| We were
formed in 1980 and originally based at the Ollerton and Bevercotes Miners Welfare. Our
name was Ollerton & Bevercotes Rugby Union Football Club, using the Dukeries School
playing field as our home ground and the Welfare Annexe as a club house for post match
fodder and refreshments. Indeed the players wives,
girlfriends, mothers and even sisters, took a very active part in helping the Club
establish themselves. We would certainly not have survived if it had not been for their
involvement in the early days of the club; they were involved with fund raising, cooking
and serving food, serving drinks, washing up, washing and repairing team strips and most
of all standing on the touchlines, giving their support to the players during matches.
The home games for the club were played on the Dukeries School
field and the pitch soon became known in the Notts, Lincs and Derbys (NLD) as the
'Ollerton Slope'.
All through the miners strike of '84/85 we continued to play our
rugby and had the use of the Welfare along side the strikers support groups - indeed using
and sharing cooking facilities with little or no animosity shown or given. After the
strike however; with a change in welfare management, certain demands were made of us which
we could not agree to and consequently we left the Ollerton Welfare and renamed ourselves
as Ollerton Rugby Union Football Club.
This of course meant that we required somewhere for our post match
food and refreshments, an important feature in the rugby fraternity where the home club
provide hospitality to visiting sides. After several short stays in various places we
finally settled at the Plough Inn on Forest Road.
The Dukeries School, who never really seemed to be happy with us
playing our rugby on their field (the footballers got the level pitches we got the '
Slope') finally gave us short notice to cease using the 'Slope' after a resident of Main
road complained about rugby balls going into his garden. We did some bargaining with the
resident and the rugby club erected a net to prevent the ball going over into the garden ,
this bought us some time to find our selves another ground.
We now play our home games at the Boughton Sports Field, with one
of the best rugby pitch in the NLD and a sports pavilion providing changing and showering
facilities provided with help from the National Lottery. We have three senior sides who
play their rugby games in the Notts, Lincs and Derbyshire/Leics league and the Security
Plus Pennant League. Indeed now that we have three senior sides we have also gone back to
using the Dukeries field when we have two sides playing at home.
We have about 100 members who are from Ollerton, Boughton, Walesby,
Kirton, Edwinstowe, Clipstone, Mansfield, Sutton in Ashfield, Bilsthorpe, Tuxford,
Retford, Newark and as far away as Grantham. We also have a Junior section ( 8 years to
17years ) which we are constantly seeking to develop and encourage the playing of the game
of rugby. Training sessions are on Wednesday evenings from 5:15 to 6:30 for the Junior
section and 6:30p.m. to 8 :00 p.m. for the senior sides. As the Junior section becomes
established it is envisaged that the Juniors could move to Sunday mornings.
The club has successfully obtained the RFU 'Seal of Approval'
Rugby Club now it has met standards as set out by the governing body (read here for the Seal of Approval RFU report).
We are being assisted with our aims by the Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire & Derbyshire
Rugby Football Union and Steve Smith from the RFU and although we have several qualified
rugby coaches and referees we still require more to improve the coach/player ratio within
the club. To this aim we are asking players, parents, siblings to come along and volunteer
to help out wherever and however they can, even if its just holding a tackling bag at
training sessions!
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