About Norwich Medics Rugby

Norwich Medics RFC is a friendly and welcoming club for health profession students at UEA Norwich, and staff of those schools or local NHS hospitals and units. We welcome players of all abilities and are proud to have given many beginners their first experience of rugby, and helped them to develop into competent and able players. Club training takes place on Thursday evenings, at Crusaders RFC in Little Melton, Norwich

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The History of Norwich Medics Rugby

Sometime in 2004, plans were made by persons unknown to get a team together in order to play Peninsula medical school.

These were plans were thwarted by MedSoc and the UEA, and faded away.

The Club Crest- designed by Sir Alex Wickham in 2005

It incorporates the NNUH crest, the Norwich coat of arms and the Medic symbol of a Caduceus

In June that year, Mark Savage got in touch with Martin Falkingham about the idea of some touch rugby whilst the issues that had scuppered the previous plan remained outstanding. Martin had this in mind and a session took place in May 04, on the Astroturfs at the UEA Sportspark. It was never repeated. Over the summer of 2004 Mark Savage became aware of a 7s tournament taking place in that November, organised by a mental health nurse at Hellesdon, for local regional hospitals and invited hospital teams. Savage got in touch to volunteer to play and ended up being asked to organise the NNUH team. This turned into the Medics team with only one member of NNUH staff involved, a guy called Alan Young from transfusion lab. (He coached this team and he was very supportive from the outset).

The team on the day included Mark Savage, Martin Falkingham, Hulk, Alan, Jamie Pruden, Dan Wallace, Dave McConnell, David Newman, Ben Clayton and Drew Mitchell. They played one match and got hammered by Ipswich Hospital. Thereafter, medics rugby seemed to lapse, but behind the scenes Martin and Savage were continuing to scheme and in February 2005 we booked the Astro for another touch session, which attracted about 6 people, including for the first time Messrs Alex Wickham and Will Brown, and Mr Rumbles.
This kept this going until the light improved sufficiently to relocate to Eaton Park.

It was about April 05 that we got in touch with Nick Greenhall, then RDO, who was incredibly supportive from the outset, including keeping numbers up during the summer when people had gone home.

With the help of dental surgeon; Terry Jones, retired consultant neurologist Colin Brown and A+E consultant Mike Lambert the club finally took off! It is fair to say that without the tremendous support NMRFC would be a shell of itself that it is today. There is no way to describe just how grateful past and current club members are to Terry and company. NMRFC can only hope it does them proud!

Norwich Medics was officially founded in May, with our first committee meeting, and our first showing was at the UEA 7s were we were beaten in all three matches, but Ben Clayton had the honour of scoring the first ever try, in the third match. The team then went on to Southwold and put in a strong performance, and may well have won the tournament it is to be believed, had they remembered to turn up for their last match.

At the start of season 05/06, we moved to Crusaders (deal negotiated by Greenhall) numbers increased and the first ever match was in October against Norwich III. Our seasons start in September, finishing in March/April the following year.

Debut Season - 05/06

Committee: Chairman - Mark Savage (founder) Secretary - Alex Wickham Treasurer - Jamie Pruden Fixtures/Social - Will Brown Men's 1st XV captain - Martin Falkingham

The debut season in XV's rugby for NMRFC in Merit table III, started with a game against Norwich III. NMRFC recorded their first team victory in XV's rugby against Holt III a few games later. NAMS (National Association of Medical Schools) matches were less successful.

Fixture results available from season 05/06 include:

Nowich 3rds Vs NMRFC - 52-5, Saturday, January 21, 2006: Holt III Vs NMRFC - 7-21 Saturday, January 28, 2006: NMRFC Vs St George's Hospital 5-60 Sunday, March 05, 2006: NMRFC Vs Cusaders - 12-12

On Sunday, June 04, 2006 the first ever NMRFC Player Awards took place over an end-of-season dinner at a hotel in Norwich

The following players were presented with awards in recognition of their contributions to the club over the past season. Player of the Season: (Ladies): Kelly Holden Player of the Season: (Mens): Rupert Tallboys Most Improved Player: Seth Makin

Second Season - 06/07

Committee: Chairman - Mark Savage Secretary - Alex Wickham Treasurer - Jamie Pruden Fixtures/Social - Will Brown Mens 1st XV captain - Martin Falkingham

This season saw NMRFC 1st XV trying to build on their success of their debut season in mens XV rugby, by again entering the Merit III league. Fixtures included:

Norwich Medics: 87, Norwich III XV: 0 Lowestoft & Yarmouth 34, Norwich Medics 10 Saturday, September 23, 2006: NMRFC Vs Crusaders III - 37-22 Saturday, December 02, 2006: Holt Rugby 0, Norwich Medics 93 Saturday, January 14, 2007: Norwich Medics 43, Lowestoft & Yarmouth 0

The AGM (held at the Gooch Lecture Theatre in NNUH) saw a great selection of members putting forward their reasons for running the club for the following year. The new elected committee was voted in as follows:

Chairman - James Fisher. Secretary - John Lynch. Treasurer - Dave McAroe. Fixtures - Paul Ferris. Socials - Duncan Watt

Ladies Chairman - Kelly Holden Ladies Fixtures/Secretary - Katherina Mattishent

Elected position by the new and outgoing committee held two places:
Mens 1st XV Captain - Martin Falkingham
Mens 2nd XV Captain - Hugh Powell
Ladies XV Captain - Mags

The 2nd XV for the 07/08 season is a joint team, formed in collaboration with Crusaders Rugby Club, who provide half the team squad each week using primarily their youth players or old veterans.

Third Season - 07/08

The NMRFC 1st XV, playing in Merit Table I, finished the season mid-table- a massive acheivement considering the growth of the club and the standard of the oppostion. Crusader-Medics (NMRFC 2nds) in Merit Table III won a considerable number of games and also finished mid-table. The NMRFC ladies played a great deal more matches than in previous years and improvement is happening all over the place!

The AGM elected a new committee and voting saw the following take up roles for the club:

Chairman- Tom Robinson, Secretary- Duncan Watt, Treasurer- 'Binidi' Jatinder Minhas, Social Sec- Dave Fearnley, Mens Fixtures Sec*- David McAroe, Ladies Coordinator- Stacie Morgan, Ladies Fixtures- Kirsty Milford, Ladies Socials- Edwina McNaughton

*Mens Fixtures Sec- David McAroe sadly resigned before the start of the 08-09 season due to personal reasons, we thank Dave for all the love and effort he has given the club and will be missed on the committee. Ben Brazier steps up to take on the role for the upcoming season.

Fourth Season- 08/09

Club Captain- Pete Hartley, 1st XV Captain- Dave Fearnley, 2nd XV Captain- Sam Moorecroft, Ladies XV Captain- Katherina Mattishent

New sponsors- Spire Healthcare, The York Tavern

New president- Dr Liam Hughes

New head coach- Richard Woollam

Although there will be pre-season training, officially, training resumes on the 18th September 08

If you are not a member of the club YET, but have read this far down the page- you're obviously massively keen. We like that. Please email us at medicsrugby@gmail.com or better yet, drop a text to 07962076282