This is a squad which has performed incredibly well in the past, so expectations were set high.  While it wasn't the vintage year anticipated,  we have seen great progress made by almost of the players, and without doubt, some outstanding rugby was played.
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The U9s have come to the end of their first full season of contact and we can report that it was a great success: squads numbers have increased to just shy of 30, we've seen great progression of players between the teams and there has been lots of silverware. 
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The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Invitational Rugby 7s Tournament at Oxford University Rugby Club, Iffley Road, 26 May 2012.
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Wallingford RFC runs a brilliant music and beer festival called “Rugfest”. Wallingford is renowned for its music and Rugfest has quickly become Wallingford’s Summer Music Festival.
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End of Season party and player awards - 11am onwards Sunday 13 May 2012. Awards presented by England U18 captain and form Oxford Harlequins Junior Gus Jones. Raffle, hog roast, sweet stall, licenced bar, tug-of-war and the RAF 7s team.

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Freddie Tuilagi and his brothers & team mates have decided to use Oxford Harlequins M&Js’ Marston Ferry grounds for their first Tuilagi Training Skills course in Oxfordshire / South East in August.
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The U9s put in their best performance of the season at the Oxfordshire the A team winning the County Plate and the B team making it to the Plate semi final.
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The Festival turned out to be the usual full-on day that these festivals are but made much easier from a personal perspective by having neutral/official referees and completing everything by close to 2pm. As for how we did ... well the boys can close out the season with their heads held high. Whilst the boys lost three matches and won one, the manner in which the boys played their matches should make them feel very pleased...especially given the quality of the opposition.
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Over the years, teams change. In the past, Quins used to regularly win against Abingdon, but defeats against them last season, and in the league this year showed that Abingdon had become a much stronger outfit, and they had finished top of the league that Quins were in this year.
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County U9A Plate Champions! Won the semi final 30-5 (5-1) and the final 40-0 (7-0). Awesome rugby!
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The RAF Spitfires Rugby Sevens Team has announced today that Oxford will be hosting an Invitational Rugby 7s Charity Tournament on the 26th May 2012. World class teams such as Wales, RAF Spitfires, Oxford and Cambridge Universities confirmed to play in the Charity event.
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The Easter holidays conspired against us but somehow we managed to pull together a decent team for the EMC Cup at RGS High Wycombe.
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We played three matches against the touring Aylesbury U12s on Sunday and won each of them .. 4-0, 5-1 and 4-1. The boys probably put in their best performance of the year against some good opposition. In the first match the boys were 1-0 up at half time in a close game, but then really took control, scoring three more tries and in the second half  and working well defensively to make sure they kept a clean sheet.
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 Aylesbury played their part in this competitive but friendly fixture, but with the wind at their backs and following a slightly unsettled start, Quins began to put together some strong attacking moves, and coupled this with robust defending.
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What's better, when you're eight years old, than meeting one of your all time sporting heroes? How about having them teach you to play rugby for two hours solid! And what could be better than being trained by an International rugby star? How about being trained by two? On Sunday 1st April, Oxford Harlequins Minis and Juniors welcomed Freddie Tuilagi & Manu Tuilagi to the club as Tuilagi Training Skills taught our lucky Under 9s a thing or two about how to play rugby. 
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One can usually tell when this U17 team is up for a match - and the relaxed atmosphere, laughing and joking in the sunshine before kick-off, didn't inspire confidence.
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A fresh morning greeted us at Banbury on the Saturday, The day did not start off well; James and I were late picking up Steve and Joe, Will was in the Maldives and we had a tent without pegs, however, we had enough energy drinks and sweets to reanimate the dead and nineteen boys willing to go to war for the Mighty Quins.....I hate substitutes but we didn't have enough players for three teams and so we split into two teams and started our preparation.
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Due to a misunderstanding over pitches at MFR and after locating various missing parents  from points around Oxford to ferry the boys to Hinksey where a pitch was available  ( parents found in : M & S , Costa Coffee , sleeping in the car in the car park , at home reading the papers, and dog walking , delete as appropriate ) the fixture went ahead .
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The home side welcomed back Seb Wood after a long injury layoff, and he duly brought confidence to the team with a try five minutes into the match.  Quins continued to dominate both on attack and defence, and a brace by number 8 Isa Mohammed were results of strong forward play.  With the backs starting to punch holes through the visitor's defence, a further try by scrum half Harry Groves made the score 22-0 at half time.
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The sun was shining, it was wonderfully warm and we had a full strength squad available ... so the match against Witney this weekend was full of promise. We decided to play three matches of 20 minutes each so that everyone in both squads could get plenty of game time .... The first match was against the strongest Witney 13. The match was largely a 'rear guard' action fought primarily in our half, but such was the strength of our defence that Witney didn't really look like scoring. That was until near the end of the second half when Witney managed to break through. And so it ended with a 1-0 loss. Slightly disappointing, but given the run of play we couldn't really argue with the result. Read More...

