WIN FREE MEMBERSHIP TO BUTCH'S BIRTHDAY BUNCH

April's competition is a caption competition to win free membership to our new Butch's Birthday Bunch for the 2010/11 season. For more detals please see the latest newsletter.

ST GEORGE'S DAY MASCOTS

On Saturday 24th April 20 lucky boys and girls joined the Bath Rugby players to run out onto the pitch at Twickenham for the St George's Day fixture. Please follow this link for more details.

FEBRUARY COMPETITION

In February we ran a competition to be the mascot for our re-arranged evening fixture against Northampton Saints. Abbie Bewley entered the competition by designing her ideal Bath Rugby kit. Abbie made her dream strip a topical shirt by adapting the pig phenomenon that hit Bath last summer and turning it into a bright and sunny Bath Rugby strip. Well done Abbie!

ENGLAND SAXONS MASCOTS

At the end of January Bath Rugby hosted the England Saxons v Ireland A fixture.

In total 15 boys and girls lined up with the Saxons team to sing the National Anthem - it was a great experience and one I am sure they will remember.

The mascots were:

The 15 mascots were:
Louis Roberts
Bertie Preston
Amelia Damer
Felix Damer
Orlando Alford
Chris Harris
James Leeming
Jake Penprase
George Woodington
Oliver Hemming
Robin Freeman
Olivia (Ollie after you-know-who) Elliott
Megan Elliott
Ben Dryden
Jules Wheeler

Louis Roberts and Bertie Preston were especially honoured to actually run out onto the pitch with the captain. We hope you all had a magical time!

BATH RUGBY PANTOMIME

On Sunday 6th December Bath Rugby got into the festive spirit early as we hosted our very first Bath Rugby Christmas Panto!

The event was held in Bath Pavilion (behind the Hamptons International Stand) and featured that old Panto favourite Aladdin. The story line is of course familiar and it was very well performed by the cast of Chaplins' Pantos. However, the professionals had some help in this unique performance as a few of the Bath Rugby players took to the stage.

In this one-off performance the audience were treated to not one, but two evil Abaneezers, two Genies and two Widow Twankeys! Much to the amusement of fellow players, Bath favourites Scott Bemand, Jonny F and Shontayne Hape were all called upon to dress up as each character respectively!

However, none were as bemused as Jonny and Shontayne themselves! This being their first ever experience of a Bristish Panto, they found it all quite confusing! 'Why do I have to dress up as a woman?' was Shontayne's initial reaction and why is the leading man a woman? However, they all soon got the hang of it and really entered into the Panto spirit and put on a performance to rival the professionals!

Judging from the riotous shouts of 'He's behind you' and 'Watcha Wishee' the kids (and adults) all seemed to have a great time (my kids haven't stopped talking about it yet!) and plans are already afoot for another Bath Rugby Panto next year - so watch out players - we will be after you!

Plenty of other Bath Rugby stars were in attendance and in addition to our three Panto performers; special thanks go to Pieter Dixon, Julian Salvi and Peter Short.

After the Panto, there was a special guest appearance from none other than Father Christmas who came with goody bags for all the children. He was overheard to say that he had nearly ended up at Bristol Rugby Club but the reindeers saved the day!

A good time was had by all and it was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. Bath Rugby would like to thank sponsors IPL and Puma - and also Cadbury - for their contributions to the children's goody bags. I would also like to say a special thank you to Becky Pocock who helped me to organise the event.

DECEMBER COMPETITION

In December we ran a Christmas competition to win a cap signed by Butch James. We asked all of our members to send in what they thought the platers would like to ask for from Father Christmas. The answers were hilarious but the best by far were sent in by Ben Dryden who is just six years old. His answers had us all laughing - take a look!

Dan Browne - a session in a tanning salon

Olly Barkley - a break in Portugal

Danny Grewcock - a contract with Gilette

Nick Abendanon - a tube of evostick

Julian Salvi - The official RFU rule book on the offside rule

David Flatman - a good night's sleep

Duncan Bell - a weight watchers' course

Pieter Dixon - hair gel

Lee Mears - a retractable lead & a pair of roller skates (fast enough to keep up with toddlers!)

Butch James - a wooden leg Matt Carraro - Health & Safety in the Kitchen book

NOVEMBER COMPETITION

This month we asked Butch's Bunch members to send in ten great questions that they wanted us to put to the players to win a family ticket for the Bath Rugby pantomime. Unfortunately no one seemed to have any burning questions. Sorry players!

OCTOBER COMPETITION

In October we ran a 'guess the baby' competition. The only player brave enough to send in his baby pictures was Duncan Bell. Leo Fountain was one of the few Butch's Bunch members who correctly guessed the player and won tickets to watch Bath take on Saracens in the Guinness Premiership as a result.

SEPTEMBER'S COMPETITIONS

For our first month we decided to offer all of our Butch's Bunch members the chance to win not one but TWO prizes! So, two prizes must mean TWO competitions!

1. To win a Bath Rugby shirt signed by Butch we would kike you to send us some bits that we can post in our Butch's Gallery section - it's up to you what you do but it MUST be Butch related! It could be a drawing, poem, biography… you name it. Just send your entries to me and the best one will win a signed shirt!

2. Caption Competition! To win two tickets to our match against Newcastle Falcons on Saturday 24th October simply dream up a witty caption to accompany one of the two photos on your newsletter of Butch!

The winner of the first competition was 9 year old Olly Clements who drew a fab picture of Butch James at the Rec.

The second winner was Abbie Bewley who is 10 and wrote this great poem about Butch James:

My name is Butch James

I came to Bath to play all the games,

I'm looking forward to December with glee

When I'm back on the Rec, with my repaired knee

I will soon have the back line flowing

With tries and wins a glowing.