January News

Thanet Wanderers Girls and Women.

About 4 or so years ago, the legendary Maggie Watts retired from her girl’s rugby coaching role, giving way to the next generation of coaches. Patrick Liddle carried the baton and would often turn up ready to train any girls who turned up, which sometimes would be none. Regardless, he and his mum, Annmarie, were determined to get girl’s rugby up and running at the club once again. Women’s rugby was non-existent at the club at this point as well. Despite this, they never gave up!

Around March 2020, a flippant comment on a Facebook post led to even more positive things occurring for the girls and the new women’s team. It was great to see the girls playing in some pictures on Facebook, so myself (Vicky Diamantis) and someone I used to play alongside (Brioni Reah) started saying how we missed playing rugby (Maggie trained us when we were in our teens) and wished we had a women’s team to go to. Steve invited us to come along and train alongside the girls, which filled me with fear, being 37 years old and not very good at running! However, this turned out to be the best move I had made in a long time – the enjoyment of again playing the game I love with some incredible young ladies and women filled me with excitement! The girls were fast, enthusiastic, fit and tough - an inspiring bunch and great role models to their peers. The women who started to come along were a really varied bunch from all different backgrounds and varied abilities, both novices and ex-players, but all were eager to get playing. Now that progress was underway, a few fabulous members of the club gave up their time and decorated and improved the old changing rooms for the girls and women with thanks to a grant. The girls and women had a ‘home’.

Around last summer, the girls started having about 20 players per session and the women had 4 or 5. Our club was growing and we were loving every second of it with our excellent coaches to whom we must give great thanks.

Now to September 2021, a time where the weather starts getting colder and usually numbers tail off…but not this year! The girls kept coming along and the women managed to continue to recruit more players. As part of the Viragos, the girls have been playing in their age groups of U13, U15 and U18 and have used these opportunities to continue to develop their game, with the coaches supporting them with development points back in training. As this was going on, the women managed to get 15 players ‘on the books’ before Christmas, which meant that post-Christmas they would be able to train separately. Some of you might remember a night in early December when the rain was pouring and the wind was blowing, Storm Barra I believe? Well, that night, the girls and women still turned up, in good numbers to train, showing their absolute dedication to the game.

So here we are in 2022, in an extremely exciting situation! The girls are maintaining their numbers, despite the cold weather, and the women had their first training session separately with 9 in attendance. It was a fun session with lots of mud and lots of laughs – something that has been maintained all the way through, creating an unbeatable team spirit. Thanks to War Machines Gym (Ramsgate), the girls and women have also had their first strength and conditioning session which proved to be a superb event and will continue every week now. We are also now being represented on the club committee with a Director of Women’s Rugby.

What’s next? The girls and women have a social evening planned where we can review some videos of the ‘Red Roses’ and have some food together (maybe a few gins for the older of us). There is also the prospect of two 7 or 10 a-side games for the women in February and March. With a growing girl’s section, there is also the possibility that Thanet will be able to start thinking about forming their own teams for different age groups to play in matches. We are in an incredibly positive position right now and the future is certainly looking bright! 

 

23 January 2022