Category: News

Due to the recent poor weather and the resulting state of the pitches, reparation work will start on Monday 24th April and as a consequence, all pitches will be out of playable action until Thursday 1st June.

The club is dropping admission charges for Saturday’s game against Guernsey Raiders in a bid to attract wide support from around East Kent for this important fixture. The kick-off has been brought forward to 2.15pm to accommodate Guernsey’s return flight times. Victory would guarantee our place in National 2 East next season.
The Islanders sit one place above us in the table but history is on our side as we have never lost to them at the Marine Travel Ground.

Cost:

The club has announced the appointment of its first Director of Rugby. Taff Gwilliam, former Head Coach at Medway RFC and currently Director of Rugby of the Kent County representative teams, will join Canterbury on July 1st. “Taff’s appointment will take the club in a new, focused direction as he guides rugby strategy and our community rugby commitment, “said chairman Giles Hilton. “It gives Head Coach Matt Corker the freedom to concentrate on the playing and coaching side and he and Taff will work in close cooperation.”

“I am looking forward to the challenge of taking the club to the next level” said Taff Gwilliam. “I had been thinking of taking a break from rugby but Giles made a compelling argument for me to return. Canterbury is one of Kent’s top clubs with good coaches and players. They have excellent sponsors and supporters and to be involved in growing such a club was too good an opportunity to turn down.”

Welcoming the new appointment Head Coach Matt Corker said: “It’s great that Taff will be involved, bringing his wealth of knowledge to the club. My focus is on giving all players throughout the club the best rugby experience possible and Taff’s appointment is going to help us take a strategic approach to this goal whilst deepening our links with the Kent rugby landscape.”

The new Director of Rugby comes with a strong record of success at both club and county levels.  During his time with Medway he led them to several promotions and his involvement with Kent included three National County Championship finals at both senior and Under 20 levels.

We have learned with great sadness that one of the club’s stalwarts over many seasons, Benny Bell, has died.  Benny served our club in a variety of roles, as  player, sectary, treasurer, and international ticket officer.  Former club president Steve Uglow pays this tribute.  “Benny Bell made the wise decision to leave Maidstone and join Canterbury, playing his first match for the Pilgrims in 1976. He was a talented winger with a good turn of pace, playing regularly for the 1^st XV and the Pilgrims.   Age was beginning to catch up but Benny loved the game and was happy to play whether it was the Pilgrims or the Cardinals. In between scoring hatfulls of tries, he took pleasure in discussing the finer points of the laws of the game with the referee, often from the other side of the field. A change in direction came in the 3^rd XV under my captaincy – it was an international Saturday and an early morning kick-off at Merton Lane when I confessed to failing to find a scrum half and was begging for volunteers. Benny raised his hand, had a super game AND was too tired to criticise the ref. It was a win-win. By the end of the season, he was playing 1^st XV rugby. At the end of season club supper, Benny (in his late thirties) was given the ‘most improved’ player award.  When he stopped playing, Benny threw his heart and soul into the role of club secretary as well as appointing himself as resident thorn-in-the-side of the club chairman. He was a Cumbrian by birth, from Hartsop, in Patterdale. And it showed – nothing got by on-the-nod and Benny would always dig down and check and then check again. He was a man for detail. But it was always the good of Canterbury Rugby that was uppermost in his mind.  In recent seasons, he was always to be found on the touchline, staying involved in the changes in playing membership and coaching. In this, as in so many other areas, he was a man of many opinions, some of them (by the law of averages) right. He also had the disconcerting habit of remembering matches in the dim and distant past, blow by blow, scores, and scorers. Incidents that one had forgotten and wished to keep that way….”

Benny Bell was an important part of the club’s history. Whether arguing with him or just chewing the fat, he could put a smile on your face. We send our deepest condolences to Sally and all his family.

Benny’s funeral will be held at Barham Crematorium on Monday, March 20th at 2.40 pm. After the service, you are invited to celebrate Benny’s life at the rugby club from 3.30pm.

Family flowers only but donations if desired direct to British Lung Foundation or Canterbury Rugby Club. A collection will be made on the day as well.
Please email sallyb46@hotmail.com to let Sally ( daughter) know if you will be attending so that Saucy Flo’s can provide enough food for all!

Congratulations to our January 300 Club Winners!

175 x Rob Balicki
28.  x D W Craig
79.  x Nick Kingsman
149 x Mark Quinn
238 x Andrew Miles

As the new year dawns upon us,
and we drop out 22 with fun.
Take some time to stop and to reflect
on just how far we’ve come. 

As a rugby club of many
partners, players, supporters and fans,
bonding through purpose and laughter
always cheering in the stand. 

We’ve had a season of mixed fortune.
Emotions up and down,
but we’ve built a rugby fortress
at the Marine Travel Ground. 

Amber and black, let’s look ahead,
reset and keep moving on.
Whatever part you have to play,
together we are strong. 

We’ll rise up, we’ll take the lead,
we’ll be the club other teams fear.
We’ll score the tries, we’ll win the game,
23 will be our year. 

For those no longer with us,
your spirit forever at our games.
The tales, the laughs, the tears the jokes,
the clubhouse echoing your names. 

A tenant that we strive towards
at our growing rugby hub.
Whether on the field or off the field
we will forever be One Club. 

To all who travelled with us,
to all who turned up to cheer.
Raise a glass and drink a toast
to a prosperous new year. 

View some of this season’s highlights

Thank you to Phillipa Hilton and ken Matcham for the amazing photographs you have taken.

Four matches cancelled this weekend due to frozen pitches:

Pilgrims V Dover Sharks – Home

3rds V Tunbridge Wells 2nds – Home

Ashford Barbarians V Deacons – Away

Hammersmith & Fulham Ladies V Canterbury Women – Away

We do have a match you can get behind though Tonbridge Juddians V 1st XV

We have a supporters coach leaving from the Marine Travel Ground at 12.00 sharp. There are still some seats left. Come and join the cheering section!

Cost is £15 per person, which includes a LIMITED EDITION BOBBLE HAT, the wearing of which is compulsory!

Strictly on a first-come, first-served basis, please email your name, and the number of spaces required, to Kirsty, our Club & Events Manager at:kirsty@cantrugby.co.uk.

Thanks to the generosity of club members and supporters a Canterbury charity has been given a wonderful Christmas present. The chair of Canterbury Food Bank went to our pre-match lunch on December 10th expecting to pick up a cheque for £500. By the time the meal was over the amount had risen to £6000. A charity auction raised £1500 and that was boosted by individual donations which included two single gifts of £1000.

At the lunch, attended by over 200 club supporters, the Food Bank’s Martin Ward said: “I was amazed at the generosity of these big-hearted people living in the local community.
“We were delighted with the £500 donation – I really didn’t expect to leave with twelve times that amount.

“The Cost of Living Crisis has brought extraordinary new pressures on the people we help. But with donations like this, we will get through it together and make sure no one goes without food.”

The charity, which serves Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay, and surrounding villages, provided enough food in the past year to make 96,450 meals for people in the district suffering financial difficulty.

Club Chairman Giles Hilton said: “As a club, we like to feel that we are a big part of the local community of Canterbury. It was important that in these difficult times we support in as many ways as we can. Canterbury Food Bank is just a superb part of the same community and we are delighted to have been able to support on this occasion.“