On the 17th March the Mini's & Juniors section of Derby RFC held their annual Mini's festival with excellent attendance from a number of Clubs - Nottingham, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Sutton Coldfield, Paviours, Melbourne, Stevenage, Long Eaton, Sheffield, Matlock & Baileans, Ilkeston and West Bridgford (and of course Derby !!) which resulted in over 600 children (boys & girls) being involved in Rugby games on the day.

Despite the odd shower the weather managed to stay mainly fine with the sun actually coming out now and again to say Hello !! 

The standard of Rugby was excellent and I personally was spoilt as to which games to watch. It is a credit to all of the Clubs that came today that they have such well supported Mini's & Juniors sections within their own clubs, it is good to see that the game of Rugby is so alive and well in these younger age groups. As you'll see later on within this page I've taken lots of photographs and I've tried to include a cross section of age groups and teams that were here on the day as well as some more general photo's as I walked the various matches meeting people.

On behalf of Derby RFC I would like to extend our warmest thanks to all of the Clubs, players, families, friends and supporters that came along to the festival, we hope that you and your children enjoyed the day.

Finally, a very big thankyou to the army of behind the scenes people who were involved in preparing and running the festival on the day. It could not have run so smoothly without a lot of hard work by our unsung heroes. 

Brian Leverington 18th March'02

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