End of Season Report

For the season ending June 2025

Dr Tim Miller – Honorary Secretary

With the delayed arrival of a new season for most of our clubs, my report reflects on the County’s activities during last season 2025-2026. It was a challenging season in many ways, and I am very grateful to fellow County Officers, all members of the Management Board and the many informal teams that support them. The County administrative structure is working very well. As in recent seasons, the County Office is a virtual one between Simon Hardcastle, Carmine Brudenell and me. Carmine joined us in September 2024 and is doing a great job. In her role, she covers a broad range of activities including supporting Charles Portsmouth with accounting matters as well as County administration and communications with members.

The County relies on an army of dedicated volunteers, both within the County and at our member clubs, without whom we quite simply would not have a game. On behalf of the County, I would also like to thank Eddie Keal and Andy Smart for their tireless work on behalf of the County and the Game in general as our RFU Council Members.

What follows are the end of season reports from members of the Management Board. Our Chairman (Eddie Keal) and Treasurer (Charles Portsmouth) will be making presentations at the AGM itself. Our clubs lie at the heart of everything we do in the County and the Management Board, and many others are focused on the support we can provide, both financial and non-financial, to underpin their progress. I therefore begin the report by looking at the progress of our member clubs.

Chair of Competitions – Steve Partridge

In my first season as Chair of Competitions, it almost goes without saying that I have some big boots to fill. Can I thank Andrew most warmly for his guidance and support as I transition into the role. Last season was one of continued success for many of our clubs. In particular, eight clubs were league champions:

Level 2 Champions again Ealing Trailfinders

Level 6 Brunel University

Level 7 Ealing Trailfinders 1871

Level 8 Counties 2 Middlesex Hackney

Level 8 Counties 2 Surrey Old Hamptonians

Level 9 Counties 3 Surrey Thamesians

Level 11 Counties 5 Surrey Old Paulines

Many congratulations to all the clubs and teams in a season that has brought us all the usual challenges.

It was also our first season as a stand-alone entity from Herts, resulting in fewer teams in the Middlesex Counties 1 (10) and Counties 2 (8) leagues. It is fair to say that a few teams struggled at various points throughout the season due to player commitment and availability, which led to a higher walkover rate than we would have expected. Despite this, we managed to finish the season without losing any teams from the leagues which was a real testament to everyone involved.

Regarding next season, as you know, we held another all-club vote to discuss allowing lower 15s into the leagues. While the previous two votes were a “no”, this one was a surprising and very welcome “yes”.

With Ealing Trailfinders 1871 and Finchley leaving Counties 1 due to promotion, it looked rather challenging in terms of league numbers. However, since the vote, six lower 15s teams have rejoined the Counties league setup, who previously played their rugby in a Surrey or Middlesex Merit League and a further 2 transferred from the Middlesex Merit tables. I’m delighted to confirm that Counties 1 will be a 12-team league next season, and we welcome the following teams:

• CS Stags 1863 II
• London Scottish B’s
• London Welsh II
• Belsize Park II
• Hackney (promoted from C2)

We have also been able to bolster Counties 2, which will also be a 12-team league with the addition of the following teams:

• Ealing Trailfinders 1871 2nds
• Hammersmith & Fulham 2nds
• West London
• Hendon
• Saracens Amateurs (relegated from C1)

 In our Merit Tables, league champions are as follows:

The Middlesex Merit Tables Premier Division – London Scottish Lions 2nds

The Middx MT Division 1 – Ealing Trailfinders 1871 2nds

The Middx MT Division 2 – Belsize Park 4ths

The Middx MT Division 3 – Actonians 2nds.

MMT Cup Finals

MMT Cup Winners – Twickenham 2nds

MMT Bowl Winners: – Belsize Park 4ths,

MMT Vase Winners: – Ealing Trailfinders 1871 3rds

Vets Merit

Middx Vets league winners – Hammersmith & Fulham Vets

Middx Vets Cup Winners – Finsbury Park Vets

The Merit leagues started very slowly before Christmas and were averaging around a 50% completion rate. However, with some work, the reallocation of teams across leagues, and the removal of a couple of teams that were not playing, we achieved over a 73% completion rate by the end of the season.

