A well attended a.g.m.of Huntingdon Stags took place on Thursday 28 June. All Committee posts were filled (more) and the following elections were made on the playing side for next season:

• Club Captain: Simon Leader
  
  
• 1st XV Captain: Tom McCreadie
  
  
• 2nd XV Captain: Nick Wilcox
  
  
• 3rd XV /Vets Captain: Chris Durrant
  
  
• Head Coach will be Damien Whales

The first league matches {Midlands 3 for the First XV and the Count Merit Table for the Second XV} are on 8 September. Players at all levels will be made most welcome.

As well as mens rugby, Stags will again be running junior and mini sides from under 17 to under 6. Training and matches are on Sunday morning.

Report from Mick Morgan

After two very intense and competitive selection sessions at Thetford RFC, four members of our all conquering U15's squad have been selected for the Eastern Counties. We are very proud of them all and wish them all the very best of luck. The players are:

• Chris Budd
  
  
• Tom Morgan
  
  
• Karl Smith
  
  
• James Turner

Report from Matt Griggs

Sunday 26 November saw the 2nd HRUFC Country Biathlon Championship take place.  The glorious winter sun and the lack of rain saw the event well attended with no less than 16 teams willing to brave the journey out to deepest darkest fenland and pit their wits against mother nature in this classic three-way duel between man, fish and inanimate clay discs.

With experienced anglers and high tech equipment aplenty and the recent rainfall resulting in a high and heavily-coloured river providing a challenging venue for even the most adept angler, it soon became apparent that the fishing section of the competition would be conquered by…..a total novice! 

After a number of fish had been lost, mostly by the Welsh Wizards, the cry of “Help, what do I do now?” signified the capture of the first and only fish of the day, falling to Welman Snr of Team Welman, on a small spinner. 

To refer back to Mr Welman’s initial question, this correspondent can personally verify that is what you definitely DO NOT do is put your finger too close to the mouth of an angry pike, glove or no glove.  I can also verify that in line with common belief, the teeth are very sharp, they produce a lot of blood and my finger is very sore.

With hooks removed and first aid administered, Team Welman’s catch was weighed in at a decisive 5 ¼ lb and, other than a few dubious tales of fish that got away, that concluded the fishing section.

The second part of the competition saw the teams take to the shooting grounds.  Highlights included Cooky watching at least the first four clays fall to the floor before even attempting to fire a shot, Welshy swinging the gun across so far that by the time he fired, he hit nothing but the hay bale 2 foot from the end of the gun and best of all, Whales Snr hitting three times the clays that Whales Jnr hit, before declaring that he was a better shot, better footballer, better rugby player and better cricketer than his son could ever hope to be.  It should also be noted that although Skidders missed all but one of the clays with the shotgun, he managed to finish off the other nine with his bayonet.

However, on a more serious note, after a closely contested and very tense sudden death shoot-off between the Furbanks and the Griggs-Binham combination, Griggs and Binham were duly crowned Best Shots.  It should be noted however that Griggs failed to hit a single clay in the shoot off and only some wonderful twilight shooting from partner Binham kept them in it until the pressure finally got to Furbank Snr and he missed, letting down his partner, Furbank Jnr very badly.

When the final scores were collated, the clear winners of the Overall Biathlon Championship were Team Welman with 9 ¼ points.

Final Standings – Overall Championship

1. S & B Welman – 9 ¼ points
2. C Binham & M Griggs – 8 points (Best Shots after shoot off)
3. T & G Furbank – 8 points

Finally, many thanks once again to the Abblitts for providing the venue and the excellent organisation to make the day a success as well as pre and post competition refreshments.  It should also be noted that Brian and Dale personally sponsored the shooting competition, enabling a large proportion of the entry fees to go straight into the club funds. 

Qubic recruitment from Huntingdon are the Stags new shirt sponsors for the 2006/7 season. Pictured below are the Stags team prior to their winning game against Bugbrooke together with Barry Hughes, Business Development Manager from Qubic (centre left) and Stags President, Neil Greatorex (centre right).

Lineup : Back row L-R: Charlie Cook (Qubic), Michael Webb, Matt Davies-Binge, Tom Beattie, Doug Bentley, Barry Hughes (Qubic), Neil Greatorex (President), Tom McCreadie, Jordan Barber, Ben Strangeways, Devon Brown, Elliott Baldwin, Damien Whales (Coach) Front Row: Ben Crean, Mike Blanchard, Warwick Blamey, Neil Welsh (Captain), Quentin Minnaar, Robbie Attewell, Simon Orange, John McCreadie