Valley Fort RFC

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Valley Fort RFC
Full name Valley Fort Rugby Football Club
Founded 1978 as Stanley Fort Rugby Football Club
Location Stanley & Happy Valley, Hong Kong
Ground(s) Stanley Fort (PLA barracks), Happy Valley sports ground
Chairman Carl Redman
League Hong Kong Mini-Rugby Club League, Colts-Rugby Club League
2007-08. 2008-09 begins third-quarter 2008. Division One/Pool A
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Away colours
Official website
www.valleyfort.com
Flag of Hong Kong


Valley Fort Rugby Football Club or Valley Fort RFC is a Rugby Football Club located in Hong Kong; offering rugby for players aged 4-18 years of age. it follows the widespread Football Code of Rugby Union.
It is the Academy Section of Hong Kong Rugby Football Union Division One Club: Valley Rugby Football Club[1][2]. It was named Stanley Fort Rugby Football Club before its merger with Valley RFC. The abandoned name was named after the famous PLA Garrision Barracks at which the Club is based; located at the southernmost area of Stanley, Hong Kong.

The club had the charge of a Castle/Fort like that of a rook chess-piece as the main feature on the crest or coat of arms of the club logo. Since merging with Valley RFC, The coat of arms of the logo has been modified so that the field of the shield is diagonally divided to include Valley RFC's charge; a symbol of a horse head that is reminiscent of the Knight chess piece. This current shield is clearly shown on the right in the infobox.


Contents

[edit] History

In the late 1970's Stanley Fort Rugby Football Club was the third mini-rugby club to be founded in Hong Kong after DeA Tigers RFC and the Hong Kong Football Club. The club was originally based at the British Garrison in Stanley which in June 1997 transferred to the PLA. After the handover Stanley Fort RFC continued to train at the barracks every other week, joining interclub training sessions away from home on the other Sundays.

In 2002 Stanley Fort re-established some old links with Valley RFC so that it could build a better framework to cater for more youth sides and provide a seamless path to senior rugby. In 2004, to enhance the affiliation with Valley RFC, the club changed its name to Valley Fort RFC and now plays in black and red (following the senior team strip) as opposed to its traditional strip of green and white (club colours before merger) .

The teams' away colours are traditionally red with green (green being the chief Stanley Fort RFC colour).[3]
However The team kit for the current season has broken this habit by making the Away pattern to have more Red (Sleeve and Hip strips) and less black than the home pattern; as shown by the team kit icons in the above-right infobox.

The club is able to provide almost any children the chance to learn rugby thanks to the club's easily accessible open membership, its relatively economic fees and the club's declared mission of "helping to spread and develop grass-roots level youth rugby in Hong Kong."[4]
The club is a sports-based club with members all being players of the sport, meaning there is little social theme to the functioning of the club; as opposed to social clubs such as the Hong Kong Football Club.

[edit] Membership

Being a mini/youth rugby club; membership is only offered to the youth players themselves, and parents are not required to obtain a membership before their child can participate in rugby (in fact there are no adult memberships). This is unlike the social norm practiced by a number of prominent social clubs which offer mini/youth rugby. This said, parents do have a role to play. In some cases, experienced parents take up the role as particular teams' mangager or coach; usually one where they have a child/children in. In other cases, these parents join the club council/committee and administer the club.[5]
[6]

Membership application is relatively straighforward with no nomination (from an exisitng voting member) needed; no necessity to send a formal application letter; no need for the application to be presented to a Board/Comittee of voting members in a General Meeting; and thus no need of a ballot to decide whether or not a member is accepted. No monthly fee is required; the membership is only renewed annually when playing seasons start anew.[7]

The membership fees are relatively cheap compared to social sports clubs such as HKFC. Social clubs such as HKFC usually require a pre-desposit in the bounds of hundreds-of-thosands HK$s to acquire a debenture and then a monthly fee (usually referred to as a subscription) ranging in the hundreds to thousands of HK$s.[8][9][10] The club is therefore well-suited to parents who want their child to participate in rugby without acquiring expensive debentures to become a member of a social club themselves (which require a long election process).

[edit] Club Size

Valley Fort is one of the largest mini-rugby clubs in Hong Kong and has 380 registered players in its mini and colt sections as of Feb 2005, an increase of 18% from the year before. The club runs a number of teams at all age groups from Under 5's to Under 18s.