With 280+ games completed, and 5% of those as “Game On”, my thanks go to all the clubs involved for turning around the competition rates. With the Lower 15s allowing teams back into the leagues and a couple of teams transferring out to Surrey, we have had to revisit the league size and structure.

We are delighted to confirm that, even with the six departures, we will be able to keep four Merit leagues running next season, with 35 teams participating, and we welcome Southgate back from the Herts Merit leagues.

The Vets performed better than the previous season, with a four-team league playing home and away and very few non-completions. Much of this was down to the excellent work Mark Coles did in relaunching the Middlesex Vets and Super Vets, and to the fact that players are keen to be involved. Nigel Doe did a great job in managing the Vets teams, never an easy task when you’ve been around as long as some of them and who know all the tricks! We are confident to grow the Vets offering next season, with several more teams wanting to join the leagues.

We are also looking to introduce, for the first time, a Vets Cup County winner’s trophy. Chiswick Silverbacks (Surrey) and Finsbury Park Vets (Middlesex) will be competing for the inaugural Bob Lawless Trophy which we hope will become an annual tradition in Bob’s memory.

Group Officers Report – Andrew Smart

Another decent year for the Groups with sixteen meetings across the four groups (50:50 between face-to-face meetings and Zoom) The Groups continue in their sensible routine successfully mixing in person meetings with those on Zoom to give the clubs and their representatives every opportunity to engage and attend.  Generally, the first and last meetings for each of the groups were in person with the middle two on zoom but it is very much in the hands of the Groups themselves as to how their meetings are managed

Once again, I would like to thank all those people from our clubs who supported them, to the group officers who ran the meetings so well, to the clubs who hosted and provided the hospitality across the season and finally, to the Management Board for their support. In relation to the Management Board, speaking on behalf of the Groups, it continues to be absolutely essential to the continued health of the County that their visibility at the meetings continues. The clubs need to know who and why decisions are being made on their behalf and, of course, they need to be satisfied that they are being made in the best interests of the game locally and themselves. Overall, as with everything it could always be better, but I think this is working well and certainly better than last year. Members right across the Management Board have ensured representation at every meeting and Eddie as the County Chair/ RFU Council Member and I as President/Group Chair/RFU Council Member have worked very hard to make sure we attend and are seen to attend pretty much every meeting. We had a slight issue at the South and West Group AGMs which for some reason were both held on the same evening. In the end, Eddie attended the West Group at Feltham whilst I went to Old Pauline FC for the South Group.

The Groups, time after time have produced and continue to produce the future leaders of our County. They continue to provide an absolutely crucial role in how the County functions and act as a conduit between our clubs, their representatives and the people who make the decisions on their behalf.

At the April Groups AGMs each of the four groups re-elected their officers

South – Chair Paul Baksh (Old Pauline FC), Secretary Lyndon Walters (H&F)

West – Chair Andy Brooks (O. Isleworthians), Secretary Nick Dance, (Grasshoppers)

North-West – Chair Andrew Smart (Harrow), Secretary Mark Foster (OMTs)

North – Chair Jon Boyle (Hampstead), Secretary Debbie Stockman-Rose (O Grammarians)

Is this a good thing? You could argue that these motivated Group Officers are exactly the people that their clubs want leading their meetings. Against that there are issues around succession planning and whether having the same people at the top of each group is stifling their development. What I would say is that the opportunities are there for the clubs if they are dissatisfied with their Officer they can choose new ones if that is what they wish and there is nothing to stop clubs putting up alternatives at the AGM to ensure change.

Last year, each Group hosted a very successful “Pick UP The Whistle Course” and we will be doing the same this year. At the moment, we are still agreeing the venues, dates and provided the County can continue to provide the funding.

