September 2015 Links

The Association www.theora.co.uk

Cricket www.oldrutscricket.org.uk

Football www.oldruts.co.uk

Rugby www.oldrutsrugby.com

Dates for your diary

Old Rutlishians’ Association

Thu 1 Oct 4.45pm

Wales v Fiji

Sat 3 Oct 8pm

England v Australia

Sat 31 Oct 4pm

RWC Final

Sat 31 Oct 6.30pm HALLOWE’EN

RUTSFEST

Sat 20 Aug

2016 Platinum lunch

Someone recently asked if it was

busy being President, to which I

answered 'No, not really'. I spoke too

soon.

I should have known that I couldn't

rely on the British weather. Hardly

any cricket lost to bad weather all

season, then along comes the bank

holiday President’s match and

Patrons’ lunch… and a monsoon

turned up that morning. Anyway,

another great lunch from Pat Keene,

a great afternoon in the bar with

good company and a hastily

improvised table tennis tournament

(thanks Lance) won by Joe 'clearly-

spent-too-much-time-playing-table-

tennis' Riches.

4 September saw a hectic Junior

Rugby Registration Evening. Hugely

well attended by masses of parents

that came to sign up their kids, the

deep queues at the bar and hordes of

kids running around on the field led

to a very busy evening. Let's hope

that this is the start of yet another

great season for the junior rugby

section. On a separate note,

congratulations to hard working

Minis’ chairman Gary Tiernan and

Sarah Jane on the birth of their baby.

Following up on recent years of

success, the cricket section managed

another two more promotions. On

5 September, the First XI secured

Our President writes promotion (their third consecutive

promotion) by beating Worcester

Park. The previous week, the 4th XI

had been confirmed as champions of

their league and they will go up into

the 4th XI Premier League next

season. Fantastic achievements to

add to the Sunday 1st XI winning the

Griffin League title. A long evening

of celebration on the 5th was well

earned by the cricket section.

I attended the Colts’ Awards night on

11 September, another really well

attended event. Congratulations to

all the winners of awards. Well done

Millsy for all the hard work

behind scenes. The Colts’ section

continues to thrive, having taken on

over 400 members for the first time

ever this season, a testament to our

club and the work that has been put

in over the years.

By contrast to the hordes of kids

attending the last two events, the

1965 Reunion was a quieter affair.

Great to see people coming back to

the club after many years away,

though many wouldn't have

recognised the place after last year’s

refurbishment.

Turning to football, the senior sides

have started their campaigns. Good

luck for the season chaps. It was also

great to see Dan Poulter's U9s

football team start their first league

season with a great success too,

winning 4-2.

Finally, 25 September was the end of

season cricket dinner. A good turn

out feasted well on another Pat

Keene buffet while celebrating

another successful season. Honours

ties were deservedly presented to

Club Captain, Joe Riches, in

recognition of leading the club 1st

team to three consecutive

promotions, along with a tie awarded

to Pat Keene in recognition of over

thirty years of brilliant behind the

scenes work and fantastic catering.

The Rugby World Cup has also

started and let's hope that crowds

flock to the new massive TVs in the

clubhouse to watch a fantastic

tournament.

Stuart Atkins

President

Old Ruts fish spotted by Stuart ‘clearly too much time in the aquarium’ Atkins

Finch & Co. ORA Sponsors

Nestled amongst the John Innes

designed Merton Park conservation

area, Finch & Co enjoys a unique

position.

‘Green flag’ awarded spaces, tree

lined avenues and beautiful

Edwardian houses occupy the

surrounding roads. The area feels

rural despite its proximity to London.

In the late 19th century, John Innes, of

compost fame, together with his

brother James, turned one of

London’s original garden suburbs into

a semi rural suburb for the City

businessmen of the time. Now in the

21st century, we can fully appreciate

the quality and style of these 1920s

and 1930s homes that were not

destroyed during the war. The homes

designed by Quartermain and

Brocklesby remain highly sought

after.

The Finch office team are

enthusiastic, exuberant and excited.

They speak with great affection for

the area, especially Beryl who has

been with the company for 23 years.

Her local knowledge is invaluable,

thanks to her super memory. With

Manager Katharine; Maurice, Bawani

and Beryl provide a service to the

community which is unique.

Sponsorship and links with Old Ruts

sports club demonstrate that the

‘village’ spirit is alive and thriving. The

area is now home to all combinations

of housing stock, from flats and

cottages to large detached homes, all

carefully designed to complement the

locality.

Use of the grounds at Poplar Road has increased dramatically with continual twelve month use by all of the sections, especially by our younger players.

