered all the news this week - onward we go to Myreside on Saturday! Best of luck to all our players for a successful weekend!

Warm wishes

Hilary