On July 19, 1970, Stewartry Rugby Membership held their first ever assembly adopted on September 12, 1970 by their first ever recreation at “Fortress Greenlaw”.
In September 1992, the brand new clubhouse opened at Greenlaw and now, 52 years later, the membership fields female and male senior XVs, a male seconds XV and 7 youth groups. In addition they help the local people with their full-time growth officer.
July 2020 noticed the membership enter its fiftieth 12 months of existence and will have seen celebrations at Greenlaw, however on account of Covid the occasions have been postponed. Lastly, on Friday and Saturday, the lengthy awaited fiftieth celebrations have been capable of go forward.
The weekend kicked off with a black tie ball of 450 glamorous company, which had bought out even earlier than the unique date, and needed to be expanded to accommodate the demand of extra tickets.
The marquee was adorned superbly by native ladies Nicky Poland and Leanne Neary from their firm Rustic Love, who did all of the balloons for the occasion together with the tables, and a balloon arch and stack.
The scrumptious meal included beef carved on the desk and was offered by Sheena and Derek Cartner from Cartner Catering, one in every of south west Scotland’s main occasion catering companies. Recommendation and steering was additionally gratefully obtained from Peter Wilson Walker from Caterbirds.
The company loved after dinner audio system, music and dancing to Ritchie Hamilton into the wee hours and Allen Henderson, Jim McLelland and all of the bar workers there with Sulwath Brewers, ensured that they by no means went thirsty
The Saturday noticed the household, neighborhood occasion Celebration on the Pitch go forward, with bands Shore Highway, Candy Craze, Torrs and Doohamer Disco making certain individuals have been capable of dance the day away with a drink or two. Anybody who was feeling peckish was capable of deal with themselves to a hog roast kindly donated by Tom Grierson of Grierson Butchers.
Sadly, the robust winds meant the deliberate inflatable impediment course wasn’t capable of go forward however the children didn’t let that spoil their enjoyable and among the youthful rugby gamers pulled collectively some rugby themed actions for them.
They have been additionally occupied with making an attempt to win some package from males’s first staff XV captain John Picken’s widespread tombola.
All package was both model new or had been worn by skilled rugby gamers for his or her respective golf equipment.
This was an enormous hit, particularly with the children, with one lad exclaiming he’d gained “a pair of shorts by a well-known participant – I can’t keep in mind who wore them for his first ever recreation at Glasgow Warriors”. This was in reality former Stewartry Shark Stafford McDowell, who had donated the shorts, and he was happy to listen to how effectively they’d been obtained.
All in all, the weekend was an enormous success and supported by each the Stewartry RFC neighborhood and the local people.
It was unbelievable to see all sections of the membership combine collectively, together with health club members, present membership members, gamers, supporters, older members who maybe haven’t visited the membership for some time and plenty of different members of the broader neighborhood, and an actual combination of ages.
Anybody not already concerned with the membership who want to enquire about how they will ought to get in contact by means of the Stewartry RFC web site or Fb web page. There are additionally a wide range of sponsorship alternatives out there.
The membership has quite a lot of occasions deliberate, together with a come and take a look at session for Stewartry Sirens in July to encourage some new gamers for the ladies’s staff.
There may also be a DIY and neighborhood weekend together with automobile wash, barbecue and video games of contact in August, with Stewartry 10s event on August 13.