Over the past 18 months the Association has overseen massive improvements to our Clubhouse but we have neglected to invest in our playing surfaces which are beginning to show wear. While repairable, it is becoming more and more difficult to make good.

One of the problems is that we cannot get enough water distributed evenly over the grass to get good germination of grass seed before it is all greedily gobbled up by the resident pigeons. The water pressure from the mains is not high enough to feed any more hose pipes with adequate results.

Our Grounds Manager, Perry Keene, advises that we need a new irrigation system to replace the existing one that was installed in the 1930’s! The cost of this will be substantial. You often read in the press how much less community focused organisations other than our own are able to secure funding for sometimes obscure projects.

The Executive, in their wisdom, have decided that we need to progress investment on the grounds and that it would be sensible to co-ordinate any other improvements that our Members would like to see. We can then make applications for grants and allocate resources effectively without the danger of our efforts being duplicated. I have therefore asked the sections for their views and ideas on the subject and hope to advance plans for the Club in the near future.

Of course if anyone out there has ideas or opinions they wish to air please do not hesitate to contact me on geoff.aldis2@gmail.com . Also if you possess any understanding of the way these funds can be accessed or can spare the time to put together an application to the source of these funds please let me know.

We have a great Club that over the last few years, has reinforced its reputation in the community as one of the best youth orientated organisations in the south-east if not the country and we are determined that we will maintain that position. We now need to invest to remain the best!

Geoff Aldis Chairman

Our Chairman writes RUGBY Pacific Warriors

Old Ruts Rugby’s own Adam ‘Reggie’ Perrin has gone one better than Bialystock and Bloom and has produced a film!

Pacific Warriors is a fascinating new documentary that explores the history of the tiny Pacific Island nations of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. It documents their remarkable journeys every four years at the Rugby World Cup, when against all odds they take on the rugby giants and at times, not only produce a scare, but even come out on top.

As told by the pacific players themselves and featuring the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Bakkies Botha, Matt Giteau, Sir Clive Woodward, David Haye, Serge Betsen and Jason Robinson, their tale is one of the greatest underdog stories in sport.

For the Pacific Islands the game of rugby has become the modern expression of their traditional warrior spirit. Their lighting fast, brutally physical, high risk style of rugby is legendary, making them fan favourites wherever they play.

The aim of the film is to raise the profile of Pacific rugby prior to the World Cup, and also to get all Tier 1 fans to give them a cheer as their second favourite teams. A significant percentage of profits will go towards Pacific Islands rugby development, and the filmmakers have already managed to fund a two-week training camp for Tonga in Surrey, from early pre-sales.

Fiji play Wales on 1 October. Wales’ history of upsets against the Pacific Islands and their list of unfit players does them no favours.

Come along to the Club to see how they get on.

Mike ‘Salad’ Stallard

Adam ‘Reggie’ Perrin (right) trying to recruit for ORRFC’s 2nd XV

1. A family of Canadian Geese appears to have taken up residence on the field. They seem to be particularly partial to the green shoots of new grass, but our Groundsman denies feeding them. He even complains that they are not even frightened of him – or that the other way around!

2. Having scoured the country, we have secured a manufacturer in Bradford who can manufacture the material for our traditional Club Blazers. Now we are searching for a tailor who can make up these fashionable must-have garments. If anyone has any contacts in that area please let me know.

Geoff Aldis

SPM Development Services Ltd prides itself

on having a ‘can do’ philosophy and putting

the end users first and foremost in all

activities. This is achieved at a competitive

rate with the customer needs being of

paramount importance.

We consist of experienced teachers and

managers with considerable business

acumen and people skills. The desire of the

team is to improve educational standards

and help bring learning “to life” in all subject

areas within schools.

SPM Development Services provides the

following services

Recruitment

Education Consultancy

Training & Coaching

Fifty years ago this month, Tom Simpson became the first Briton to win the Men’s World Road Race Championship. Tragically, Tom died less than two years later climbing Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France.

Old Rust used the rest day on his holiday cycling to the Mediterranean to visit Tom’s memorial and to experience the arduous 19km climb up the steep, scorched slopes.

Old Rust took some photos on the way up, which partly explains why his ascent took a bit over twice as long as Chris Froome’s.

Old ‘Rusty’ Rust

Chairman’s Postscript

Old Rust

Next Edition

w/c Monday 26 October

Send contributions to oraorbit@hotmail.com

by Monday 19 October

Best ‘A’ Level Results to date

The 6th form was re-introduced at

Rutlish in a joint venture with

Ricards Lodge High School in 2010.

Known as RR6 it was extremely

challenging then to convince year 11

students that they should remain at

Rutlish & Ricards to pursue their A

levels when the 6th form was

starting from scratch.

