Past Players’, Supporters’ and Sponsors’ Day
(Contributed by Nick Sylvester, Honorary Secretary)
A few weeks into the 2021/22 rugby season saw Roseland RFC stage the first of several 50th Anniversary special events on Saturday 30th October….and what a great day it was! Entitled “Past Players’, Supporters’ & Sponsors’ Day”, the aim was simply to get as many people as possible to join us for our Cornwall League One home fixture against Lankelly Fowey, our friends and longstanding local rivals. From a playing perspective it meant that the stage was set.
To complement the event, we hired a marquee with a 60 foot frontage, set up a bar selling cask beer, lager, wine, soft drinks plus tea/coffee so as to ensure that all remained refreshed and protected in the event of inclement weather. As it was the weather was bright and breezy, which was ideal, and we even has a bouncy castle to keep the families entertained.
As kick-off approached the numbers steadily swelled as many reunited with old friends – the advent of COVID early last year meant that many had not seen each other for a couple years at least which added to the occasion. The buzz in the marquee (or should I say beer tent) was one of fun, laughter and an overall joyous feeling of genuine reunion. There was also Cornwall RFU representation and Trelawney’s Army Supporters Club who generously presented two special match balls before kick-off. There must have been 250 in attendance which was fantastic.
It was no accident that we chose the Lankelly fixture – for many years both Roseland and Lankelly were the whipping boys of Cornish village rugby, whereby on occasions the ability to field 15 bodies was a challenge in itself, hence such close association. The performance of both sides underlined great progress made by both clubs in a pulsating contest and despite being behind at half-time, Roseland responded magnificently to register a 25-14 win…..perhaps it was written in the stars?
Of course the day didn’t end there – many stayed on in and around the marquee until the beer ran out which it inevitably did! Then followed a constant flow back to The Roseland Inn for more fun and banter and so it went on……
As a club we were keen to generate money for charity as opposed to benefitting the club and had selected Parkinson’s UK to be both deserving and appropriate. We have now donated £1,600 to the charity from the bar profits, ground collection, auction, raffle and collecting tins.
Finally, although far too many to individually mention, we thank our sponsors as always for their continued support. Special thanks must go to the Pascoe family for the use of our ground and our fabulous hosts Phil & Kasia at The Roseland Inn.