CLICK HERE for the Ards Mini Rugby Festival Shots
Ards Festival of Mini Rugby – Great day had by all!!!
The Ards RFC Festival of Mini Rugby was held at Hamilton Park on Sunday the 28th April.
There was in excess of 450 kids playing mini rugby in the following age groups, P1-P3, P4, P5, P6 & P7; participating clubs included Ards, Bangor, Donaghadee, CIYMS, Holywood, Lisburn and Cooke.
For the second year in succession ‘The Stove Yard’ based at Kiltonga Industrial Estate, Newtownards was the the main sponsor of the event.
Company owner and supporter of Ards Rugby Richard Poulter attended the Festival with his family and presented Fair Play Awards to each age group.
Commenting on his company’s support of the Ards RFC Festival of Mini Rugby, Richard said ‘At The Stove Yard we strive to be at the heart of every home with our product, by supporting Ards Rugby Club, The Stove Yard are now at the heart of the local community, it’s great to see so many kids enjoying themself’s in what must be one of the largest sporting event in the Ards Borough for kids of Primary School age. My company is proud to assist Ards Rugby Club in providing this for the community’.
Further support for the event came from local business’ Rich Sauces, Trophies by Design, Peninsula Print & Design, Corrie’s Butchers and Northland Developments.
As with all major events, these can’t be successful without the help of volunteers, special mention has to go to the tuck shop, the catering corp especially Claudia Waycott (who was celebrating her birthday), the car park attendants, the pitch convenors, the referees including Ards 1st XV players Rob McCausland and David Armstrong and all of the parents,players and coaches from all clubs who made the event so successful.
The Stove Yard Fair Play winners were:
P1-P3 Donaghadee
P4 Ards
P5 Holywood
P6 Ards
P7 Lisburn
End of season party
The end of season party and awards day takes place on Sunday 5th May at 2pm.
Awards will be presented to each age group for:
Player’s player of the Year
Coaches’ Player of Year
There will also be a kicking competition which the players can enter if they wish.
Bags of Bounce will be at present with their Bouncey Castles.
There will be a barbq and drink for all players.
The Clubhouse and bar will be open to 5pm.
Please come along and end the season on a high
Super performance by the P6 squad!!
A total of 13 players turned out for our home Festival of Rugby and we played 4 matches over the course of the day.
Our first match was against Holywood and it was good to see the lads take to the pitch with determination and gusto. This paid off and in no time we had scored 2 tries. Holywood scored in the second half but a further try from Ards ended the match.
We then played Lisburn, who had shown they were a fast moving side with good support play. The lads had been briefed on the ‘danger men’ and they kept their eye on them the entire match. Whilst Lisburn opened the scoring the Ards lads held strong and soon got into their stride conceding no more tries and scoring 3.
The next game was against Donaghadee and Ards over ran a weakened Dee team.
Our last match was against Cooke and this was a ‘belter.’ Both sides fought hard but Ards, who had found great form all day ended the day on high scoring 3 tries to Cooke’s 1.
The Ards tries were scored by;
Chris (2), Connor (1), Eddie (2), Cameron (1), Luke (1), Joshua (3), Jack McG (1), Adam (1), Matthew (3), Jack W (1) and Louis (1).
Great scores, great attitude, great focus and great individual and team play. We couldn’t have asked for more, everything just seemed to fall into place and the lads can be very proud of their performance today.
The ‘icing on the cake’ was when the Referee was asked to adjudge the Fair Play Award and he felt that the Ards team were the deserving winners.
Last mention goes to the lovely cake made by one of our mum’s which had been beautifully iced in the Ards crest etc. Thank you very much for that.