Like the senior game, mini-rugby is played from September to March. There are full festivals involving all clubs around Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories and regional festivals are organised where clubs with smaller facilities are able to invite clubs based close to them or specific age groups to participate. Valley Fort RFC make a point of promoting inter-club training sessions as it is simple to organise and provides more opportunity for children to play in competitive games. Coaching drills and experience are shared and it means the children can keep a weekly training program intact despite not having access to their home ground each weekend.[11]

In HK here are now more than 2,000 children scattered among 15 clubs playing mini-rugby each week-end.[12]

[edit] Seasonal Coaching

A regular season; which involves the inter-club league; begins at the start of every September and technically ends by mid-march with the playoffs/finals. There are several off-season on-day leagues usually played throughout the rest of march and april. The season offically ends by this point.

The club holds regular training sessions before and throught the entire season at the two locations where the club is based- Stanley Fort Barracks and Happy Valley Sports Grounds[13]Pre-season training sessions are held as the players need to be warmed-up and there are pre-season friendly matches.

Training sessions are generally held every sunday morning throughout the season. The mini-rugby section (U5s-U12s) trains at the "Fort" (Stanley Fort Barracks) while the colts-rugby section (U14s-U18s) train at the Happy Valley sports field.
There are no trainin sessions held before the season resumes in September.


[edit] Leagues

During the main season, the inter-club league is held where the colts-section teams play the other division one colts rugby clubs such as Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC)and DeA Tigers RFC. The colts league is divided into U14, U16 and U18 matches with other teams of each age-groups in different pools. Allocation into pools are based upon the strengths and skill-levels of teams; like that of different divisiions. The colts section of Vally Fort RFC currently stands in Pool A/Division 1.
However, teams with a lot of players often field a separate roster of a "2nds" team which are fielded to play weaker opposition sides in one-day tournaments. It is rare for a club team to field a second team to compete in a weaker division in the inter-club league.[14][15]

After off season playoffs (finals), there are other off-season tournamtents. For instance the 'New Year’s Day tournament' at the Hong Kong Football Club grounds and the 'International Youth Day tournament' in March at Kai Tak / King's Park allow the Under 12's, 14s, 16s and 18s to play against overseas teams. Specifically, the 'New Years Day tournament' provides an excellent opportunity for people in Hong Kong to really see the achievements of children that have come up through the ranks of mini-rugby.[16][17]

It is essential for the health of the game in Hong Kong that mini-rugby & youth-rugby is given every opportunity to continue to attract more young children. Rugby has always been a game that crossed social barriers and accommodated players of all physiques and in recent years we have seen the game in Hong Kong cross cultural and ethnic barriers. There also appears to be a better understanding of the benefits that can be gained from playing a team sport such as rugby.[18]

Fortunately the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union recognises the need to support the game at the grass roots level and there are U14, 16 and 18 HK representative sides that tour to various countries in Asia. Valley Fort has been well represented on all squad tours in the past which we hope will continue to provide our players with the incentive to improve their skills and stay in the game.[19]

Valley Fort RFC is also one of the first Hong Kong Rugby Football Clubs to have a dedicated wikipedia page. This page was first created on the 24th of May, 2008 which is just behind Hong Kong Football Club. But, it is the first rugby-based Colts-Rugby Club in Hong Kong to do so.

[edit] Club structure

- Director: Carl Redman
- Director (Colts Rugby): David Owens
- Director (Mini-Rugby): Nick Pasha
- Head of Coaching: Hugh Garway
- Events Manager: David Peters
- Treasurer: David Hurren
- Company Secretary: Kim Murphy
- Membership Registry: Kim Murphy
- Club House Manager: Tonda Paulsen

[edit] Colts-Rugby Section

-U18 Valley-Fort: Team Manager, Head Coach
-U16 Valley-Fort: Team Manager, Head Coach
-U14 Valley-Fort: Team Manager, Head Coach & 5 Coaches


[edit] Mini-Rugby Section

-U12 Dragons: Head Coach & 5 Coaches
-U11 Tigers: Head Coach & 4 Coaches
-U10 Tigers: Head Coach & 16 Coaches
-U9 Tigers: Head Coach & numerous Coaches
-U8 Pandas: Head Coach & 7 Coaches
-U7 Pandas: Head Coach & 4 Coaches
-U6 Team: Head Coach & 10 Coaches
-U5 Team: Head Coach & 8 Coaches

