Dear Coaches, Guildfordians RFC Minis Festival 11 th March 2018 Joining Instructions Thank you for entering the Guildfordians Spring Festival on Sunday 11 th March. We look forward to welcoming you and all players, parents and supporters. You can expect a great rugby event with around 150 teams entered and 17 clubs represented. Typically, we expect up to 1,500 players to attend from across Surrey and the wider regions, for age groups U7s to U11s, and it is our goal to ensure that everyone attending has a great day of rugby and goes home happy. The festival for the U7, U8 & U9 age groups will be made up of mixed ability teams. At U10 & U11, teams will be streamed into either Experienced or Development squads. Your club may have entered either, or both. If you have any questions or comments, please contact festival@grfc.co.uk, the festival organiser. If you need to communicate with the Festival Organiser, please indicate the CLUB & AGE GROUP on whose behalf you are writing. This will avoid any confusion, and unnecessary delay in responding to your enquiry. Timings Information for Those Attending our Festival Registration will be at each age group control tent from 09:00. Please bring completed registration forms. Play will start at 10:00. With a large number of competitors and teams, please make every effort to have teams ready at the scheduled times to allow the smooth running of the event.
Please make sure that you arrive in good time, remembering that parking can be quite a distance (see below). Player Registration Please complete one Player Registration form for each team entered and hand it in to the age group Control Tent at the Festival. If your club is entering multiple teams from a single age group, please define them with the following colours: 1. Red 2. Blue 3. Green 4. Yellow 5. Orange 6. Silver 7. Gold Referees & Referees' Meetings Referees' briefings will take place at 09:30 at the applicable age control tent. Each team must bring one referee. Any team who fails to provide a referee may be excluded from the festival. We would thank you in advance for ensuring that all referees are ready at the relevant time to referee a match - delays in the programme most often occur because the allocated referee cannot be found. The format is a round robin with every team playing four matches. Further notes for referees are available; please would all referees familiarise themselves with these before the festival. Festival Pitches The festival pitch map is enclosed as a guide at the end of this document showing the location of the various age group pitches and facilities at Stoke Park. For operational reasons the pitch layout may be adjusted slightly depending on the ground condition. There is also further festival information on the club website http://www.grfc.co.uk/festivals
Player Welfare Stoke Park can get quite windy and therefore cold, particularly if wet. We cannot provide shelters for visitors. All visiting teams must ensure that they have adequate shelter for players and that the players are suitably clothed. Visiting teams must have a qualified first aider available for each age group and this person must be known to all age group coaches. Festival Directions and Car Parking Along with these joining instructions there is a map detailing the different offstreet parking locations. There is parking at six possible sites (listed in distance and/or suitability order) where our local Air Cadets will be marshalling and will ask for a voluntary 3.00 donation for the kind use of the parking facilities and to support the purchase of their new squadron minibus. PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO PARKING AT THE GUILDFORDIANS CLUBHOUSE. 1) SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION AND WEATHER PERMITTING there will be parking available at Stoke Park North (next to Spectrum and a short walk to Stoke Park) 2) Additional parking available at the Student Car Park (note: not the Staff Car Park) at Guildford College (Stoke Road, Guildford, GU1 1EZ) 3) Additional parking available at Guildford Lido (Lido Road, Stoke Park, Guildford, GU1 1HB). Please note the Lido car park has a 1.8m height restriction in place. {Note: From the College and Lido sites there is a short walk across the park to the North side} 4) SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION - Additional parking available at London Square Offices (Cross Lanes, Guildford, GU1 1UN) {Note: From the Cross Lane site there is a short walk along London Road to reach the park} 5) Additional parking is also available at George Abbot School (Woodruff Avenue, Guildford, GU1 1XX) {Note: From the George Abbot site there is a one mile walk along Woodruff Avenue and then heading southbound along London Road to reach the park}
6) Additional parking is available at Guildford Spectrum Leisure Centre, but please try to park in other locations first, if possible. The status of parking locations identified as subject to confirmation will be detailed closer to the day of the festival, if available, if no confirmation is received from your club representative, please assume that these locations are not available. Please respect the parking instructions. Parking will be monitored closely and Traffic Wardens will be patrolling the area on the day. Please ensure you park considerately and please avoid parking on residential streets around Stoke Park. Codes of Conduct All players, coaches and parents are asked to abide by the applicable Codes of Conduct. We reserve the right to exclude from any game or the festival any player, coach, spectator or team whose conduct is not in accordance with the Codes of Conduct. Refreshments and Comfort First aid points (St John Ambulance) are located near the Oasis and the Club House. These are marked on the pitch map. Refreshments will be served at the Oasis from 08:30 to 14:00. Hot and cold drinks, bacon rolls, hot dogs, burgers, sweets and ice creams are all available. Toilets are located around the perimeter of the park and at the Club House. Disabled facilities are available. Any Problems? If you experience any problems or have any complaints please raise them immediately with a Guildfordians coach and/or the Guildfordians Festival Organiser, so that we can attempt to address the issue immediately.
Community Rugby in the Heart of Guildford