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Touch

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Policies Approved and Available

Following our recent inaugural board meeting, we are pleased to announce that the Constitution and Policy documents have been signed off and accepted into the Association. More information and copies of the documents can be found by following the Policies link in the main menu above, or from the Knowledge Base articles on the front page.

We trust that you will all take the time to read the relevant documents to familiarise yourselves with the standards and expectations that are associated with our organisation.

USA Touch Nationals 2016

The dates have been released and our Expression of Interest has been sent in!

It will be held at the fantastic setting of the ESPN Grounds in Orlando again and run from the 13th to the 16th of October.

Based on the current situation in trying to get US Visas for New York I would strongly recommend that those wishing to travel start their application process now as the current appointment dates are after the tourney!!

More details to follow, so watch this space and get to training!!

Latest Updates on Events and Schedules:

Training:
Starting this Wednesday we are going to join with Lisa and the girls at UWI Mona so please try to get there between 5 and 5:30pm as we only have until around 6:30 – 7pm. We will go over a little bit of basics, but it will mainly be match based, so more fun 🙂

We will be at the same venue for pick up games on Saturday mornings from 9am, so please make the effort to get down to these games and help the growth!

Tournaments:
Sheppy’s outing, Saturday 21st May
Sadly as this is predominantly an over 35’s social touch exhibition they do not want us playing together as a team and spoiling the fun. But come down anyway and join in, it will still give us a chance to run out and work on some moves, as well as supporting friends. Exact details to follow, but I think it’s at Mona from about 2pm.

JRL Exhibition, Saturday 28th May
Again exact times are still tbc but probably around 3pm. This will be an excellent opportunity for us to showcase the game on the Barbican field in front of the JRL crowd before their match against BARLA. Please come to some of the training sessions so we can put on a good show!

NY Tourney, July 23rd
A breakdown of estimated costs for this tour is available on email, or print outs at training, it would be great if we could get a full team to this event! We need to get moving on raising funds / sponsors and applying for visas, so read, come training for more info and start collecting money!!

Admin:
Our paperwork is nearly complete and the web site will be updated accordingly over the coming days. Once completed we will have a board meeting to get going on our development plans, sponsor searches, JRL partnership, FIT membership etc etc. Let me know if you want to get involved or help in any way, especially in the fund raising areas!!

Communication:
It is hard to make sure that everyone gets the messages, emails, whatsapp etc so please make sure you send on accurate contact information for yourself and anyone you know that is interested. Also indicate your preferred method of communication, so if you never have data do not suggest email! Also please check the web site whenever you can as their are often updates posted there too!

Cayman Island Trip

The place might not be cheap, but it sure was fun!!

We were very fortunate to find a lovely spot on AirBnB to rest our heads so for less than the price of a single room in the Holiday Inn we found ourselves in a lovely 4 bedroom villa with far more room than we needed.

IMG-20160415-WA0003

Villa Patio View to Pool and Sea

Friday evening we took a ‘stroll’ up to Royal Palms for the tourney kick off party and meet up with a few familiar faces. But with the early start scheduled for the next morning we were grateful of the Public Bus service to get us most of the way home!

Saturday morning showed just how different our Caribbean neighbours are with the tournament starting promptly on schedule at 8am and ending right on time some 11 and a half hours later! The morning session saw the running of the Men’s and Women’s division with the Twins playing with the New York girls, Nephew joining up with Houston and Tonka mainly on refereeing duties. 8 rounds later we took a couple of hours off for lunch with the girls happy in their victory!

New York Ladies with a Jamaican Boost!

New York Ladies with the Jamaican Boost!

The afternoon saw another 7 rounds of more ref’ing the 4 of us teaming up with our friends from Houston for a bit of fun and valuable experience. Thankfully the mixed final was a much easier game to officiate than the Men’s final with New York completing the clean sweep with a tense and exciting victory over Cayman 2-1. A few post tournament beers, a birthday toast to OJ, some pleasant trips down memory lane then home for pizza was about all we could manage after a long, hot and thoroughly enjoyable day. After refereeing in 12 matches and playing 4 rounds the warm jacuzzi at the villa complex was an extremely welcome place to enjoy some late night rum!!

Houston & Jamaica Squad

Houston & Jamaica Squad

Sunday allowed us to enjoy a much easier pace, but also saw Nephew continue to move out of his comfort zone and enjoy new experiences! His first flight might have failed to get us off the rock, as we made a quick stop in Mo-Bay before he finally got to walk on foreign soils. With the boat trip and swimming with sting rays soon to be ticked off the bucket list the day started with a challenge that he sadly was not up to – declining the full Irish breakfast and the delight that is black pudding!

Boat soon come...

Boat soon come…

After an hour’s delay for technical issues and the boat only taking in Sting Ray City (and not Rum Point), the boat trip could have been better, and the greasy kebab would have been much better if the mozzies had not have been eating us a quickly as we ate the food! But that aside the company was amazing and the craic mighty! In spite of the ridiculously early start Monday morning (and a slight run in with the Jamaican taxi driver) we were back on the Rock ready to start the next chapter of the awesome journey that is Jamaican Touch!!!