Finally, I must thank my team for all their hard work over what has been a long and demanding season for us all. We continue to strive to do the best we can for our clubs and we will never lose sight of that fact that we can always do better.

Director of Middlesex Rugby – Mark Coles

We’ve reached the end of another season of Representative Rugby and my second in role, and as we have touched on in the monthly newsletters, we’ve had some fabulous games, true commitment from our coaching and leadership teams, provided great experiences and benefitted from healthy participation from our Middlesex clubs.

At an approximate count we have had around 700 players nominated for the twelve Representative teams that ran this year with new avenues made with clubs who have not represented our county in recent years.  We’ve held nearly hundred events (training/games etc) as well as having nearly 50 volunteers pitching in across our teams.

Girls U16 England Rugby Developing Player Programme (ERDPP) – Having changed delivery format a couple of years ago, this programme was headed up by Chris Grilli in his first year in role with a real range of coaches to support with a c.50 player squad. This meant we could run ‘Swords’ and ‘Shields’ games.  Run from Grasshoppers each Monday night, the purpose of the ERDPP is focusing on development of individual female players given the age they are when come in and the clubs they come from. Many girls’ teams of this age cluster (i.e. multiple teams coming together) so is a much different playing landscape to the age equivalent boy’s programme. The second ever Middlesex Great British Bake Off was held to round off the programme with the standard of baking very high and am sure will remain a feature! We have been able to run this programme focussing not just on rugby but on wider aspects of our young players lives such as nutrition, resilience, female health, S&C and adopting a positive mindset which is something that differentiates this from other county offers.

In the off-season, we’ll put forward several of the older cohort to the Centre of Excellence that Saracens run and for those that don’t make it will hopefully still be available for the Girls U18 programme next season.

U18 Girls – Many of the girls this season have flowed through from our U16 programme in prior years which is a great indicator of the interest and talent we are developing. Headed up by Chris Mason, this much shorter programme took place across the core winter months including a trip up to Ipswich to face Eastern Counties, then Hertfordshire before having the unenviable task of selecting a squad for our subsequent game against Essex which whilst a nice problem to have, shows the breadth of talent we are developing here. Given the lack of an U20 age band in Senior Women’s rugby, we are looking at way of working with other counties to help bridge this next season after running our initial Development side within the Senior Women’s this year. With a plethora of talented players, it would feel remiss of us not to set up our programmes in ways that allow a smoother flow through and bridge the large gap between age and open grade rugby. 

In what will surely be a highlight for many of our girls was the chance to grace the hallowed turf at Twickenham in early April, alongside our friends from Essex to take part in a training session like no other. An amazing day, and a big thanks to all who made it happen.

 

U17 Boys – The U17 Boys programme is now our earliest entry point into the County Representative pathway and once again we were lucky to be inundated with sign-ups from clubs and schools. The RFUs Age Grade calendar dictates to us when we can run sessions so despite running these assessments in October, we only have a sprinkling of sessions across the winter and crux of the programme in May. With a mix of players who have had exposure to an academy environment and strong club players, being able to offer high level playing opportunities for them, is something players and parents both appreciate.

This U17’s programme dovetails into our more succinct U18 programme which gives the players the opportunities to play assessed games to earn London and South East (L&SE) divisional selection, so giving the players the confidence around each other and opportunity to build on their skills here is a valuable one. We were this year able to run games against Hampshire, Surrey and Hertfordshire providing opportunities for players to not only play but an outlet for the coaches to assess players in a game environment. This is useful as we concluded the year giving players IDP (Individual learning Plans) for the Summer as well as classroom sessions on game reviews, injury prevention, nutrition and playing opportunities.

U18 Boys: – This season was a strong with two wins from three in our group games against Surrey, Hampshire and Kent and more opportunities of giving talented young players a platform to play and develop their skills. Six of our group made it through to the London & South-East (L&SE) playing squad. As in previous years, this has proven to be a great opportunity for the boys to be seen by universities and high-level clubs so that they can continue their playing journeys as they enter adulthood. Again, Mark Gardiner has done a fabulous job leading both the U17 and U18 boys from a coaching perspective.