The story of the tournament for us this year was in summary a small group of brave boys who but for a few moments of sleepiness could easily have been in the final ... it was that close. Instead we ended up leaving at the end of the group stage ..with the only consolation of being able to go home and get warm! Read More...

Monday 13-16 August 2012 at the Oxford University Rugby Club
£189 for 4 days - click here to download a flyer and reserve your place (694k)

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Stow 7 - 19 Oxford Harlequins

Bolstered by the return of Matt from injury, and with Rob and Spencer both back Quins were very much up for this return match having narrowly lost 5-3 just before Christmas. Quins played some of their best rugby this year with a dominant scrum pushing the Stow pack back at every opportunity and laying a foundation through Rhys to release the backs.

Whilst Stow certainly made a competitive game of it, a good flowing move along the backs resulted in a strong finish from Irfan to take Quins into halftime 5-0 up. In the 2nd half, continued pressure by Quins at the Stow try-line was not converted into points and, while Big Ben was off the pitch having his ripped shorts taped up to preserve his modesty, a well-taken breakaway try and conversion put Stow in the lead. With around 10 min to go it seemed that Stow, although weakened by injuries as the game progressed, might also take this game by a 2 point margin, but two well-worked moves along the backs gave run-in tries for Irfan and Joe P, both converted with aplomb from narrow angles by Harry.

Overall, a significantly improved performance from previous weeks with many strong individual performances (Matt, Spencer, Joe H, Big Ben, Harry B), the reduced penalty count, and especially much better team support play all contributing. Man of the match was given by the team to George who was composed when put under pressure at full-back and his surging runs from deep pushed Stow back many times.  But this was a match that every player contributed well to a great team performance, and all came smiling off the pitch from an enjoyable game. 

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Grove only seems to see extreme weather: it's either too frozen top play, raining sideways or baking hot. Luckily for us it was our turn to have a hot day and the boys quickly stripped off their underarmour, training tops and base layers to play some sunshine rugby.
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The Grove fixture is always a favourite with the U9s, the sun was shining and global warming had finally kicked in after last week's Siberian training session. The Grove coaching team were incredibly welcoming and keen to help us in our tournament preparations, turning out balanced teams to allow our newly formed tournament side to get some playing time together.
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It's that time of year when you're not quite sure if spring has sprung...last week we were back in the middle of winter...this week it felt more like the middle of summer! Anyway, as has been said previously when this group of boys get the sun on their backs things usually come together... and so was yesterday away at Grove...
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A battling performance by Oxford Harlequins was not reflected in the final result as Bicester scored 3 tries in each half of this post OBB league friendly match. With spring firmly in the air on a beautifully sunny March morning, this was a free-flowing game played in great spirit by both sides. Quins players delivered some good individual performances (Will, Ollie with an individual try in the 1st half, and man of the match Harry), but the lack of continuity in team players meant that as a team support was lacking at key times as Bicester ran in some classy tries.

