This week we have been able to make the final confirmations needed in order to release the information for the Roses Rally 2011. This event is set to be even better last year with our key guest; the world champion Athlete Derek Redmond on hand to offer what I’m sure will be an inspirational and motivating speech. For those of you who are unsure of Derek’s achievements and life story- I won’t divulge too much as you should be attending the Rally…but he has seen his fair share of success and failure throughout his career and certainly knows the price of hard work and never deciding to throw in the towel; so I really hope to see tickets fly out of the Activities Office once they are on sale!
The Rally sees the official start to the Roses build up but I know a lot of our teams are already starting to set their eyes on the biggest inter university competition in Europe and going to York to prove a point. I hope to see as many people as possible sign up for coaches over to see our teams play once we are able to release that information as there is nothing more disheartening for a team than to walk out and not see anything but people wanting them to fail. I will be at as many events as humanly possible over Roses, but I cannot support our teams by myself- so I know not just myself, but the teams would certainly appreciate your participation in some capacity over the weekend!
With regards to the event as a whole, from this week I would hope that the weekend starts to take much more shape than in recent weeks. York’s focus will be entirely on Roses now and I hope to let all teams know what is expected of them in the next fortnight or so with regards to fixtures and transport etc. so really it’s a case of “watch this space”. The whole Lancaster Roses effort will be becoming much more prominent as the term comes to an end so I would encourage as many students as possible to get out there and watch our teams in their last BUCS matches of the season, because I’m sure they’re going to want to set the tone for their next big match – which is on a certain weekend in May.
This year is our big change to even up the Roses playing field. If we win in York then not only is that an impressive away win, it will mean we’re neck and neck with Roses wins going into our homes Roses in 2012. Cliche though it may sound, it times like this that teams need their proverbial 12th man. So I’ll see you there.
