Rebecca ends first season with award double

NEWCOMER Rebecca Charles marked her debut season with Stratford Ladies Rugby Club by collecting two awards at their end-of-season presentation.

The team celebrated the 2017 season with representatives of the whole club for the first time in their five-year history, having been invited to the Vice Presidents Dinner at Stratford RFC and with chairman, Laurence Kirk, presenting four awards.

After back-to-back league titles in 2015 and 2016, this season’s focus was on player recruitment and development and no fewer than ten players made their debuts as Stratford came a solid fourth in the North East Midlands Ladies Touch League, just one point behind third place.

New coach for the season, Richard Pepperell, was extremely happy with that finish from predominantly new players to the team and to the game of rugby as a whole.

One such player, Charles was named Most Improved Player by coach Pepperell and Players’ Player, voted by the squad.

She was new to the game in February and yet soon became a vital player on the pitch. She captained the last two tournaments of the season in the absence of Jane McGovern, and led the team by example.

Pepperell also chose Rachel McGovern as Coach’s Player of the Year. She received her award for being a pleasure to coach (most of the time!), always being dedicated when training and also supporting and encouraging new players.

The newly-introduced Clubwoman of the Year accolade went to Caz Farris. She started the team in 2012 and, as observed by Pepperell, has sometimes turned up with no one else at training. To go from nothing to the success of this season, he felt deserved recognition.

The ladies will continue to be coached by Pepperell and supported by SALTS Healthcare, who provided the squad with post-match hooded tops for next season.

They will start training again in January 2018, in preparation for the start of the touch season in March.