Issue 14 March/April 2017 Newsletter - March/April 2017 Our season ended with Pirates achieving 6 th position and therefore qualifying for the Kenya Cup play offs. This by far exceeded our pre season expectations which were to avoid relegation and to survive financially. Our play off fixture was away to the US International University in Nairobi and we suffered a heavy defeat. To put this into perspective, many of the USIU players have Kenya Cup experience and have scholarships to the university. Pirates competed until the final whistle and after the game the USIU coach asked to speak to our players, he gave a morale boosting talk and was complementary about the effort and fighting spirit of the Pirates as well as acknowledging the youthfulness of the team. Charlie Tendwa continues to show his worth as he was selected to compete for the Kenya U20 in a tournament in Madagascar where he scored his first try for Kenya. Well done Charlie, we are immensly proud of you. Our annual Gala Dinner was a great success and raised good money for the Club. Thank you to Paul Van Beveren for producing an amazing meal and to Tracy Pirie and all staff at The Cave for helping make it such a success in such a beautiful setting. We are now encouraging our players to earn to swim. Many thanks to Kwale Water Rescue who are providing 4 instructors twice a week, already great progress is being made. It s also quite fun! The Club is delighted to announce a new member of the Management Committee as Secretary. Wambui Ngunya is an advocate, on the board of Colobus Conservation and is a patron of the Diani Taekwonda Club based at the Bazaar complex. She s passionate about sports, youth development and environmental/conservation issues. We are sure she will be a great asset to the Club and warmly welcome her. SCP Committee Members Chairman Treasurer Secretary Coach Assistant Coach Team Manager Committee Member George Barbour Malcolm Hunt Wambui Ngunya Kenny Andola Kelvin Nduhui Kelvin Amiani Paul Thompson
Issue 14 March/April 2017 A WORD FROM THE CHAIRMAN The season is now complete as we have decided not to compete in the Mwamba Cup which is the one remaining competition left this season which would have meant us travelling all the way to Eldoret again. It was decided to save the money for other uses. Having said this, we have managed to fulfill all our fixtures this season and until the last away game to USIU where we were soundly beaten, the lads performed to their best with some outstanding successes. Mombasa have managed to regain their position in the Kenya Cup having been runner up to Kisii in the National Final play offs. It is interesting to note that SCP have won their last 3 games against Mombasa, so we are very close to making the standards. I still feel that it is better for us to remain where we are for another season or two, to develop some more mature players, we have an extraordinary young side, they need time to develop, which they will into a very competitive side. The future for the club is looking bright, the SCP Academy is proving that early development in the schools will be the backbone for our future and bring forth many young players for our club and National sides. We have had many players selected to go for trial and training for the under 20 Kenya side with two selected for further training. We must thank everybody who attended the Gala dinner in the Cave it was an enjoyable evening, with some enthusiastic bidding for the very good items donated by many friends of SCP. We raised a sum way above expectations which will be put to very good use in supporting the club. Many thanks must also go to the staff of Ali Barbour s and Paul van Beveren for the service and food. To all our sponsors, particularly Base Titanium, Valar, Diani Beach Hospital, members and many more, we thank you all for the confidence you have in the Club and Committee to take us forward and change the lives of many young people with an introduction to the game of Rugby. Charlie Tendwa in Madagascar, official photograph, back road 6 th from the right DIARY DATES July 7 th /8 th /9th Diani Beach Touch Rugby tournament at 40 Thieves. This event has 28 teams competing for the trophy currently held by a team. One of the best weekends of the year. 1
A WORD FROM THE COACH It's with great pleasure looking back at the season, I am more than proud for the effort the boys have put in. We finished over and above expectation considering this is the 1st time the team is playing with teams predominantly away from the coast. The season has been very taxing on the lads. Their dedication was exemplary and should be applauded. The closest game was versus our neighbours, Mombasa, the next closest game was 500 km away in Nairobi. The budget for the for the season was tight. The coach has had to work in absentia at times. Many factors were against the team. But credit goes to the team for pulling together and sticking to the structures we have set in place. And for that, they managed a 65% winning streak for the season. We finished 6th in regular season and had to play away to 3rd place USIU in the play offs, an immediate former Premiership side. We lost 66-7. This was true reflection of the team's state regarding high