Old Elthamians Youth Section History

12/12/2006

Stuart

"Old Elthamians Rugby Football Club was formed in October 1911, in the evening after the Old Boys' day at the old school buildings in Blackheath..." so says an interesting book on the first few years of the club, The History of the Old Elthamians' Rugby Football Club 1911-1961.

The mini section came into being in the mid-1970s. A newsletter from that period shows the mood of the day:

"Started August 1975. Our first season showed we had some outstanding youngsters of all ages and with weekly coaching well attended some good results were achieved even with our small numbers. Highlights of the first season were the excellent results achieved at the end of season tournament at Old Beccehamians. Outstanding was the U9 team which was invited to provide the pre-final entertainment at the Kentish Times 7s."

Since then we have gone from strength to strength. In more recent times we have won the Kent Festival at virtually every age group at one time or another, and have appeared at Twickenham twice as winners of a national competition. We have produced quite a few county players, which is a testament to our playing and coaching strength.

Help!

I would like to make this section more complete, so if you were involved with Old Elthamians RFC at any point in its history, I'd love to hear from you. Please e-mail me at s_white_oe@yahoo.co.uk with your information, anecdotes and statistics so that I can put them here.

I'd like to compile a list of, say, Club Chairmen, Club Captains, representative honours, league positions etc., so please let me have your information. Cheers, Stuart.