Regional 7s: venues required

May 20th has been set aside by RFUW for regional sevens tournaments at all age groups - U14, U17 and senior. However, unlike regional 10s, RFUW are not organising these events centrally - clubs will not be invited by HQ to bid to host an official regional sevens competition.

So the East Region is taking the initiative and calling for clubs to step forward to host competitions. This initiative is aimed at ensuring that at least one event happens for each age group, as well as co-ordinating bids to avoid several clubs competing with each other!

Last season there were four "regional" junior sevens tournaments in England (but no senior events) prior to National Sevens. The junior events - at Worcester, Darlington, Dorking, and Letchworth - excited (in the latter two cases at least) massive interest with clubs undertaking round trips of up to 200 miles to take part. As a result the Dorking and Letchworth events were possibly the largest and second-largest one-day girls rugby events ever. There is clearly massive interest at junior level at least, and probably senior level as well - especially from clubs who see the National Sevens as really a step too far for inexperienced sides.

So the RPM (John Birch) for East Region wants to know whether any clubs be even faintly interested in hosting (or are you already planning to host) a Sevens competition on 20th May. At least one club - Tabard RFC - have already expressed interest in hosting but may be restricted to hosting an event for just one age group.

There is a small extra incentive of a £500 grant for clubs in Hertfordshire willing to run a junior sevens, but the fact of the matter is that demand is such that - so long as there are not too many competing events - you cannot fail to make a reasonable surplus.

A quick Q&A...

Why are you doing this? What gives you/Herts/East the right to decide anything?
Because no-one else is doing anything, and time is running out. If everyone is assuming that someone else will be running a Sevens in east of England (ie. East, East Midlands or Thames Valley - the area that Letchworth's event drew on last year) then there will be no Sevens at all, anywhere.

Is Letchworth planning to run any event?
No. Last year's Herts 7s was a massive success and great fun to run but a key part of that success was - I feel - that the event moves every year and does not belong to one club. Last year was in effect the third year of the competition and each year it has been bigger and better and that is mainly because each succesive host has seen it as a "special" event and been determined to "do it better than it has ever been done before". If it stayed at one club it not be special, would not evolve and grow, and might almost become a chore. If there was absolutely no interest at all from anyone - if there might otherwise be no junior sevens in East Anglia, East Midlands or Thames Valley - then we MIGHT think about doing it again but I really, really would rather not.

Why is there a grant for holding an event in Hertfordshire but no-where else?
There is a £500 grant available from Herts Sports Partnerships (which Letchworth are holding on to) as an extra incentive for a Herts club to run a junior event. Clearly - and by definition! - this money could not go to a club outside the county, and if no-one steps forward that money just goes back to HSP.

What criteria will be used to decide between bids?
No idea - up to East Forum. My main concern at this stage is to try to ensure that there is at least one viable event - if several clubs step forward it would actually be a nice problem to have and if sufficiently geographically separated there is no reason why there need be only one event - in fact demand was such that you could have easily split last year's event at Letchworth in two and had two perfectly viable and enjoyable competitions.

What would be the minimum requirements to host?
Clearly it depends on the number of entries, but I think for the a senior sevens at least two pitches, for juniors (assuming you run U14s and U17s concurrently) at least three.

What help would a host get?
Nothing can be promised (and outside Herts there's no money!), but I think if a club took on the responsibility for running what was recognised as the region's (or wider area's) event they might reasonably expected to receive as much support from other clubs as possible. Certainly I'd be more than happy to give any help I could including passing on any lessons learnt from last year's event.

Is there any closing date?
Not really - but ideally John would like any (even vague) expressions of interest by 15th January so that the idea can be discussed at the next East forum.