AT long last we have some potentially good news on the rugby front.

We have been issued with our league fixtures which is always a good sign but of course, much will depend on HM Government decisions as the battle to defeat Covid continues apace.

We have been fortunate over the past few Saturdays when the easing of restrictions allowed some touch rugby and very entertaining it has been.

However, for all concerned it is nothing like the real thing and players, officials and supporters just cannot wait for the season to start. None more so than joint coaches, Nathan and Stuart who, despite being in post for over a year, have yet to select a team and see it in action!

Naturally, the first step on the road to normality will be to start pre-season training and that began on June 24.

Current players are encouraged to turn up, irrespective of which team you have been playing for in the past and, naturally, we would welcome any new players who would like to join us.

The last game for the First XV was played on March 7, 2020 and the season was brought to a premature end the following week and, as we know and with the exception of the elite game, the 2020-21 season was written off in its entirety.

However, whilst there has been no activity on the pitch, the work of running the Club has continued behind the scenes as not everything comes to a standstill.

There has actually been some activity on the pitch in the shape of the excellent work done by Paul Coupe and Clive Tonkin, the pitch is looking in tip-top condition.

Of course, cricket followers will fully understand the method of calculating runs required in shortened versions of the game as Messrs Duckworth and Lewis made it simple!

We are never sure as to how the calculations are arrived at in rugby but to be fair, the final placings were pretty much in line with expectations.

Predicting the end of season outcomes is always difficult and the coming season even more so.

Salary Caps in the Premiership are being considerably reduced and so Clubs will no doubt be looking to offload players.

Second tier Clubs are seemingly cash strapped and they too will struggle to pay many contracted players and the likelihood is that there could be an abundance of quality players looking for Clubs at the lower levels, but with the ability to pay a wage.

If all goes according to plan, we shall be opening our season with a home fixture against Stroud who have been promoted from Western Counties North.

We have played Stroud previously in the league albeit only on four occasions when we were in SW2 back in the early 2000’s.

One win and three defeats although all games have been reasonably close.

Our solitary victory was in December 2002 when tries from Dan Barrett and Richard Appleyard plus a conversion from Morne Scheepers and a penalty from Mark Gulley gave us a 15-3 home win.

Having been promoted from Gloucester Premier at the end of 2014-15, Stroud have slowly built on their success and after four top half finishes in Western Counties North, finally won promotion in 2019-20 with a remarkable record of 21 wins from 21 games and we look forward to hosting them on September 4 with the return trip on April 23.

Not far from Stroud lies Thornbury, our destination for our second league fixture and against whom our record over the years reads won two, drawn one and lost two.

The last fixture at their place shortly before the lockdown was something of a hammering for us as we travelled with a number of players missing and were soundly beaten 78-0!

Prior to that though, the games had been evenly contested with both sides tending to win the home games.

Thornbury ended the season as runners-up to Hornets who gained promotion to SW Premier. The return game with Thornbury will be on December 18.

Our third game will see us play host to Bridgwater who did manage to complete the double over us last season although again it was a close run thing.

At their ground, it was an injury time try that snatched victory away from us whilst at home the margin of defeat was a mere two points.

Games against Bridgwater go back 123 years and we have played them at various levels, Firsts, Seconds, Thirds and Colts.

Over all, the honours have been reasonably shared and I am sure we can look forward to a couple of competitive fixtures against them, the return game will be our first game in the New Year on January 8.

Chew Valley away completes our September fixtures, we met them for the first time in 2019-20 when they did the double over us and ended their season in sixth place in the league.

Like ourselves, they had been promoted the previous season as Champions of Western Counties North whereas we went up as play off winners against Midsomer Norton.

On the playing front, we are hopeful that the majority of players will continue and a few new faces could well be appearing although one player who will not be donning the black and amber in the coming season will be Mark Lee who has taken up the coaching role at Bideford. I am sure we all wish Mark well and he will certainly be missed at CRFC.

Another change in personnel is the role of Adult Fixture Secretary as I have stepped down and passed the baton to Billy Lee who is new to the Club and Committee.

Whilst not many of us know Billy yet, we all knew his dad Paul Lee, one of the keenest of sportsmen in the town having featured for the soccer club and also played rugby here.

It has been a particularly difficult time for Billy to start as Fixture Secretary as Club meetings have tended to be on Zoom and with no senior games on Saturdays, the opportunities for him to come to the Club have been very limited. However, I am sure we shall make him very welcome when we regain some normality.

Paul Harris