Remembering those we have lost
There is no doubt that the last year has been a terrible and difficult time for our game. As we begin to see a route to return and restart, Eastern Counties has been reflecting on the impact the last year has had on many and the sad fact that every club in the area will have lost club members and supporters.
Some of those who have passed away will have been as a direct result of the Coronavirus, many will have died of other causes, but they all have two things in common: their loss will have a massive impact on their family and friends within rugby and beyond; and their friends will not have been able to gather, reminisce and smile at the many happy memories associated with them.
At Eastern Counties, we want to ensure that these great servants of our game are not forgotten: whether they were committee people, players, supporters or volunteers we think their input to our game should be remembered. So, we plan to take action to ensure that this is the case:
• We are organising a commemorative event at Wymondham RFC to include representative rugby tournaments between our three Counties (for both men and women) on Sunday 29 August as our new season gets underway. There will also be a lunch on that day at which we hope appropriate tribute can be paid to those who have passed in the company of those who were closest to them.
• We are planning to establish on our website a virtual ‘wall of remembrance’ that we hope will allow the game as a whole in the East of England to keep those individuals in our minds and in our hearts.
The RFU has done this at a national level and you can see what they have done at https://www.englandrugby.com/participation/volunteers/wall-of-remembrance.
We expect to publish a programme for our commemorative event and the details of those we are honouring in this way will also be included in that programme.
We do not wish to be assuming to ourselves as a body the right to pre-empt the efforts of families and clubs to recognise the loved ones that they have lost, so we hope that the above approach strikes an appropriate balance.
In order for the event to be successful we need the rugby community to support it so we ask all associated with our game in the Eastern Counties to:
1. Save the date – Sunday 29 August 2021 (the Bank Holiday weekend) and watch out for the publicity coming from Eastern Counties to promote it;
2. Nominate people who should be commemorated in the programme and on the Wall of Remembrance using the form at the end of this letter and sending it to remembrance@ecrurugby.com;
3. Nominate anyone who should be asked to attend the lunch as a guest of Eastern Counties due to their closeness to those being remembered by emailing details to remembrance@ecrurugby.com;
This event will not be aimed at raising funds although we do intend to hold a charity raffle for Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of Rugby as part of the event.
We hope that by using the Bank Holiday weekend as many as possible will be able to support a very worthwhile occasion.
Yours in rugby,
John Winders
President
Eastern Counties Rugby Union
There are no events to show yet.