The four component teams of Team Middlesex above form our youth offer and have been led ably by Jok Dunbar. With many years of experience under his belt, the enthusiasm, knowledge and leadership he brings to our youth programmes is second to none, so I would like to offer a huge thanks for his work and commitment across the season and look forward to working with him to take these programmes forward in the coming seasons. We are continuing to develop further programme leaders in our age grade teams so if this is something you would like to be involved in, please do let him, or myself know and we can discuss further. 

 

U20 Men’s – This was the second year after a change in eligibility rules, and working with an enlarged squad of around forty. Head Coach Richard Hicks and Team Manager Kevin Thomas (who must have one of the toughest jobs in Team Middlesex) have been able to run a programme that we can be proud of. With a mix of players from across universities, clubs and age grade the squad came together in February and took to the field for the first time against Berkshire and tough games against Essex and Hertfordshire who managed to make the finals of the competition.

We were lucky enough for two boys to make it through to L&SE- Nico Razmilovic and Tom Burfitt and the latter was also selected to play for England Counties against an Army U23s in early July.

This is the age group I am keen to continue develop further next season from a programme standpoint, so we have been surveying players, looking at data available, speaking to other counties and thinking what changes we can make to improve our offer from an experience and developmental perspective.

Senior Women’s – Jake Wagner continued to lead the team in his second year supported again by Team Manager Dan Nevison now in his fourth year campaign. Based on proactive marketing, club coverage and enjoyment from previous years, we received a record 140 nominations from all four corners of our county.

Our first game against Hertfordshire side was a great success, recording a win, followed by a narrow loss to Essex and Sussex. This was, however, still enough to progress to the Semi Finals of the Gill Burns County Championship where we had a long trip away to Gloucestershire who came away with the victory and advanced to the final. For any side to make a semi final for the first time in nearly twenty years is testament to all the work the girls and the coaches have put in.  We also tried to launch a development side to help support the growth of the women’s game and despite the planned game against Sussex going down, it has yielded some useful lessons to take into next season’s programme.

Senior Men’s – Our Men’s programme continued with Jerry Hedigan at the helm, and Steve Partridge/Kevin Thomas as Team Managers. Clive See of Grasshoppers also joined our team. With over 60 players getting involved in our first game against Eastern Counties which we won, before a 50-41 loss away to Essex dented our chances of making the play offs. A win may have seen us into the semi-finals, but another positive year and one we will work on next year. To score over 90 points across two games, get try bonus points and still not make it through was a tough outcome.

Vets – I wanted to conclude by setting out a little bit about not only our male and female Vets (35+) but male SuperVets (50+) we managed to launch this year. If the focus of our UX teams is development, our Senior Men’s and Women’s teams are about being competitive in games and our Vets teams are all about experience against neighbouring sides. Our first ever Super Vets game was held last November and gave a win against Hertfordshire, followed by a second win against Bedfordshire in April. Our pool of players is growing and I have no doubt it will continue again this season now we have some games under our belts.

We also launched our Male Vets and despite plans for a game against the RAF, the weather beat us, but there are plans to return this season. Our Women’s Vets also got off to a great start with a win against a more experienced Hertfordshire side and a rematch has already been mooted so on all things ‘vet’ there is more to come! We’ll try to put games on down weeks in the leagues/move around so people can get behind our teams!

Season 2026/27

Looking ahead to this coming season, I have already touched on some of the areas I would like to look at but will be regrouping with the leadership teams to make sure we have a clear objective for each team to work towards and what systems, processes and improvements we can bring in to keep moving our teams forward and building on the successes we have had. We will also continue the roll out of our new badge and ties across the teams and will be publicising new roles as they come along for people if interested to help out – many hands make light work is my philosophy.

