Kettering U8s @ Banbury Festival

Kettering Under 8s enjoyed their last competitive games of the season and their last Tag games ever at the Banbury festival this Sunday.

Banbury Rugby Club hosted over 1,500 young rugby players who took part in the region’s largest rugby competition. Teams from all over the UK entered into the Banbury Mini Rugby Tournament which had to be rescheduled from March due to poor weather.

The weather on Sunday was bright if a little windy in the morning but the ominous grey clouds unleashed the rain as promised by the weather forecasts in the afternoon.

The travelling Blues arrived with enough players to form 2 teams. The teams were renamed as Kettering Blue and Kettering Green.

Kettering played against teams from Olney, Worcester, Oxford Quins and Witney (Towcester did not attend), Banbury, Chinnor, Bedford and Bicester.

Both Kettering teams were guilty of having slow starts and took a while to warm up into the festival. It took some pretty shaky first performances and some very questionable refereeing decisions to raise both teams games.

In true Kettering U8s spirit the young players put the potentially adverse early games behind them and showed the Oxfordshire masses how they can really play. The players showed some really audacious pluckiness and won over many new fans. Some were quoted as saying, 'I'm definitely turning into a fan of Kettering rugby'.

Next week, 19th May is the mini/junior Presentation Day. The AGM starts at 09:30 and team presentations start from 10:00 and finish at approx 12:00. A fun afternoon has been planned between 12:00 and 16:00 with go-karts, bouncy castle, slide, golf challenge and inflatable horse racing. There will also be an ice cream van and entertainment from three dance clubs and a judo display.