Chairman delighted as rugby club lands new sponsorship deal

Galgorm Resort & Spa Sales & Marketing manager Beth Swindlehurst presents sponsorship to Ballymena RFC 1st XV player Matthew Rae while looking on are managers Peter McKenzie (left) and Glenn Boyd (right), Business & Development Manager Derek Montgomery (2nd left) and vice-chairman Tom Wiggins at last week's launch of the new sponsorship deal between Galgorm Resort & Spa and Ballymena RFC.

Needless to say, the Club is absolutely delighted with this development, which sees Galgorm supporting us for three years.

I have had a number of meetings with Paul Smyth, the hotel’s Operations Manager, and his Assistant, Colin Johnston, and I have been greatly impressed by their enthusiasm for the deal and the really professional way they have approached it.

As Chairman I have been involved, of course, but the real work has been done by Derek Montgomery, who has just this year taken on the role of Director of Sponsorship and Marketing.

The fact that a Club like ourselves needs such a post is a very clear indication of how much we depend on the generosity and support of local business and industry.

Nearly every sports club in the country is finding it difficult to meet its financial commitments, so we have to work hard to attract sponsorship in what are very difficult times for business generally. Throughout the incoming Rugby season we shall be working closely with all our sponsors and that is something I am looking forward to.

FIXTURES

The fixtures for the 2013/2014 season have now been published, and can be perused on the club website.

Ballymena RFC competes in two leagues, the local Ulster Championship and the Ulster Bank All Ireland League, and we open the season with an Ulster League fixture at home to Queen’s on Saturday, 31st August.

Arrangements for the pre-season fixture against Scottish club, Hawick ,are now finalised and a party of thirty players and officials will travel to Hawick on Friday the 16th August, returning on the Sunday.

This fixture against one of Scotland’s most famous and historic clubs goes back many years, although in the modern era, when there is such pressure just to fulfil the regular playing commitments, the encounters between the two clubs, which are “twinned” with each other, have not been all that frequent.

Hawick have just won promotion back into the top tier of Scottish club rugby, so this game will be a real challenge for us, and will give some of our new recruits a chance to show what they can do.

Enthusiasm at what you might call the other end of the Club, the section for P1 and P2 boys and girls, called the ‘Rascals’, is also running high and demand for places for the Saturday morning activities is great.

For new Rascals enrolment will take place in the Clubhouse at Eaton Park on Wednesday, 14th August at 7:30 pm; all the documentation needed for that can be found on the club website.

Enrolment will be done on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, so it would pay to be a bit early.

We are not exactly a “cradle to grave” organisation, but the youngest of our playing members are Rascals aged four, while the oldest, who played in the Fifths’ Cup Final victory in April, is a very fit fifty two year old.