I’ve mentioned the Head Coaches and Team Managers but for each group we have many other volunteers tirelessly working to give our players a great experience. In no particular order, I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to all who have helped create environments in which players can thrive. We’re also lucky to have knowledgeable, engaging and committed physios helping help everyone on the park. A final special thank you to Bob Lawless, a brilliant friend, mentor, guide and sage whom I was lucky enough to learn a lot from and I have no doubt his amazing legacy will continue.

I’d like to conclude with a thank you to Camine Brudenell for here support with the finance side of the running the programme and managing our payments and relationships with key parties and a thank you to the employees/volunteers at Chiswick RFC, Wasps FC. Finchley RFC and Grasshoppers RFC for their support and use of their grounds and facilities throughout the season. Lasty, a huge thank you to all the parents, friends, coaches and Middlesex clubs for their players and ongoing support for representative rugby at County level. Have a restful Summer and we’ll see you in September for season 2026/27.

Rugby Development – Fred Cracknell

We come to the end of another season with a range of activity ongoing across Middlesex in an effort to grow the game. We have primarily focussed on bridging the gap between school activities and club activities in 2025-26.

The bulk of the RFU funding into rugby development has been targeted at schools. From an RFU return on investment perspective, this makes a lot of sense as you are more likely to engage with more new players through schools than you are through investing in club activity. We as a county have therefore taken the view that our role should be to capitalise on this RFU investment by supporting our clubs in engaging with the schools. The primary route to do this was to establish a T1 programme. In reality, the engagement model has been slower to get off the ground than we hoped but progress has been made, and I’m excited for it to really get off the ground in 2026-27.

Where we began – The season started with the Women’s World Cup culminating in the final at a sold-out Twickenham, which the Red Roses went on to win! Throughout the tournament there were engagement opportunities for clubs including at the fan village at Battersea Power Station where a number of clubs and schools were able to play in a T1 tournament. Throughout the build up and running of the tournament, we worked closely with the team at the RFU focussed on ensuring the opportunity was capitalised on. What this meant was we could get a view of the wider activities ongoing including the focus on the London Youth Games as a vehicle through which to enable schools to play T1 rugby. This ultimately led to a really successful London Youth Games competition with record numbers of children playing the game in 2026.

How it’s going – Following the Women’s World Cup, Wayne Wilkes joined the rugby development team to focus exclusively on bridging the gap between schools and clubs. He has established relationships with all the RFU School Rugby Managers across the county, engaged directly with schools, and started building relationships between clubs and schools. The ultimate aim is for clubs to take ownership of these relationships with their local schools, giving players an easily accessible route from school activity into clubs.

We ran two coach and teacher enablement sessions with Dan Cotterall, who wrote the T1 manual for the RFU: one at Hackney the other at Chiswick on consecutive days. These brought together a combination of teachers from local schools and coaches from local clubs.

The RFU’s growth strategy is to continue to be focused on T1. It’s the version of the game that most children will engage with in schools, and we as clubs need to be quick to get up to speed with the game and deliver T1 programmes if we want to keep growing our player base.

What’s next – The growth focus will continue to be on T1 as a means to get players into clubs. Wayne will continue to grow and develop these relationships, dovetailing our activity with the continued growth of the London Youth Games. We are planning to deliver more coach and teacher enablement sessions throughout the season to help more schools effectively deliver T1, while supporting clubs to start programmes if they haven’t already and develop them if they have. We are aiming to run our first Middlesex T1 competitions this season matching the rules of the London Youth Games, giving our clubs the opportunity to have a competitive outlet for players who have joined them through the school pathway.

With all the positive effort being put into T1, we cannot lose focus on the full contact game. The minis festivals and junior boys’ leagues continue to be successful, while the girls’ game will be an increasing area of focus in 2026/27. After much consultation, we have decided to run a more formal ‘pitch up and play’ style engagement programme for U12s. At U14s, we are looking to run a regular Barbarians-style competition structure, giving girls the opportunity to play full games of rugby without clubs having to cluster across an impractical number of clubs to get games. The aim is to find a volunteer who is willing to take this on, so if you’re reading this and think you could be that person, or know someone who might be, let me know!

