Dear Fubars.
Thank you to all those who were able to come to the 2025 awards night on 6th June. It is safe to say the evening was a roaring success, so a big thank you goes to Doc Cox For organising the event, setting up, and to all those who helped him get the venue ready for the night and our sponsors. Old Leamingtonians once again did a grand job of hosting us, and it was really good to see many of them join us for the evening – the next time we visit will be to face off against them on the pitch!
During the night we reflected on a very busy 12 months for us, which obviously most recently included our very first overseas rugby tour. The last 12 months has seen us play more fixtures than any other 12 month period since the club started. Our steady increase in growth and momentum up to this point would not have been possible without all of our members, all of the committee and critically, those of you who have been with us since the very start. Therefore it was sad to say farewell to our two of the originals – our outgoing Chairman Tug Hartley GM, and outgoing quartermaster Rusty Rustill. Unfortunately, neither Tug nor Rusty were able to attend the evening, but we have got gifts awaiting them at their next rendezvous at a Forces Barbarians match. Rusty also earned his Forces Barbarians Cap having clocked up 10 appearances fr the club, as did Dave Downes and myself.
With Tug and Rusty outgoing this meant we had committee positions to fill and as is customary with our process. nominations opened up to all club members for all committee positions, not just the two which were becoming vacant. We received one nomination for the Chairman position. two nominations for the Vice Chairman position and three nominations for the vacant Quarter Master position to work alongside Simon Piles. Voting was opened up to all members, via an online voting tool, distributed via email. Martyn Bodie was successful in securing the most votes to take the QM position and Glenn McAllister was successful in securing the most votes to take the Vice Chairman position. I was the sole nomination for Chairman and will step into that role immediately, as will Glen and Martyn. Thank you to all those who put their names forward for positions but were unsuccessful. Any one of you would have been welcome additions to the committee.
Additional awards on the night included Julian Woodall picking up the President’s Award for his incredible hard work and dedication to the club since he joined, particularly the over the last 12 months where he has been able to organise the first ever walking rugby match for the club, against none other than the Chelsea Pensioners’ Scarlett Warriors!
Stuart Knowles picked up the players player award – very well deserved by Stuart – a stalwart of reliability and hard hitting rugby.
And finally, Simon Piles picked up Clubman of the Year award, largely down to his relentless commitment to the QM role during a frantic 12 months and his faultless organisation and execution of the first Forces Barbarians rugby tour, to Gibraltar. Between the rugby tour and the awards night, over £2k was raised for charity – with the proceeds going to the inimitable 353 Trust – a military charity of which 100% of fundraising goes to supporting veterans, directly. There are few charities who can claim such a metric, yet 353 has done it this way since their inception.
All awards and caps were presented to recipients by Italian International Marko Stanojevic, whom many of you will remember for his spectacular interception try for Italy, versus New Zealand in the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Thanks again to everybody who attended. all of our sponsors, Old Leamingtonians RFC for hosting us, and everyone reading this – the enthusiasm and support of our members has been a key contributor to everything we’ve achieved so far and will be for everything that is to come. Therefore I feel immensely privileged to take on the role of Chairman but as successor to Tug I have big boots to fill.
We could have a big 12 months ahead of us where we have opportunities to set the bar a little higher and to pull off more firsts for the club so look how for a small message from me over the next week or so in your inboxes, outlining what the next 12 months looks like for all of us Fubars and how we will take it up a notch.
Thanks all – please check out photos of the awards night, available now in our Gallery. If you have photos you want added, drop me a note and I’ll get them in there.
Sincerely
Hugh Keir
Chairman, Forces Barbarians RFC