Honorary President of the CCRFC

Christ's Rugby is an integral part of the very fabric of our great College. As players, assistants, coaches, supporters and even officials (you know, the ones who organise fixtures, or run around with the whistles or flags) we know how important playing, being involved in and socializing, as a group, really is. The bonding, the 'digging deep', the courage, the mutual support and dealing with the despair or the elation, leads to an enrichment in the quality of life and the development of truly life-long friendships. Such things can, on occasion, transcend and, on others, usefully balance other pressures or aspects of one's life.

That old dictum about 'working hard & playing hard' derives from the rugged educational approach advocated by Thomas Arnold at the outset of the 19th century and is, I think, very relevant today. We live in an era when competitive educational pressures envelope us. We are expected to perform intellectually at the highest level - this is right and proper of course given the academic standing of the University as a whole ... up to a point! Living in a purely academic collegiate/university 'bubble' (in order to deal with such pressures) risks missing out on the variety of life experiences that contribute to making us human. The collective endeavour of working as a team, aspiring to do better both individually and as a group, sharing and taking responsibility for one's actions, supporting and caring for your mates through thick and thin, are part of a rich vein of 'transferable skills' that produce individuals who are more balanced and 'fit' (in all senses of the word). Our famous alumnus Charles Darwin would approve - he was all in favour of individual fitness (again in its multiplicity of senses).

The 'Brown Rings' have a glorious and decidedly 'colourful' history. A glance at the minute-book confirms this in many amazing and amusing ways (I would encourage you all to glance at this at some point). The Dr Lucan Pratt 'era' (when admission to this College had as much to do with one's sporting prowess at school as one's intellectual potential) is inevitably representative of a bygone age. Nevertheless, in recent years we have been blessed by a number of Blues and LX players of distinction. However skilled and gifted those individuals may be it is our club that matters most. Long may our club continue to enrich our lives and produce people that the College can be so proud of.

David Norman (Hon Pres)