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Despite such a freezing cold wet morning we ultimately had about 15 Oxford Harlequins Minis + Parents helping out with the annual Oxclean at Marston Ferry.
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In a slight deviation from the usual; Gavin Allinson (Jack A’s Dad) was asked to record the scores with the help of Sue Boardman (Ollie B’s Mum) he’s gone the whole hog and written most of the match report too! We took three full teams to Oxford on Sunday and I think that we had a real point to prove as Oxford have, up to now, been a bogey team for us.. As we turned up well organised and mob handed and assumed the reffing responsibility, the two Oxford coaches were free to run with their teams.
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There is something about a bit of sunshine and a reasonably big pitch that brings out the best in the U12s...and this Sunday morning was no exception in the annual 'derby' fixture against Oxford (at Hinksey).
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Arsenal may have beaten Tottenham 5 -2 on Sunday but the real local derby action this weekend took place down at North Hinksey where the U9s from Oxford Harlequins and Oxford RFC met for an exciting encounter. A slight mismatch in squad sizes meant that we'd play an A team fixture and two friendlies between our B team and a barbarians team comprised of 6 Oxford players and 3 of our own Quins boys.
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Bracknell kindly agreed to accommodate a morning kick-off in this last league match of the season, although as all their pitches were in use both teams made the nearby trip to Broadmoor (gulp).  Both teams needed a win in order to progress into the post league competition. The importance of the match was reflected in the rarity of an  essentially full team turnout, apart from the injuries, which meant we had just over 20 players for the 1st time in the season. In the event, all players were needed in a hard highly competitive game which Bracknell ran out worthy winners.  By half-time, Bracknell had scored 4 tries, which gave them the bonus point they needed to secure to progress, and in reply Ibbi had scored a breakthrough try for Quins. The 2nd half damage was limited to 2 tries, with Man of the match Rob taking one for Quins and a subsequent classy touchline conversion from Harry.

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Oxford Sports Partnership half-term multi-activity campsof indoor and outdoor sports are a safe and enjoyable introduction to
sport for boys and girls from Year 1 to Year 6. Monday to Friday February 13th - 17th February 2012
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Saturday 25 Fenruary at the Oxford Rugby Partnership’s North Hinksey grounds from 6pm…

A sponsored firewalk with Jack FM, The Oxford Entertainers, a drumming workshop, fairground rides, face painting. archery, BBQ and sweet stall.
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After consultation with the (new) Chairman, it has been decided to cancel ALL activities at MFR this weekend. This includes scheduled matches and any training.
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Marlborough were keen to leave as late as possible to make a final call – But they have just called and the match is CANCELLED.
 
Pitches Frozen and possibility of snow of Saturday night.

