24/25 Championship Cup

I understand that the top 4 Premiership clubs are to be excluded from the cup as they are too strong. It will also bring the number of teams down to 16 which makes 4 pools of 4 and allows the logic of the 2nd Round to be simpler. 

If I'm totally honest, I can't wait for Cambridge to get back to the National Leagues where the main topic of conversation is rugby rather than money and RFU incompetence. 

I don't believe that Cambridge got anything useful out of the 23/24 Cup other than a stack of costs. So I'm not upset at creating a hole in our fixture list - or am I? 

There's a saying that fruit filters well:

"Banana off. Then keep bananaing off. Banana off until you come up to a gate with a sign saying." You Can’t Banana Off Past Here”. Climb over the gate, dream the impossible dream, and keep bananaing off forever." 

That should give 5 pools x 4 with the 2 Prem and 2 Champ clubs in each as said elsewhere. Better balance? But will Champ clubs get any share of the Prem home games?  All to be confirmed at Champ AGM this Tuesday, apparently.

Hope we're not playing them in these fallow weeks.

Quid pro quo for lowering MSC?

If "too weak", then surely, "too strong" logic applies as well. 

Hopefully Chinnor and Cambridge will go on to finish in the top half of the Championship to smear egg over everyone's faces.

I don't know if we have the firepower to do that, but you never know.

But, assuming Ritchie finds some friendlies to go along with the other friendlies that are laughably called a league, we will have some rugby with nothing riding on it.

That’s a very impressive and comprehensive update for Chinnor supporters. Not sure why they need a CEO and COO though.

Both clubs won promotion to the Championship and are now fully fledged Championship clubs. I think it is against any sense of fairness for these two clubs to be discriminated against in this shoddy and shocking manner. I hope that the other clubs in the Championship support them and refuse to ratify this injustice.

I read Simon Vickers message and update to Chinnor's members and a few matters were reminiscent of Caldy's summer ahead of their first Championship campaign. Firstly the surprise that the supposed circa £150k to be provided by the RFU was a mirage as some £40k+ had to go straight back out to pay for insurance and another £60k had to be spent on medical facilities......taken together with the increased cost of travel etc doesn't leave much left to help fund all the ground improvements that Chinnor need to undertake.

However, after reading Chinnor's update I did get the sense that perhaps the RFU were being of more assistance in guiding Chinnor's pre season readiness than they were when Caldy went through the process. In August 2022 and 48 hrs before their first preseason game against Premiership Sale Sharks, Caldy were informed that unless they built a ramp up to the changing room & medical room (so a stretcher could be more easily transported up the three steps into the facility) the game would need to be cancelled.

Detailed plans, which due to the position and topography of walkways and standing areas, needed to be a far more complex and significant structure than 'a ramp' suggested were quickly drawn up and submitted to the RFU for approval.......my understanding was that no prompt response was received from the RFU but somehow Caldy managed the build and installation a few hours before the game kicked off and some 2,500 spectators saw an enthralling evening's entertainment.

There was a contrast between the fulltime Sale Sharks side who arrived with their coaches, physios, analysts, nutritionists etc some 2 or 3 hours before the early evening mid week kick off and the Caldy squad that scrambled to leave work and navigate rush hour traffic to arrive shortly before the appointed hour. Therein lies the difference !

Mainly large gin & tonics I believe. 

Paid for by others naturally.

Rugby has a fine tradition of visiting teams thinking your club/pitch/changing room isn't good enough.