It is our great pleasure to officially launch the 40th Annual Guinness Carrickfergus Sevens, which will take place on the 4th to 6th of May 2012!!!!!!!!
Over the years our competition has established itself as the traditional end-of-season celebration of rugby, both on and off the pitch. The tournament commenced in 1973, when Alan Holmes, Ian Beggs, Wallace Luney ,John Adams and Richard Price decided that Carrickfergus RFC should start running a tournament to replace the defunct Jordanstown 7s and it is amazing that 40 years later it continues to get bigger and better.
This year we will commence on the Friday evening with the Under 19’s competition, sponsored again by Samurai, which will feature 12 sides competing for the Everest Trophy. This will include sides such Surry Colts from England and Telford College from Scotland. If anyone should doubt the importance of developing young talent, the winner of the Most Valuable player for the last year, Ian Henderson is currently a member of the unbeaten Irish Under 20 team.
On the Saturday we will once again host the Guinness Open Competition, attracting 24 teams competing for the Holmes Trophy. This will of course attract sides from England and Scotland, as well some Fijians sides. In addition we have introduced a new tournament aimed at Qualifying League clubs. This is kindly sponsored by Quigg Golden and will be known as the Quigg Golden Qualifying 7s. We are hoping that this will bring some of the top junior clubs such as the newly crowned Clogher Valley, CIYMS and Donaghadee to the event.
The finale, on the Sunday, will feature the Manvik sponsored All Ireland League competition, show-casing some of the best rugby talent available. This tournament has seen, Chris Henry, Stephen Ferris and Craig Gilroy proving their talents, so we see this year being no different, with Queens wanting to defend their title.
We will also have the additional attraction of a ladies 10s competition, sponsored this year by Abbey Insurance. This will see 8 ladies sides from across Ulster taking part, with Cooke wanting to continue their unbeaten run.
We could not contemplate an event of this scale without the generous support of our sponsors and, on behalf of the Club, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Colin Bell of Diageo; John and Heather Connor of Manvik; John Anderson of Overplay sports, Edward Quigg of Quigg Golden and Fraser Evans and his representative Christine Adams of Abbey Insurance, for their generous sponsorship of the individual competitions.
In addition, we are greatly indebted for their invaluable financial and moral support of the event as a whole to Carrickfergus Borough Council; the NK Group; CP Hire and last but not least, Richard Mulligan of the Newsletter.
Finally a huge thank you is due to the voluntary efforts of many members of Carrickfergus Rugby Football Club who make this event happen every year. It is a tribute to their imagination and courage that it has continued to grow from strength to strength.
A special note of thanks must go to Richard Price for their personal contribution and hard work to organise and deliver the tournament. This will be Richards 40th year overseeing the running of the tournament and without his hard work and wisdom, the event would have ceased to exist.
For the sixth year I am pleased to say that Carrickfergus Rugby Football Club will not be the sole beneficiaries of this event. We are delighted to be supporting the work of the Wooden Spoon Society in their efforts to assist children with moderate and severe learning difficulties and I would like to give a particular welcome to Willie John McBride as their representative.
It was in an interview he gave many years ago that I last heard a top player pay tribute to the ‘fun’ he had had from playing rugby. In today’s hard nosed professional era, we at Carrickfergus hope we can do our bit through the Sevens to continue to keep the fun in rugby.
We thank Simon Danielli and Andy Kryiacou from Ulster rugby for attending the launch reception @ Carrickfergus RFC
This year’s tournament will see 60 teams; almost 700 players; and thousands of spectators; all watching and playing rugby, enjoying themselves and the contribution to our local economy is something very important in these times
Once again, please wish us luck……..and good weather.
The team @ Carrick
INTOUCH REQUEST
Ireland Ladies Rugby I XV Are playing England this weekend and need as much support as they can get – please watch the clip below and feel free to share it, they are on the verge of a great VICTORY & with Ulster representation!
[youtube w72eOkj_XYI]