pressure games. The boys are gaining maturity needed for such games. This is the culmination considering the treacherous travelling of more than 1000km severally in the season on road. It is evident they were fatigued. We also look back at how the season started, and do agree that our pre-season wasn't at par for a long season as this. Great lessons have been learnt. Moving forward, the boys are on mandatory rest. We opted out of the ongoing Mwamba Cup as the boys weren't ready. The fixture needed us travel 1000km to Eldoret. Financially, this wasn't feasible. We hope to use the would-be budget to help buy some equipment for the club starting with a proper gym. I hereby do send a plea to well-wishers to come on board and help us buy proper gym weights. The quotation for this is at Ksh, 160,000. This will go a long way in getting the team ready for next season during preseason. Conditioning is an area we would like to get right so that the lads last the season. The juniors played an integral part in making the team thrive. It's an area we look forward to encourage. We had a half day positional specific skills session in end of April for the boys still in secondary schools within the county. We plan to have such a camp on 3rd of June. It's serves as a scouting platform for us as we build our 2nd team. We want to have the 2nd team playing in the coastal league next season. We intend to do Level 1 coaching course for the new players around the same time to improve their game knowledge and also get more qualified coaches into the schools. Many players played well and had 10 called up for trail in the national U20 national team. We intend to work closely with schools to ensure we keep producing and exposing the best talents around. To the highest level of competition. A big thank you to the committee, our Sponsors and well-wishers and supporters for backing the boys all the way. It's because of you, heroes, that this club is growing in leaps and bounds. Thank you and God Bless. Let's Pirate on! 2
A WORD FROM THE MANAGER The league has come to an end now, we finished sixth in the Championship and we managed to beat our target this season. We managed to qualify for the play offs for promotion to the Kenya Cup. We have started empowering our players in different ways. Firstly, we held a touch rugby referee course at 40 thieves with 21 players attending. Secondly, we taking our players for swimming lessons at Safari Beach Hotel. This is after realising that most of our players don't how to swim. At least 14 lads are enjoying this opportunity on a regular basis (see photo below). Our Pirates Academy coaching program is back. Starting on 9th of May 10 players will be involved in this program visiting 9 schools, three days a week. We shall have two tournaments in three months time, we are going to use the tournament to identify students who will join the team at the end of the first phase. A WORD FROM THE TREASURER As the season came to an end we can proudly say that we played every away fixture. This is an achievement as, apart from Mombasa, our away travel costs by far exceed any other team in the Championship with several fixtures costing in the region of Kes 200,00. Our main supporter, Base Titanium, has kept us going for a few years now and we are constantly looking for new sources of funds. Several things are in the pipeline but sometimes progress is very frustrating. Our Gala Dinner was a great success both in terms of fund raising as well as a jolly good party. With the raffle, auction and ticket money the Pirates managed to bank around Kes 600,000. This by far exceeds the amount we made last year. Thanks to all who participated. At the end of this Newsletter is a list of all the generous donators. 3
LASTLY A big thank you to the following businesses and individuals who donated prizes to the Pirates Gala Dinner: SafariLink! Sand Island! Sands at Nomads (2 prizes)! Ali Barbours (3 prizes)! Bidi badu (3 prizes)! DD s! Kokkos! Diani Sky Dive! H20 Extreme! Diani House! Johari Glass! Lymingtons! Sand Island! Luke Doig! Chris Kyne! Raymond Matiba! James Willson! Maria Owiti! Vera Bensmann! Peter Brown (2 prizes) Two of our supporters have decided to sell their 3 bedroomed villa in Galu, approximately 10 minutes walk from the beach and close to three good beach side restaurants. They are relocating to America. It s a big house (320 sq metres) with swimming pool and can sleep up to 8 people. The price is Kes 19,900,000 and comes fully furnished with a modern kitchen (imported two-oven cooker and extra-large fridge), TV and DVD player. A successful sale will result in a big donation to the Pirates Rugby Club as well as to another well-known local cause. Another supporter has a beach side plot with pool, one main house and two one bedroom cottages for sale. If anyone is interested please contact anyone at the Pirates for a detailed specification (committee member or player). Many of our players are looking for work, either full time or casual. If anyone needs a driver, night guard, gardener, cleaner etc please contact anyone on the committee. We are also looking for a tutor to help some of the younger players pass their final exams in October for their KCSE. Education is the future 4