First of all may I thank you for visiting the site and for supporting the club in whatever role you play.

Another season is upon us and we at BRFC welcome you to what we hope will be an entertaining and successful season. With a very wet summer it has been exceedingly difficult to complete all the groundwork we would have liked but the pitches and training pitch are all looking well, thanks to our ground staff headed by Andy Warcup. We have managed some ‘in house’ work in tiling the showers, much needed tidying up of the gent’s toilets and the steps into the clubhouse.

We welcome our two new Honorary Presidents, Jim Gladstone (Scotland) and John Thompson (England) and thank our retiring Hon Presidents for their support over the past seven years. I would also like to thank our retiring president, Harry Frew, for all his hard work over the past two years and many years before that. Harry thankfully is not disappearing and will continue to be of great assistance as required. Greg Thompson has left the area and is now working for Border Toyota in Dumfries and has resigned as secretary, we welcome Bryan and Sandra Spiers to this position.

We have lost one or two players to other clubs but still have the nucleus of our team from last year. Our coaching staff, headed by Ged Thomas supported by Robbie Redpath (fitness), Stephen Gilchrist (forwards) and Ronnie Tait with Dougie Hall as Director of Rugby have seen 35-40 players training on Tuesday and Thursday nights from early July with everyone working well together. Our 1st XV players, captained by Colin Young assisted by Robert Haggerstone, are all a year older and more experienced having gone through a very difficult season last year and the general feeling throughout the Club is one of determination and comradeship.

We as supporters and members of BRFC must remember our players are all volunteers wanting to enjoy the game of rugby. When things are not going as well as we would like, encouragement and constructive ideas are a much better tool than nothing but criticism. Our players, like our coaches and club administrators put a lot of hard work into making BRFC the success it is and on this note we are always looking for more players, coaches and helpers at all levels, if anyone knows of anyone wanting to be involved please introduce them to one of the Executive or players.

We will once again be fielding three senior teams and colts with a ladies team and full youth section from under 8 to under 16 years. This is an achievement rarely surpassed, unmatched and indeed envied by many other clubs across the country and we recognise how lucky we are with so many good, loyal helpers making this all possible every week.

Thank you once again for your on going support and we look forward to seeing you in the coming season.

Yours sincerely

Kim Drysdale (President)