[20][21][22]

[edit] Teams

The VF U18s team; runners up at the HK Rugby Club 10s Tournament; season 2007-8. The image clearly shows the team colours and style of the kit. The 'Black w/ Red strip' pattern is the current kit, while the Red w/ Black strip pattern is last season's. Photo is courtesy of "The Falcon".
The VF U18s team; runners up at the HK Rugby Club 10s Tournament; season 2007-8. The image clearly shows the team colours and style of the kit. The 'Black w/ Red strip' pattern is the current kit, while the Red w/ Black strip pattern is last season's. Photo is courtesy of "The Falcon".

[edit] U18 Colts Team 2007-8

Manager: Symon Bridle "Bridle Senior"

Team Members: Mike, Adib Azar, Will Hale, Andrew "Bridle Jr." Bridle, Chris, Takuto "Hooker 4 life" Matsubara, Abe, Paper "The Roadrunner", Terry, Chris, Ken, Brendan Marlien, Paul "Twister" Chiffoleau, Cole Pamuk, Tom Clark, Jon Sze, Hughie Doherty, Edmund Rolston, James Owens, Lawrence "Laurie" "Oh" Dear, Jamie, Charlie, Linus(Overseas Player), Augustine "Chabal" Dalmas, Baptiste Droniou, Gregoire "Francais", Alex, George, Jamie Atkinson, Akshat "The Beast/Yeti" Jangam and Duncan "The Falcon" Lau.

[edit] U16 Colts Team 2007-8

Head Coach : David Owens

Manager: David Peters

[edit] U14 Colts Team 2007-8

Manager & Head Coach: Hugh Garway

Other Coaches: Andrew Swarbrick, Paul Henderson, Paul McIntosh, Nick Cranston and David Cox.[23]

[edit] Sponsors and Affiliations

The club is a recognised member of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union.
Valley Fort RFC is affiliated to Valley RFC as their Rugby Academy Section.[24] Valley RFC is an adult Rugby Football Club also offering Team-Hockey and Netball. The hockey section has a Youth Academy Section.[25]

The teams' rugby kits are manufactered and dessigned by international sports clothing company Kukri Sports (Hong Kong)

The club is sponsored by Linklaters.

[edit] See Also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.valleyrfc.com/academy Valley RFC Academy page (See scroll-down menu)
  2. ^ http://www.valleyfort.com/Pages/TheClub.htm Introduction to the Club
  3. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  4. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  5. ^ http://www.valleyfort.com/TextFiles/club_structure_diagram.pdf Club Structure diagram
  6. ^ http://www.valleyfort.com/Pages/Email.htm Club Staff List
  7. ^ http://www.valleyfort.com/pages/Payment_procedures.htm Valley Fort RFC: Membership Payment Procedures
  8. ^ http://www.hkfc.com.hk/enrolment.asp HKFC Membership enrolment page
  9. ^ http://www.ccc1894.com/English.htm Craigengower Cricket Club Membership page
  10. ^ http://www.hkcc.org/section9_1.html Hong Kong Cricket Club Membership information
  11. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  12. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  13. ^ .http://www.valleyfort.com/Map%20Pages/stanleyfort.htm Stanley Fort location map
  14. ^ http://www.hkrugby.com/hkrugby/colts/colts_home.cfm HKRFU Colts-Rugby page
  15. ^ http://www.hkrugby.com/hkrugby/colts/boys-under-18-fixtures-and-results.cfm HKRFU Inter-Club Colts-Rugby Fixtures and Results 2007-8 season
  16. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  17. ^ http://www.hkrugby.com/hkrugby/events-and-tournaments/events-and-tournaments.cfm HKRFU Rugby Events and Tournaments
  18. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  19. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  20. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  21. ^ http://www.valleyfort.com/TextFiles/club_structure_diagram.pdf Club Structure diagram
  22. ^ http://www.valleyfort.com/Pages/Email.htm Club Staff List
  23. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club
  24. ^ Valley Fort RFC: Introduction to the Club/
  25. ^ http://www.valleyrfc.com/academy Valley RFC Academy page (see scroll-down menu)

[edit] External Links