Good morning all
I hope that you are enjoying this glorious summer weather and that your thoughts are far from rugby matters at New Anniesland. However this is a busy time as we plan the activities for the coming season and hope to be ready for the first league game on 27th August.
As you know Accies finished in third place and therefore still have to play in National League Division 2 next season. For some time there had been rumours that Clubs above us may merge and therefore we might be promoted but nothing has come of them.
The main hope was that a highly detailed motion at the SRU AGM yesterday that proposed to have only two Premier Leagues and below that Regional Leagues in the West, East and Caledonia would be accepted.
This proposal would have placed Accies in a league made up from teams in the West who currently play in Premier League Division 3 and National League Division 2. We would have been the only National League 2 team in the league. This would have been a tough league but it would have involved much less travelling as virtually every game would have been a local derby. The SRU canvassed hard to defeat the motion and as it needed a two thirds majority it was defeated.
At least we know where we stand and as soon as the fixtures are announced, in two weeks time approximately, we can start to plan accordingly.
The travelling will be horrendous as we have to play at Thurso, Inverness, Aberdeen, Berwick, Annan, Castle Douglas, Newton Stewart and Hawick. The only local games being at Kilmarnock, Coatbridge and Allan Glens. We anticipate that the cost of this will be in the region of £5000, money that would have been better spent on developing rugby at New Anniesland.
I am afraid that we are going to have to rely on you, the supporters, once again to help us out. I will write to you about this later but we hope to continue our sponsored player scheme that was so successful last season.
On the playing front John Beattie our new coach has met the players and explained his plans for the season. He told me that he was really looking forward to working with them and excited about the season ahead.
The players have been keeping fit in the weights training room at New Anniesland under a regime organised by Duncan Beattie. They also spend Saturday mornings running up and down the steps that lead from Park Circus down to Elderslie Street. The way that many of them have bulked up over the summer is really impressive.
An interesting new development next season is the introduction of a new Under 17 team that will be coached by Grant Talbot the Hawks Development Officer. This has come about through an initiative organised by Mark Walker, father of back row forward Jack Walker, who has shown great enthusiasm and organisational skills in getting it off the ground. We wish it well and hope that it will lead to a number of players joining us when they leave school.
There are plans for major social events throughout the season but more of that later.
Hugh Barrow has taken over the running of Accies website and there are a number of new features including a section on 'Accies Legends'. In the coming year we will be using the website more extensively and items such as match reports will be posted there. May I suggest that you post the site address into your favourites so that you can pick it up more easily?
The site can be found at www.glasgowacciesrfc.com click on rugby news at the top of the page and scroll down the left-hand side till you find what you want to read. You will still receive an email with the score.
I look forward to communicating with you throughout the year and thank you for your continued interest
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Kind regards
Alasdair Graham
Secretary
Glasgow Accies Rugby

This article was originally posted on 27-Jun-2010, 09:47 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 27-Jun-2010, 10:16.