It is therefore with great pleasure

that I write that out of the eight

secondary state schools in Merton

the Rutlish students obtained the

highest percentage pass mark, 30%,

in the A*/ A category at A level. And

at A* to B category which the Russell

Group universities focus on the

percentage was 56% and this may in

fact go up a little after some

remarking. The top percentage in

the A* to B category out of the eight

Merton secondary schools was 58%.

The A level targets set by the School

& the Governing Body were all

exceeded and a number of Rutlish’s

students have been accepted at

prestigious universities, including

University College London, King’s

College London, Queen Mary London,

Durham, and Exeter with students

studying a range of courses that

includes natural sciences, law,

biomedical sciences, engineering,

business management and

psychology.

Reviewing individual performances

both Rutlish & Ricards had students

that obtained straight A grades at

both A levels and at A/S level in year

12 which once again were the best

A/S grades since 2010.

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Rutlish School 2015

Examination Results

In terms of objectives set for the

School in 2014/2015 the A level

results was a very prominent

objective. Having chaired the RR6

Governors’ committee this year I can

only add my own congratulations to

the enormous efforts put in by all

involved. The staff at both schools

were excellent and went way beyond

the call of duty that was very much

appreciated by the students many of

whom I have spoken to.

GCSE Results

In terms of year 11 GCSE results,

over 10% of students achieved

straight A*/A grades in their

examination. Reviewing five subjects

at A* to C grades including English

and mathematics 65% of students

achieved this. That is slightly down

on last year but in terms of students

achieving A* to C across any five

subjects this rose to 84% from 81%

last year. The School had a slight

matching difference this year where

both the English & Mathematics

department did very well but not

necessarily with the same students.

This explains why the 65% was

slightly lower than last year but the

84% was higher than last year.

The national average is not known

until October but suffice to say that

the Rutlish results will be in the

region of 15% above the national

average for a boys’ school and in

terms of progress the School has

done very well nationally again.

As the new term starts the School

looks forward to a new full year 7

intake and a real step up in students

now staying at RR6 to complete their

A/S and A levels.

My own congratulations to all the

students for their examination

results and to all the staff at the

School under the tremendous

leadership of Mr. Alex Williamson &

his senior leadership team. We are

very fortunate to have Alex at the

helm.

Peter A. Norrie

Chair, Rutlish Full Governing Body

CRICKET

Walking your way to Fitness!

A friendly local group

All welcome

Meet at ORA sports ground every

Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday

10:00 to 11:00

£5 per session

Contact: Anne de Silva

0208 540 0752

execfit1@btopenworld.com

Best Foot Forward

Committed, talented and

successful ORCC see season

of success... again!

There is one word that could sum up

the season for ORCC, but I'll use two

if I may: 'absolutely superb.'

The 1st XI who started the season

without their talismanic skipper Joe

'Egg' Riches due to a coming of age

adventure to South East Asia (think

'Into the Wild' minus the poisoning)

managed to maintain good form

across the summer and gain

promotion to Division 1.

The 2nd XI under the leadership of

Peter 'Daisy' Day consolidated in a

really competitive division. Some

great performances saw the team

win away at eventual league winners

Valley End.

The 3rd XI led by Nasir 'Nas' Sayid did

exceptionally well to not only survive

but also challenge for the

championship in the Premier Division.

It will be 'watch this space' for them

next season as they will surely give

winning that division everything they

can.

Adam 'Wrighty' Wright was able to

expertly lead the 4th XI to promotion

as champions and perhaps most

importantly, the 3rd and 4th XIs have

been fuelled by some brilliant colts

performances.

The 5th XI with Graham 'Millsy' Mills

were able to fulfil some great

fixtures across London and Surrey

and provide the foundations of

competitive cricket for a number of

our promising youngsters.

The Sunday teams led by Jon 'Mappy'

Mapp and Simon 'SPM' Piper-Masha

won the Griffin League and the

Development side came runners up

to Normandy (Surrey) in their Sunday

competition.

A mention must also go to the colts

section which is led by Graham Mills

and Stuart Atkins. All of our current

success is built on their hard word.

Thanks also goes to the groundsmen,

tea ladies and Pat Keene, umpires,

scorers, sponsors and our loyal band

of supporters. Also many thanks to

our chairman Lance Keene who does

so much for the cricket section -

there is no need to list the things he

does here because there probably

wouldn't be space in the whole of the

eorbit!!

We look to 2016 with the belief that

the 1st and 2nd XIs can compete to

bring premier cricket to Poplar Road,

that the 3s and 4s can challenge for

championships and that the vital 5th

XI can produce even more brilliant

youngsters.

Alex ‘Barney’ Barnicott