Final thoughts – Gone are the days when players come to us without much thought. People’s free time is a busy marketplace, and we all need to think differently, be open to new approaches, and accept that the rugby playing landscape looks different now to how it did even five years ago. We have some really exciting initiatives in Middlesex, and I stand by my sentiment from two years ago that there is nowhere in England with greater potential to grow the game than Middlesex, but we need to work together to make that happen. As always, willing volunteers are welcome to join the team!

 Director of Communications & Innovation – Waheed Aslam

Over the last few years, Middlesex Rugby has embarked on a significant strategic journey to modernise its communications, strengthen its brand and transform the way we engage with clubs, members, players, volunteers, partners and the wider rugby community.

The ambition has been clear: to create a modern, accessible and connected county organisation that reflects the changing expectations of the rugby community, while delivering on our brand promise of “bringing people together to enjoy rugby.”

Over the last 12 months in particular, this work has accelerated considerably. Middlesex Rugby’s profile, visibility and overall market positioning has been significantly enhanced, placing the organisation on a much more comparable footing with other leading geographic Constituent Bodies in the RFU.

Phase 1 – Brand Modernisation & Digital Transformation

The programme began with a fundamental review of our brand architecture, positioning and communications approach. We reaffirmed our core brand values and introduced greater consistency across our communications and digital touchpoints. This included a comprehensive refresh of our visual identity, content standards and communications style, ensuring that Middlesex Rugby presented a more professional, contemporary and consistent image.

A key milestone was the redevelopment of the Middlesex Rugby website, creating a more user-centric, mobile-optimised and SEO-friendly platform aligned with modern UX/UI principles. The website has increasingly become the organisation’s central digital hub, providing authoritative information, news, events, resources and stakeholder communications. This digital transformation has helped establish the foundations for a much more sophisticated and integrated communications ecosystem.

Phase 2 – Building a Multi-Channel Communications Ecosystem

Recognising that our audiences consume information in increasingly different ways, we developed a multi-channel communications strategy designed to reach stakeholders where they are most engaged.

Website – The website operates as the central content hub for Middlesex Rugby, providing evergreen information, official communications, news, resources and curated content. It provides the organisation with a credible and authoritative digital presence while supporting our broader SEO, social media and stakeholder engagement strategies.

Email Marketing & Newsletter – The monthly newsletter has developed into an important engagement channel, providing clubs and members with a regular digest of relevant news, events, initiatives and executive communications. The focus has been on improving the quality, relevance and consistency of content rather than simply increasing the volume of communications.

Social Media Strategy – Our social media presence has been significantly strengthened across Facebook, X and Instagram, with each platform being used according to its audience and strengths. Instagram, in particular, has experienced exceptional growth, with engagement increasing by approximately 1,000%, driven by stronger visual storytelling, user-generated content, hashtags, stories and community-focused content.

Our social channels have evolved from being primarily information-sharing platforms into genuine tools for community building, engagement, storytelling and brand development. Over the last 12 months, this has also enabled Middlesex Rugby to showcase a much broader range of activity, including age-grade rugby, women and girls’ rugby, representative rugby, coaching, refereeing, volunteering, community activity, events and the achievements of our clubs and members. This broader storytelling has materially increased the visibility of Middlesex Rugby and helped reinforce the organisation as an active, progressive and inclusive County Board.

WhatsApp Communications – The development of our WhatsApp community infrastructure has been one of the most successful elements of the communications strategy. We now operate more than 20 active groups, spanning age-grade rugby, women and girls, safeguarding, referees, executive teams and communications, including engagement with RFU communications colleagues. WhatsApp has become an exceptionally responsive channel, enabling rapid communication, peer-to-peer engagement, information sharing and grassroots mobilisation. The approach has also attracted interest from other County Boards and the wider rugby community, demonstrating that Middlesex Rugby is increasingly being recognised for its innovative approach to stakeholder communications.