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It was great to see that the boys had lost none of their enthusiasm from the previous day as they took to field for their first game to a crowd of 7 parents and and a dog!! Some 4792 ish less than Saturday and went about the job in hand.
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After the Lions & Tigers put on a fantastic display of tag rugby at the half time interval in front of a mere 4900 spectators at the Wasps v Exeter Chiefs game it was time to take on Wallingford in front of a few very chilly parents. Due to a couple of absentees we had the opportunity to give Ben & Nicholas their first taste of Lions rugby, both boys appeared very nervous at the start but in true Harlequins tradition both boys raised their game & played a major part in the Lions 3 wins against the stiffest opposition that Wallingford could provide.
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After a sluggish start, this ended up being a comprehensive victory for Quins.  Both teams played this match in good spirit, and credit is due to Bletchley for contesting the match throughout despite some temporary injuries to some of their players, which kept the referee busy keeping the headcount correct on the field.
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Quins’ County back row player Cian Wynne celebrated his first game as captain with a hat-trick of tries at Grove.
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After much backwards and forwarding about this fixture we finally got to play Wallingford. This is always a challenging fixture, particularly given their strength in depth (they have squad of 36). In contrast with absence through illness, county cricket trials and other commitments we started the day with 16.
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For once, Quins started a match with fire in their bellies and full of self believe.  This energy was quickly converted to points, when from a cleverly placed kick off, hooker Ruairi Van Raalte bolted through the defence to score his tenth try of the season.  This was followed up two minutes later as the Quins pressure was maintained and a highly-determined Harry Groves pushed over three Wallingford players to cross the line.  With both tries converted and less than five minutes on the clock, this was without doubt the best start to a match this year.
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On Sunday 22nd January Bicester RFC visited Quins for what turned out to be a testing encounter on many levels. Both clubs fielded two teams and played two sets of matches, one with the teams streamed into an A and B, the other with the teams mixed up. 
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Quins U15s let another one slip through their grasp after being hammered in the second half by Wootton Bassett
Although missing a number of key players, Quins' first half display demonstrated that this was a match they were well able to win, but needed 100% from all 15 players (and no subs) for all 70 minutes.  Up against a very large and well-polished Wootton squad, punching above their weight has become a must for the U15s this season. 
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Sunday was one of those days when everything comes together. The boys played three 'matches' at home to Bicester (who have a similar sized squad to our own) and won them all convincingly.
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Quins U15s lost yet another tight battle, this time to Buckingham, 19-24
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Injuries and a couple of no-shows left Quins with exactly 15 players to start this league match.
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U17s finally got a match following a number of weekends of cancellations/postponements. Initially, it looked as though the frost might wipe this last one of 2011 out as well, but with the sun out the pitch was deemed just playable. Stow got off to a bright start with possession, but thereafter the match was a fairly even contest with perhaps the Quins forwards edging that phase of the game, but the opposition's backs looking sharp in attack. A good penalty kick by man of the match Harry Birtles gave Quins a narrow lead, but a subsequent unconverted try by Stow gave them the win. This was a well-refereed match played in good spirit by both sides. 

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Come along to Oxford University Rugby Club and receive expert, qualified coaching from the coaches and players of Oxford University RFC .
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Finally, a home fixture and we had nine Tigers in the mix this week who played three games and got a full house of results: One Win, One Draw and One Loss.
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Last Sunday OHRFC Minis hosted our first home game of the season with involved a triangular fixture against Faringdon & High Wycombe. Initially the games were threatened by a local shortage of plastic cones which are used to mark out the pitches, but this was finally resolved after our coaches begged, borrowed & stole enough plastic coned shaped gold for us to mark out three pitches & a small training area for the U6's.
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All in all a good morning's rugby. The boys can feel particularly proud of keeping a clean sheet all morning, achieved predominantly through some very good tackling.
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This was a successful morning for our mixed Harlequins U10s teams against lively and robust opposition from High Wycombe and Faringdon. 
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The U9s Autumn tour has continued with back to back fixtures at Gosford and Chipping Norton over the past couple of weeks.
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11 December 2011 - 11am ’til 2’ish. The Oxford Harlequins M&Js’ Chrstimas party

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Once again the OHRFC autumn tour moved on, this time the destination was Chipping Norton for a three way contest involving Chipping Norton, OHRFC & Chinnor. Both Chipping Norton & Chinnor turned up with 3 teams apiece so we knew that we were in for a tough series of games.
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Quins U16s have been working hard in training to improve one or two aspects of their game , they also are developing a formula that works for them . Signs of improvements in our game management  were there  for all to see , a comprehensive win proved this.
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Chippy, with a similar squad size to our own also provide a typically close competitive fixture for our boys ...and, at the same time, make us feel very welcome. However, the other element in this fixture was Chinnor - County champions at U12 (by some margin).
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A freezing early morning welcomed us to North Oxfordshire on Sunday but the boys had no reservation in stripping off the fleeces and getting going. They were well and truly warmed up by Will and Adrian and seemed up for the task in front of us: Chinnor and Chipping Norton…
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Last weekend we had the always competitive match with Gosford All Blacks (who have joined up with Wheatley at U12 and now have a squad of just under 20 ...so not that much different to ourselves). Back at the Grove Festival at the start of the season we lost 2-0 ...so there was a strong desire to 'rebalance the books' against our local friends!
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The Oxford Harlequins roadshow or circus moved on to Gosford last weekend for a three way contest involving the Quins U7s Lions & Tigers, Wheatley & Gosford All Blacks.
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The U8s travelled up to Gosford desperately in need a of a training session but our oposition came in the shape of Gosford All Blacks and Wheatley. Wheatley nearly had two teams and Gosford nearly had one team so the “en masse” Quins saved the day by donating players to get things moving.
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Banbury ...especially away is always a tough fixture ...and so it proved again yesterday. However, overall the boys came through very well against two clubs with the luxury of A and B teams at U12s. Over the morning the boys played four matches, winning three and loosing one ... and in doing so scoring 14 tries and conceding just four. What's more it was a gloriously warm sunny day at Banbury ...something which we are not used to!
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On an unseasonably warm and sunny Sunday morning the U9s had a fantastically enjoyable trip up to Banbury RFC. It's a great venue to play at, vast pitches, well marked out and a very warm welcome. The matches kicked off shortly after both clubs had observed the 2 minute silence at 11am.
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Banbury are a friendly club and generously hosted Harlequins again this weekend.  We fielded a squad of 8, with two new Lions in the form of Alexander and Will. 
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A beautiful morning in deep in the Berkshire woods…. Read More...

