Eastern Counties Rugby Union

Thanks to Brian Bell for the photo

Stowmarket hosted their third annual 15/15 Colts Festival on Sunday 12th October.

Whilst this was very much a Stowmarket club event, this had the full support of Eastern Counties.
12 sides took part with 3 visiting teams (Saracens and 2 from Westcliff) joining no fewer than 9 clubs from Eastern Counties – Bury, Colchester, Hadleigh, Southwold, Ipswich, Stowmarket, Diss, Wymondham and Cambridge, representing both the larger, and smallest clubs in the CB. All clubs took a full part in the day.
The teams were drawn in to 2 pools of 6 teams, with all playing each other in 15 minute one way games.
After the pool rounds were completed, both Colchester and Westcliff A were unbeaten, with Bury and Westcliff B losing only 1 game each.
Colchester pipped Bury by 5points to 0, with Westcliff A defeating their B team in the other Cup semi final.

In the Plate competition for clubs in 3rd & 4th places, Hadleigh beat Saracens 12-5, whilst Cambridge had a more comfortable 21-0 win over Ipswich.
The Plate final was won by Cambridge by a conversion 7-5, with Colchester just beating Westcliff A 3-0 in the Cup, courtesy of a penalty goal, and some excellent defence.
The competition was supported by 6 referees from the Suffolk & North East Essex Society, who all contributed to the great success of the day.

Ross Cowie, Chairman of Eastern Counties CCPD commented, “what a fantastic day, many thanks to Stowmarket for their superb organisation, and for hosting; it is just brilliant to see 9 clubs with Colts sides from Eastern Counties taking part. Maybe 250 boys turned up and enjoyed a day’s rugby, and played in such a fantastic positive spirit. We could not have asked for a better day in term of rugby, the attitude of both the players, coaching staff and spectators – so nice that there were no “nasty” incidents or issues. So refreshing. We have tried hard to promote Colts rugby in Eastern Counties, and I think that today shows that all efforts have been worthwhile.”