CREDITON’S first rugby themed children’s club, Creddy Club, launched its first session days during the October half-term and it proved to be a great success.

The club, which was run by Crediton RFC girls coaches, Stef Uter and Andrew Drayton, ran for the first three days of half-term and was attended by five to nine-year-olds from in and around Crediton.

The sessions, running from 9am to 3pm, were made up of games and activities based around the RFU’s Activ8 programme, some dedicated basic rugby skills and some free play for the children.

The children warmed up in the mornings and were assisted in their games by two Creddy Club assistants, Millie Richards and Lily Drayton, both players for the girls U18s side.

The first two days had their activities planned and the final day saw the children choose their favourites to do again. Evasion, Agility Race, and a rugby based Duck Duck Goose were amongst those chosen by the children to do again.

Creddy Club leaders, Stef and Andrew were delighted with how their first go with the club panned out.

Stef said: “To see the children running around, joining together as teams, and mixing together whilst outdoors all day was fantastic to see.

“Hardly any of the children knew each other before they met, but by the end of the three days they were all mixing together, sharing and encouraging each other as if they’d been friends for life.”

“This coming together was what Andrew enjoyed most about the club too. He said: “At the start of the three days the children basically followed what they were asked to do but as we got to know each other and the children grew in confidence both in themselves and their abilities, they contributed to the development of what we had planned and, at one stage, completely set the rules for their own game.

“It takes trust, companionship and respect for each other to achieve those things and we’re delighted the children found that whilst they were with us.”

While initially aimed at five to nine-year-olds, the feedback the club received has them already looking to expand the ages, possibly running two different groups for differing age groups.

They plan to review the first session over the next few months and will be back to go again in February half-term.

Both leaders finished by saying: “The feedback from both parents and the children attending was better than we could have wished for so we will definitely be doing it again.

"We’d like to thank everyone who tried us out in our first attempt and we hope that they will spread the word so that next time we’ll have even more children.

“We’d also like to thank Crediton RFC for all of their support for us, the encouragement to get it going, and for using the pitches to run it on.

“We hope that we have reflected the community ethos of the club in what we’ve achieved.”

If you want to see more of what the club is about, there are photo’s and video’s on Facebook, just search for “Creddy Club”.

By friending the page you will be alerted about the clubs plans for the February half-term.

Andrew Drayton