a very close battle brought out some really good rugby and team spirit in the Harlequins.
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Heartbreak today for the U15s against Wallingford in a tight, well fought battle, which eventually came down to a single conversion.
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In the first match the boys came under a short period of pressure at the start but our defence held firm , some brave tackling from the likes of Ewart,Charlie and many others. For the rest of the half we camped out on their line but couldn't turn pressure into points.
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After considerable debate during the week the OHRFC U7 & U8 touring sides ventured off to play Henley away. On arriving we quickly understood the task in hand as we realised that Henley had more coaches than we had players.
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It’s always a pleasure playing against a side that shares our “fun first” rugby principles and Henley certainly didn’t disappoint,
They graciously hosted us at the last minute when we were declared homeless and were also large enough to entertain our horde of players.
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A fantastic morning's rugby was had in glorious weather with two powerful visiting squads in the form of Henley and Brecon, the latter being on tour from Wales following our visit to them back in April.
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The U15s had a successful trip to Reading Abbey with a 36-24 victory.
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At Banbury we were forced to take a reduced squad of Liger/Tigons due to the half term holidays.
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U7s make it a clean sweep at Abingdon.
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If ever you could claim a scoreline that did not reflect the game, then this maybe a possible contender for that tired sporting cliche.
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Many thanks for a great turn-out at Banbury, not least that it meant foregoing most of the RWC Final on anything other than hand-held electronic equipment!  We managed to have around two-thirds of our squad there which was very encouraging given half term/RWC etc.  It was a beautiful morning for rugby and Banbury were excellent hosts as ever. 
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Apparently it didn’t take place last Sunday. The Rugby World Cup final will be shown in the club house next Sunday (23 October) - Angela’s bacon rolls, tea and coffee available from the kitchen.

Many thanks for the good turn-out today - 32 kids in total.  Congratulations to all the kids in what was a successful morning. 
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The Panthers joined the Lions and Tigers as the latest Quins’s U8 team to grace the turf. Abingdon is a great club, very friendly and hospitable – wish more clubs were as welcoming.
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Following last season's narrow defeat (6-9) at home in a friendly, the Under 17s met Reading Abbey on the opposition’s home turf in the League, and this time came out winners 11-5 in a well-contested match by both teams.
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Following a recent incident at the club involving an Oxford Harlequins U15 player, we thought, from a welfare point of view, reiterating the club’s mandatory position on mouthguards would be sensible.

