Eastern Counties Rugby Union

ECRU’s continued very firm intention is to recognise the work undertaken in Clubs to sustain the game that we all enjoy. We will agree that it is important to recognise and reward our achievements and I believe this objective must be given full weighting during these unprecedented times. To this end I am making contact to invite applications for our Presidents Awards. Last season our awards were spread across the Eastern Counties with the accolades listed in the first attachment. Sadly we were unable to celebrate these successes after our Annual Dinner was forced to be cancelled but we very much acknowledge these achievements.

This season, we have had to rethink our awards structure because of the adverse effects of the pandemic. We are proceeding to promote the Club of the Year, our Lifetime Achievement Award, Volunteer of the Year and Young Rugby Ambassador. Details are set out in the second attachment together with the criteria against which our decisions will be taken. Our Volunteer of the Year will once again be selected from the Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer of the Year nominations; for information see englandrugby.com/MMVoTY.

All Clubs are now invited to submit nominations for these awards to Lisa Greetham at Admin@ecrurugby.com before 2nd May 2021. We do not expect unreasonably lengthy submissions but we do recommend that the criteria referred to in the attachment are addressed when nominations are prepared.

We are proposing that where applicable the rewards are linked with the RFU’s Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer Recognition Programme. For example the name of the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award will be put forward to attend a fixture at Twickenham together with associated hospitality as a guest of the RFU’s President. We also hope to connect with other appropriate Mitsubishi initiatives with Twickenham match tickets. You can be assured that we will do what we can to ensure appropriate recognition.

Looking to the future the message is that in these difficult times ECRU continues to recognise achievement. To help us do so we wait to hear from you with your nominations.

John Winders,
President