With Kingswood RFC Touch Team having won silverware in 2015, there was a great deal of anticipation before the start of the summer league to see if the ‘Mighty K’ could repeat the wining of a trophy. Ahead of the start of the league, the number of registered players had grown enough to allow Kingswood RFC to enter 2 teams into the league for the first time, Kingswood Blue and Kingswood Brown, increasing the chances of KRFC winning silverware.

Hosted by Avon RFC, the Bath Touch League 2016 had a total of 22 teams playing on 5 different pitches. The organizing team had the difficult task of arranging the fixtures and the even more difficult task of persuading people to referee, but as with previous years they did an outstanding job with everything that was under their control so KRFC thanks go to Avon RFC and the organizing team. However, this then leads onto things that were not under the touch league’s control….the weather.

Although it is called the ‘summer league’, summer was definitely missing for the first few matches with rain soaked pitches turning the games into endurance running events instead of the free flowing, running rugby that should be played in the summer. In one case, a Kingswood player made a try saving diving touch into the boggy ground, leaving a body shaped imprint in the pitch that quickly filled with water!

Once the league had started, there was the extra excitement on 14th June as Kingswood RFC became an official O2 Touch Centre with the aim of promoting the game of touch rugby to a wider audience to get as many people playing as possible, no matter of ability or experience. This helped to increase the number of registered touch players (at both KRFC and O2 Touch) to over 30 and has also helped to raise awareness of the health and enjoyment benefits of touch rugby in the local community.

Not only has the number of registered players increased from 2015, so has the number of different try scorers during the summer league. The sign of a growing/improving team is the number of different try scorers and there are now 19 different players on the scoreboard, compared with a handful of players in 2015. This means that the team captain is now being asked “Am I top of the try scorers list?” by more players than ever and yet she still responds with the usual reply ….”wait and see at the end of the league!”

Despite the weather at the beginning of the league, all games have been played with great passion, commitment and enjoyment and now the weather has improved and the pitches have firmed up, KRFC are now showing their ‘champagne’ rugby skills. On second thoughts, perhaps that should be ‘cider’ rugby skills as KRFC are a West Country side after all! If you need any further convincing of the KRFC commitment and concentration during the games, just look at some of the photos of players’ mid-game and it’s surprising the numbers of players with the classic ‘tongue-out’ concentration pose!

Another great sign of passion and commitment to not just KRFC but to touch rugby in general came in the form of the KRFC ladies. The ladies interchanged between both KRFC Blue and Brown teams and they also volunteered to play for other teams who were short of female players, meaning they regularly played two games each night. This shows the true spirit of the game and the sportsmanship of KRFC players, especially when the ladies ended up playing against Kingswood to help other teams.

And so it comes down to the last week of the league! Kingswood Blue will play in the 2nd leg of the Trinket final. Having narrowly lost the 1st leg by 1 try, it’s all to play for in the final game. Kingswood Brown have made it through to the Salver final in a single ‘do or die’ match. No matter what the outcome of these games, Kingswood Blue and Kingswood Brown have played extremely well this summer and all players should be proud of themselves. You’ve all made Kingswood RFC proud!

C’mon Mighty K touch teams. You can do it!!!