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Under 17s opened their OBB League campaign with a solid all-round team performance against unfamiliar opposition.
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Under 14s notched up a big victory against Chinnor on Sunday 9th October, scoring ten tries at Marston Ferry Road to win by 52 points to 5.
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Winning the toss and playing with a strong wind Quins made the most of the conditions and soon exerted pressure on Chinnor. Despite eight players injured, ill or unavailable Quins put together an organised, thinking, heads up game.
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Quins U15s bounced back from two early season defeats with a comprehensive 54-0 victory over a visiting Marlborough side.
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This time we didn't win...and didn't manage to come away with our traditional favourite trophy of plate winners...but we did lose in the final of the plate...and left having scored more tries than we let in.
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For our first tournament of the year we took along two teams that consisted of some of our old hands from last year who played as the Lions 'A' & our newer players as the Tigers 'B'.
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A huge well done to all the players at Grove.  This was a massive effort on their behalf in sweltering conditions, which also turned out to be a serious endurance test for all you spectators as well. 
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An emotional day at the Grove festival for the Lions and Tigers of the Oxford Harlequins U8’s. With the unseasonal weather beating down suncream was liberally administered and the squad was broken down to the Lions and Tigers.
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We were four weeks into the season, 4 1/2 training sessions that had introduced tackling, rucking, guarding the ball, mauling, scrums, lineouts, multiple off-side rules, defensive walls, attacking lines, attacking space, scrum half play and so on and so on. The poor lads.
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With Milton Keynes kindly agreeing to travel to Oxford at short notice to replace the Luton who unfortunately had to pull out everyone was hoping for good weather and a good game. They got both. With very hot conditions close to 30C all the players had to show their fitness.
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In the first league match of the season, Quins U15s were defeated at home to an insurgent Grove side, 29-19. 
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To promote the support given to injured rugby players by the RFU Injured Players Foundation (IPF) at Twickenham, a song - “We Will Be Kings” featuring Steve Boyce - has been commissioned to raise awareness and funds.
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Much tougher than it appears; four tries from Quins in the last ten minutes led to a score line not representative of the majority of the match.
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In what is becoming a bit of a tradition, Quins U15s started their season off with a tame performance at Marlow on Sunday.
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From the start of this first match of the season it was evident that we were facing a different Aldermaston than the skeleton team lacking their county players that we played away against last season and won 31-0.
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Harlequins U16's kicked off their new season with a trip to Gloucester to play Old Richians in a warm up fixture.  

The conditions were sunny but a constant and harsh swirling wind made conditions for handling and kicking very difficult for both sides.

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As in previous years, to join for the season each player needs to fill in the Oxford Harlequins M&Js membership form, pay the subscription fee and ensure they have a current registration with the RFU.

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We giving away a pair of Mark van Gisbergen’s boots! If it sounds too good to be true, there are strings attached, well two actually... Read More...

Last seen at the end of last season, 25 shirts in a black Terminator holdall - may be smelly.

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All age groups are training at Marston Ferry Road from 10.30 until noon except the U16s who are playing away at Old Richians in Gloucester (kick-off 10.30am)
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Oxford Harlequins U14s will have four players in the ORFU/ London Wasps School of Rugby this season.
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A huge ‘thank you’ to those parents and players who came to the club on Saturday 3rd September to help tidy up and fix things in the club house and around the grounds. It was a great help and gets the season off to a neat and tidy start.

All in a morning’s work…
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Oxford Harlequins Under 17s are looking for new players to bolster their ranks.
Coach Paul de Lange said: “Considering we are the only under 17 side in the city, there must be players out there.”
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The new season starts on Sunday 4th September and there will be training at Marston Ferry Road for all age groups from 10.30am until noon with a coaches meeting at 12.30pm for all coaches and any one else interested in assisting or becoming a coach.

Subs can be paid at anytime but the official registration day will be Sunday 18th September where all age groups will either be training or playing at Marston Ferry. We thought we’d make a day of things and lay on some entertainment for the younger ones and a hog roast. If any one would like to help out with a cake sale or something similar, please contact Craig Twyford (07850 305813 or craig@octopus.im).

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Answers to questions about the potential merger between Oxford Harlequins and Oxford RFCs

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Two or three day rugby courses run by experienced fully qualified RFU coaches all of whom have been checked with CRB. Camps are taught within the guidelines of the RFU continuum and this exciting opportunity is open to all children between the ages of 6-12 years.

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