Enhancing the Profile of Middlesex Rugby – A major focus over the past 12 months has been moving beyond simply communicating what Middlesex Rugby does to actively building the profile and reputation of the organisation. We have increased the visibility of Middlesex Rugby across the wider rugby ecosystem by proactively showcasing our people, programmes, clubs, volunteers, representative teams and community impact.

Greater emphasis has been placed on:

• Developing a stronger and more consistent Middlesex Rugby narrative.
• Increasing the visibility of our clubs and their achievements.
• Promoting women’s and girls’ rugby and age-grade rugby.
• Highlighting coaching, refereeing and volunteer contributions.
• Creating more engaging visual and social content.
• Promoting key events and initiatives more effectively.
• Strengthening relationships with the RFU and other County Boards.
• Increasing executive and leadership visibility.
• Using communications to demonstrate the breadth and impact of Middlesex Rugby.
• Creating a more recognisable and consistent Middlesex Rugby identity across platforms.

The result is a significantly more visible and professionally positioned organisation.

Importantly, the progress made over the last 12 months has enhanced Middlesex Rugby’s overall positioning relative to other County Boards, with our digital presence, communications infrastructure, brand presentation and stakeholder engagement now comparable with those of the leading CBs. This is particularly significant given the scale and diversity of the Middlesex rugby community and provides a strong platform from which to build further.

Governance & Policy Framework – To ensure that this growth is sustainable, consistent and appropriately governed, we developed a comprehensive Communications & Branding Policy, aligned with Middlesex Rugby’s wider governance framework.

The policy establishes clearer principles around tone of voice, brand presentation, content standards, platform usage, approvals and communications responsibilities. This provides greater consistency while also giving teams and volunteers the framework to communicate confidently and effectively.

Innovation & Future Development – The next phase is about moving from digital transformation to digital innovation and deeper engagement.

As audiences become increasingly mobile-first and digitally sophisticated, our focus will be on developing richer, more interactive and platform-native content.

Future opportunities include:

• Short-form video and enhanced visual storytelling.
• Live streaming and real-time event coverage.
• Greater use of data and analytics to understand audience behaviour.
• Personalised and targeted communications.
• Influencer and ambassador collaborations.
• Further integration of digital platforms.
• Increased use of video to showcase clubs, players and volunteers.
• Enhanced storytelling around community and social impact.
• Greater use of communications to support commercial and partnership opportunities.
• Continued benchmarking against leading County Boards and national sporting organisations.

The ultimate objective is to ensure that Middlesex Rugby is not simply keeping pace with the evolving communications landscape, but is recognised as an organisation that is progressive, innovative and increasingly best-in-class within the County Board environment.

In conclusion

It would be remiss of me, as Secretary, not to mention three other very important functions, namely safeguarding, discipline and the Assistant Secretaries role. Neil Horchover, County Safeguarding Manager, continues to do an outstanding job in developing policies and guidance in this complex area.  Safeguarding is such a critical part of the role played by the County and his leadership has ensured that all safeguarding matters have been dealt with sensitively and calmly.

The Disciplinary Panel continues to ensure that a proportionate and appropriate approach is taken to all cases which it is required to deal with.  I am pleased to report that John has provided the professional standards we have become used to.  I would also like to thank Panel members including Deborah Crossan and Garry Fielder, for their support over the season, it is much appreciated.  Simon Hardcastle plays an invaluable role in the administration of the County and provides me with a very welcome sounding board.  I would like to thank him most warmly for his contribution.

Thank you all.

In terms of volunteers, we are always looking for more and, it goes without saying, if you are reading this and you think you might like to become a County volunteer, please do not hesitate to contact me (tim.miller@middlesexrugby.com) or the County Office.  We will be happy to point you in the right direction!

 

Yours in rugby,
Dr Tim Miller
Honorary Secretary