Nearly 40 people turned out for the first meeting of this exciting new group at Bury St Edmunds RFC last night. This was as a result of an idea by ECRU Groundsman of the year 2011, Andy Spetch. The people attending were a mixture of representives from clubs, schools, the Institute of Groundstaff(IOG), local authorities and ECRU volunteers.

A steering group was formed under the Chairmanship of Andy Spetch and a menue of topics were brainstormed. This produced a list of issues that the group would look to work on in the coming year. Everyone left excited by the believe that groups like this, working together, can make rugby pitches and facilities in ECRU the envy of other regions and lead to more people playing the game. 

The representitive from the IOG, Andy Clarke said, "This is a fantastic start to get almost 25% of ECRU clubs together for the first meeting". He said that he had not seen anything like it in other sports who had tried to do the same thing.

Andy Spetch agreed that this was an pleasing response to his idea and it showed that there is a real need for this kind of support  for clubs.

He would like any club that could not make the meeting and would like to be part of this initiative to send him details of the designated point of contact for information   

Andy can be contacted on 07850 369787 or via e-mail at Andy Spetch e-mail