 

Check out a couple of videos at the links below

 

On the Pitch

 

Boat Trip

We’re getting official!

We are one step further along our path to being a proper Association as the Companies docs are finally in (Thanks Captain for all your hard work!)

Onward and upward to the next level as Malaysia 2019 is calling!!

Nearly there Cayman!

We’re still waiting fingers crossed on the Visa Office, but here’s hoping we get the good news soon!

If all goes to plan we are going to be teaming up with our buddies from Houston and doing our bit for Caribbean Touch and Jamaica!!!

Fort Lauderdale Trip and Tourney

We’d like to put a big shout out to the Lads and Lasses at Fort Lauderdale for looking after us and putting on a good tournament.

Tonka got to Ref and add some much needed experience. Laura got to play on one of the FL teams and bag a few tries along the way 🙂

 

An entertaining tournament saw a combined Washington and New York team beat FL in an exciting final. After the games were finished we headed over to watch the USA Eagles comfortably beat Chile after an enjoyable tailgate session.

Later in the week we got to join in their practise sessions on both Tuesday and Thursday and it was great to train on some nice, real grass! As with all forms of Rugby it is never complete without the beers after, so thanks for the Taco Tuesday and the welcome Guinness at Stouts.

 

So here’s to meeting up again in Cayman next month and building further on the partnerships that we are forging with both Fort Lauderdale and USA Touch!

St Catherine 7’s Tournament

Tournament on at Red Stripe this Saturday, as per the flyer!

There’s also going to be a few exhibition matches, including a FIT rules Touch match, probably around 3pm.

Cheap entry and cheap beer, lots of Rugby – what more could you ask for!

So come along for the 7’s, the Touch, the sun, the Beer or just for the Craic 🙂

Let’s get back out on the Paddock!!

After far too long a break since the USA Trip we are now going to do a slow resumption of training and games to close the year out and then go all out from early 2016 once we get confirmation on a couple more things!

We have one new training venue confirmed, a second almost ready and third that will depend on where I can find to live 🙂 We have several new people interested in joining up and also have another tournament to get ready for, so the time is now!

Whether you are new to the game altogether, keep meaning to come out or are a veteran of FIT then all are welcome. We will split the sessions so that we start with skills, drills and lessons and can now start playing more games and enjoying the extra space. The more we get to the sessions the more fun and action we can have so it doesn’t matter if your intentions are to play for Jamaica and travel the world with us, work on your ball handling and fitness or just run around for a little while before enjoying a nice cold beer it really is a case of the more the merrier!!

Below is an outline of what the full training schedule will look like next year, details of the venues and upcoming tournaments. For now we are starting back with Wednesday evenings at Cling Cling, starting at 7:30pm and going on for a couple of hours so just get down when you can! Please pass this on to anyone that might be interested in coming and please get in contact with any form of interest – spread the word far and wide!

Full Schedule proposal:

Monday: TBC – Evening sessions at Vauxhall Junior High School
Tuesday: Usual Old Crocs sessions at JDF. Good for fitness and bad habits as they have reverted to old 2 handed rules, but fun none the less
Wednesday: Evening sessions at corner of Olympic Way and Cling Cling Avenue
Thursday: TBC – Evening sessions either at Vauxhall Junior High School or out at Caymanas Estates
Friday: Work on your drinking skills!
Saturday: Pick up games to be announced later
Sunday: Skills sessions in the morning at Vauxhall, then free for all pick up games at Cling Cling in the evening

Venues:

Cling Cling: On the corner of Olympic Way and Cling Cling Avenue (near to the Hagley Park / Spanish Town road junction) this venue offers grass, floodlights and space! Already available and with a bar across the street it is ideal to get going. No pitch costs and low cost beer what more could you ask for! Parking available on the street and as this is Crisdan’s hood safety is assured 🙂 Check link below for a map and see you there this and every Wednesday from 7:30pm
Cling Cling Map
Vauxhall: Windward Road, directly opposite Bellvue Hospital. We are in advanced talks with Nephew and the Principle to secure use of the schools facilities, more details to follow in the new year
Vauxhall Map
JDF: Every Tuesday from 5 pm until dark this long standing run out is still going strong
JDF Map

Upcoming Competitions:

Red Stripe: Details still tbc but St Catherine Thundercats are holding a rugby tourney on Jan 16th and want us to showcase Touch so we’ll be looking for some players to put on a good show!

Cayman: Date confirmed as April 16th, but full details still being worked out. They are having Men’s and a Mixed divisions to start with, so room for all and will be a good indication of our potential to host a tourney as well. Currently they are planning to hold all the matches on the Saturday with a boat party on Sunday so start saving the dollars and looking at Visa applications as it will be an awesome weekend!

Orlando: For those that missed out on this years trip, fear not it will soon be October again so start thinking ahead!

Jamaica: We are still thinking about hosting an event ourselves, so watch this space. If we do then we will need lots of assistance!!

Quick DocuVid

Sadly we didn’t have spare bodies to take pictures or videos when we were playing – not surprising as we didn’t have subs to play either 🙂

Here’s a few comments and clips of how things were going in the camp